Observation, NoCode Studio

“the cast of characters are voiced solidly as a whole, but the leads are truly the standouts. kezia burrows’ believable and emotive performance as emma fisher contrasts beautifully with the voice of sam - anthony howell’s performance is deeply (and purposefully) reminiscent of 2001’s h.a.l - and i found myself triggering extra voice lines just to hear interactions between them.”

 IGN

 

The voice acting of Kezia Burrows makes Emma the character she is, especially because the wooden, emotionless character model doesn’t do the character any favors.

3rdcoastreview

 

Claustrophobic, but the visual homogeneity of white station modules and sparse computer interfaces is interrupted by some spectacular spacewalk views and compelling monologues from Emma (played by Kezia Burrows). The plasticky human faces make me wish that this small developer had access to the state-of-the-art performance capture that renders the characters in games like Until Dawn and The Last of Us so realistic, but the strength of the performance carries it.

The Guardian

 

Then there’s Dr. Emma Fisher (voiced by Kezia Burrows), who carries the entire game. Observation’s understated humour makes it easier than you’d expect to care about the fate of an AI, but this is Emma’s story above all, and I felt her every panicked inhalation and relieved sigh as if it were my own.

There’s a naturalistic imperfectness to Emma’s dialogue and performance. The result of her speaking as much to herself as she is to SAM, oscillating between allowing herself to forget and realising again that, technically, she’s completely alone.

WireFrame

 

Voice acting from all parties is superb, especially Kezia Burrows as Emma, which compensates for the slightly shonkier lip syncing and dead-eyed stares of the character models. The claustrophobia of the indoor space lends even more urgency to situations which require speedier movement, though this is usually a facade — such as when a fire breaks out on the station at the very beginning.

JumpDashRoll

 

The dust has settled after this weekends BAFTA Scotland awards, and we’re delighted to say we walked away with the mask for this years Best Game category!

In the flurry of the moment, Jon forgot to mention, like, everyone in his speech. So we’d like to take a quick moment to thank:

• Our wonderful cast, especially Kezia Burrows and Anthony Howell, for bringing the game to life and creating two unforgettable performances - you guys made the drama shine

NoCode ( Bafta thanks )

 

The voice acting in Observation is spectacular, thanks in no small part to Kezia Burrows. Was it easy to get her on board after working with her for the role of Amanda Ripley?

“I met Kez on the mocap shoots of Alien, and she’s incredible. We kept in touch ever since, just on social and things like that. We hadn’t yet cast Emma in the game and at one point needed some quick dialogue for an internal demo. I messaged her and asked if she had any spare time to do a few lines of dialogue remotely to help us out and she was happy to. She delivered the audio to us and I was blown away – the answer to who should be Emma was right in front of me the whole time, it was perfect! So I called her up and asked if she’d be interested in taking it on and thankfully she was.”

How was it working with Kezia? A few friends of mine in the acting industry tell me she’s a delight. But as a Director, I’d love to know how your working relationship with her was.

“She is indeed a delight to work with; easy going, talented, willing to improvise. We had her come up to Glasgow for a few days for some mocap and a main read through, then did a lot of reshoots and alternate versions as the story or game objectives would evolve through development. She had her own studio setup so was able to work remotely, and in a way she kind of became part of the dev team. We’d have some bugs where what Emma said in the script, and what the objective of the game/puzzle was, were mismatched. I’d send her some new lines and Kez would rattle off the replacements and get them to us really quickly. It was all very fluid.

KeenGamer interview with Jon McKellan

 

Emma is voiced by Kezia Burrows who with a strong performance brings the project to life as the only human interaction you have. It’s a nuanced performance that goes on a journey, but I just really wished the team at No Code had more money for motion-capture. Although Emma does look decent, a much more eloquently animated mocap performance would have really done Burrow’s performance more justice and added the cherry on the top of this thrilling stories cake. 

Explosion Network

 

Eerie sound design and a stellar performance from Kezia Burrows as Fisher immerse players in a game that often feels like a found-footage horror film, where forced perspectives generate a fear of what's lurking in off-camera nooks and crannies.

Irish News

 

Many people involved with Alien: Isolation were also involved with the development of Observation, including character artists Jack Perry and Ranulf Busby, concept artist Stefano Tsai, writer Will Porter, and the voice-over talents of Anthony Howell and Kezia Burrows; Keiza having provided the voice for Amanda Ripley in Alien: Isolation. However, those expecting a survival-horror type of game will be sorely mistaken (like I admittedly was). While there are certainly elements of the survival-horror genre, Observation is above all else a tense adventure-puzzle game and sci-fi thriller that fans of either genre will be sure to enjoy.

