Comparison of SC2 voice over to SC1 voice over

[Hamshank]

SC1 (and WC3) is more clever and MUCH MUCH better acted.
Sc2 they try way to hard to be clever when they're not and there are too many lines.

These are probably just placeholders (lets hope)

[Hamshank]

Their voice not what they say (which usually sucks):
Good:zealot, immortal, SCV, marine, marauder, protoss advisor(rocks)

Bad, most horrible: DT, HT, Mothership, siege tank, hellion, thor, battlecruiser, ghost, all zerg

[ManjiSanji]

I'd say it's the Protoss that need the most work. The Terrans are pretty good, or good enough. The Zerg...well, what's good for them is mostly subjective, but a lot of the examples are alright. I think the difference is they lack a lot of quickly-identifiable sounds. In SC1, you know you've selected an Overlord, or a Zergling, or a Hydralisk (the SC1 Hydralisk definitely sounds a lot better. It has a really creepy, sinister sound to it, that the SC2 version lacks)

But the Protoss just sound phoned in. The voices and effects just are not impressive, and often make one cringe at how lame and uninspired they are. There are a few that are decent and could stay as they are (I didn't mind the Mothership, or the new Stalker, or the Carrier), but the rest would make me want to mute them while playing.

[sandwich_bird]

Terran voices are fine except the BC. For the Protoss I'd say that they're acceptable. They need to make the HT voice sound more like SC1 though. Zerg are plain horrible.

[n00bonicPlague]

"Do you know what happens to a frog when it gets hit by lightning?"

That's a Storm quote from the first X-MEN movie.

EDIT:
I'd say that all of the Protoss voices sound too natural. I can far too easily isolate the human voice used to create each of them. They need more work done on them, badly. The Zealot needs more zealotry and passion in its voice. The Immortal needs to sound monotone and robotic. The Dark Templar needs a voice that sounds like a plain, passionless void of nothingness. The Stalker needs the same treatments given to the Immortal and the Dark Templar. The High Templar needs to sound more light and ethereal. The Mothership needs a more multitudesque sound, as if really were the collective voice of Aiur. The Archon just sucks completely. The only ones I think I could get used to are the Void Ray's and Carrier's voices.

For the Zerg, I think they could all use some work. The biggest thing is to make them distinct from one another. Aside from the Ghost, Siege Tank, and Battlecruiser (they need some work, but not much), the Terran voices are ready to go. My personal favorite is the Raven.

"wHo sAiD AnYtHiNg aBoUt cAke?"


.

[phazonjunkie]

Some voices are better in SC1; in all honesty though, most people are complaining out of nostalgia. SC1 has a clear case of what I call "90s game syndrome," in which the sounds are very clear and vibrant, but the quality itself has that cheapy, arcade-like feel. SC2 sounds different, sure, and some of the lines are quite awful, but the voice acting itself isn't as big a step down as many people are claiming. On the whole, the SC2 sounds are more immersive and realistic.

This.

People really should stop looking at various aspects of the game through rose tinted nostalgia glasses and start considering things on their own merits.

[n00bonicPlague]

True, nostalgia is part of the problem, but — to be perfectly honest — if I had never even heard of SC and I had just joined in on the discussions, I would be expecting more from the voices. I'm gonna go ahead and embed all of the voices that I can find in this post and type out my critiques. Just click the Show button and they will automatically play.

ZEALOT

Hidden Content:

What exactly is zealous about his voice? He sounds as if a zergling accidentally stepped on his toe. That's not zealous — that's just slightly pissed off. He needs to sound like his home planet got raped by a purely evil alien species and that he has sworn to go fucking hellbent, batshit crazy on any motherfucking zerg that crosses his path. THAT is what a zealot should sound like.

HIGH TEMPLAR

Hidden Content:

Now this one isn't actually all that bad. He's got the haughty voice that one would expect to hear from a follower of the Khala who probably still shuns the ways of the Dark Templar. The problem is that he doesn't have an ethereal enough voice to sound like he's actually that powerful. Yeah, he's got the overall attitude, but his voice doesn't communicate his true strength. Give him some more inverse re-verb (pre-verb?) and a bit more echo and that should take care of it.

DARK TEMPLAR

Hidden Content:

Sure, his quotations may communicate his alignment with the Void, but his voice does not. He lacks a "lacking" in his voice. The Dark Templar were cast out from their homeworld and utilize a lightless energy. They need to sound less badass and more......depressed, in a way. Their voice needs to communicate an attitude of depression with a feeling of power.

IMMORTAL

Hidden Content:

It's a fair start, and the quotes are pretty funny, but it doesn't sound cold and robotic enough. Make the voice more monotone and add some more effects to make the voice sound more synthesized and less natural.

STALKER

Hidden Content:

Basically combine my critiques on the Dark Templar and the Immortal and you'll get what I have to say about this one. Make it more voidesque and more robotic and you'll be good to go.

ARCHON

Hidden Content:

This one is the absolute worst. It's like they tried way too hard and in the wrong direction. I suggest starting from scratch and keeping a few things in mind. It needs power: a calm yet sublime power. The Archon knows it's powerful, so there is no need to be zealous, haughty, dark, or anything representing emotional disturbance. The Archon has ascended above the need for emotion. It is the embodiment of raw, soulless power. It's voice should communicate that.

