Best Video Games With Hollywood Actors
Descriptions
Highlights
- Video games now feature Hollywood stars who contribute their voice acting skills, bringing engrossing characters to life in a cinematic way.
- Terry Crews, known for his comedy, stars in Crackdown 3, describing it as a "Terry Crews simulator". Players can enjoy his suped-up character's fight against criminal organizations.
- The Callisto Protocol features talented actors like Josh Duhamel, Karen Fukuhara, Sam Witwer, and Louise Barnes, portraying characters in a brutal and gory sci-fi horror narrative.
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.
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.
Updated on August 5, 2023, by Dennis Moiseyev: What games can accomplish with storytelling is made even better when combined with the talented performances of renowned film and television talent. Seeing your favorite actors go from the big screen to the video game realm is always a treat, and lots more have been doing so in recent years, including Nicolas Cage making his gaming debut in Dead by Daylight. Along with Cage, there are some new additions and maybe even some surprise names.
25 Crackdown 3 - Terry Crews
The host of America's Got Talent, Terry Crews, is known for his comedy, whether that be in shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Everybody Hates Chris or in films like Idiocracy, The Expendables, and White Chicks. He is 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. Also, "F-you, gravity!"
24 The Callisto Protocol - Josh Duhamel, Karen Fukuhara, Sam Witwer, And Louise Barnes
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 from your favorite movies and shows portraying the characters.
The protagonist, Jacob Lee, is voiced and modeled after actor Josh Duhamel, who started with roles like Danny McCoy in Las Vegas and Lennox in the Transformers films and has since done various romantic comedies and other shows like 11.22.63, Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and Biggie, and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. Kimiko actress Karen Fukuhara from The Boys plays Dani Nakamura, and you can also see her in films like Bullet Train and 2016's Suicide Squad.
One of the main antagonists in Black Iron Prison, Leon Ferris, is voiced by none other than Sam Witwer, most well-known for playing vampire Aidan Waite in Syfy's Being Human, Private Jessup in The Mist, the voice of Darth Maul in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, and Starkiller in The Force Unleashed. He's also been in Once Upon a Time, Riverdale, and CW's Supergirl as villain Ben Lockwood. And finally, Louise Barnes voices Dr. Mahler, who's best known for Miranda Barlow in the pirate series Black Sails from Starz.
23 12 Minutes - James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, And Willem Dafoe
12 Minutes is a mystery game that features a main trio of actors playing characters caught in a time loop. They are James McAvoy — Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men prequels, The Beast and various personalities in M. Night Shyamalan's Split and Glass films, and adult Bill Denbrough in It Chapter 2; Daisy Ridley — Rey in the Star Wars sequels, Chaos Walking's Viola, and Mary in Murder on the Orient Express; and the Oscar-nominated Willem Dafoe.
This mystery plays out in a point-and-click top-down gameplay style, 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 the romantic evening cut short by a homicidal detective, Willem Dafoe, who accuses his wife of murder and restarts the loop.
22 Rage - John Goodman
Since the '80s, John Goodman has acted in dozens of films and series. If you watch lots of movies, chances are you’ve seen something with him in it. His highlights include Arachnophobia, Monsters Inc., The Big Lebowski, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and Black Earth Rising. 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.
21 The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me - Jessie Buckley
Jessie Buckley is an Oscar-nominated actress who slingshotted to fame in the industry after her appearances in War & Peace and HBO's Chernobyl. She's starred in Netflix's I'm Thinking of Ending Things, the fourth season of FX's Fargo, A24's Men, and the Oscar-nominated films The Lost Daughter and Women Talking. With all these projects, she still voiced and lent her likeness to Supermassive's The Devil In Me.
This installment finishes off the first season of the choice-based horror anthology known as Dark Pictures. Jessie plays Kate, a member of a documentary crew filming their series at a hotel modeled after the infamous 19th-century serial killer H.H. Holmes' "Murder Castle." Except it's more than just a replica, and it's your job to make sure she and her friends make it out alive.
20 Quantum Break - Lance Reddick, Aidan Gillen, And Shawn Ashmore
Remedy's next project after the horror game Alan Wake was a mind-bending third-person 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, and Shawn Ashmore from The Rookie, X-Men, and The Following.
