The latest trailer for Middle-earth: Shadow of War offers a look behind the scenes of video game voice acting work and introduces a new orc character, The Agonizer. The wannabe comedian and orc chieftain is voiced by Kumail Nanjiani.
Voice acting and facial animations can, but usually won't make or break your game. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor had some stunningly campy dialogue. It isn't entirely clear whether this failure was to be attributed to the writing or the delivery of those oh so epic and dramatic lines, but for some reason it didn't quite work out for the otherwise solid title.
Monolith
WB and Monolith Productions seem to be aware of this shortcoming. The latest trailer for Shadow of War consists of a short behind the scenes look at the voice acting and facial capturing work done for the game.
Kumail Nanjiani, a stand-up comedian who also did some voice acting work on Mass Effect: Andromeda, will be lending his expertise to bring The Agonizer to life - an orc chieftain with a sense for the comedic, but not too much sense mind you.
The for the success of Shadow of War will most likely be its upscaled Nemesis system, but having a strong voice cast with well written dialogue can't hurt.
Monolith
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is scheduled to release 10 October 2017 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
