OK:...;) Here it is, then...
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I'm having a lot of fun with the game--it's in that vein that I want to make the following suggestions which I hope Larian will consider shoe-horning in at some point later on...;) [I didn't realize how much I've been looking forward to this game...! It's wonderful to have another Larian RPG to sink my--erm--teeth into--figuratively, I mean.] I find the release version of the game far, far better than the alpha EA release, which I played a lot for most of this week in anticipation--like the Heinz ketchup commercial--or is that 'catsup'? (Which is saying a lot for the release version since the alpha version was excellent standalone.)
Observation: I love --absolutely love the voice-over work--it's splendid--and it adds quite a bit of atmosphere to the game! Larian was wise indeed not to let OS 2 leave home without it! If I'm not mistaken, I recognize some of the voices from pre-EE version of OS 1, and that is a very big plus, imo, as I much preferred the pre--EE voiceovers to the EE version voices for OS 1--well, about 80%-90% of them. To be very frank, I feel like I'm in heaven listening to the OS 2 voice work compared to the voicing in several games I've been playing recently--or attempting to play, I should say, such as the recent Two Words II DLC release, Call of the Trombones--er, or something like that, anyway...!...;) Gawd, but it is good to hear such professional voice acting for a change...! Well done, Larian!
But there are two suggestions I'd like to make in the spirit of wanting to see this gem even more lustrous than it already is...
1) Narrator voice: The narrator voice work is fine--it's very professional--but that doesn't really get to the heart of what I most want to say about it. Which is, I find the actual *voice* of the game narrator to be ill suited to the *role* of game narrator. There is nothing at all wrong with the voice--the diction, emphasis, enthusiasm--are excellent! The problem is that the narrator sounds far too much like just another NPC --so much so that I find his voice work distracting--I actually enjoy turning the narrator sound to 0%--I find that much preferable to hearing it. I feel certain this issue has been debated internally at Larian during production, else there would *be* no UI setting to control the narrator's voice individually--another terrific feature of this game--thanks for being so thoughtful about that, Larian--it makes a world of difference--for me.
OK, I have given much thought today along the lines of "Well, *is there* a narrator's voice of *any description* that I would enjoy?" I had to wrestle with that one before coming up with an answer I consider worthwhile. Yes, yes, there most certainly is, imo:
I'd love to hear a very deep, sonorous voice for the role of narrator--someone along the lines of James Earl Jones...! Deep, clear, powerful and literally dripping with meaning and purpose. Oh yes...! Such a voice would cleanly separate the narrator's voice in all respects from the player's and all of the NPCs in the game--not only in tone and tenor, but also in accent--if James Earl Jones wasn't in his upper 80's now he'd be perfect for the role, assuming he was interested. But I think by using him as my example of a target for narrator it's clear exactly what I am talking about. The other distinguishing feature is that the narrator's voice should *not* be cast in a "clipped English brogue"--because everyone else in the game speaks with a clipped English brogue! I love the game's NPC and main-character voice-overs--they are great and they fit the game like a T, imo. But the narrator should sound *nothing* like the voiced characters in the game. As it is, the narrator currently sounds like just another game NPC--which is why I've turned off the narrator voice entirely. There's nothing wrong with it except that it doesn't fit for the voice of narrator in the game, imo, and so it's very distracting.
2) The Player's/main-character's voice-work: This one truly has me baffled...;) Why does the main character only talk to himself in the game? That's the only time I hear "my own voice"--when I'm talking to myself when no one else is around...;) I really do think the main character dialogue should be finished at some point down the road so that really and truly *every single line in the game* is voiced--because that is not true at present.
What I'm speaking of is not elaborate, and it doesn't involve rewriting even a single line of the printed main character's prose on screen when he is addressing other game NPCs. Here's an example of what I'm suggesting:
Player: *Say that you wish you'd been informed sooner.* (on-screen in the text box, which the player selects for his answer/statement.)
Audio the player hears, in the pre-selected player's voice, when he makes that selection:
"Any reason you haven't filled me in already?"
Etc. Anyway, I hope these suggestions are taken in the spirit they are made--I love this game...;)
