Famous for the series “Catch Kaidash”, Hryhoriy Baklanov voiced many main and secondary characters in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
The actor discussed his work on the game in an interview with “Detector Media”. The auditions turned out to be quite challenging. Baklanov recorded lines for several test characters under limited conditions — during blackouts, at night, under a blanket to prevent sound dispersion. Sending recordings, as usual, he did not ask about the result. He remembered only a few months later and already thought he wasn’t fit for the game — until he suddenly got an invitation.
“Initially, I recorded ‘cleanly,’ as I did in movies. Then I thought: since these are computer game characters, I could record them a bit cartoonishly, changing my voice in various ways. And some characters turned out to be more exaggerated. Since there were many, it was fun to play with the voice,” said Hryhoriy Baklanov.
Many players noticed a mismatch between the lip movements of some characters with the Ukrainian dubbing. According to the actor, some lines were supposed to match the characters’ lip movements, while in other cases, the characters’ movements were “drawn” to match the recorded lines. There were also background dialogues. Baklanov also confirmed the version about English lip-syncing in some instances:
“As far as I understand, some game characters were recorded from English voice actors. And I voiced some characters after the English version. I had to match the English lip-sync… there was already some intonation, a way of speaking created. Often, their manner was peculiar. For example, a foreign thug differs from a typical Ukrainian one. I had to adjust the words just like similar guys do in our backyards. There were many such characters in the game.”
Initially, Hryhoriy Baklanov was asked to voice only a few characters. It required only “a couple of days” and several sessions in the studio — then everyone thought that was supposedly it. Later, GSC asked the actor to record more NPCs, and eventually, it became “whole sets of characters.” In particular, Baklanov voiced “the Guard” and bandits.
“Additionally, I voiced extras. Various shouts, jokes… We said goodbye about five times, shook hands. And then I came back again to record something else. … I always went to voice the game happy. Knowing that I was just going to have a great time. The most wonderful thing about this job was discovering some new abilities of mine with each recording.”
Baklanov also talked about some specifics of voicing games. The actor needs to voice characters who are simultaneously doing something so that the lines look natural in the scene. This process is very different from reading audiobooks, etc.
“When I first started doing voiceovers, I paid attention mainly to the characters’ natures, thinking about intonations. But I didn’t think about what my character was doing. How his line affects the main hero of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. And this required additional takes. So, as things went on, I understood that the action and feeling of atmosphere, which should be in a certain location, were the most important.”
The most enjoyable character for Baklanov to voice was Horse. Not least because he was one of the first for the actor, but also because of some of his features:
“Horse speaks in a rather high, naive tone. Always in his own world. And always thinking about his affairs, responds to Scythian.”
There were other specific characters whose performance required acting skills. Not all of them were normal people:
“Next came the zombies, irradiated by psi-rays. Under the effect of these rays, their voices break. So I had to rasp to voice them properly. I stood by the microphone and growled strenuously. I didn’t even initially realize how much my face contorted when recording. This will be clearly visible in the backstage videos of the dubbing. At certain moments, after several hours of recording zombie sounds, I began to imitate them with body movements, recalling all the movies and series I had seen on this theme.”
Battle scenes were challenging, requiring shouting and making other sounds:
“It was tough to voice battle scenes. When you just had to growl. After about the third or fourth hour of such work, I felt my voice starting to give out. I drank some teas, because plain water didn’t help. Constantly yelling, ‘I’ll tear you apart, bitch!’ was a bit straining on the vocal cords.”
Besides Horse, among the specific characters voiced by him in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Hryhoriy Baklanov recalled Ivan Kurgan, soldier Kots, Yula, Professor Khodovsky, Zahar Light, Zhmenya, Fishka, and the bandit Monya. For beginners in dubbing, the actor advised to synchronously repeat what they see on the screen. Watching streams of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, he himself repeats the lines of some other actors and admires their performance.
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