This is a review of the Russian and original voice acting of the game, and such a blog should not only be READED, but also LISTENED. But surprise, surprise: you can’t attach audio to blogs on stopgame. But I found a way out.
There will be a bunch of signed links in this blog, and each such link will lead you to listen to an audio track that reinforces my words. All files are safe, after all, I don’t have a wooden leg, and the cyberdeck doesn’t hang on my shoulder.
(There won’t be very many pictures on the blog, because the bulk of the information here is contained in the audio. If any audio does not work, write in the comments and I will fix it.)
Happy reading + listening! I hope this format suits you.
Hello dear reader! Zombie is with you, and today I have an experimental format, I haven’t tried to make blogs in this way yet, so I will be glad for any advice and any sensible criticism.
Today we have an analysis of the original voice acting of System Shock 2 and the Russian dubbing of the same game from the well-known company Fargus.
It so happens that I am interested in voice acting and dubbing. Not very, very much, I can hardly tell North from Baker. But I have some knowledge in this area. For me, Burunov is not the guy from the Policeman from Rublyovka, but the voice of Leonardo DiCaprio. And Mark Hamill for me is primarily the Joker, not Luke Skywalker.
And it so happened that for the first playthrough of the game I try to use Russian voice acting. Not because I’m an unsound person, but because there’s always a big chance of messing up and missing something even with a good knowledge of English. But for the second and all subsequent playthroughs (if any happen) I take the original voice acting.
And so I decided to play System Shock 2 for the first time in my life. This is a pretty logical decision, because after you completed all of Deus Ex, God himself ordered you to complete System Shock 2. Deus, both old and new, have legs growing straight from the second system.
And so I took the Russian voice acting. The choice was, to put it mildly, questionable.
I ended up taking Fargus. I haven’t played any game from Fargus before, but I’ve heard something about them. It seems like the guys are like Schrödinger’s cats: half of their voice acting is normal, and the other half is complete crap. I hoped that I would get a normal translation and dubbing, but I’m not particularly lucky in this regard.
But now there is a reason to make a blog… well, today we are analyzing the Russian and original voice acting of the second System of Shock. Let’s find out why Fargus is so bad, and why the English voice acting of System Shock 2 is so brilliant.
Analyzing the voice acting and dubbing of System Shock 2 turned out to be not so difficult, the fact is that, firstly, the main character is silent, and he utters his only phrase in his voice at the very end of the game.
And, secondly, during the game not so many characters turn to us face to face. Much of the game’s plot is essentially conveyed through audiologs and emails.
Audiologists are something like local notes, only you can not only read them, but also listen to them, which is quite convenient, although you won’t hear anything if you hit another mutant in the head with a key.
And the emails… how can I explain?. The main character has a communication channel in his head. It’s not called here, so let it be an infolink.
During the game, some very real characters will contact you for various reasons. Most likely, at the moment when they contact you, you will be very busy (well, for example, you will hit someone in the head with a key) and will not hear anything.
System Shock 2 is designed in such a way that you are never safe, so the "I didn’t hear anything" situation is completely normal in this game.
The game understands this and any message sent to you via an infolink can be listened to or read again in emails, that is, your infolink is like recording another character’s conversation with you.
There is also a direct appeal from the game characters to you, this is much less, but it is there. Basically, this is the Leader of Many, who communicates with you directly in your head, and not in your infolink. This is Xerxes, who apparently does not know the frequency of your infolink. These are your enemies, and these are some living characters that you always see somewhere behind glass or catch them at the moment of death.
It would be logical to split the analysis into three parts: audiologists, emails and direct appeal, but instead we will follow this plan for analyzing the original voice acting and dubbing from Fargus:
1. Living characters;
2. Possessed by the Many;
3. The main villains, that is, Xerxes, the Leader of Many and Shodan.
If we will deal with the second and third points quite quickly, because everything is very clear there, then we had to dig deeper into the voice acting and dubbing of live characters, so we will also break it down into three points:
1. Living Characters:
– everything is very tolerant;
– everything is very good.
So, what do we have with bad dubbing? living characters?
By living I will mean all people who have not been exposed to the Many.
The first living character (let’s call him Narrator) will appear in the very first cutscene, and somewhere here you will begin to get the feeling that something is wrong with the voice acting from Fargus.
In the original, we hear a cheerful news anchor who presents us with news about the modern Von Braun ship almost as an advertisement for this ship. In the original, he sounds quite correct, this is really an announcer advertising modern scientific achievements. He gabbles where he needs to, speaks with pride and inspiration where he needs to, and overall he is a newscaster you can trust.
original announcer
In our dubbing… firstly, for some reason they didn’t remove the original voice acting in this intro, and we can hear it perfectly in Russian speech.
