I like voice acting, but I feel that by including voice acting in Divinity: Original Sin, Larian had skipped an important first step.
There is a reason why voice acting is great in a game like Mass Effect but terrible in Skyrim, and it's not just a question of the acting quality.
There is a reason why classic games like Final Fantasy are great to play even though there is no voice acting at all.
In Mass Effect, the dialogue is short and snappy, and the characters express themselves through facial expressions and physical actions. There is a saying that body language is 55% of communication. Yet, when you look at a character in Skyrim, you find a complete lack of body language. There are plenty of games with bad voice acting, but when the characters move act in an expressive way, it's easy for us to overlook any problems with the acting.
It's easy for us to turn text into a voice in our head, but voice acting can never make up for a lack of body language. When you watch a character speaking without body language, it feels uncanny, and it creates a barrier to immersion.
Voice acting would be a great feature, but only after providing expressive body language.
