15 Best Video Game Acting Performances Of The Decade

You couldn’t have one without the other, and the order of this dynamic duo could have easily gone either way. Being one of the most prolific videogame actors besides Nolan North, Troy Baker delivered his most emotional, mature and downright awe-inspiring performance in the form of hardened post-apocalypse survivor Joel.

Joel is a man over encumbered with pain. Witnessing one of the most impactful openers to a video game, we see Joel at his lowest as his daughter dies in his arms. This becomes the staple of Joel’s character, and Baker carries the weight of the loss of Sarah with incredible finesse. Where most other games would use this tragedy as their climactic resolution, The Last of Us uses it as a springboard that influences the way in which Joel lives his life in the following twenty years.

As he begrudgingly makes his way across America, the hard exterior that he spent all those years building up begins to crumble, exposing the caring and loving man that once walked in his shoes. Yet with decades worth of trauma, this loving and caring nature is accompanied by a newfound fearful desperation, which can only mean bad news for anyone standing in his way.

While many may celebrate his visceral performance in the opening scene, with Joel’s damning lie capping off the Playstation masterpiece, Baker’s subtle evolution throughout the game's campaign delivers the character to the resolute end of his arc. Finally, able to let someone back in his life again, this time determined to do all in his power to protect it, no matter the cost.