Video games have been telling stories since the very beginning of the medium, even if those stories were just about two competitors playing a form of digital tennis. Nowadays, the medium often draws comparisons to cinema with the way it can use visuals and audio to tell stories alongside the added element of gameplay.
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More than ever before, there are video games that have Hollywood stars stepping in to contribute voice acting or even do full-on motion-capture performances to bring these engrossing characters to life. Big studios and indies alike are leaning into the comparisons and recruiting some SAG-caliber talent.
30 Crackdown 3
Starring Terry Crews
Crackdown 3
- Released
- February 15, 2019
- Developer(s)
- Sumo Digital
- Publisher(s)
- Microsoft Studios
Terry Crews is known for his comedy, whether that be in shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Everybody Hates Chris, films like Idiocracy, The Expendables, and White Chicks, or when he’s hosting America’s Got Talent. But he’s also a video game lover who starred in Crackdown 3, which he describes as a “Terry Crews simulator.” If you’re a Terry Crews fan, this is the equivalent of the 50 Cent video games.
Here, Terry is the suped-up agent Jaxon with advanced weapons and a jetpack, whose main objective is to fight criminal organizations that are destabilizing New Providence. The game has a unique art style and feels reminiscent of Saints Row and Agents of Mayhem in terms of its third-person gameplay.
29 Twelve Minutes
Starring James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, And Willem Dafoe
Twelve Minutes is a mystery game that features a main trio of actors playing characters caught in a time loop. They are James McAvoy — X-Men prequels, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split and Glass, It Chapter 2, and His Dark Materials; Daisy Ridley — Star Wars sequels, Chaos Walking, and The Marsh King’s Daughter; and the Oscar-nominated Willem Dafoe — Poor Things, The Lighthouse, Inside, and Spider-Man.
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This mystery plays out in point-and-click top-down gameplay, where the central setting is the apartment. McAvoy voices the husband who comes home to the news of his wife, Daisy Ridley, being pregnant, only to have their celebratory romantic evening cut short by a homicidal detective, Willem Dafoe, who accuses his wife of murder and restarts the loop.
28 The Callisto Protocol
Starring Josh Duhamel, Karen Fukuhara, Sam Witwer, And Louise Barnes
The Callisto Protocol
- Released
- December 2, 2022
- Developer(s)
- Striking Distance Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Krafton
Though not quite the successor to Dead Space many were hoping for, The Callisto Protocol still offers a brutal and gory sci-fi horror narrative about terrible experiments being done on prisoners on Jupiter’s moon, with The Final Transmission DLC giving you the complete story. It’s one best played on easy mode and has many talented actors in the main cast.
The protagonist, Jacob Lee, is voiced and modeled after actor Josh Duhamel, who started with TV’s Las Vegas and the Transformers films and has since done various romantic comedies and shows like 11.22.63 and Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and Biggie. Karen Fukuhara plays companion Dani Nakamura and is most famous for The Boys, Bullet Train, and 2016’s Suicide Squad.
One of the main antagonists, Leon Ferris, is voiced by none other than Sam Witwer, most well-known for Syfy’s Being Human, The Mist, Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, and CW’s Supergirl. And finally, Louise Barnes voices Dr. Mahler, who’s best known for playing Miranda Barlow in the pirate series Black Sails from Starz.
27 Alone In The Dark
Starring Jodie Comer And David Harbour
Alone in the Dark
- Released
- October 25, 2023
Alone in the Dark is a Lovecraftian Southern Gothic horror game makeover of the original 1992 game, which invites you back to Derceto Manor, now with writing and direction from Mikael Hedberg of the Amnesia series and Soma and Jodie Comer and David Harbour as the iconic protagonists Emily Hartwood and P.I. Edward Carnby (both playable like in the original).
