Starfield's design director says the game nearly had a voiced protagonist, but they dropped it: 'It was a AAA thing'
Press X to be sarcastic.
In Polygon's recent interview with design director Emil Pagliarulo, it was revealed that Starfield very nearly had a voiced protagonist in the style of Fallout 4's sole survivor.
When asked whether this choice was a response to the fan reception of that game's controversial dialogue system—which only gave you the general vibe of what you were committing to words—Pagliarulo responded: "Not directly, but it certainly played into it … in pre-production, the plan was to have a voiced protagonist. We hired an actor, we got the voice, we listened to him and we were like, You know what, this guy is too specific.
"[In Starfield,] you can make every different type of person. We realised that the only way to really do [that] and let the player be the person they want to be was to have an unvoiced protagonist."
While we've obviously known your space explorer would be a silent protagonist since last year, I'm surprised we even came close to Fallout 4 setting a new blueprint for the Bethesda hero. I've always preferred knowing exactly what my character's going to say in a conversation—and having the word "Sarcastic" next to a button prompt doesn't clue me in enough. To me, it seemed like a weird love affair from big-budget studios, an attempt to come across as more 'cinematic' while shuttering an RPG's more freeform potential.
That's a sentiment Pagliarulo speaks to: "There was a time in the industry where every protagonist was voiced. It was a AAA thing … In Fallout 4 and other RPGs, players don’t like reading a line of dialogue (a player response), and then they click it and get [a different spoken line]."
He goes on to point out that hearing a character speak a line of text you've just read isn't ideal, either, "So then we just arrived at, What if we just go text? and it was just really freeing … it was not having a voiced protagonist that allowed us to create such a big world."
It does seem that, mercifully, the modern RPG's obsession with fully voice-worked protagonists is mostly over. Don't get me wrong—I think it can be done well when said character's meant to have a baseline personality of their own. Commander Shepard's a good example—every Shepard is different, sure, but they share the same crew, general occupation, and responsibilities in the Mass Effect universe.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Similarly, Star Wars: The Old Republic has some great voiced protagonists—though they're tailored to the kind of story you sign up for at character creation.
But I don't think voiced protagonists were ever a good fit for the kind of RPG Bethesda tends to make—big, open worlds powered by player choice and freedom. Granted, in Fallout, every character starts off as a vault dweller. But from there, they can become almost anything, anyone—saddling them with a specific voice actor drops a big atom bomb onto any burgeoning roleplay fantasies a player might have. I for one remain glad we've avoided a dark 'press X to be sarcastic' future.
Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.
PSA: The creator of PoE's foremost loot filter released an experimental 'light filter' for Path of Exile 2, just in time to help sort all the freshly buffed loot drops
Cyberpunk 2077's surprise new update lets Keanu ride shotgun through the streets of Night City and makes some PC-specific improvements—and it's out now