CD Projekt Red might have stumbled a bit when they got Cyberpunk 2077 out the door and into the hands of the public. It was filled with bugs and poor optimization, which even prompted Sony to remove the game from their digital storefront for a period. However, the studio continued to work through the issues and delivered players with a series of patches to bring the game up to their standards. Now, the latest big update and expansion added a new area and content to take in. With that said, there was one obstacle developers had to figure out, and it was based on a deceased voice actor.
Thanks to VGC and Bloomberg, we’re finding out that CD Projekt Red used AI to recreate Miłogost Reczek’s voice in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Because Phantom Liberty takes place midway into the base game campaign, several character roles returned to the game. Included is the character Viktor Vektor, the first Ripperdoc V interacts with, and the character you meet after going through Misty’s store. It’s also the character that Miłogost Reczek voiced for the Polish language. The problem is that in 2021, Miłogost Reczek passed away.
Because of the recent passing of the voice actor, the team behind Phantom Liberty knew they needed to come up with a solution since Viktor made a return in the expansion. With new lines, the team began to brainstorm options. For instance, there was apparently an option on the table that saw the character get voiced by a new actor who would go through all of the lines previously voiced. This way, when the player goes through the game, Viktor’s voice won’t change. However, because of the talent, time, and effort Miłogost Reczek put into the role, the developers were likely not fond of seeing his work removed.
As a result, the team spoke with Miłogost Reczek’s family and got their approval to use AI in order to bring the actor’s voice back into the game. Ultimately, the team hired a new actor to voice the lines, and through AI software, the developers could recreate the voice and tone. It’s great to see that the family was considered first and was given the approval to proceed with this venture. With that said AI has been a hot topic lately with how it can harm jobs and eliminate entire roles. After all, we’ve seen Bungie deal with having to replace Lance Reddick’s character voice in Destiny 2. However, instead of AI, Bungie replaced the actor with Keith David.
