15 Best Video Game Acting Performances Of The Decade

What are video game characters, if not vessels for us mere gamers to experience the most outlandish worlds and emotional stories? And what are those characters without solid performances to back them up? Together with them, our experience of shooting, stabbing, jumping, and punching is all the better, as those deadly blows are dealt by someone we eventually come to know, and potentially love (or hate).

While the video game industry can so often be riddled with characters that have taken the proverbial back seat to gameplay, graphics and social features, every now and then this trend will be bucked, with a game delivering some truly superb performances that bring their characters to life. These performances are only heightened and further appreciated within video games, as the collaborative nature leaves animators, writers, designers, performers and actors all with an equal part to play (pardon the pun).

As 2020 stalls to a complete halt, we thought it was time to look back to those performances that stuck in the back of our minds. The emotional, the inspiring, the disturbing, the whimsical - the best of the last decade.

The Tomb Raider franchise was brought back to the gaming world with a fresh coat of paint, and a far more complicated take on the signature adventurer. Ruthlessly flung into the seemingly deserted island of Yamatai, Lara is bruised, grazed and impaled as she tirelessly works to discover the secrets of Himiko.

While in the past the character would be reserved for grunts, groans and screams outside of cutscenes as you jumped and climbed around various exotic locales, the 2013 reboot introduced Camilla Luddington to bring the character to life, and boy did she. The campaign held no punches for the character and neither did Luddington, who delivered each scene with a cracked voice and tireless determination.

Through Luddington’s performance you felt each bash, punch, and slice, as she solidified this new reboot as a more brutal incarnation of the video game icon. Come the conclusion of the first entry, it became apparent that this was only the start, with some of the more signature traits of the character subtly beginning to shine through in Luddington’s confidence and drive for exploration.