An interesting aspect of this game is its episodic storytelling with actual FMV clips of the actors in live-action scenes between the mo-cop animated 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 shooting and using these abilities to defeat enemies.
19 Until Dawn - 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 horror video game Until Dawn from Supermassive.
In addition to him, there's also 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.
18 The Quarry - David Arquette, Lin Shaye, Lance Henriksen, And More
Supermassive managed to top all their previous horror titles with an all-star cast in 2022's 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. Also, here are Ted Raimi, Ariel Winter, Brenda Song, Justice Smith, Grace Zabriskie, Halston Sage, and Ethan Suplee.
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 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.
17 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Ray Liotta And Burt Reynolds
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.
16 Beyond: Two Souls - Elliot Page And Willem Dafoe
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 12 Minutes, bringing his troubled Norman Osborn chops into the role of government scientist antagonist Nathan Dawkins.
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.
15 Dead By Daylight - Nicolas Cage
Actor Nick 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 a new multiplayer horror game outing for Cage, who is playing himself as a new survivor, and he's got 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!"
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, Con Air, Vampire's Kiss, Renfield, 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.
14 Sleeping Dogs - Will Yun Lee, Lucy Liu, Tzi Ma, Emma Stone, And More
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 targeting the Triad organization with only his fists and is 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.
Lucy Liu from Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels plays the celebrity character Vivienne Lu. Triad member Henry "Big Smile" Lee is played by industry veteran Tzi Ma, who you may know from the Rush Hour film series, 24, Kung Fu, and the live-action Mulan. Even Easy A, La La Land, Cruella, and Gwen Stacy actress Emma Stone is here as Wei's potential love interest Amanda. But you also have the original live-action Liu Kang Robin Shou, the legendary James Hong, and Hawaii Five-O's Ian Anthony Dale.
13 Firewatch - Rich Sommer
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, voiced by veteran actress Cissy Jones, who communicates with you via walkie-talkie.
12 Broken Age - Elijah Wood And Jack Black
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.
Both have also 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.
11 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Charles Dance And Denise Gough
You might know Charles Dance from The Crown or Game of Thrones, where he acted as Lord Tywin Lannister, the head of the powerful Lannister house and father of Jaime, Tyrion, and Cersei. He was also in two Underworld films and has starred in a wide range of movies and plays. Most importantly, his first video game credit came through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
He played Emhyr var Emreis, the emperor of Nilfgaard, and like Tywin Lannister, Emperor Emhyr is a man of few words, incredibly powerful, and so ruthless that many tend to hate him. But he enlists your help to find his daughter Ciri. And what you might not have known about Yennefer is that she's voiced by actress Denise Gough, who was in FX's Under the Banner of Heaven and played the menacing ISB Lieutenant Dedra Meero in Andor.
10 Mass Effect 2 And 3 - Martin Sheen
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.
9 Batman: Arkham Series - 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.
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.
8 Control - Courtney Hope
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. This is not the case with Courtney Hope. The soap opera characters she is most known for playing in long-running series like The Young and The Restless are 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.
7 God Of War - Christopher Judge
Christopher Judge might be more of a television actor than a Hollywood star — for a long time, he was best known for his role as Teal'c on Stargate SG-1 — but now he should mostly be known for his performance as Kratos in God of War.
The series of mythology-inspired action games had other actors play Kratos before the 2018 entry, but Judge brought weight and nuance to the role in what was a surprisingly mature turn for God of War. He really killed it with his performance — and killed plenty of draugrs and Norse Gods along the way as well.
Most of us know Keifer Sutherland for his roles in Stand by Me, The Lost Boys, Designated Survivor, and 24, where he plays Jack Bauer, a ruthless CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) agent. His gritty persona seems to perform well in video games, too. This started with 24: The Game, but he later played parts in a couple of Call of Duty games as well.
But the highlight of his video game career is certainly Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. In this masterpiece, he plays Punished “Venom” Snake, a mercenary leader on a revenge mission against the people who decimated his forces and nearly killed him.
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