Adventure Gamers - Forums

I haven’t accused anyone of anything - I just asked a question.

chrissie - 18 April 2014 04:37 PM

I haven’t accused anyone of anything - I just asked a question.

As did I.

millenia - 18 April 2014 04:40 PM

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 04:16 PM

I don’t think Moebius has the worst voice acting by any stretch, but I similarly don’t think it’s worthy of any great praise.

You understand that the praise is not for the accent but the overall feel of it? Just because of tiny bit of something is “wrong”, doesn’t mean it can’t be great, just like most games I love. Malachi has a great voice and I could listen to it for hours.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply your praise, I was just talking purely about my own stance there.

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 04:05 PM

The deduction puzzles in Moebius felt similarly unrealised - much of it boiled down to guesswork, whereas there must be some way to perhaps incorporate environmental observations into more concrete deductions. A lot of Malachi’s assumptions seemed unsatisfying in their relative groundlessness.

Fundamentally agree - the idea is nice, but the execution doesn’t quite reach the levels you’d like it to. Not easy though, to be fair…

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 04:05 PM

I’m English and have studied accents

And I’m English and have taught English to non-natives for ca. 20 years…including differences between GB & US English. And that includes pronunciation differences, so yes, the difference in the pronunciation of “due” is well known to me.

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 04:05 PM

but it stands out like a sore thumb to people in the know.

Depends on the level of “in the know” I guess. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m not pig-ignorant on the subject and Malachi’s accent does not “stick out like a sore thumb” to me as being faked by an American. Yes, it does sound slightly affected at times, but to be honest, that works considering his background and major “snob” personality.

What specific examples of his fake voice acting “sticking out like a sore thumb” are there? I’m genuinely interested.

Agree with your points that stiff animation makes quality voice acting more difficult, as well as laughter being difficult to produce and sound natural. I do wonder which are the “couple of studios that put an emphasis on acting” in your opinion? Telltale is often praised, but as they use the same agency as JJ has done for Moebius, I don’t imagine that can be what you’re thinking of. For me, Jane Jensen games in general, Tim Schafer’s games, and also Longest Journey/Dreamfall score very well. Anything connected to Wadjet Eye games is generally pretty good too. Daedalic definitely don’t score so well, and as for Black Mirror (shudder)

But as Millenia says,

millenia - 18 April 2014 04:40 PM

You understand that the praise is not for the accent but the overall feel of it?

As an example, Tim Curry in GK1 was great. Yes, the New Orleans accent may not have been authentic, but I didn’t find it mattered. As opposed to GK3 where he was, at times, well over the top.

Old school Lucasarts used to excel at VA and Tim Schafer has definitely taken that aspect with him in his foray into Doublefine’s production.

Telltale’s a company that use several good people, but often don’t get the best out of them. Their sound editing often creates uncomfortable pauses between characters in conversation, leaving the player with the impression that the two aren’t inhabiting the same place - I’d imagine due to the individual recordings taking place at different points.

Daedalic still have a long way to go, but they’ve shown a noticeable improvement as time’s gone on. I believe some of their more recent works have used several of the same VA’s currently working on Broken Sword 5 - which is another mixed bag, performance wise, though with a good hit ratio.

I’m always surprised by Wadjet Eye. Their VA’s are often a little rough around the edges, but for an indie team who often uses friends and acting colleagues, they’ve produced some good stuff.

I know it’s a love it/hate it one, but I always liked Tim Curry as Gabriel Knight, as I felt his caricatured, near pantomime Southern drawl fit the larger than life Gabriel. It was also a very vibrant, expressive performance and told us a lot about the character without having to articulate it verbally. I didn’t get anything of the sort with Malachi and for a man obsessed with details, quality and spotting fakes, a dodgy accent seemed completely wrong to me.

I’d have to give the game another play through to document the problems I had with Malachi’s voice.

Caliburn - 18 April 2014 01:09 PM

Nice avatar, giom! We can start a club, The Many Disguises of Robin Hood.