And secondly, we don’t hear the news announcer, we hear a person who repeats the original announcer.
Russian announcer
Someone will now say: “So, Zombie, that’s the point. The dubbing actor must repeat the original only in his own language."Of course, but that’s only half the job. The second half of the job is that the actor must act out what he is repeating. He’s a dubbing actor, not a dubbing person.
All Fargus employees (it would be hard to call them actors) often repeated the original, forgetting about roleplaying. Needless to say, it either sounded stupid or mocking, as if the person behind the microphone was just making faces? And only occasionally did it sound good and appropriate.
Okay, the voice-over of the announcer is not going to hit the ears yet, well, it sounds strange, but overall… it’ll be okay with beer. But this is where you will begin to feel a catch and uncertainty about whether you should have taken Russian voice acting. And it is precisely for this feeling that I still call the dubbing of the announcer bad, and not tolerable.
Let’s move on to the voice acting of the instructors, and… oh, hello, nasal chick.
Russian female skills instructor
Yes, congratulations, in general, this lady with a constant runny nose will voice all the female characters in the game. This chan has an obvious voice defect, but she was asked to voice a bunch of female Persians. Naturally, in the original these Persians have no nasality.
original female skills instructor
Here I first thought about a small budget (I would even bet that there was no budget at all). Because all the characters were voiced into Russian by 3 people.
So let’s get it straight: 3 people voicing a whole bunch of characters is not something bad. This was a common occurrence back then and still is today.
For example, I like our voice acting for the 1994 Spider-Man animated series. But there were 3 people who voiced the whole thing, but they played their roles and spoke in different voices.
Or there – Lostfilm. Yes, you will quickly notice that Lostfilm only has a few voices in dubbing. But again: they act in such a way that you quickly stop paying attention to the fact that there are few dubbing artists and there are many characters.
What can I say, single-voice voice acting is also quite normal. I agree to watch old Guy Ricci films only with the voice acting of the Goblin.
With Fargus… well, I bet that due to the low budget, they didn’t hire voice actors, but just some people and asked them to read the text. In many cases you hear that this is just reading out the text, nothing more.
Here at the technique instructor you will begin to suspect one more thing. There was no second take. now you will hear how a person could not pronounce one rather difficult word. And the fact that you will hear this means that Fargus stupidly did not rewrite this moment.
screwed up take
That’s right: no one re-recorded the screwed up takes. If a person stumbled and said something incorrectly, if he paused in the wrong places or did not pause at all in the right place, then no one changed it, and the screwed-up takes were stupidly inserted into the game.
even more screwed up takes
Ahhhhh… you understand that recording a new take is not so difficult? You simply erase the screwed-up take and read the text again, but without mistakes.
Why didn’t Fargus do this?? Why was it difficult for them?? Did they write this voiceover on a reel of a movie, or did they do this voiceover in one day and hand in the material tomorrow??
I don’t understand this at all.
There are such moments here in a carriage and a small cart, but for some reason the moment with the number 3 stuck in my soul. I’ll demonstrate it now.
screwed up take number 3
When reading the text, the nasal one did not immediately notice the number 3 and paused before it. Due to the fact that the number 3 looks a little like a question mark standing immediately after this number. I still want to know how it is possible that no one bothered to rewrite the screwed up takes.
We will return to the voice acting of instructors at other points, but for now, know that here you will notice the absence of a second take.
We are not touching the instructors of equipment, weapons and skill selection yet, but in any case we are sending the Russian psi-skills instructor to the stump, because the nasal chick is incapable of sounding normal at all.
After joining, training, choosing a profession and skills, we will be thrown into the last introductory screensaver before the game itself.
And here a funny (in the bad sense of the word) thing happens.
Here the shuttle pilot says the text.
original pilot
And in the Russian voice acting at this moment some kind of heresy occurred. At first I thought that they didn’t voice this text at all and stupidly left the original one, because I literally hear almost all the original text. But then the dubbing artist apparently woke up and decided to voice what this guy said in English.
Russian pilot
Uh, dude, but that’s not what he said. The text was much longer! In the original, the pilot names the place, time and where they land, and only then says “Welcome aboard, soldier.”.»
Fargus simply gave up on translating the entire text, they only voiced the last phrase.
And they didn’t cut out the English text either! That is, I, as a player who presumably does not know English, hear with my sinful ears that the pilot is speaking a long text, and in Russian only 5 words of this text are read to us.
This is the first sign of Fargus’ truly caring attitude towards his work. Yes, this will happen here not 1 or 2 times.
And let’s immediately jump to the final screensaver, because there will be exactly the same puncture.
