Something has been bugging me for some time now. After playing several games in the sc2beta, I always felt that something was lacking. I didn't feel as attached or close to my units... like I didn't know them.
I think it has to do with the new unit voices, when they respond to you clicking on them or telling them to do something. Right now, if you played a sound wave for me of a zergling, then of a baneling, then of an infestor, I really wouldn't be able to tell you which was which. They all seem a little quieter, and less distinct.
I believe that we all took the voice director's ingenious work from SC1 and SCBW for granted. For a race like the Zerg, where everything just makes snarling noises with no discernable language, it must be incredibly difficult to create unit voices that are both distinguishable for the player, and fit the unit's personality. But they managed to do it. Please, take a walk down memory lane with me and listen to these incredibly well designed unit voices:
The "crunchy" zerglings
The "trumpeting" overlords
The "buzzing" drones
The "alien" queen
My point is, each unit sounds VERY different, and VERY distinguishable so that when you click on a unit, you know right away what you clicked on. In a race where nothing really has a language to identify itself easily (such as "ghost reporting" or "golaith online"), the way the creatures snarl becomes very important. And boy, did the sound designer from SC1 hit the bull's eye.
Now listen to some of the zerg units from Starcraft 2, and try to (honestly) tell me, can you distinguish between each unit easily?
Compare especially the new drone to the old drone, the new overlord to the old overlord, the infestor to the defiler (or the piercing queen from sc1). The new voices just sound really... similar.. and boring. They don't sound "alien" enough. Listen to the sc1 queen again and try to tell me that sound belongs to anything else besides the zerg queen. It's just so well done.
I know that the quality of sound (particularly attack and death sound effects) has been discussed several times, but i think the sound problem extends well beyond that. For you zerg players, just listen to the sounds you hear when you start up an sc2beta game vs an scbw game. Doesn't it sound really quiet, and kind of detached? Do you feel like you're really "feeling" your units? Haha, I probably sound really weird right now.
Anyways, the problem is probably most apparent for Zerg but even the voices of Protoss and Terran units seem to be lacking a bit. Compare the new zealot to the old zealot. The old zealot just seems way more bad-ass. Also , remember how the old high templar and dark templars used to sound? They were really distinguishable and unique. The new high templar and new dark templar all sound kind of like EVERY other voice in the protoss army. Seriously, listen:
Old high templar:
New high templar:
Holy crap, i miss the old high templar =[
This problem really extends to terrans as well, but not as much as it does Z and P. Sorry about such a long post, but I really hope blizzard doesn't overlook this. The sad thing is , I think they won't re-work the voices. It seems like they put a good amount of work into the voices... One can only hope
On March 21 2010 10:50 theqat wrote: There is a content patch coming, along with two expansions. It's possible some voice work will get replaced. I think it's a long shot though
Nonetheless, with years of experience, we'll get used to the sounds
Well I can see them changing up the attack sound effects and stuff (which will already be a huge improvement), but I honestly cant see them re-doing voices. That kind of stuff requires voice actors to come in and stuff.
this is a good comparison. ive taken 2 classes in sound design at my school and IMO the sc1 sounds seem to better on so many levels. although i can tell the difference between the sc2 units... you're right, they lack variety. really the only one that stands out from the rest is the ultra, but it sounds like they just mixed a few different animal noises and added some form of reverb onto it. and also BW sounds for the units are much shorter and to the point, some of the sc2 are a bit longer. and please tell me that zergling doesnt fart my god lol. /// the best comparison though has got to be the high templar, the new one sounds so weak, i forgot how awesome the old high templar was.
The terran voices aren't too bad (though inferior), but once you get to zerg... ughhh. Gross.
Yeah.. and its because terran voices are "easier" to do. They're more natural for voice actors. It takes some real effort to make zerg and protoss though (zerg more than protoss i bet)
Actually I thought the SC2 zerg voices you posted were very similar for 1 unit and distinct from the others (the drone is obviously the worst and the Ultralisk the best in terms of SC2 differentiation from what you posted) but I agree that overall the difference is more subtle than it was in SC1. However, the only real test will be to listen to 1000+ hours of SC2 voices then do the comparison. I bet unfamiliarity plays a big role.