Yes Conquest of the longbow is one of my favorite game, so when I tried to look for an avatar I thought to use it
Now we just need a couple more to round out the disguises

DaveyB - 18 April 2014 05:55 PM

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 04:05 PM

The deduction puzzles in Moebius felt similarly unrealised - much of it boiled down to guesswork, whereas there must be some way to perhaps incorporate environmental observations into more concrete deductions. A lot of Malachi’s assumptions seemed unsatisfying in their relative groundlessness.

Fundamentally agree - the idea is nice, but the execution doesn’t quite reach the levels you’d like it to. Not easy though, to be fair…

Yes, I really feel that this idea had a lot of potential and it’s a pity it wasn’t more developed…  It’s the same as the magic trick in GM.
But, yes, innovating in puzzle mechanism is definitely not easy.

While we’re on the subject of bad voice acting in Moebius, it should be mentioned that the voice acting for Moebius character Walker is terrible and much worse than main character Rector’s, which is decent in comparison. Not saying the Walker actor isn’t talented, but he was definitely miscast or was given poor direction here. When you combine Walker’s out-of-place surfer dude voice with the character’s ridiculous appearance (extremely skin tight v-neck with skinny jeans, disproportionately large pecs and no triceps to speak of) what other reaction but laughter could be expected from the player? I can’t take the story seriously at all, in part because of the game’s disappointing production values and unbelievable characters like Walker. Such game shortcomings might be forgivable in a less expensive game, but apparently the full asking price for Moebius is $30 (!). Ouch.

I’ve been struggling to continue playing Moebius. It has been such a slog so far. The characters aren’t the least bit likable and the whole experience is rather depressing.

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 06:23 PM

Old school Lucasarts used to excel at VA and Tim Schafer has definitely taken that aspect with him in his foray into Doublefine’s production.

Heck, yes! DOTT, Sam & Max and Full Throttle all had AWESOME voice acting. Although the actors deserve plenty of praise, I think the writing and direction they were given probably contributed a lot to the success of the performances.

In Moebius the characters are rather two dimensional, so maybe there was not much the actors could have done with the material.

I enjoy hearing all perspectives, including yours, Millennia. Just because I and many others, including many professional critics who have so far given Moebius an average rating of 59%, don’t love the game, it doesn’t mean we don’t want to discuss it and hear what others have to say.

Millennia, did you find Moebius difficult? How many hours did it take you to beat it?

I’m one of those people who normally refuses to look up hints, so I can stay stuck at one point for a long time.    With Moebius, though, I kind of just want to get the thing over with.

OrionO - 18 April 2014 06:48 PM

I’ve been struggling to continue playing Moebius. It has been such a slog so far. The characters aren’t the least bit likable and the whole experience is rather depressing.

To be fair, Malachi’s cold, unpleasant, arrogance is expanded on and made part of the story. It’s there for a reason.

I found the gameplay flowed well, meaning I was never stumped - depending on your perspective, this could mean it’s ‘too easy’, but I think the challenge level is satisfying - and the only instances I was very briefly stumped tended to be the times when previously unusable objects suddenly became usable without warning - the wine at the party in Zurich.

When I realised the end puzzle was going to be a maze, my heart sank, but even that wasn’t difficult in the least. It was just repetitive and time consuming.

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 08:19 PM

To be fair, Malachi’s cold, unpleasant, arrogance is expanded on and made part of the story. It’s there for a reason.

yeah.. and as pointed out by the review here, that reason is kind of absurdly funny.

OrionO - 18 April 2014 06:48 PM

I’ve been struggling to continue playing Moebius. It has been such a slog so far. The characters aren’t the least bit likable and the whole experience is rather depressing.

At the start, yes. But the biggest compliment you can make about the game is how they turn this around by the end, and you realize it was intentional. Not many games are capable of creating annoying, unlikeable characters on purpose and then making you like them.

There’s a reason Malachi acts like he does, which I wish had been fleshed out just a little more (they mention some kind of trauma in his childhood)

zane - 18 April 2014 08:25 PM

noknowncure - 18 April 2014 08:19 PM

To be fair, Malachi’s cold, unpleasant, arrogance is expanded on and made part of the story. It’s there for a reason.

yeah.. and as pointed out by the review here, that reason is kind of absurdly funny.

Why is that?