Tommy Suarez’s character says a lot more words in the original. He gives the date where they are and that they are flying back to Von Braun, but most importantly, he says that his girlfriend has been acting strange since she boarded the lifeboat, which leads to a plot twist and a big hint at a sequel.
original tommy suarez in the final cutscene
In our voice acting… half the text was simply thrown out.
Really. Why translate everything when you can translate half, right, Fargus?
By the way, these phrases from the main character’s capsule are important for the plot.
phrases of the main character’s capsule
Well, Fargus did not translate them and voice them into Russian. We left the original. Fargus, why are you… you should translate at least half, as you like to do. Well you gave up so quickly?
So, we are finally thrown into the game, and the first living character whom we will already hear during the gameplay for the first third of the game is Dr. Janice Polito.
So you’ve been warned of spoilers, so… Dr. Polito is dead, you insect.
Polito is not a completely living character (but can be considered one from the point of view of analysis).
This is the artificial intelligence Shodan pretending to be a living person.
This role was quite difficult; the actress had to play a person who raises questions and suspicions with her voice.
original watered
But at the same time she couldn’t shoot herself, and she needed to sound like a human being. According to the plot of this game, it is necessary for the GG to trust his unexpected instructor.
original watered1
In the original, the actress managed. Polito sounds quite lively, she shows emotion in the right places and is believable as a person. Yes, she sounds dry in places, but more like a stern teacher, for whom it is important that her stubborn student reach the goal.
original watered2
In Russian voice acting… hello, nasal chick, long time no see.
Russian watered
You are not an actress, as I said above, you are just a person who was put in front of a microphone and asked to read the text as God wishes. And she read it out… at the same time, I have a feeling that she was either in a hurry somewhere, like all Fargus employees, or she was seeing the text for the first time in her life, because she doesn’t even pause where they should be.
Russian polito1
In Janice Polito’s case, she doesn’t act out, she just sight reads.
Let’s compare. I will show the original in one audio file, and then the dub. Feel the difference.
In general, Polito’s dubbing is terrible from start to finish for a simple reason: the person who voiced it was simply immature. They took a random girl with a stuffy nose and asked her to voice it. Well, here’s the result, zero roleplay, zero emotions with rare exceptions, no pauses… I don’t blame her, I blame the one who hired her for this job.
Somewhere on the first deck another problem will begin to creep up, which causes the greatest amount of cringe from the Russian voice acting.
We have already heard people simply reading text into a microphone, we have already heard lack of emotion and zero acting out, we have already heard screwed up takes.
So: the time has come for grimacing people. Remember, I said that the Fargus employees were simply trying to repeat the emotions of the original, forgetting that they also had to play the emotions of the original. So, in most cases this played a cruel joke on them. Trying to repeat, they began to parody. And a parody is always either funny or creepy if it’s a bad parody. This is a case of a bad parody, if anything.
In half the cases, Fargus employees began to openly make faces, trying to repeat what sounded in the original. I say "half the time" because the other half of the time they were making faces simply because they wanted to make faces, and the original didn’t sound even close to that.
And of course, no one told them that this was a trend, and that this should not be inserted into the game. No. Fargus didn’t care what they did.
We will hear the first grimace on the voice acting of ghosts. Due to a defect in the implant, GG can see events that happened before he came here.
In the original, the ghosts also sound strange: very dull, drawn-out, as if from afar and very unnatural. But this is the style and the idea. these are ghosts and they sound like that for this reason and for no other.
original ghost voice acting
And in Russian… it’s just a parody. They tried to repeat it, but instead they parodied it.
Russian voice acting for noaccount-casinos.co.uk ghostsRussian voice acting for ghosts1
And this is not the worst parody in this dub. We’ll get to the worst yet.
We got close to the voice acting of scientists from the first deck.
Grassi.
Russian Grassy
You have now heard for the first time the third voice of the Russian dubbing, and this is again some Fargus employee who simply reads the text into the microphone, not knowing what emotions to act out, not pausing where necessary, and being indifferent for most of the reading. But this fool is still making faces.
Russian Grassi1
Seriously, I thought a chick with a nasal voice was a problem, but this idiot on the mic will give you more pain in the ass, I guarantee.
In the original it sounds quite normal.
original grassy
Next up is the voice acting of Dr. Watts. But before we get to his voice acting and audio dubbing, let’s take a look at the moment where we see him face to face at the moment of his death.
Russian Dying Watts
I’ve been waiting for this moment! I love this man!
I understand that in the original there was a man dying, he was literally dying before our eyes and had difficulty squeezing out his last words. And it wasn’t funny at all.
original dying watts
But in our voice acting, the guy from Fargus tried to imitate the dying man, and instead he came out with Uncle Vanya, drunk to death, with a Caucasian accent!
