Former Rockstar Games employee Obbe Vermeij recently came forward to explain why the development team originally set the protagonist Claude of “Grand Theft Auto 3” as a silent protagonist who does not speak throughout the game, and revealed the sound effects team during the development process. encountered technical limitations. In addition, Obbe Vermeij also talked about the growth of the “Grand Theft Auto” series from the launch of the third game to the present. Even “Grand Theft Auto 3” was regarded as a landmark open world work at the time.
Although every “Grand Theft Auto” series released in recent years has brought players unique protagonists, from the trio of Michael, Franklin and Trevor in “Grand Theft Auto 5” to “Grand Theft Auto 4” Nico, an Eastern European immigrant, and CJ from “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”. As for “Grand Theft Auto 3”, although other supporting characters in the game still have rich lines and performances, the protagonist Claude himself does not have any dialogue from beginning to end.
However, during the period when “Grand Theft Auto 3” was released, such a situation was actually not uncommon. After all, “Grand Theft Auto 3” was the first key work in the entire series to officially go to 3D and established the formula of the series and similar works. . In addition, compared to modern games, game protagonists with complete voice dialogue were actually quite rare during that period in 2001. For example, “Thriller” launched by Valve adopted a similar design. But given that modern gamers are so accustomed to games with full voice acting, many are curious as to why Cloud is so reticent.
One of the curious fans recently chose to directly ask about such a design on Twitter, and Obbe Vermeij, who served as the technical director of Rockstar Games North during the development of “Grand Theft Auto 3”, also took the initiative after seeing this post. In response, they stated that part of the reason was that they had to save costs at the time because the sound effects department was already very busy at the time. This response implies that the sound effects team encountered many constraints and obstacles during the development process, although he did not specify whether the cost reduction was due to development budget, technical issues, or other factors.
Judging from the Rockstar Games team’s current position in the gaming industry, fans may have difficulty imagining the difficulties and technical limitations they encountered when developing “Grand Theft Auto 3” in the early 2000s. The “Grand Theft Auto” series created by Rockstar Games has had a profound impact on later generations of open world games, and the two recently launched works “Grand Theft Auto 5” and “Red Dead Redemption 2” have also proved their influence in the open world. Their superb skills in handling various details, as well as their attention to dubbing and plot performances, of course, also mean that they have to pay extremely high budgets and costs. Even so, they were still able to obtain quite impressive profits in the end.
While Vermeij hinted that Cloud’s lack of speech was limited by external factors such as cost, the character’s silent nature also brought a lot of help to “Grand Theft Auto 3”. Although classic Rockstar Games characters such as Arthur Morgan and Trevor Philips do have unforgettable voice performances for players, silent protagonists like Claude still exist even in the modern game market. Such a setting It usually makes it easier for players to get into the game, just like the characters played by players in the online mode of “Grand Theft Auto 5” also use this design.