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Jodie Comer is best known for her roles in Killing Eve, The Last Duel, The White Princess, and the video game NPC movie Free Guy. David Harbour is already acquainted with an investigator role from being Sheriff Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, but he’s also Red Guardian in the MCU, Santa in Violent Night, Jack Salter in Gran Turismo, and Hellboy in the 2019 remake.
26 Rage
Starring John Goodman
Since the ’80s, John Goodman has acted in dozens of films and series. If you watch lots of TV and movies, chances are you’ve seen something with him in it. His highlights include Arachnophobia, Monsters Inc., The Big Lebowski, Atomic Blonde, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. He has also done quite a bit of acting for video games.
In Rage, he voiced Dan Hagar, the first character the protagonist meets during a chaotic rescue in the intro. Hagar specifically bears a strong resemblance to Goodman’s short-fuse character in The Big Lebowski. And this makes sense because Rage puts you in a futuristic apocalyptic desert wasteland similar to the Mad Max series.
25 Broken Age
Starring Elijah Wood, Jack Black, And Wil Wheaton
Elijah Wood is most famous for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings films, though he also starred in a range of movies and shows like Maniac, Yellow Jackets, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the FX comedy Wilfred. Actor and comedian Jack Black has countless memorable roles from School of Rock, Jumanji, Kung Fu Panda, and Bowser in Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros Movie.
These two are also joined by a third iconic actor, Wil Wheaton, who plays the lumberjack character Curtis. Wil is perhaps most famous for being Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Wesley Crusher and Stand by Me’s Gordie. Wil also guest starred as a fictional version of himself on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
All three have lent their vocal performance to Broken Age, a point-and-click indie game from Psychonauts developer Double Fine, with Wood voicing one of the protagonists, Shay, and Jack being a ruler in the clouds. Broken Age blends science-fiction and fantasy in exploring the interchangeable lives of two teens from opposite backgrounds with phenomenal art and classic puzzle mechanics.
24 Quantum Break
Starring Lance Reddick, Aidan Gillen, Dominic Monaghan, Shawn Ashmore, And Courtney Hope
Remedy’s follow-up to Alan Wake was an even more mind-bending shooter where you can manipulate time called Quantum Break. This story enlisted some heavy hitters from TV and films, including the late Lance Reddick from John Wick and Amazon’s Bosch, Aidan Gillen from Game of Thrones, Maze Runner, and Peaky Blinders, Dominic Monaghan from The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lost, Shawn Ashmore from The Rookie, X-Men, and The Following, and soap opera television star Courtney Hope.
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An interesting aspect of this game is its hybrid episodic storytelling with FMV clips of the actors in live-action that’s split between the gameplay. The story follows Shawn Ashmore’s Jack Joyce, who acquired the ability to freeze time after an experiment went awry. The gameplay consists of using these abilities to defeat enemies in combination with shooting.
23 The Dark Pictures Anthology
Starring Shawn Ashmore, Will Poulter, Ashley Tisdale, And Jessie Buckley
The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me
- Released
- November 18, 2022
The Dark Pictures Anthology is a variety of horror anthology games done in Supermassive’s signature branching narrative choice-based style, with Man of Medan set in a WW2-era ghost ship, Little Hope a mix of Silent Hill and the witchcraft trials, Houses of Ashes unleashing ancient monsters during the Iraq War period, and The Devil in Me season ender taking you inside a replica of H.H. Holmes’ Murder Castle.
Each game features a noteworthy Hollywood star as a main character, and those include Shawn Ashmore — The Boys, Aftermath, The Ruins, Mother’s Day, and Frozen; Will Poulter — We’re the Millers, The Maze Runner series, Midsommar, Dopesick, and Guardians Vol. 3; Ashley Tisdale — High School Musical series, CW’s Hellcats, and Phineas and Ferb; and Oscar-nominated actress Jessie Buckley — I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Men, Fargo Season 4, Chernobyl, and Women Talking.