This is so stupid it’s brilliant! I can substitute his epic “go away” anywhere, and it will be on topic.
go away
Okay, so what’s with Watts’ voice acting in the audiologs??
In general, it’s again a sham behind the microphone. And oh damn. I don’t need to describe it, I’ll just include this nightmare in its entirety.
Russian Watts
Russian Watts1
Can I give this guy an Oscar?? Otherwise, in the original it sounded too natural (sarcasm).
original watts1
In the original, he is an ordinary scientist with a quite pleasant hoarse voice and even intonation.
original watts
Where, just tell me where, Fargus decided that Grassi and Watts should be voiced, grimacing and overacting? Grassi and Watts in the original sound like the most ordinary people, why do you have Fargus and they sound like some kind of idiots?
Yes, this is nasal again, but I have to say one interesting thing. No, Delacroix’s voice acting is just as terrible, the nasal voice almost always sounds bad, there’s no need to even include any examples here, although I will include them.
Russian voice acting by Delacroix1
But the interesting fact is that Delacroix sounded just as bad in the original. They also hired some under-actress to voice her. In the original Delacroix sounds like artificial intelligence. And this is not according to the plot, this is some kind of voice acting.
original voice acting by Delacroix
If she, and not Polito, got in touch with GG, I would not even doubt that Shodan was calling me, and not a living person.
In the original she has a French accent, and most likely because of it she began to sound so artificial.
She tries, however, in some moments she sounds emotional, especially in those moments when she is unhappy
original delacroix1
But mostly it’s bad.
Only in the original it’s bad because of the poor choice of the actress, but in the Russian dubbing it’s bad because it’s not an actress at all.
After listening to the audiologists from the first deck, I, to be honest, began to think that the Fargus employees were either drunk, or high, or they just really hated the game and their jobs in general. It’s as if these are some schoolchildren doing voiceovers for fun, and “for fun” are the key words here.
examples of drunken voice acting from the first deck
Well… apparently we’re moving on, I hope there’ll be at least something fun there, another Man “Go Away”, for example.
Rebecca and Tommy.
If anything, Rebecca in this plot is a girl in love. She met her love Tommy Suarez on this ship, and we will hear in audiologs their first loving messages to each other, and then the story of their escape from the Von Braun ship.
But in the Russian dubbing, Suarez and Rebecca are voiced by two Fargus idiots.
Russian Rebecca
This is the moment when the nasal chick, instead of continuing to be a log in voice acting, decided to try to become an actress… unfortunately, to become an actress you have to train as an actress, so Russian Rebecca sounds like a lovestruck maniac who is going to at least kill Suarez.
Russian Rebecca maniac
Well, Russian Suarez just sounds like a grimacing drunken piece of shit who knows no moderation and decency.
Russian Suarez
Rebecca in the original sounds not like some kind of maniac, but like an ordinary girl in love with a guy.
the original rebecca is not a maniac
And with Suarez it’s absolutely the same: in the original he’s just an ordinary guy in love with a girl.
original suarez
But ours deliberately flushed everything down the toilet.
For example, at this moment in Fargus’s Rebecca’s speech there was some truly moronic laughter and joy in her voice.
Russian Rebecca "I will not die"
Ahahah, death threats are so much fun!
In the original it doesn’t even sound like that! At this moment, Rebecca does not have any laughter at all, not even a nervous one, she sounds scared but at the same time tries not to show it so as not to scare her loved one.
original rebecca "I won’t die"
Oscar for this lady!
In the original, her speech is all static, which makes us understand that she really found herself in some difficult situation, and the connection is now interrupted. Well, it’s clear that there is no dramatic theatrical strain in her voice.
original rebecca "go away"In general, crappy. This fool is trying to play, and this idiot continues his “distorting mirror” festival behind the microphone.
Sanger’s voice acting is nasty and mannered.
Russian voice acting sanzher
But in the original it’s just a frightened woman, at first holding on to a cucumber, and then falling more and more into panic and fear.
original voice acting by sanzher
On the voice acting of Turnbull, it’s worth saying that Fargus has some problems with the voice acting of dying people. So let’s also listen to Diego’s farewell speech and Polito’s farewell speech. Because the punctures are absolutely the same.
Polito’s farewell speech sounds compelling.
Polito’s original farewell speech
But in our dubbing it doesn’t sound like anything.
Russian farewell speech Polito
She was definitely going to die there.
The same can be said about Diego’s speech: in the original, his speech is interrupted by interference, and these are really his farewell words.
Diego’s original farewell speech
In Fargus: well, it’s clear that the interference was completely removed, and his parting words… well, the guy tries to sound like he’s dying, but he manages to talk as if he only ran a kilometer and can’t get his breathing back in any way.
