During Summer Game Fest, Techland released a 30-minute gameplay walkthrough for Dying Light: The Beast, its zombie RPG. At around the 29-minute mark, protagonist Kyle Crane radios a mysterious character called Olivia, informing her of his successful mission to kill one of the antagonist's monstrosities. According to Samantha Beart, the actor behind Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3, Olivia's voice is their own, yet Beart tells PCGamesN they were never actually cast.
During an interview (more on that next week), Beart tells me they like to assume a chameleon-like quality in their roles, popping up where they're least expected. I ask about their involvement in Dying Light: The Beast, given their apparent appearance at the tail end of the gameplay demo. They laugh, saying "that's an interesting one. I have no idea what's going on!"
Beart claims they "got a call saying 'can we use you in the trailer,' and I was like 'am I in the game then?' and they were like 'you're in the trailer.' So I'm in it for the last minute [of the trailer], but there's another actor for the rest of the game."
"This is the industry. If you don't test well, or, I don't know why, I'm not going to speculate, they can replace you, and that's fine. I just have no sight on it or what's going on. I'm not in the game, I've been told, but they put me in the gameplay trailer. They've said 'we'll credit you,' and now it's just got more complicated."
Beart believes their voice was also used in a recent preview build seen by press at Summer Game Fest. "Maybe they just didn't like me," they laugh. "Some companies are more open about their processes than others. But yeah, it's just an odd one. Nice footnote for the CV!"
PCGamesN has ed Techland and will update this piece if we receive a response.
In the meantime, with the best zombie games to get yourself in the mood?
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