The dialogue is cheesy because Blizz "overdid" the Terran's "redneck-say-funny-and-dumb-sh1t" attitude. Just imagine the lines that the SCV says in SC1 and SC2, except they are changed slightly and said all the time by all characters to tell the story of SC2. LOL

Here's what I think can generalize the campaigns and voice acting in a few words:

Terran SP = Cheesy/Redneck/Funny
Zerg SP = Creepy/"Infesty"/Lots of hissing sounds in the voices
Protoss SP = Serious/Overly Dramatic/Liberal use of Reverb and Echo effects for voices

lol

I think Blizz is really trying hard to separate the 3 games from each other.

urashimakt

United States1591 Posts

July 28 2010 09:31 GMT

#22

On July 28 2010 14:39 ArvickHero wrote:
They need to fire their current writer and hire a new one.. or rehire the people who wrote SC/BW's story

They use the same writer for pretty much everything in all _Craft franchises. Didn't change from SC/BW to SC2.

You're bound to want to critique this voice acting more than what's remembered in the original, though, since most of the voices in the original were digitally altered to a point where you couldn't really tell either way (more humans this time around).

Kennigit

Canada19447 Posts

July 28 2010 09:34 GMT

#23

Voice Acting != script. The acting for the most part is really good.

VorcePA

United States1102 Posts

July 28 2010 10:42 GMT

#24

Probably the most glaring issue I had was when you're choosing to fight either the ghosts or the spectres, and Raynor is like "Well, get Nova/Tosh in here, they should have a say. Although it doesn't really matter, they're probably listening in, anyway, encrypted or not." or something like that. After you choose which side to take, you then DISCUSS YOUR EXACT PLAN FOR ENGAGING YOUR ENEMY, WHEN YOU KNOW THEY'RE LISTENING.

Wat.

Mikilatov

United States3897 Posts

July 28 2010 10:58 GMT

#25

There's a few select lines that are poorly voice-acted, but I found it overall to be quite good. A bit of the dialogue was a bit 'light-hearted', but that doesn't necessarily mean it's poorly written. I thought it was overall quite good.

My only issue was the protoss+other voices that were put through SO MUCH FILTERING that you couldn't even understand it. I had to turn my subtitles on while doing the zeratul crystal missions, just so I could hear what was being said clearly.

shindigs

United States4795 Posts

July 28 2010 11:28 GMT

#26

What is everyone's problem?

I didn't expect this to be some pulitzer prize winning script with theatrical voice acting. The characters for the most part are likable (hanson I will have to agree is just bleh), and the plot did great in expanding the SC universe.

Loving every part of the campaign so far.

kzn

United States1218 Posts

July 28 2010 11:39 GMT

#27

I concur with the general dislike of the Doctor, but Tosh/Tychus are amazingly fun to listen to.

monk

United States8476 Posts

July 28 2010 11:43 GMT

#28

Btw, is it just me or is the voice actor for the scientist who gives you zerg/toss research upgrades = the guy who did sokka from avatar the last airbender

Joe12

183 Posts

July 28 2010 12:14 GMT

#29

they sure could learn a thing or two from bioware

hoppipolla

Australia782 Posts

July 28 2010 12:21 GMT

#30

What gets me is that everyone talks sooooo sloooooow. Its almost painful having to sit through the boring, slow drone of voices and I'm having to resort to skipping everything Hanson says.

Bosscelot

United Kingdom52 Posts

July 28 2010 12:29 GMT

#31

The script was pretty damn cheesy but then so was SC1/BW and anyone who thinks those were masterpieces of game writing needs to seriously go back and replay them. Not that there's anything wrong with that, SC's campy, overthetop, reference-filled universe is fun and silly and that's why I like it. The story in SC2 is bursting with cliches and cheese; that's what I came for and that's what I got.

I will say though that the real star of the originals' storyline was the voice acting. Absolutely phenomenal work by the voice actors in that and there's no-one in SC/BW that I would consider to have given a bad or mediocre performance. SC2 falls a bit short in this respect at times, Dr. Hanson as some people have mentioned by also Tricia Helfer as Kerrigan. Some of her parts ARE done very well but then there are a few other points where she sounds pretty lacking. She gives a very good seductive and dangerous performance with her rather low voice but the times when she has to be all overbearing, loud and angry don't sound so great. That's something Kerrigan's old VA could pull off well.