Russian Diego’s farewell speech
Well, Turnbull’s farewell speech… all the same problems.
Russian farewell speech turnbull
Iont is voiced poorly, because the dude on this character decided to portray Volodarsky apparently.
Russian iont
Young.
In general, they tried to portray Fargus’ accent on this character!
Russian Young
It’s a pity that Fargus can’t fake an accent, and it’s a pity that in the original he doesn’t have any Chinese accent.
original yang
That is, Fargus saw the dude’s last name and decided that it would be funny to try to imitate a Chinese accent. And instead of Young they got a Tajik who doesn’t pause between sentences. and you know, this is not a bantering Tajik from our Russia, but a very pathetic Tajik who is an omega at the last stage. And not pausing in sentences!
Russian Young1
Rosenberg and McKay have the same problems and sound equally shitty. Yes, everything is as usual, by God, strange intonations, strange acting, lack of pauses or incorrect placement.
Russians Rosenberg and McKay
Rosenberg in the original sounds lively and interesting, and McKay sounds absolutely normal.
Crocker sounds like a complete drug addict, and I think Fargus’s employee, Normal, went that hard before voicing this character.
Russian Crocker
Dude, you’re on a ship full of rotten robots and biocontamination, and people are dying in droves. Are you sure you’re supposed to sound like this is some kind of unfortunate misunderstanding and not a complete trend?.
Russian Crocker1
I think you can guess that in the original he doesn’t sound like a drug addict in a relaxed mood.
original crocker
In the body of many we find notes only from Perfontein. Because according to the plot, he is the only one who wrote something down in this location.
original perfontein
Sounds plausible. He is scared, he is trying to overcome what is happening to him, he understands that his chances of survival tend to absolute zero. He is suffocating and afraid, but still makes these notes in the hope that they will at least help someone. Frankly, he has one of the creepiest stories here. Especially in the last audiologue, which I will include for you all.
Perfontein’s farewell monologue
I wouldn’t want to be in his place. But we’re talking about the voice actor, ok? He’s great. He did it.
Russian Perfontein… Yes, I almost fell asleep while listening to all the audiologists with him.
Russian Perfontein
The troubles are still the same. The pauses are placed in the wrong places, or there are none at all, the dude doesn’t sound scared or nervous, but just strange… which is not surprising, damn, he’s just reading the text, nothing more. yes, he’s trying to play something out, but all he can do is nasal into the microphone.
Russian Perfontein’s farewell speech
He also says shodan instead of shodan.
Russian Perfontein ShodAn
Well, since we’re talking about bad things, let’s talk somewhere here about the sounds of the replicator and about the sounds of the GG cyber interface.
By the way, they also stopped translating the sound of the replicator, leaving the original.
Are they flipping a coin there, what to translate and what not?? Because, for example, the GG cyber interface speaks Russian quite well. Although… not everywhere.
Well, for example, when we activate a psionic skill in the original, the cyber interface says that we just did what, and when the psionic skill ends, the system again informs us about it.
psi skills in the original
And in the Russian version they simply threw out almost all the voice acting for the main character’s cyber interface.
psi skills in RussianThe cyber interface was translated into Russian by 20 percent, the rest was simply thrown out. At least they left the original there.
Basically, I think you already understand everything after one damn point of analysis. Complete failure. Throwing out half of the voice acting, translation mistakes, dry reading of the text instead of acting out, the absence of second takes, the people behind the microphone are not actors at all, and when they try to be actors, it only gets worse, and all this is diluted with some kind of hellish antics that make us understand that the Fargus people were either drunk, or high, or simply hated System Shock 2 and their work in principle.
If you think things can’t get any worse… they can. Guys, we are rushing on a train, and the final stop is f****t.
But let’s talk about the good while we still have the opportunity.
So, tolerable or normal voice acting by Fargus.
We return again to the instructors at the very beginning of the game, in particular to the male instructors.
Oddly enough, this is the thing that I will praise from Fargus and scold from the original. But I will do it with great doubt.
The fact is that in the original, all the instructors for skills, and for basic training, and when choosing skills already in the profession itself sound boring.
These are smooth, clear voices without much emotional coloring. They are dry and simple like crackers without anything.
original instructors
According to the plot, these are pre-recorded voices, as if you heard an announcement in the subway or in a shopping center, that’s the same feeling.
This is in no way a complaint. I’m sure this is the original voice’s intention, and not a mistake.
An emotional color has appeared in the Russian dubbing of male instructors’ voices, and I believe that this is not a pre-recorded voice, but a living person.