The Gamer

                                     

'.....a tightly written, well-acted story kept me engaged. Given that much of Observation is a two-character play (and that SAM is only slightly more emotive than the old Microsoft tool he shares a name with), much of the game’s emotional punch rides on Kezia Burrows’ performance as Emma. And, given that roughly 70 percent of Emma’s lines are commands for SAM, the fact that Burrows has brought a memorable character to life is impressive.'

Bloody Disgusting

 

Kezia Burrow’s performance of Emma is highly emotive giving the sense of desperation and panic while also trying to remain calm and focused. It’s a shame the facial expressions mentioned earlier, didn’t carry her great vocal performance because it would have been the cherry on top if it had.

DarkWorld Gamng

 

Kezia Burrows turns in a superb performance as Emma, and Anthony Howell evokes both the cold silicon and eerie humanity of HAL in his portrayal of SAM, with just a hint of his candid approach to the Weyland Yutani android Samuels. The sound design and score complement the performances beautifully; the sound effects are understated and at times muffled, smartly portraying the deadening nature of outer space, while the music starts with a bang during the wonderfully creepy opening credits and sustains a sense of unease and tension for the remainder of the game.

Gaming Nexus

 

Doctor Emma Fisher (voiced impressively by Kezia Burrows of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture) manages to get you back online via voice authentication to assist. You are SAM (Anthony Howell, star of Call of Cthulhu), the station’s System Administration & Maintenance unit, and it is your job to fix the current problem – and as it turns out, many more to come. From here on in you receive instructions mostly from Emma, plus a couple others later in the game.

Adventure Gamers

 

Credit also to Kezia Burrows, who also voiced Amanda Ripley in Alien Isolation. As Emma, her performance lashes the whole thing together, stoic and pragmatic in the face of each new disaster, but with just enough panic and uncertainty under the surface to sell you on the idea that she’s a real person facing an impossible situation.

Blog.Turtle Beach.com

 

 '.....its core triumph lies right there. I must have dealt with hundreds of videogame fires, but few have elicited the same urgency. That’s partly thanks to a stellar performance from lead actor Kezia Burrows as Emma, gifted with an uncanny ability to sell ‘panicked dealing with shit going wrong in space’. More important, though, is your relation to her. Your role defines your desperation, your empathy. It’s brilliant, really. You’re a caretaker, incapable of care.

Rock Paper Shotgun.com

 

While S.A.M may be a fascinating means to new styles of gameplay, Emma Fisher remains the human connecting to the overarching narrative. Kezia Burrows (Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Alien: Isolation) delivers a tremendous performance as Fisher, imbuing her with a balanced sense of fragility and strength in the face of unprecedented adversity.

Burrows’ chemistry with co-star and voice of S.A.M, Anthony Howell (Vampyr, Anthem) is crucial to the plot and the two play off each other brilliantly.  

Burrows and Howell succeed, at least in part, thanks to the tight script work by writer Jon McKellen. Observation is keenly human in its delivery of very in-human subject matter, a great strength which the third act struggles to keep in focus. As events proceed to the climax, Fisher’s characterisation is altered in ways which serve the plot.

Power-Up Gaming

 

Sound-wise it builds the mood and tension — plus there is a stellar intro song thanks to Nine Inch Nails’ Robin Finck.  Voice acting is outstanding across the board, with Kezia Burrows and Anthony Howell stealing the show as Emma and S.A.M (although developer Jon McKellan puts in a good shift as well).

Codec Moments

 

I always find it interesting to think about what gives and obviously fake character depth and ultimately a believable existence, but I think it's a combination of writing and performance that really nails them home. I rarely look up voice actors in games, but I have to highlight the brilliant job that Kezia Burrows did voicing Emma Fisher in Observation. Additionally, Jon McKellan for writing such an exciting and compelling science fiction story that involved some very real characterisation.

AbbysBlog

 

And it was really good, like Anthony I'd written with him in mind, because his voice is perfect and he's incredible, does everything like the one-take wonder. So it was really easy to work with Anthony, he'd just done his thing so well. Whereas with Emma it was this entirely new thing, and so working with Kez, having known her really well, it made it much easier. She could kind of feed into that and change dialogue on the fly and we'd kind of work over stuff and, yeah, that made a huge difference, working with someone you already knew and could trust that way. And then I took on a role as Jim, and Kez was a huge help in bringing that out of me and making me a bit more confident about it all, and again made it quite fun and interesting to do because we were working together on something. It felt very indie, but productive. We were getting good results out of it, so it was kind of a nice setup."

Game Reactor

 

This is even more disappointing due to the absolutely stellar voice acting from Kezia Burrows, the voice behind Emma Fisher. It would just have been great for the human faces to have a bit more life behind their eyes, especially when the player character is an AI who only really interacts with other machines.

The Digital Fix

 

if there's a better VO performance this year than Kezia Burrows' as Emma.