22 Until Dawn
Starring Rami Malek, Peter Stormare, And Hayden Panettiere
Rami Malek is not just an actor beloved by fans. He also rightfully earned Oscar and Emmy accolades as a critical darling for his performances in Mr. Robot and Bohemian Rhapsody. But before he landed Oppenheimer and the iconic villain in No Time To Die, he starred as Joshua in the interactive horror game Until Dawn from Supermassive.
Joining him also are Peter Stormare from Prison Break, American Gods, and Constantine, as well as Heroes and Scream series actress Hayden Panettiere.
Released exclusively on the PS4, the game centers on a group of teenagers who choose to spend a weekend in an isolated cabin on a mountain. The teenagers soon find themselves under attack, and they have to survive until dawn. This might sound stale in a different medium, but as a video game, Until Dawn offers numerous different outcomes and gameplay experiences.
21 The Quarry
Starring David Arquette, Lin Shaye, Lance Henriksen, Ariel Winter, Justice Smith, And More
Supermassive managed to top all their previous horror titles with a complete all-star cast for The Quarry. The big names in this one include horror veterans David Arquette of the Scream films, Lin Shaye of the Insidious series, and Lance Henriksen of Aliens, Near Dark, and Pumpkinhead. Then you have Ariel Winter, Justice Smith, Brenda Song, Halston Sage, Skylar Gisando, Grace Zabriskie, Ted Raimi, and Ethan Suplee.
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The Quarry follows a group of camp counselors during their final day of summer camp, where things take a turn come nightfall. The land is owned by the wicked Hackett family, who are harboring supernatural secrets that may be the source of all the horror that befalls the counselors. As with Until Dawn, you must survive through interactive decisions that can affect the ending.
20 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Starring Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, William Fichtner, Danny Trejo, And More
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
- Released
- October 29, 2002
Late Hollywood legends Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds need no introduction. Ray Liotta has starred in many mobster films, most notably Goodfellas, Killing Them Softly, and HBO’s The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos. Burt’s history goes back to the 1960s, and he’s most famous for Boogie Nights, Smokey and the Bandit, and Deliverance with Jon Voight.
Ray brings his aptitude for Mob roles to voice Tommy Vercetti, GTA: Vice City’s protagonist, who comes from a crime family and often carries out missions for Burt Reynolds’ character Avery Carrington, a real estate tycoon meddling in crime for his business dealings. Vice City takes place in a Miami-inspired locale in the ’80s, where cocaine was a big factor in organized crime.
Some of the other famous names among the cast include Machete actor Danny Trejo as Umberto Robina, Prison Break and Mom star William Fichtner as Ken Rosenberg, late icon Tom Sizemore as Sonny Forelli, famous villain actor Dennis Hopper as Steve Scott, Wednesday’s Luis Guzmán as Ricardo Diaz, and Profiler star Robert Davi as Col Juan Cortez.
Hollywood veterans Gary Busey and Lee Majors voice Phil Cassidy and Mitch Baker (respectively), Miami Vice TV star Philip Michael Thomas is character Lance Vance, and actress Fairuza Balk from The Craft, Return to Oz, The Waterboy, and American History X is Mercedes Cortez.
19 Beyond: Two Souls
Starring Elliot Page, Willem Dafoe, Eric Winter, And Kadeem Hardison
Elliot Page rose to fame after starring in X-Men: The Last Stand and the award-winning films Juno and Inception. Since then, he has stolen the show in several TV shows, from Tales of the City to The Umbrella Academy. Willem Dafoe starred in Beyond: Two Souls before Twelve Minutes, bringing his Norman Osborn chops into the role of the villainous government scientist Nathan Dawkins.
Supporting cast members in Beyond: Two Souls include The Rookie, Witches of East End, and Days of Our Lives star Eric Winter as Ryan Clayton, and A Different World, K.C. Undercover, and Moonhaven actor Kadeem Hardison as Cole Freeman.
Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive supernatural thriller from Quantic Dream and a follow-up to the 2010 hit Heavy Rain. Elliot Page plays and voices Jodie Holmes, a young teen connected to a spirit entity named Aiden with telepathic abilities. Dafoe’s Nathan Dawkins operates under the fictional Department of Paranormal Activities, studying Jodie for sinister agendas of his own.
18 Dead By Daylight
Starring Nicolas Cage
Actor Nicolas Cage is the jack of all trades in Hollywood. His talents and passion for characters are everywhere, and now Dead by Daylight included. It’s uncharted multiplayer asymmetrical horror territory for Cage, who is playing himself as a new survivor with tons of fun and excellent expletive Nick Cagey dialogue, as you’d expect. You can really go off on the iconic selection of killers with shouts of “I’m Nick f—–g Cage!”
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Ever since Fast Times at Ridgemont High, he’s delivered some of cinema’s most unforgettable moments in films like Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona, Bringing Out the Dead, Face/Off, Vampire’s Kiss, Renfield, Dream Scenario, and Mandy. Nicolas Cage has achieved it all, dedicating (or even over-dedicating) himself to every role in the countless movies he’s been in, whether released theatrically or straight to streaming.
17 Sleeping Dogs
Starring Will Yun Lee, Lucy Liu, Tzi Ma, James Hong, Emma Stone, And More
Sleeping Dogs
- Released
- August 14, 2012
- Developer(s)
- United Front Games
Sleeping Dogs takes inspiration from Hollywood’s iconic martial arts movies to create some terrific combat design with GTA-style gameplay, so it’s nice to see the voice cast filled with some legends in the genre. The protagonist, Wei Shen, is an undercover cop in Hong Kong voiced by Will Yun Lee, a martial artist and actor known for playing Dr. Alex Park in The Good Doctor, Harada in The Wolverine, and Kovacs Prime in Altered Carbon.
Charlie’s Angels and Kill Bill’s Lucy Liu plays the celebrity character Vivienne Lu, Triad member Henry “Big Smile” Lee is played by industry veteran Tzi Ma, James Hong voices Uncle Po, and even Easy A, Cruella, and Oscar-winning La La Land and Poor Things star Emma Stone is Wei’s potential love interest Amanda. The original live-action Liu Kang Robin Shou, Hawaii Five-O’s Ian Anthony Dale, and Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson are also in the cast.
16 Firewatch
Starring Rich Sommer
Firewatch
- Released
- February 9, 2016
- Developer(s)
- Campo Santo
- Publisher(s)
- Campo Santo , Panic
Firewatch is yet another indie title that enlists a familiar name for its main character. And that would be actor Rich Sommer, who’s been a part of AMC’s Mad Men for its entire seven-season run as the character Harry Crane of ad agency Sterling Cooper. But you might also know him from Netflix’s wrestling show GLOW, Starz’s The Minx, CW’s In the Dark, or perhaps even Doug in The Devil Wears Prada.
In all his roles, Sommers is just an ordinary person, and that’s precisely what he brings to protagonist Henry in Firewatch, a man leaving his past behind to work atop a fire tower in the Wyoming Wilderness and spot potential hazards. However, there’s an engaging story and mystery at the center of the game, and your only companion is your supervisor Delilah who communicates with you via walkie-talkie, and is voiced by Cissy Jones.
15 Control
Starring Courtney Hope And James McCaffrey
Sometimes actors are brought on to play a role in a video game seemingly because they are known for working in a similar genre to that game, as such with Zachariah Trench going to the late James McCaffrey, who’s been the legendary voice of Max Payne for Remedy, while also starring in Hollywood productions like TV’s Viper, Rescue Me, Suits, and Revenge.
However, this is not the case with Courtney Hope. Sally Spectra, the soap opera character she is most known for in the long-running series like The Young and The Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, is a far cry from Jesse Faden.
Remedy’s Control continues to mess with players’ heads and delivers yet another mind-bending story about a fictional Federal Bureau of Control where entities labeled The Hiss from another dimension have caused an incident that calls your attention. As Hope’s Jesse Faden, you navigate the building and use unique weapons and telekinetic abilities.
14 Fallout 3
Starring Liam Neeson, Malcolm McDowell, Odette Annable, And Ron Perlman
Fallout 3
- Released
- October 28, 2008
Fallout 3 was the Fallout entry to bring Bethesda’s iconic series to its modern FPS RPG format, which the studio would iterate on in future IPs like Skyrim and Starfield. While Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy actor Ron Perlman is a mainstay narrator, the third installment brought even more big stars, such as Liam Neeson, Malcolm McDowell, and Odette Annable.
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You’ll find that Liam Neeson from the Taken series, Non-Stop, Cold Pursuit, Honest Thief, and a barrage of other action films is your father, James, in Fallout 3! The voice of President John Henry Eden is Malcolm McDowell, a movie icon known for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, If…., Time After Time, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, and Class of 1999.
Voicing the protagonist’s close friend Amata Almodovar is actress Odette Annable. Her credits include Cloverfield, The Unborn, Dr. Jessica Adams in the TV show House, Nola Longshadow in Banshee, and antagonist Samantha Arias, or Reign, in CW’s Supergirl.
13 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Starring Charles Dance, Denise Gough, Allen Leech, Sarah Greene, And Katie McGuinness
You might know Charles Dance from being Lord Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, Lord Mountbatten in The Crown, or the Underworld films. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, he plays Emhyr var Emreis, the emperor of Nilfgaard, and, like Tywin Lannister, he’s a man of few words, incredibly powerful, and so ruthless that many tend to hate him. However, he enlists your help to find his daughter Ciri.
And what you might not have known about Geralt’s flame Yennefer is that she’s voiced by actress Denise Gough, who has starred in the major TV series Under the Banner of Heaven on FX and Hulu and the Star Wars prequel spin-off Andor, where she portrayed the menacing ISB Lieutenant Dedra Meero.
But on top of Charles Dance and Denise Gough you have the recognizable names of Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech as Hjalmar an Craite and Dublin Murders and Penny Dreadful’s Sarah Greene as his sister Cerys an Craite. Katie McGuinness, or Josie in the Snowpiercer TV series, voices Keira Metz.
12 Mass Effect 2 And 3
Starring Martin Sheen, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, And More
Martin Sheen has had a glittering Hollywood career since the 1970s with films like Apocalypse Now and Badlands. More recently, he starred in The West Wing as President Josiah Bartlet, which won him an Emmy Award, and Netflix’s Emmy Award-nominated comedy series Grace and Frankie.
Sheen played the role of the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2 and 3, a sci-fi role-playing series from BioWare that comes with a rich narrative, compelling character designs, romances, and stunning alien worlds. Sheen’s Illusive Man is an evil antagonist who leads Cerberus and envisions humans to be the dominant race across the universe.
Besides Sheen, the Mass Effect series also has The Expanse star Shohreh Aghdashloo as Admiral Shala’Raan vas Tonbay, The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss as Aria T’Loak, The Handmaid’s Tale star Yvonne Strahovski as Miranda Lawson, Firefly and Serenity star Adam Baldwin as Kal’Reegar, Battlestar Galactica and Lucifer star Tricia Helfer as EDI, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, and Austin Powers star Seth Green as Joker, and Aliens star Lance Henriksen as Admiral Steven Hackett.
11 Batman: Arkham Series
Starring Mark Hamill
Thanks to his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, Mark Hamill is one of the most popular actors of the past few decades. But he has another iconic role, which a few people might be surprised to learn — The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. His performance was so iconic that Rocksteady Studios decided to make their own Batman video games.
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Hamill ended up in the three main Batman: Arkham games: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight. Each one lets you play as the caped crusader fighting off various villains and thugs and gliding effortlessly around a dreary Gotham City, Arkham Knight especially having an expansive world-building. The combat and counters make the gameplay exceptionally satisfying.