Russian instructors
Another thing is whether Fargus had the right to make an emotional and lively voice where in the original there was a pre-recorded message?
We will discuss this later when it comes to voicing Xerxes, but specifically here I still think that the instructors should not have been voiced so vividly and emotionally, although in the end it turned out well.
Russian instructors1
Russian… Anatoly Korenchkin sounds good.
Russian Korenchkin
But he was also let down by the fact that he saw the text being read out for the first time in his life, and he was not allowed to re-record the messed up take. That is why at the end of the word “Trioptimum” he puts a questioning intonation, and then a statement.
Russian Korenchkin andoriginal korenchkin
Loesser sounds ok. This is exactly the case when the nasal one managed to play something normally in her voice.
Russian Loesser
Of course it doesn’t compare to the original. But still not bad.
original loesser
Martin and Miller sound… tolerable. Although in the case of Miller at the very end you can again hear that the guy is seeing this text for the first time in his life.
I officially declare that Cortez is drunk.
Russian Cortes
Heh, okay, in fact, Cortes is sounded normally in audiologs. There are a couple of nuances that make it sound weird, but it’s kind of acceptable.
In general, with tolerable voice acting – that’s all. It’s not much, but it’s there. This confirms that they can still voice Fargus normally if they stop parodying the original and stop making faces. That is, well, guys can. If you take away their booze in time.
And finally, good voice acting of live characters.
There’s only one, but it’s better than the original. Yes, this happens here too.
Bronson. In the original it sounds incredibly boring. The same problem as with Delacroix: the actress simply didn’t understand what kind of character she should voice. She had to voice an evil but fair woman trying to save this ship using cruel methods. But it doesn’t sound at all.
original bronson
Even when she dies she sounds bad.
Farewell speech of the original Bronson
And everything is fine in our voice acting. This is that unique moment when the nasal one played out the right emotions and the right situation. I believe that these women are angry.
Russian Bronson
I believe this woman is dying.
Russian Bronson’s farewell speech
Well, we’re done with the analysis of the voice acting of living characters. It took a long time, but it was worth it (probably). All results and conclusions have already been made during the analysis.
Let’s move on to the second point of analysis.
2. Voice acting for the Possessed.
In this game, as you already understand, there is a certain race of Many. They, roughly speaking, know how to control the mind. They delve into the brains of living beings and whisper beautiful thoughts to them, because of which people not only come over to their side, but also begin to mutate and turn into one of the Many.
In audiology we will very often hear how people turned into Many. And this mutation is gradual, it does not happen overnight. We will hear how people gradually turn. In some places they will still sound like people, and in others they will sound like Many.
original voice acting of many
Looking Glass Studios was able to achieve the desired effect through sound effects.
Moreover, it is clear that the race of many is diverse. Some possessed people begin to speak in a cybernetic computer accelerating voice.
examples of original voice acting of many
some start talking with a terrible roar.
examples of original voice acting of many1
and some emit an otherworldly low whisper.
examples of original voice acting of many2
Obviously, someone turns into a cyberninja, someone into a creepy rambler, and someone into a flying mushroom.
I’ve completed the game 4 times and still don’t know what they’re called. flying mushroom.
LGS managed 5+.
Every time you hear an audiologist with an obsessed Many, it sends chills down your spine. It’s creepy and very attractive at the same time.
And this was achieved with the necessary sound effects.
What about Fargus?? Well… you already understand that guys love to act in front of the microphone. So the highest point of their antics was reached precisely in the voice acting of the possessed. I’ll just turn it on for you. Turn on your internal blood pressure meter yourself.
Russian voice acting of those possessed by many
Fargus, instead of using sound effects, asked people at the microphones to create sound effects themselves!
Russian voice acting of those possessed by many1
Here I should have said: “the voice acting of such and such is terrible,” but this is no longer horror, this is already something beyond p****.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I first heard this. I still don’t believe it.
Russian voice acting of those possessed by many2
Somewhere, of course, Fargus suddenly came to their senses and tried to use sound effects, but this very rarely happened.
Russian voice acting of those possessed by many3
Basically yes, people tried to become a sound effect themselves and… needless to say, this is a trend.
By the way, the thing I can’t forgive Fargus most of all is this monologue.
Russian monologue of the possessed Diego
Voiced by Fargus, this monologue is just as disgusting as all the other monologues of the possessed. But the fact is that in the original this is the most terrible monologue of all. On YouTube I often came across the opinion that it was during this monologue that people laid down bricks. I’ll play this monologue for you. Just listen and tell me what’s going on with this person.
original monologue of the possessed diego
And yes, it would be a crime not to mention that this character was voiced by Stephen Russell. He became famous for voicing this guy.
What is Stephen Russell famous for?
