There's something particularly beautiful about having a silent protagonist 📖in a𓃲 first-person perspective game. Undoubtedly, though, it can be a pretty tricky task to frame an entirely mute protagonist appropriately and naturally into a game's story. But when it's done well, it does wonders for a gaming experience.
Let's explore some of those games that stand out because oꦚf this trai▨t - focusing mainly on one of the most obvious examples.
Half-Life
Perhaps gaming's most famous Man of Few Words, Gordon Freeman of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Half-Life franchise is the epitome of a silent first-person protagonist done well. In fact, he simply couldn't be anything but completely ℱmute. The idea of that is just so we♔ird.
Like, what would he actually say that would be at all fitting for the total crapfest he and his colleagues unwittingly unleashed upon the world? The scientists and Barney Clones pretty much have the game's vocal comedic relief bases covered for one thing. The otherworldy co🌠mmentary is well taken care of by our pal the G-Man, and Wallace Breen's tyrannical jargon echoing through the streets of City 17 is sufficient to communicate an understanding of the sorry state of the world under the Combine's rule.
But that's if and when it's actually necessary for there to be any vocal commentary at all throughout the Half-Life games, in which environmental storytelling is undoubtedly a n🧔otable strength. Basically, we don't need any commentary from Gordon because the world around him says more than enough on his behalf.
And in fact, his silence itself sp🧸eaks volumes - as Leanify explores in . This is perhaps the most important consequence of Gordon's silence: you're able to project your own interpretations of his mo🌺ral compass onto the voiceless, relatively blank canvas whence his actions are supposed to originate. All we know is that he powers through his surroundings killing almost anything he comes across and occasionally follows instructions to insert suspicious otherworldy crystals into Anti-Mass Spectrometers.
The rest is up to our own interpretations, and that adds a depth to the game that wouldn't be possible if Gordon had an actual human-sounding voice which spouted any kind of subjective commenta♉ry.
Portal
Here's another example from Valve's first-person mind-bending puzzle-platformer Portal. Similar to her spirit-sibling Gordon Freeman, Chell is completely silent for the entirety of both Portal games. And thank the Video Game Gods (Valv▨e?) for that.
Again, it would be entirely pointless to have a speaking Chell thinking aloud while she head-scratches her way through the complexities of GLaDOS' incessant tests. All it would do is interrupt your own head-scratching. So Chell is exactly that - merely a sheဣll that the player slots their own brain into for the duration of the games. We should thank her for that.
Doom
The negative space added by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Doom's iconic silent spacemarine to one's experience of the game is also 🦋a superb thing. It gives off a sense of being both too badass to bother saying anything (his hacking and slashing says more than enough anyway), and of being so crushingly alone in a terrifyingly un-human world. There's simply , so why bother?
The Devil's Advocate
Of course, sometimes a specific first-person game simply doesn't lend ♌itself to having a silent protagonist. As I said earlier, it is a tough feature to pull off in a way that won't make it seem too weird and unnatural. Indeed, while some (lᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚike me) will argue that a silent protagonist can deepen one's immersion in a game, others aren't convinced:
...when a c🌜h✤aracter gets shot and doesn't so much as groan, I feel totally disconnected from his world and his struggle.
That's fascinating, because it's the stark opposite to my own interpretation. Provided the game sets up the moment in a way that lends itself to immersion, I will do all the necessary groaning myself, and often𓆉 the interjections emanating somewhere from tꦦhe protagonist's mouth-hole at that point in fact runs the risk of breaking my own experience of that moment.
But still, undoubtedly there are first-person games wherein the protagonist's vocal input is unavoidable, and plays a more prominent role in the story itself. Booker DeWitt from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:BioShock Infinite springs to mind - whe💧n certain events transpire later in the game (let's spare the spoilers), Booker's own realizations and thoughts really should be known to the player. The story is very much about Booker DeWitt and his choices, with little room left for open-ended interpretations.
My main point is this: first-person games with voiced protagonists, although they have their place, can often seem a bit odd and distracting. First-person perspective places you very much in the game world, and I can't help but feel that when paired with a disembodied voice supposedly belonging to "me" but not really, my full imm🦩ersion therein can falter a tad.
So in ꦿthe words of the great Dr. Freeman himself: "..."
Source: