The Voice of Snake

GameOnDaily's Seif takes a look at Kiefer Sutherland's performance as Big Boss, and whether or not the break from tradition, and the absence of David Hayter, will negatively affect the game.

"I’m not exactly defending Sutherland. With all due respect to him, he’s coming into this with little or no background. Hayter knows the MGS Universe better than most. "

[Lord_Sloth]

I was neither against nor for it. I just knew I hated him as Raistlin in that awful attempt at Dragonlance.

He was neither bad nor great as Boss. Just different/passable.

[chinlu]

I miss David

[forcefullpower]

I never understood the need to change the voice. I liked David Hayter and think he had a great tone and smoothness to the speeches he did. I don't dislike the new voice so not sure why they needed to change it as he doesn't bring anything special to the role.

[PCGamingNoobs]

my guess is they wanted to change the voice off big boss to keifer as solid snake will probably feature in phantom pain and they need to decipher between the two.

i hope..

[Ratty]

I don't think Solid Snake will appear in it. And even if he did, he'd be 12 so I really don't think he'd have the David Hayter voice. What's possible is MGS6 in which the two would be featured.

The official explanation is Kojima wanted to use an actual actor's facial expressions as well as his voice and I guess he thought David Hayter wasn't up to the task for the facial expressions. And since they're using those facial animations for the Japanese version of the game as well I guess he wanted to make sure it was perfect.

IMO not much of a big deal. I like Hayter but if I end up not liking Sutherland's voice I'll just import the Japanese version.

[Edvin1984]

I was open minded for giving this guy a try, but to me his performance just felt flat. It may have to do with my being more of a fan of the work David has done, but I could not get into GZ and never bother playing past the first 20 minutes of intro and little bit of game play. I will give it another shot later on, but it just did not sit well with me.

[ThatEnglishDude]

I, like others, question the need to remove David Harter (and feel there's still something we're missing here) but the fact remains it's way too premature to write off Sutherland's performance as we only heard him say one or two lines. The guy is an accomplished actor and performer, so I have no doubt his work in MGS5 will be equally as solid (Excuse the pun)

[Razorus]

That's what I was trying to say in the article. Oh, I wrote it btw. I think Sutherland is great, but why fix what ain't broke, and if you're doing that, why use the older actors and just change Boss? It remains to be seen if Hayter will play a role. I don't think they'll go as far as saying "SURPRISE! HAYTER IS STILL BIG BOSS!" because that would be a colossal waste of time. But they can't just write him off completely.

[Einhert]

He is pretty bad from what I played in ground zeroes and heard so far in gameplay/trailers.

Just seems incredibly flat etc

Even the guy at the end of MGSIV who did Big Boss would have been a far better choice.

And lets be honest, they didn't get kiefer for his talents, they got him for his name and brand.

[ThatEnglishDude]

I still say all these radical changes in the gameplay, actors and such are to instill a sense of hate in the gamers/audience. A theme which lies central in MGS5. Seems weird, but let's face it, we're dealing with Kojima here. We all know deep down that the game will be phenomenal.

[Stoppokingme]

I wouldn't write Kiefer of yet, he has had some solid appearances in other works and was great in the Simpsons.

But the Simpsons isn't MGS, and only time will tell if he pulls it off or not.

[Joe913]

I just played through MGS 3, MGS portable ops, MGS peace walker, and am now on MGS V and I think they did the right thing Hayter's voice was getting annoying to me it reminded me of Christian Bales forced batman voice Sutherland's voice could be just a tad bit deeper but it is more realistic than Hayter's voice just sound like he smokes 10 packs of cigarettes a day lol.

[XenoBoone382]

That's EXACTLY what I said. Hayter started to get too Christian Bale (Begins/Dark Knight) to where the voice felt forced with the rough raspiness. I love that Sutherland is giving it a fresh go!

[2pacalypsenow]

"Hayter's voice just sound like he smokes 10 packs of cigarettes a day lol."

You do konw that Snake and Big boss Smoke cigarettes and cigars right??

And his voice changed cuz in MGS 3 , PW he plays a much older Big Boss

The voice acting in GZ was horrible , no emotion

[XenoBoone382]

I know a gazillion people that smoke cigars & cigarettes that don't have that much rasp. That's not my point though, it's the change over time. And I love hayter but I'm also all for change.

[2pacalypsenow]

He is not the voice of snake .. David hayter is

[XenoBoone382]

That's like saying Christian Bale isn't batman/Bruce Wayne, Michael Keaton is...

[blackbirdi]

like it or not i didn't understand a word when he talks in ground zero david hayter was the best

[TheFallen1327]

Who know metal gear ,might go through all the years not just one specific year, like who can start a new army in a year