By the way, we hear people who are obsessed not only in audiologists. Our opponents, well, those whom we hit in the head with the key, are those possessed by the Many. And they say. mutants, victims of experiments, crazy robots – they all speak, which greatly instills fear in the player.
original voice acting of enemies
So let’s take a look at how Fargus voiced the enemies in this game.
Ahh… they didn’t do any voice acting, they just left the original voice acting. Enemies also speak English with Russian voice acting.
No, well, on the one hand, thanks to them, of course, because I’m sure they would have shit themselves here too. On the other hand… meh..
– oh, what else are the enemies talking about?? why bother voicing it, let’s go get some beer.
I think we’re done with the voice acting for Many. Summary: disgust out of 100.
Sorry that I couldn’t say much about the possessed. But… something needs to be said here? Fargus is just fucked in the head.
3. Voice acting of the Main Villains. — Xerxes.
We got to the voice acting and dubbing of the main villains of the game. And we will start with the fact that I suddenly say the incredible. Xerxes in Russian sounds better and more appropriate than Xerxes in the original.
Don’t throw your slippers, you’ll understand what I mean now.
Xerxes doesn’t sound like anything in the original. This is an ordinary smooth, emotionless male computer voice that does not have a specific color or tone.
original xerxes
If I was asked to repeat the intonation of the original Xerxes, I probably wouldn’t be able to. Why repeat it?? The voice really means nothing. I don’t feel madness or threat in him, but Xerxes, oddly enough, is evil, even if not of his own free will. But due to the voice acting, there is no sense of any threat from this character at all.
original xerxes1
In our voice acting, Xerxes suddenly acquired a tone of voice and certain notes that emphasize the character’s madness.
Russian Xerxes
It’s not scary, but it’s done in such a way that you immediately understand that the character is not himself.
Russian Xerxes1
So yes, I officially declare: the Russian voice acting of Xerxes is better than the original voice acting.
Another thing is that I’m more than sure that Fargus was acting stupidly, as they usually do, but this time their antics, by a fortunate coincidence, resulted in a truly suitable voice for the character. Well… at least this way.
Russian Xerxes2
Let’s go to the next villain of the game.
Leader of Many
When I first heard the Leader of Many voiced by Fargus, I wanted to praise the office. Because the voice fits quite well: it sounds quite low, deep and menacing.
Russian leader of many
When I hear the Russian voice acting of this character, I believe that this is a truly dangerous opponent who knows how to penetrate people’s minds and win them over to his side.
Russian leader of many1
I would praise this voice acting… if not for two “buts”. Moreover, these two “buts” are as huge as Mount Kilimanjaro.
First "But": Fargus removed 60 percent of the Leader of Many voice acting from the game. That’s right, instead of dubbing it, they just threw out the character’s voice acting. Ahhhh… is it even possible to do this??
The fact is that the Leader of Many often addresses us throughout the game. He contacts us more than 5 times or even 10 times. He does this so often because he understands that GG is the only one who can exterminate the entire race of Many. And it’s clear that he’s trying to stop us by penetrating our minds.
What about Fargus?? Well, I literally see their awesome plan.
– Posons, we still need to voice this.
– So lazy… and his speech is somehow registered in emails or in subtitles?
– Nope, he addresses GG only in his head.
– Well, what’s the problem?? Voice it 5-6 times for the sake of decency, don’t voice the rest, and just cut out the original voice acting.
It’s not just hackwork.
This is an incredible level of indifference and showing the middle finger to the game and all the voice acting. And giving the middle finger to your own activities.
Second "But". I would have no complaints about the Russian voice acting of the Leader of Many, if not for the original voice acting.
How exactly do you think the Leader of an entire race should be voiced, whose motto is Multitude?. Unity. We are as one. There are many of us.
What Looking Glass Studios did is very simple and very cool.
In the original, the Leader of Many speaks in SEVERAL voices.
original leader of many
I managed to distinguish at least 2 voices (perhaps there are more of them), a low uterine male voice (and I think it was this voice that Fargus tried to repeat in his voice acting), and a high female one.
original leader of many1
Well, not a bad result, Fargus, you were able to repeat at least one voice out of many, bravo, standing ovation.
Russian leader of many2
And moreover, in the original, remarkable work was done on the voice of the Leader of Many. Many are nothing more than creatures of Shodan, and you can hear it in their voice. They have a manner of speaking similar to Shodan’s. The voice becomes quieter, then louder, some begin to speak earlier, and some later.
original leader of many2
This is the style of Shodan’s voice. We’ll talk about him literally any minute now, but let’s still get to the point about the Leader of Many. This voice acting really chills you to the bone.
original leader of many3
This is the voice of the masses, this is a voice capable of subjugating. It’s not surprising that he subjugated the entire station. GG does not obey him only because he is no longer human. However, the people at the station who heard this voice quickly took the side of the Many.