Also the lack of an actual linear mission structure makes the plot feel a bit disjointed at points but that is a problem with all games that go for 'player choice' or whatever bollocks and isn't just confined to Sc2. WRPG's and sandbox games often suffer horribly for it IMO.

REM.ca

Canada354 Posts

July 28 2010 13:03 GMT

#32

Oh good! It isn't just me.

Maybe it's a nostalgia thing. This single player game is so different from SC and BW that it can't help but not meet expectations. I immediatly urked when I saw cut scenes used that type of graphics/animation. That stuff pretty much automatically ruins any acting.

Bloodash

Netherlands1384 Posts

July 28 2010 13:20 GMT

#33

glad to see I'm not the only one who thought this, the thick Jamaican accent of Tosh (I think that was his name) was incredibly cheesy, works with trolls in WoW but in SC I was kind of cringing...

hope it picks up further in, because right now it feels way to generetic

Stratos_speAr

United States6959 Posts

July 28 2010 14:07 GMT

#34

The voice-acting itself is perfectly fine. The only voice I don't like is Kerrigan (and the Doc is a little uninspired sometimes). The script however is not terrible, but it's not any good either. It's just something I expected from a game nowadays. People who think that SC+BW was an amazing work are looking at it through rose-tinted glasses. Yea, it was good, but it wasn't "omg amazing" good like everyone is saying it was.

I just really don't like where Mengsk and Kerrigan have gone. They turned the Dominion into the USSR more or less and Mengsk has become a lot more shallow. He used to be my favorite character behind Zeratul.

I never liked the idea of Kerrigan's voice actor. I just think Blizzard picked her up for the name/hype of the VA, not the quality.

I think this is just a side effect of the universe growing. Every universe I've ever seen in literature/games/etc... gets a lot more cheesy and generic as it grows. By far the most annoying thing is how elf-like the Protoss are. They went from fucking badass psychic destroyers to pansy ass elves. Books completely ruined them.

NukeTheBunnys

United States1004 Posts

July 28 2010 14:09 GMT

#35

I think its pretty funny how everyone is complaining about it being so cheesy and so different from SC and BW when they were both really cheesy as well and you are remembering it as a great work of art because you were 12 at the time. I really think 75% of the complaints here are from nostalgia. (I mean think of the cut scenes from the original, "you hit someones dog sarge""its a zergling lester""i love you sarge" how is that not cheesy as hell) SCII's story is pretty standard cheesy sci-fi, but thats what SC and BW were too but that doesnt stop me from enjoying it. The voice acting is pretty good, except maybe Hanson like everyone says. The writing isn't a work of art, but it certainly is engaging and has me trying to guess whats gonna happen later in the game(mostly with thos and tycus). I really enjoy that there is so much optional content between missions, and if you don't like it you dont have to listen to it and you will still get the bones of the story but not all the details.

My favorite part of the between mission stuff is definantly the new clips, they are hilarious.

Doomgaze

Sweden89 Posts

July 28 2010 14:14 GMT

#36

Did anyone else think that the protoss voices in particular sucked ass? Also, "hi-max-reverb/echo"-effects were kinda painful to listen to.

A few of the terran voices were pretty good though, I must say. Despite bad script/story.

DaCruise

Denmark2457 Posts

July 28 2010 14:17 GMT

#37

I like that Tassadar´s voice is done by Michael Dorn (Lt, Worf from Star Trek, Next Generation). Thats just epic.

Scorcher2k

United States802 Posts

July 28 2010 14:50 GMT

#38

A little off topic but did anyone else feel disgusted when they saw the female night elve dancing in the cantina?

Stratos_speAr

United States6959 Posts

July 28 2010 16:11 GMT

#39

On July 28 2010 23:50 Scorcher2k wrote:
A little off topic but did anyone else feel disgusted when they saw the female night elve dancing in the cantina?

I thought it was funny.

zingmars

Latvia189 Posts

July 28 2010 16:28 GMT

#40

The voice acting imo was pretty avarage for most part, but Doctors voice was really really bad.
like at the part where she says something like (spoilers...)
+ Show Spoiler +

"we need to save those people"
(it's the zombie mission if I recall correctly)

it seriously sounded like sarcasm.

(Also Stratos_speAr, how exactly are Protoss elf-like? the fact that they have similar lore of those Elfs from WoW, doesn't automatically mean that they are elf-like. it means that Blizz needs a new story-writer.)