PHOENIX

Hidden Content:

This one is pretty good. Just make it sound less human and a bit more passionate.

VOID RAY

Hidden Content:

This one is pretty good as well. Could use some work, but it's pretty good on its own.

CARRIER

Hidden Content:

Probably one of the best ones. About the only thing you could do is add a few more effects, but I doubt it's needed.

MOTHERSHIP

Hidden Content:

Pretty good, just needs more of a "multitude" sound. I mean, if it's gonna be the voice of Aiur, it needs to sound like the entire population of Protoss.

Overall, all of the Protoss voices need to sound less human and more like an alien species. It's too easy to hear the actual voice recording done by the actors. All of them need to sound more metaphysical and less natural.

Concerning the Zerg, they all need to be reworked in order to make each unit sound unique enough so as to be easily identified by the sounds they make. The Terrans are very good, but the Ghost, Siege Tank, and Battlecruiser could still use some polishing — especially the Ghost. He needs to be given a more Duke Nukem style voice, put through some radio crackling filters or something.

And like I said, my personal favorite out of all the voices:

Hidden Content:

[mr. peasant]

ZEALOT

Hidden Content:

What exactly is zealous about his voice? He sounds as if a zergling accidentally stepped on his toe. That's not zealous — that's just slightly pissed off. He needs to sound like his home planet got raped by a purely evil alien species and that he has sworn to go fucking hellbent, batshit crazy on any motherfucking zerg that crosses his path. THAT is what a zealot should sound like.

Zealotry is fanatism to a cause, not a state of anger. With quotes along the lines of victory being all that matters and that all their enemies must be eradicated, that sounds very much like extreme devotion to me. Moreover, what kind of sound are you looking for? Would be useful if you could provide an example of what someone whose 'home planet got raped by a purely evil alien species' and has 'sworn to go fucking hellbent, batshit crazy on any motherfucking zerg that crosses his path' would actually sound like. If it's just shouting all the time, I think that sounds silly and would quickly get annoying.

DARK TEMPLAR

Hidden Content:

Sure, his quotations may communicate his alignment with the Void, but his voice does not. He lacks a "lacking" in his voice. The Dark Templar were cast out from their homeworld and utilize a lightless energy. They need to sound less badass and more......depressed, in a way. Their voice needs to communicate an attitude of depression with a feeling of power.

I'll say this once. Dark Templar are not EMO!!!

STALKER

Hidden Content:

Basically combine my critiques on the Dark Templar and the Immortal and you'll get what I have to say about this one. Make it more voidesque and more robotic and you'll be good to go.

Same as above. Personally, I think the 'gravel voice' works.

ARCHON

Hidden Content:

This one is the absolute worst. It's like they tried way too hard and in the wrong direction. I suggest starting from scratch and keeping a few things in mind. It needs power: a calm yet sublime power. The Archon knows it's powerful, so there is no need to be zealous, haughty, dark, or anything representing emotional disturbance. The Archon has ascended above the need for emotion. It is the embodiment of raw, soulless power. It's voice should communicate that.

I think it certainly sounds very much similar to the original Archon in SC1 except with better sound quality.

Ultimately, I think what needs the most work on for the Protoss is actually the post-recording filters being used. The quality of voice acting for them is pretty decent for what it is. Remember, these aren't exactly major characters in an RPG.

Concerning the Zerg, they all need to be reworked in order to make each unit sound unique enough so as to be easily identified by the sounds they make.

I dunno about that. It could just very well be that as they are new, we aren't familiar enough with them to pick up the differences.

[Crazy_Jonny]

Voice Opinions (in the least bias way possible):

Protoss
I am mostly pleased with the voices, although there are some that just sound off.

I think the zealot will be redone. If you listen to its "annoyed" recordings, they actually sounds better than the regular lines. They were probably recorded later, and such. But I need to ask, what the heck is he saying when he asks "DO NOT MAKE ME COUNT TO ----!"?

The Dark Templar is an easy voice to do, and they somehow screw it up. The acting needs to sound more confident, and subtle. Their COULD be taking a new direction with this voice, OR its a placeholder. Same with the high templar, it sounds different, but not necessarily bad. I could barely make out what the old one said.

There are also some voices that sound like they need better filters like the Archon and Carrier, but the actual voices are spot on. The observer and Sentry also need to sound less irritating.

PS: The probe is the one unit that I think was copied perfectly from SC1.

Terrans

The Terrans sound mostly done, and I don't think they'll change much.
A few exceptions are the Hellion, Battlecruiser, and Ghost (they don't sound terrible, but not nearly as badass as before). Metzen needs to eat whatever he did the day he did his lines 12 years ago.

Zerg

This race got the short end of the stick as far as voices. I'm willing to bet a lot of them will be reworked, but I am a little worried seeing how almost the whole race sounds... weak (with the exception of maybe the queen and mutalisk, and the new units), they're voices lack the potency and energy of the old. But their first priority should be changing the advisor's voice.


And thats it, and I love the music in SC2 so its really not the nostalgia talking.

[Gradius]

I don't believe that these are the real sounds. The ones on SC2.com are almost certainly better. I'm telling you guys it sounds like they ran a shit filter over the sounds just for the beta. But if these are real, then I'm better off making my own sounds i.e.

Dark Templar
Arbiter
High Templar 1
High Templar 2
Artanis