Looking Glass Studios I can really applaud without any sarcasm. This is one of the most interesting voice acting villains in horror games in general.
original leader of many4
Well, Fargus… what can we say about them?. They stupidly cut out all the voice acting and what they voiced they voiced without trying. Because why try, why use multiple voices, why apply sound effects, we need to go home, folks, we don’t get paid for our efforts.
And finally – voice acting Shodan. And we’ll move straight to the English dubbing.
I praised the original voice acting quite strongly and a lot. She’s really good. Efforts are visible, imagination is visible, efforts are visible. It’s clear that half of their studio staff are musicians, which is why there were so many successful solutions and interesting finds in terms of voice acting. And how the apogee of all this genius is the voice acting of Shodan.
Who is Shodan? This is a crazy artificial intelligence with a god complex. On Lurkomore they quite aptly called her “a digital bitch with a mind-blowing voice acting”.
And Shodan is crazy, she’s not herself. How to convey the madness of a character if not with specific voice acting?? LGS did a great job. I’ll just play a little bit of her voiceover for you so you understand, and then I’ll comment on it myself.
examples of original Shodan voice acting
Firstly, whoever came up with such a voiceover is a genius, and secondly, amazing work was done there. The voice is divided into several tones, whisper, low voice, normal female, high, or almost squeaky.
examples of original voice acting Shodan1
The voice jams and stutters like a jammed film or, more precisely, like a glitchy program.
examples of original Shodan2 voice acting
The voice is divided into several voices, some begin to speak earlier, some pick up, and sometimes the voices sound simultaneously.
examples of original Shodan 3 voice acting
Voice slows down and speeds up.
examples of original Shodan4 voice acting
And this is just what I hear and can describe. This is really the voice of crazy artificial intelligence.
What about the Russian voice acting?? Well… just as in the original Shodan’s voice is the apogee of the genius of everything that LGS did with voice acting, so in the voice acting from Fargus Shodan’s voice is the apogee of terrible hackwork, indifference and lack of understanding of how to duplicate characters.
What’s the problem? The voice of the actress (sorry for the word “actress”) was simply superimposed with one single sound effect. And okay, they applied one effect, but Fargus sadistically turned this effect to the maximum!
Russian Shodan1
Not only is it impossible to listen to, but I also don’t understand what she’s saying at all, this sound effect drowns out her speech.
Listen and tell me: did you at least understand something??
Russian Shodan2
I – no, I don’t understand.
And this despite the fact that Russian Shodan in the intros (and there are only two of them: the initial and final) sounds normal, in the intros there is no this wretched effect. Well, I mean there is, but it’s not turned up to the maximum.
Russian shodan in screensavers
Mediocrity, Voice of Shodan – this is not taking your emotionless nasal chick and lazily putting a disgusting sound effect on top, turned up to the maximum. Shodan’s voice is a work of art. What was going on in Fargus’s head??
I have one answer to this question. I think Fargus didn’t give a damn about his job and didn’t give a damn about System Shock 2 in particular. They took up this work either for fun, or someone forced them. They didn’t just do their job without love and respect, they did their job with hatred for the product. There is no other way I can explain the fact that there were no second takes, that the actors simply acted in front of the microphone as if they were drunk, that they stupidly didn’t do any voice acting, that they used flawed sound effects that ruined everything.
Fargus either didn’t understand what they were doing at all, or were ostracized and mocked by one of the best voice acting in games.
Someone will now say: “Zombies, this is an old game, and in those days there were no normal companies that did voice acting, and if there were, they paid them little. And people wanted to play the game, but not everyone knows English, so say thank you that at least there is such Russian voice acting.»
No. I won’t say thank you. It’s too bad the game has voice acting like that. It’s bad that people take on the game’s voice acting and make hack work because they weren’t paid enough or because they had no interest in the game being voiced.
If you take on a job, do it well. If you are offered an amount that is too small for you, and because of this you are going to do the job carelessly, hit yourself with a bolt in the forehead and do not take this job. If you don’t feel the slightest interest and love for the upcoming work, refuse. Yours. Quickie. No one. Not needed.
Zombie was with you. Play System Shock 2 only in the original. And to hell with this Fargus.
ps. Textures… yes, they’re probably worth mentioning separately. Still, this is part of the work that needs to be done when translating the game. Well… Fargus translated about 10 percent of the textures, neglected the rest and left them in English. And even what they translated, they translated in some places completely defectively.
Let me just show examples of textures translated by Fargus with pictures.