Ultimate Gaming Junkie

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Observation’s voice acting is well done and the scenes strike all the right chords in terms of emotion. From SAM’s monotone droning and self discovery to Emma’s frustrations and confusion, each part is acted out very well for a narrative driven game. Dr. Emma Fisher is played by Kezia Burrows who played Nilin Cartier-Wells in Remember Me; SAM was played by Anthony Howell who recently voiced Dr. Johnathan Reid in Vampyr (See our Vampyr review here!). Both actors also worked together in Alien Isolation and have a great synergy together in Observation.

AlphaNerdsGuild

 

The Welshman already has experience in character interpretation since she has played Amanda Ripley in Alien Isolation, Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn and now plays a great role as the doctor who is giving us the orders. We embody SAM The artificial intelligence of a ship that is drifting, has suffered damage and is stained with a black viscous substance of unknown origin.

Analysis Observation 

 

The acting in the game is very good too, and mention must be made of Anthony Howell’s voice acting for SAM, where he absolutely nails the dispassionate AI aesthetic, and Kezia Burrows (Dr Fisher) who does a great job of portraying a young woman trying to remain calm and professional in extraordinary circumstances.

New.com.au

 

'... Kezia Burrows's interpretation as Emma Fisher is very convincing. We can have a sense of "deja vu", since it is the same actress who played the role of Amanda Ripley in Alien Isolation and will also have a role in Squadron 42 of Star Citizen , but leaving aside the anecdotes, we have to value that it is a more complex job, in which he speaks to the player as if it were a machine. The bad thing - and it should be noted - is that the game is in English with texts in English, and understanding what they tell us is crucial to advance.

Hobby Consalas

 

As the artificial intelligence of the LOSS space station, you have a lot to do with astronaut Emma and communication with her has been implemented in a very lifelike manner. You often have the feeling that you are talking to a real person and that naturally contributes to the mood. By the way: Emma Fisher is spoken by Kezia Burrows, the same person who gave Amanda Ripley her voice in "Alien: Isolation". And so the circle closes.

Metal Planet, ( translation )

 

'...The visual homogeneity of white station modules and sparse computer interfaces is interrupted by some spectacular spacewalk views and compelling monologues from Emma (played by Kezia Burrows). The plasticky human faces make me wish that this small developer had access to the state-of-the-art performance capture that renders the characters in games like Until Dawn and The Last of Us so realistic, but the strength of the performance carries it.

News Groove

 

'...the situation changes when it comes to how it says rather than what Emma says. Because Kezia Burrows voicing Amanda Ripley in Alien: Isolation is simply amazing here. '

OGZ

 

Emma is voiced by Kezia Burrows who with a strong performance brings the project to life as the only human interaction you have. It’s a nuanced performance that goes on a journey, but I just really wished the team at No Code had more money for motion-capture. Although Emma does look decent, a much more eloquently animated mocap performance would have really done Burrow’s performance more justice and added the cherry on the top of this thrilling stories cake. 

EXPLOSION NETWORK

 

The vocal talents of Kezia Burrows and Anthony Howell (Amanda Ripley and Samuels) were used for Emma Fisher and SAM respectively. Other roles, including character artists, story supervisors and game designers from Alien: Isolation were also involved in Observation's development in some capacity, so it stands to reason that the game has a very similar feel.

Jack Parkinson

 

To understand your character though, you first need to understand Emma. Kezia Burrows, who plays Emma, is excellent. Within the game’s first ten minutes, Burrows ensures that Emma is a realistic, sympathetic character. Over the course of the game, you get to accompany her as she fights for survival and grows ever more desperate. Burrows’ performance sets up one half of an intriguing story. What, the developers ask you, is it like to experience the man versus machine story from the other side?

Press to couch

 

We want to thank the incredible cast, especially the truly amazing Kezia Burrows and Anthony Howell. Anthony delivered every line with perfection, and brought SAMs evolving consciousness to life. Kezia pretty much became part of our team, working regularly with us as we wrote and rewrote, made changes and evolved the character throughout the games development. She is not only a tremendous acting talent, but also a good friend of the team and someone we want to work with on pretty much everything and anything we do. Directors find actors they like and work on multiple films together, and we’ve found Kez. Llongyfarchiadau! From Isolation to Observation, and onwards!

NOCODE Studio website Thanks after BAFTA ' BEST BRITISH GAME ' win at BAFTA GAME AWARDS 2020

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Consequently, that makes it all the more impressive when a game is able to create and maintain dramatic tension: the script and delivery in Observationare both of excellent quality. Kezia Burrows and Anthony Howell do most of the heavy lifting, but there is no dead weight amongst the members of the cast, all of whom do fantastic jobs.

writing worlds.net

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“During the five or so hours I spent playing through all of No Code’s narrative puzzle game Observation,” the reviewer wrote. “I became really invested in the game’s compelling story. Due to excellent voice acting and gripping storytelling, I was always excited to find out what would happen next.”

Cogconective.com