When GateWorld learned the developers had invited David Palffy to reprise the role of Anubis, it became obvious just how much they care for accuracy.
Not surprising, this is not the first video game the Vancouver-based actor has helped bring to life. “I did anther game called Underground II which is about racing cars,” Palffy told GateWorld in an interview. “So I did voice. Also the character on it is my likeness. Basically they based the bad guy on me! If you see it you’ll see the whole bald head and the whole everything.
“So that actually is quite fun to do. And I’ve done some
other voices for some other games. In fact, I’m actually doing some voices next week for some other games.” Still, The Alliance marks Palffy’s first sci-fi game.
A chief difference between Palffy and other Stargate actors is his face has never appeared on-screen. “It’s pretty easy,” he said. “The only difference here is you don’t have the visual relation of what you’ve done. All they’re doing is basically taking wild lines,” bits of dialogue that may or may not be used in the final game.
“They have an idea,” he continued. “They’ve done a storyboard of what’s happening and what they need as far as the voice is concerned. Of course you sit down and they ask you to throw [out] half a dozen different versions of different lines.” This will allow the gamers to perfectly piece together the cut that favors the game the most.
Palffy was glad to be playing Anubis once again. But “it’s such a different medium,” he said. “It was funny because when I sat with Peter DeLuise, it took me about a minute or two to find [Anubis] again as far as the voice. Then of course it’s fun. It’s quite enjoyable.
“Peter was doing the directing as far as the voice performance, just giving some suggestions to the line reading. I really like Peter, not just as a director but as a human being. He’s a very good guy. I hadn’t seen him in a while so that always makes for a very good time with Peter.”
The game was still in an early stage of development when the actor recorded his lines — and consequently, Palffy knows little about the story and the doom Anubis will bring to the galaxy. “I did it back in February,” he revealed. “To be honest, I can’t really give you too much as far as storyline. But it’s basically your typical Anubis. He’s as bad as they can be and so it’s nothing new, really, as far as Anubis is concerned.
“There’s only so much I know personally about exactly what they’re doing. That’s why when we were doing it it’s just a series of wild lines. They’re going to sift those wild lines into the story they developed.”
Palffy did confirm that Anubis will release a malevolent force that the SG-1 team must deal with. “That’s good!” he laughed. “You know as much as I do!”
But does the story feel like one that belongs in the SG-1 universe? “Oh, yeah, definitely,” he said. It’s got some other surprises along the way,” he says. “To be fair, when they have an idea, as you know, certain ideas will change given whatever comes up. But being that Chris, Michael, [and] the whole SG-1 group is involved, I really do think it’s going to be very much what you’ve normally seen as far as Stargate is concerned.”
In addition to Anubis, the actor also provided voices for other characters in the game.
“As you know a lot of the tinier nuances that you might come up with as far as Anubis is concerned are a little bit dead by the fact that when you flange the voice it flattens things out a bit. Again, as far as Anubis is concerned, [I’ve] got his voice, but because of the flange I can go off and perform a number of other characters and nobody would know. I played a Colonel as part of [an] SG team. In this one I’m a couple of good guys, too!”
And Palffy certainly intends to play the game himself when it hits shelves this fall. “As soon as the game is out I’m definitely going to take a look at it,” he said. “I’m not a gamer in the hardcore sense. It’s funny — in the last two years I’ve been introduced to actually doing games because of my son. He’s a little bit younger. I still purchase a couple of games here and there.
“I think most people, when they do purchase the game, I think they’ll enjoy it. I really do think it’ll be a good game and be well put-together.”
Stargate SG-1: The Alliance hits shelves this fall.