Gears of War, Batman: Arkham, Mass Effect, Spec Ops: The Line

“Vocal information is the focal point of the listening experience.” (Droumeva, 2007)  Just as in cinema and other narrative works, players learn the most about their situation they’re playing through with dialogue.  While, in my opinion, not as narratively unique to the medium as the following sections, how video games handle spoken sounds is still an important facet of the narrative experience.

The Gears of War series offers the most upfront example, generally the kind seen in cinema, too.  Throughout the games, the characters all talk with trademark gruffness: generally, deep and sarcastic, with tones of being tired and fed-up with their lives.  It’s at points when that takes a massive shift that players can tell the speech means something: when a voice drops to a whisper, when a desire for war to end becomes a desire for bloodlust, when barked orders become desperate screams, that’s when players know that what’s being said matters.

Another example is in the Batman: Arkham series (2009-2014), in which sections of the game require players, as Batman, to overcome groups of enemies with either brute force or shadowy stealth.  In full-combat encounters, thugs begin very confident in their numbers and strength, but as their numbers dwindle, they become more and more anxious, even pleading with Batman not to hurt them too badly.  Likewise, in a stealth encounter, enemies are content and safe with their gadgets and guns, but become more terrified as Batman picks off more and more of their partners.  Moments like this help to paint the smaller moments in a larger narrative, and lend well to the effect Batman can have on his enemies.

Mass Effect (2007-2013), in its myriad of conversational options, paints what kind of person Commander Shepard is, or who the player wants them to be, through spoken speech.  By selecting certain dialogue choices, often between Paragon/diplomatically peaceful and Renegade/ruthlessly efficient, Shepard will, as expected, sound different. Differences like this help to immerse the player in the narrative and their character’s story, especially when it comes to the tones of their player-character.

Another example is in Spec Ops: The Line (2012), in which such speech-dependent changes take place, but are almost subtle enough to go unnoticed.  As the game progresses, two major shifts in speech occur: firstly, the Delta Force trio start off the game very professional in their work, but as time goes on, they begin to lose that sense of professionalism, becoming more biting, more direct, even more savage and enraged as time goes on.  This shift in speech patterns illustrates the extent to which Delta is suffering, and because it can be such an under-the-radar change that players don’t pick up on until, in some cases, after the narrative is completed and replayed.

The same principle applies with the enemies, the soldiers of the Damned 33rd; they, too, begin their defense against Delta as the confident, decorated war heroes they have always been lauded as.  But as Delta continues to fight against them, destroying more and more of the battalion, they grow cautious of Delta, and it shows in their speech patterns.  And finally, as Delta has laid waste to nearly their entire operation, the 33rd is frightened at the mere sight and mention of the Delta operators.  This actually helps in painting them as more than just enemies, but characters of their own, actually affected by what is going on around them.