Arbites voice acting sucks

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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Really no other way for me to phrase it. It’s just bad and such a lame contrast to the rest of the VAs and characters in the game.

All the cops sound so similar I can’t tell them apart, they share some lines (“accepted gladly” and “the lex is the lex” for example), and they’re about as dry as sand. Even, Savants, their closest comparisons (being ex-cops themselves, but a different kind of cop) in terms of personality, at least shout a little in the middle of all their drivel about protocol.

I tried my best to play them but they’re so lame I literally can’t make myself do it.

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I’d love to see the arguments of people that claimed the DLC was fairly priced due to the amazing voice actors and sheer effort that had to be put into that.

Are you enjoying the amazing dialogue lads?

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we’ve fallen so far since the days of SIR KRUBA and BEAT IT PUNIES and nowe we’re at the bottom of the barrel with “i move :)”

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Yes lex mate

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Cant remember even one debate or conversation from arbites.

But for me its ok, i can go in silence. Killin heretics.

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I’ve heard some good ones with other rejects, especially the Loner, but since most players are using Arbites the amount of bonding conversations is way lower than normal since two of the same personalities and gender don’t chat with each other. Same personalities and different gender rarely have anything to say but do sometimes. Either way very little chatting happens besides ability barks and kill streak barks.

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They sound bored. I could tolerate the lame lines if the delivery was at least enthusiastic but no, they all sound like they were bored during recording

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So, I have to disagree with you here.

I completely respect your position, but I disagree.

I think that the Arbites characters are the greatest of the classes, and this opinion of mine stems from the fact that, as much as I love my Zealot, they are overacted.

I’ll try to explain what I mean: Zealot and Psyker, in particular, go into meme territory with their voices and phrases, which (for me) turns the game from Grimdark to a bit too cringe-worthy.

Warhammer (both versions) has always been a bit cringe in the same way as 80s action movies are cringe, but there’s a tight balance to walk before it goes from fun to too millennial, and I believe there’s a huge disconnect between the setting and the quips from the personalities in Darktide.

We face a massive monster that drives those who see them insane? - hahahha, jokes.

We get into a Crusher train clown car? - hahahaha jokes.

Someone tells their worries about a thing? - hahahha, jokes

There are too many jokes and memes in Darktide, and I would prefer that there just weren’t, similar to the WH40k short animated films or Space Marine 2, both of which take their setting seriously.

There’s nothing wrong with having jokes and quips in Warhammer games, the whole IP is a comedy in itself, but I think that you have to take the setting a bit seriously or else it’ll just become suicide squad levels of storytelling which breaks immersion (for me at least).

Arbites is so much better written.

Wh40k type of animations I’m referring to (which take the setting seriously):

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9

I get what you mean, but I think you’re taking this the wrong way. 40k is a grimdark universe, sure, but a lot of the humor in the game comes across to me as respectful of how the world is - a lot of the jokes the Loose Cannons crack, for example, could very easily be seen as gallows humor (like deserting Grendyl).

Doesn’t mean the Fanatics aren’t just comically scottish 24/7 (because you’re absolutely right about that. I love it, but you’re right), but the game has enough good comedy in it that it doesn’t just get boring from all the Everything Sucks™.

Taking a look at it from a meta-perspective, there are still a lot of beats that are wholly serious and do a good job of keeping it grounded, like the meta-narrative of Grendyl’s warband fighting a losing (somehow) war, and character interactions signaling a lot of distrust and barely-unslit throats. Seer Psykers are silly on their own, but nobody likes them, they occasionally get really ominous or sociopathic, and they’re clearly over-reliant on their Beloved.

Overall I think there’s a good mix of seriousness and comedy in the game that keeps it faithful to the world while not being boringly edgy. Just because a universe is full of tragedy doesn’t mean you can’t occasionally make the 40k equivalent of a 9/11 joke.

*Addendum: It’s okay to take something completely seriously. Boltgun does a fantastic job of taking itself seriously while managing to be engaging. But not every game or lore tidbit in 40k has to be 100% serious all the time. Darktide fills a great niche in that regard.

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I’ve been playing 40k for 27 years and that entire time it’s been camp and dreadfully silly and very self-serious at the same time. It’s wonderful. I think Darktide is the best 40k game with regards to tone and vibes. Taking the setting too seriously means ignoring half of it (especially the Orks)

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Its pretty hard to hear them angst out lines I found. But anything’s better than hearing MY BELOVED and all the other ‘le epic characterz’ that got irritating like 2 days into the beta. Cadian vet being the worst of the bunch.

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This was exactly what I was alluding to when I said that I (personally) don’t enjoy the quippy millennial humor in Darktide.

Vermintide 2 also had humor and memes, but it was (is), in my opinion, done in a more tasteful and serious manner, whereas Darktide’s gameplay (past talent trees) and some of the personalities went way too far into “meme land”.

