While spacefaring adventure Starfield features a silent main character, actor Elias Toufexis has revealed he spent “months” voicing the game’s protagonist before being moved to another role.
Toufexis, best known for voicing Adam Jensen in the Deus Ex series, took to Twitter yesterday (November 8) to confirm he was originally hired to be the players’ voice in Starfield, along with BAFTA-winning voice actor and The Owl House star Cissy Jones.
“We worked for months,” he shared (via Gamesradar), although developer Bethesda Softworks ultimately decided to scrap the main character’s voice-acted lines.
However, it wasn’t all bad news. Toufexis and Jones were instead given two different leading roles as members of Constellation – Toufexis as spacefaring cowboy Sam Coe, and Jones as ex-spy Andreja. Both characters can be recruited as companions (and even married) by the player, giving them major parts to play in Starfield.
“Games never do this,” said Toufexis. “Once you’re out you’re out. Good on Bethesda.”
Also the player efforts are still mine…so when you’re jumping around with Sam, both are making the same noises.
— ᴇʟɪᴀꜱ ᴛᴏᴜꜰᴇxɪꜱ 🖖 (@EliasToufexis) November 8, 2023
“I will always work with Bethesda because of this,” he added. “Top tier respect.”
Though Bethesda’s role-playing games traditionally star silent protagonists, fans were unsure if the same would be true of Starfield, as the studio’s last game – Fallout 4 – was voiced.
As for Starfield, the game launched to positive reviews on September 6. We awarded the game four stars in our own review, though took issue with its hands-off approach to exploration.
“At times Starfield is ambitious to a fault,” we wrote. “It’s capable of turning an entire universe into a thrilling playground, but falls short of truly immersing you in that fantasy. Starfield is a must-play game for sci-fi fans, but its shortcomings prevent it from becoming a complete triumph.”
This week, Bethesda is rolling out a beta patch that brings Nvidia DLSS support to Starfield, along with “other optimisations and improvements”.
In other gaming news, Grand Theft Auto 6 will finally get its first trailer next month.