Critical Role

I stumbled upon this web series quite early in its airing. It mainly caught my interest because of the cast. Nine voice actors in total, some of which you never knew you knew, make up this extremely well rounded and semi-professional improvisational group of adventurers. Developing a human being is no easy feat, and to make each and every character as unique as they are, it's astounding. With the cherry on top that is their years of experience in voice acting, it is a joy to listen to them all whenever they speak. Now what got me to stay was the absurdly well spun story, custom built by the dungeon master. The writing of this loose script is pulled off amazingly, and the only thing that would make it better is to have an actual cast behind the creator to voice each character. Don't get me wrong, he does do a fantastic job with each one, breathing life into every being in his world. From the characters born from both the players and the DM, comes the gut busting, tear jerking, most jaw dropping story that I have ever had the pleasure to witness unfold before me. As of writing this review today on the Thursday of May 19, 2016, I await the impending exhilaration of watching the newest episode, number 54. To all of those reading this, I have one question for you. Is it Thursday yet?

Critical Role is an excellent display of just how much fun you can have playing the classic 'pen and paper' game of Dungeons and Dragons. Bringing the old radio plays from the 20s into a modern day setting (the internet) these highly talented voice actors all inject fun, enthusiasm and entertainment into their characters.

Matthew Mercer (Halo 4, Diablo 3) takes on the role of the Game Master, the person responsible for maintaining the story, who guides the players through their journey in a world of his creation. Every shopkeeper, tavern owner and wandering monster is brought to life by his quirky and intelligent style.

On occasion the story can wane due to the size of the party and due to the budgets available to web shows the sound quality will sometimes go awry I was unable to rate it as a 10, but the quality of voice acting involved will rival any movie, TV show or video game. If you love playing the game itself or want to pick up some helpful tips this show is not something you can afford to miss.

Critical Role is a surprisingly engaging show, told through constant improvisation performed by some of the hardest hitters in the Voice Acting business, through the game "Dungeons and Dragons" lead by Matthew Mercer. Critical Role takes place in the high fantasy world of Exandria, and centers around the group of adventurers called Vox Machina. Vox Machina consists of Goliath barbarian Grog (Travis Willingham), human gunslinger Percival (Taliesin Jaffe), Dragonborn Sorcerer Tiberius (Orion Acaba), half-elf druid Keyleth (Marisha Ray), gnome cleric Pike (Ashley Johnson), gnome bard Scanlan (Sam Riegel) and the half-elven twins, the ranger Vex'ahlia (Laura Bailey) and her brother, the rogue Vax'ildan (Liam O'Brien). The story starts in-medias-res as the group are entering the dwarven city of Kraghammer. They don't manage to be there long before they start attracting attention and trouble. What makes the show isn't the story itself, which might surprise most who try to watch the show. It's the characters, their inter- personal relationships, struggles, and the impact they have on the world around them that makes the show what it is. Despite having no visuals at all, this show is intensely visual, through the amazingly graphic storytelling of Matthew Mercer. If you possess even a smidgen of ability to imagine, Matthew Mercer handles the rest. He'll paint castles in your mind, after which the remaining cast will fill the castle with life, laughter, and tears of both joy and sorrow. Being that the show is running on 300+ hours, and isn't done yet, with the average episode being 3 hours, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a short attention span. But if that isn't an issue, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories about people. Even if you don't like fantasy, you'll quite quickly discover that the fantasy is just the setting of the story, but that the backbone of Critical Role is the characters. I've seen 300 hours of this show, and I'd happily watch 300 more.

One of the many things you must see before you die. Preferably Live. Do you like D&D look no further. In the vision of Matthew Mercer we follow our heroes in the quest of entertaining us.

The gang of Vox Machina: The accountant Vex cries when the gang spend to much money. Her twin brother Vax is the sneaky backstabbing kind. Grog is the fierce Goliath with an heart of gold. Pike is the true-believer of the gang and she is also paladin with a strong healing touch. Percy is the tinker of the gang creating deadly things of use. Scanlan is the gigolo and bard and the gangs jester. Keyleth the Elven Druid of many shapes and she got a wonderful laugh. Tiberius the Sorcerer he is from Draconia.

Critter and Vox Machina Fan for life.

The toothy swede.

This show is epic, the story telling is top notch. And the real emotions of these voice actors as they are truly connected to their characters is unbelievable! Matthew Mercer is a world creating genius and just waiting for Thursday proper to roll around so that I can watch is almost torture. This is by far my favorite streaming show of all time.