That is why I enjoy Arbites so much.

I use the Fatalist, and all of the personalities for the Arbites is awesome

From the edgy camp of the male Maul to the more cheery “the Lex is the Lex!” Fatalist, I just feel that they never go into the suicide squad type of humor that a lot of the other personalities do or an example; Saltzpyre is awesome, but the male Agitator (which sound a bit like Saltzpyre) goes way too far into campiness, if that makes sense?

Space Marine 2 was not entirely made up of memes, but it did contain some serious and emotional moments which Vermintide 2 also has and Vermintide 1 has the best dark environment storytelling (IMO), but Darktide lacks (inside the game not the blogs).

But this is all my opinion and I’m not saying that I am right (I probably ain’t).

Just sharing my thoughts :slight_smile:

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the voice actors are fine, its just bad writing, the guy who sounds like batman, when he says ‘‘i’m batman’’ is my favorite

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I feel this in my bones, Antilus beat me to it but the ‘I’m batman’ voice with a guy clearly just shoving his voice into a lower register absolutely sends me every time. It feels forced in literally every regard, and instead of getting someone with an actually gravely voice to do it, they just told a voice actor on hand to ‘be batman’ and now we just have ‘Lex Man’ in the game and it’s hilarious.

But yeah, I think the Fatalist (I’m pretty sure it’s him/that’s the guy I choose) is the best one of the bunch, as he at least puts umph into every line. Running around with break the line and hearing his ‘LET ME PASSS!’ and ‘SCATTER!’ actually feels like he’s trying to put the effort required to do that level of force into his thrust. The other’s, as others have said, just feel bored. They feel like they weren’t given anywhere near the appropriate vocal direction to get the lines across, and it shows in how stilted and unenthusiastic they are in basically everything they do.

Sure, I get they are ‘the police force’ and meant to be contrarian to the ‘literal bottom of the barrel rejects’ the rest of the cast are, and I don’t necessarily want them quipping like the literal dead end in mates who gave up on life a while ago and are just trying to make the most of what should be their last mission over and over and over again (this being the main reason why none of their voice lines bother me even with some of their ‘quippy’ nature, the loose cannon vet is one of my favorites as they feel like a marine ‘just trying to make light of a bad situation before something inevitably goes wrong and everyone dies’. The Psykers especially don’t bother me as they are literally living sacrifices that just so happened to not explode yet, so why shouldn’t they be unhinged and absolutely on the fringes of their mental capacity all the time?).

But I feel SOME form of variety could be injected into them to make them all at least have a difference to them. The fact all of their cheers are identical is like the most dull boring thing to me, at least witht he other classes even if you have a full team of them you’ll get a vast variety of call outs upon victory, For the emperaaaa! Better than breakfast! Fuorr ATomaa! GRUTAN GRUEAAT! or For my Beloved! I’m not Dead, Splended, For ATOMAAA! For ze emperor, I’m sure.. Meanwhile you do a cascade of cheers for Artites and you get ‘The lex is the lex!’ 4 times, or ‘For Atoma!’ or ‘For the Emperor!’ with no audible inflection or difference between any of them, and it’s like ‘cool, we are all cooky cuter characters with no distinction, might as well just be one voice line at this point’. It’s just dull to me, I would have liked even just different forms of justice like the Zealots. Fatalist Stays the same, one is ‘by the books’ strictly and completely, while one ‘really just enjoys enforcing the law’, with banter of the book keeper chastising the ‘over zealous’ to not become like that traitor over there, with the fatalist being like ‘I resemble that remark’ in their own respective ways. Instead it’s just ‘batman, batman but without the voice, batman but he’s a bit sader and more loud about it’ and it’s like ‘please, please personality, I know you’re not supposed to have those but like, please’.

This might become less apparent as others start to play other classes again, but it just feels extra bad atm because you go from 4 Ogryn teams for like 2 weeks straight and this never was an issue, to 4 arbite teams and I’m like All of you just shut up you’re not interesting/have nothing to say at allllll XD. I’d absolutely appreciate a re-visit with some more proper vocal direction given to the cast, along with actually different voice lines if at all possible while still keeping the theme xD.

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my favorite Batman line so far is ‘‘when we are down… we are down’’

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I really enjoy the fatalist, reminds me a lot of agitator zealot but more grounded in reality

otherwise the maul sounding like a 10 year old’s batman impression is hilarious and I’m fine with it.

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Idk I love the male Maul voice. He sounds like he’s straight out of DoW 1 with the cheesey, edgelord cop which is exactly what I want out of 40k.

As for the others, I found them to be mostly the same quality as the rest of the game.

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true, i also chose male maul right away. seems to be a popular pick.

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Maybe its my sound settings, but a lot of them sound quieter than I would expect. Male fatalist in particular sounds like it has half the volume of most other characters.

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Just made my first character. Dug the Fatalist, but he definitely seems quieter.

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