However, you seriously deserve props for effort in this post. Very nice to have all the videos. And the point is definitely taken that SC1 voices were more obvious in their distinction.
The only protoss voice I like is the new immortal, he sounds like a badass. I agree many of the voices just sound weaker than they did in SCI....the ghost, zealot, and high templar are the most noticeable to me.
SC2 Unit sounds are pretty bad especially Zerg! It's true they all sound the same and more than that they are boring as hell. If Blizzard doesn't fix this I hope someone mods it with the old sounds and that you can play on ladder with that.
While SC2 does a lot of things right, it fails hard in the sound department compared to SC1.
Interesting post. After a good listen to both generations of SC I think you have a good point. I'm pretty sure the zerg sounds are not done by actors and they are just distorted sneezes and grunts (and I wouldn't be surprised if they actually said a word but just warped it a lot to make it sound "zerglish", sort of like the SC1 probe Easter egg sounds were "hello" or "what's your name")
On the other hand, isn't it possible the sounds just don't seem as distinctive because we've been playing SC for 10 years and SC2 for only a month?
As for changes, it brings up a question I've had in the back of my mind for a while: Just how many changes can we expect in resale 1.0? Is beta only about power balance, or can we expect improvement in other aspects of the game [effects, animations, maps, etc.]?
Most of the sound fx are subpar and weak. See also: lings and mutas hatching, the tank siege noise, infantry stimming, all attack sound fx from zerg, etc.
Heck, even clicking on the buildings and listening to their unique noises is better in SC1. Especially the Terran and Zerg ones.
WOW, i didnt realize how much better sc1 unit sounds were. I guess playing so much SC2 made me forget even though i played bw avidly until i recieved a beta key.... well if this continues when the game is released, ill probably just replace the sounds with the old bw ones or something. Plus i'm sure people will also make sounds for us to dl and replace and stuff. SC2 is probably gonna be easily moddable in many ways
I agree with the OP T_T I think sound is so important, and it sucks in SC2...
Too bad they said they're mostly done with voices/sounds...
On March 21 2010 11:51 pzea469 wrote: well if this continues when the game is released, ill probably just replace the sounds with the old bw ones or something. Plus i'm sure people will also make sounds for us to dl and replace and stuff. SC2 is probably gonna be easily moddable in many ways
Same here. I wish they used the old sounds for units that stayed the same, they're just so perfect.
You are very right. I think the sounds are one of the main weak points of the game as of now.
Probably the most dramatic difference is the SC1 DT vs SC2 DT, and the SC2 archon is facepalmingly bad (maybe that's why they made it so useless? haha). Zerg and protoss sounds in general pretty much suck. I do like the terran sounds, though. The units all have pretty good personalities. I don't mind the change from the sc1 ghost to sc2 ghost like a lot of people have complained about. The sc2 ghost sounds like a punk/loner type ("solo operative, right...?"), which is quite parallel to the lore. One thing that's a little weird is the siege tank voice doesn't match the portrait very well.
On March 21 2010 11:38 Exquisito wrote: On the other hand, isn't it possible the sounds just don't seem as distinctive because we've been playing SC for 10 years and SC2 for only a month?
Part of the problem is that the vintage techniques used for sc1 and mixing techniques yielded massively different and characteristic sounds (Drone, Mutalisk, Defiler...), but in sc2 they're using the exact same method for virtually every single sound effect. They have differences but they still mesh together far, far too much and are overall extremely weak and uninspiring. The attack sounds for the Zerg are by far the worst sounds in the entire game, though. That's when you can actually hear them. I for one have the hardest goddamn time hearing the Mutalisk attack sound any more than this faint squishy sounding noise.
The Protoss voice acting is also notably bad.
If worse comes to worse I guess I'll mix my own sfx out of the masters of sfx - vintage RPG's.
Hearing the new Zerg sounds makes me sad. How could they mess up so bad on the sounds. Why do they make all of the units sound weaker and dull. They can't even get growls right.
EPT
