Voices can tell you a lot about a
person. Sometimes people rush through their words, blending them into an incomprehensible
mess, leaving the speaker breathless. Other times people stress each syllable,
emphasizing the individual sounds in the words to stress a point. Voices can be
high pitched, nervous sounding, betraying a sense of unease. Other times, a
voice can be deep, effortlessly filling a room, commanding attention. Voices
are important, and when a character has such an identifiable voice, it is
difficult for the viewer to accept a change. In this case, I talk of Big Boss,
from Metal Gear Solid.
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| A worn looking Big Boss |
Back in 1998, with the power of
the original PlayStation, game technology was limited, and to get the full
motion capture of modern games, such as The Last of Us, was not even a factor
in game development. Characters were blocky, with full facial features limited
to CGI cut scenes. However, Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear, never chose to
add CGI cut scenes in Metal Gear, choosing to stick with in game engine cinematic,
not taking the gamer out of the experience. So how were the game creators to
provide some character to these blocky avatars? By depending upon the actors
providing the voices to flesh out the various personalities involved.
The poster child for the Metal
Gear franchise is Solid Snake, the better half of the two leads, with the other
being Naked Snake/Big Boss. David Hayter has provided the voice for both Snakes
since 1998 over 9 games, with the sole exception being in Guns of the Patriots
where an Old Solid Snake (David Hayter) has a conversation with Big Boss
(Richard Doyle). However, after 15 years of David Hayter, Hideo Kojima sees fit
to drop him in favor of 24 star Kiefer Sutherland. When I first heard this
rumor, I found it incredibly amusing. I really enjoyed 24, and a large part of
that was because of Kiefer, but I never expected this ‘news’ to become real. However,
come June of this year, it became official that Kojima had done the unwanted
and dropped David Hayter.
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| David Hayter |
My initial reaction was one of
disbelief. How could anyone other than David Hayter play Snake? But then the
trailers came out, with one or two lines from Kiefer Sutherland sneaked in.
It’s been six months since the announcement and still little can be heard of
Snake’s new voice leaving some to question how the VO for Snake is coming along
and if Kiefer is any good in the role. But why should this matter for anyone,
let alone me? It’s just a game.
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| Kiefer Sutherland |
Well, Metal Gear Solid changed
the way I play and view games. Up until then, games were just a fun pastime
that consisted of Sonic the Hedgehog and Spyro the Dragon, but there was nothing
meaningful in those games. It was essentially save the princess story line,
with the princess substituted for either animals, dragons or crystals. But
Metal Gear Solid changed everything for me. There were characters that had
voices, talking about intricate plot details that mostly went over my head,
forcing me to pay attention to the little scraps of information I could understand.
The gameplay was intricate, with weapons that felt real (at least real for the
time), boss battles were fun (Psycho Mantis anyone), and Solid Snake was so
cool. It wasn’t that Snake was beating down the nameless commandos that
littered the levels with ease, or that he took on a tank, a Cyborg Ninja and
Metal Gear. It was his gravelly voice that made him stand out. It was his voice
that gave his featureless face character.
David Hayter brought strength to
Snake. There was a sense of ease about the character. He may not have been in control
of every situation, but you got the impression that he was not to be trifled
with. And when someone had the upper hand on Snake, you knew that the solider
was planning some way of overcoming the current obstacle. In Metal Gear Solid,
Solid Snake is a solider annoyed by the industrial war complex, tired of being
dragged into battle to clean up other people’s messes. In MGS4, Solid Snake has
become an old man, tired of continuously fighting, but driven to leave a better
world for the next generation. The character had grown, his face had weathered,
and his voice betrayed the frailty within. Snake was a dying man; years of war
and smoking had done their damage. David Hayter changed his voice entirely to
make sure that there would be no doubt that this was Solid Snake, but a Solid
Snake at the end of a very long, and arduous journey.
Finally, I would be remiss if I
didn’t mention David Hayter’s excellent work in MGS3, arguably the best game in
the series. MGS3 follows the exploits of Big Boss, but before he had earned the
title of Big Boss. At the beginning of the game, Big Boss was cocky, knowing he
was a good solider, but foolishly believing he is better than most. His voice
has a sense of unearned calmness. He’s a man who believes to be in control, but
really has no hold over the situation, which falls apart around him very
quickly near the beginning of the game. From here, Boss is beaten, battered,
betrayed, shot, tortured, humiliated, eventually learning the truth behind his
mentor’s actions. By the end of the game, Boss sounds defeated. There is no
arrogance about him. He is in a state of immense thought, saving his few words
for matters of consequence. This follows through into the next game Peace
Walker, which has Boss trying to ascertain the truth of his mentor’s actions,
and to decide for himself if they were right. David Hayter did the character
and his journey proud, evolving the voice to suit the situation.
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| Ready for some new Metal Gear! |
So now we enter a new era. Kiefer
Sutherland takes over one of gaming’s most iconic roles from a man who built it
up. Let’s hope he knocks it out of the park. If it’s half as good as Jack
Bauer, then we are in store for a hell of a ride. And who’s to say that David
Hayter won’t return to voice Solid Snake one day in a future game? Until then,
I have the old Metal Gears. I’ll be able to replay through all the excellent
games in the series, and MGS2. I’ll be able to listen to forgotten dialogue,
and remember information long since trivialized to the far reaches of my brain.
I, like always, look forward to Metal Gear, and I can’t wait to see what’s in
store this March in this new era of Metal Gear.
