In a new behind-the-scenes video, Bethesda Softworks confirmed the main voice cast for Shinji Mikami’s upcoming new survival horror extravaganza, The Evil Within. Anson Mount, the star of television’s Hell on Wheels, voices the game’s main protagonist and playable character, Detective Sebastian Castellanos. Jennifer Carpenter, of Showtime’s Dexter, voices Sebastian’s partner on the force, Juli Kidman. Longtime veteran of animation, anime and video games, Yuri Lowenthal, voices Sebastian’s male partner, Joseph Oda. Finally, Academy Award-nominated actor, Jackie Earle Haley, voices the game’s main villain and antagonist, the shrouded and ghostly Ruvik.
This is certainly not the first time some big name actors more known for their live-action credits were chosen for the lead roles in a triple A game release over working voice actors. However, it is not exactly disappointing celebrity stunt casting either. For one thing, I was glad to finally put a face behind that eerie, sinister voice in Ruvik’s audio logs while I investigated his mansion during The Evil Within’s Electronic Entertainment Expo Demo. It did sound oddly gruff, considering Ruvik’s rather youthful image. The brief glimpses of Ruvik throughout the gameplay seem to depict him aging from about a teenager to a young adult. However, I could be off with his age.
Most of the voice-over dialogue I experienced for the gameplay demo was rather banal and indistinct, besides the Ruvik audio recordings. Some of the dialogue reminded me of the more cringe-worthy moments from the original Resident Evil Game: “It might be useful if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you.” At one point, Sebastian, in a chase for his life from a gruesome, hideous spider-lady creature, almost casually belts out, “What’s your deal?” It was such an oddly placed, jarring and weird bit of dialogue.
To be completely fair though, my interest in the game does not really involve the voice-over talent, dialogue or the story. Actually, I just really enjoyed playing The Evil Within demo and the atmosphere that Tango Gameworks created. The ambiance for the game is terrifying and nightmare-inducing. The gameplay is similar to Resident Evil 4, but with an even scarier scenario and atmosphere. I hope that playing the complete version of the game will give me a better, more comprehensive view of the voice-over talent and the game’s mind-bending premise. I am a fan of the main cast’s work, especially Lowenthal’s. I expect all the cast members to do an adequate job at worst, the awkward bits of dialogue notwithstanding. The Evil Within hits PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows PC on October 14.
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