Voiced by Fantastic Four villain Galactus, Ralph Ineson, who also voices Cid in Final Fantasy 16 – took a trip down memory lane so we could take a look behind the scenes of his role in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.
Seeing and hearing movie stars and TV regulars in video games is much more common than it used to be. Nowadays we even have actors like Abubakar Salim – from Assassin's Creed Origins – creating your own games. But not all acting jobs within the industry are created equal, says Ineson, who played Black Flag villain Charles Vane, in a conversation with Edge.
“Well, that was a straight acting job,” Ineson says of his time playing infamous pirate Charles Vane in Black Flag. “Once a month, for about four months, I went to Montreal with Mark Bonnar and a couple of other British actors and spent a week in their motion capture studio.”
Andy Serkis did full motion capture and voiceover for protagonist Monkey in Enslaved: Odyssey to the Westbut stars most of the time simply lend their voices to a character, like Patrick Stewart in ForgotLiam Neeson in consequences 3and Shohreh Aghdashloo in mass effect 2.
Ineson, also known for starring in The Witch and the British version of The Office, prefers motion capture over independent voice acting. “[Motion capture] “It's brilliant, a completely different acting experience.” He says: “I wish more video game companies used mocap, because I think the performances in Black Flag are brilliant.”
Unfortunately, both Ineson and her son believe that the quality of the series has declined in recent entries. “When you compare it to some of the later Assassin's Creeds, there may be a little bit of facial capture, but they don't have the physical stuff, and I think you can tell,” Ineson explains. “My son, who is more expert than me, said, 'Dad, the one you made was by far the best. It's been downhill from there!'”
I myself am a fan of the newest offering, Mirage, especially Aghdashloo's performance as master assassin Roshan, but my favorites are definitely Assassin's Creed 2 and Black Flag, maybe because of how much I love pirates. You can consult our official ranking of The best Assassin's Creed games and see which place your favorite got.
The next entry, Assassin's Creed Shadows, has been delayedand its new release will take place on February 14, 2025 so that the developer can polish it a little more.
In the meantime, take a look at some of the best adventure games you can play right now.