Surely, it’s his year. Troy Baker — the voice actor behind Joel in The Last of Us, Sam Drake in Uncharted, Talion in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and so, so many others — is a familiar presence at The Game Awards, strolling onto the stage so hand out silverware, usually in a nice scarf. But he’s actually only been nominated at the awards twice, in 2014 for his performance as Talion, and in 2016 for Sam Drake. And, despite being perhaps the most well-known video game actor in the business, he’s never won.
In 2025, he stands an excellent chance. His uncanny performance as the title character in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — which is less a precise impersonation of Harrison Ford than a channelling of his essence, and which was blessed by Ford himself when they appeared together at last year’s ceremony — is eligible, as the game was released in December 2024 after The Game Awards’ cutoff date. He could just as well be nominated for another barn-burning turn as the unhinged Higgs in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Between the two, a nomination seems guaranteed, and a win more than likely.
But what other game performances moved us over the last 12 months? Polygon staffers put our heads together to list our favorites below. Some of these are realistic contenders for TGA nominations for Best Performance. Some aren’t, but should be. And one or two are just for fun — or are they?
Jennifer English as Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Who’s having a better couple of years than Jennifer English? She voiced NPC Latenna in 2022 Game of the Year-winner Elden Ring before breaking through as everyone’s favorite goth princess Shadowheart (“Shart”) in 2023 Game of the Year-winner Baldur’s Gate 3. This year, she voiced Maelle in the GOTY frontrunner, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
While there are so many things to praise about this game — its story, gameplay, music, and more — the voice cast truly brings its incredible writing to life, and English’s work as protagonist Maelle is at the center of that. She gets to show off her range as a performer, vividly displaying Maelle’s pain, grief, and fleeting happiness whenever they come. She also slightly morphs her performance in Act 3, once various truths surrounding Maelle are known, lending true growth and change to the character. —Austin Manchester
Gabe Cuzzillo as Nate in Baby Steps
You might be a little surprised to see Baby Steps on this list next to A-listers in cinematic games. But if you’ve played the slapstick walking simulator to its halfway point, you know exactly why it’s here. Cuzzillo (one of the game’s developers) plays Nate, the game’s onesie-wearing hero. He’s a bumbling manchild who can barely get through a conversation without saying something completely awkward or trailing off into a non-thought entirely.
It’s a hysterical comedic performance that’s bound to drive you crazy, but it’s not without purpose. A big moment in the story reveals that there’s more to Nate than meets the eye, painting him as a quietly insecure person struggling with his masculinity. With one single line, Cuzzillo turns Nate into a sympathetic hero that you can’t help but root for on his quest to find his way home (or at least find a place to piss). Both hilarious and gut-wrenching, Cuzzillo deserves to be a surprise contender alongside the big stars. —Giovanni Colantonio
Brandon Keener as Kai in Avowed
As of 2025, Brandon Keener has officially been anointed as Guy You Hire To Voice Stalwart Reptilian Companion With Blue Skin. Best known as the voice behind Garrus from the original Mass Effect trilogy, Keener returns to the RPG companion pantheon as Kai in Avowed. There are some obvious similarities between the two characters (blue skin, joins your party, serves as its moral compass) but Keener puts enough of a spin on the role to distinguish Kai from his previous work. There’s a level of affability to the performance that isn’t entirely present in Keener’s space-cop counterpart — all the more notable, seeing as Kai is the first person to join your party. Avowed welcomes you to its strange semi-open world with open arms. That’s in large part due to Keener’s soothingly familiar voice work. Now someone cast this man in a Smurfs game so he can complete the hat trick. —Ari Notis
Luca Marinelli as Neil Vanna in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
There’s a good chance that you’ll see some recognizable Hollywood star nab a Game Awards nomination for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach come December. Norman Reedus in particular seems like a shoo-in, since he’s the leading man, but the game’s most memorable performance is a much smaller one. Luca Marinelli gets a cryptic role in the form of Neil Vanna, a Solid Snake-coded side-character that Sam Porter Bridges has recurring visions of. Though Marinelli isn’t given as much to work with as Reedus, he makes the most of his role, just like Mads Mikkelsen before him in the first game. He begins Death Stranding 2 as an unnerving villain, but slowly peels back Neil’s layers to find the pain that fuels him. In a game full of over-the-top acting, Marinelli brings some real human vulnerability at a moment where the story needs it most. —GC
Alex Jordan as The Jans in The Alters
The Alters may be a distant dark horse in the Game of the Year race, but its lead voice actor Alex Jordan deserves to bring home some hardware — or at least some nominations — come awards season. Not only does he do a great job as the player character Jan Dolski, a builder stuck on a hostile world trying to make his way back to Earth, Jordan voices every cloned iteration (“alter”) of Jan. Jordan embodies nearly a dozen characters in total, and his talent shines in making each Jan feel distinct as their own person. Jan Technician speaks gruffly and is rough around the edges, while Jan Scientist always talks with an annoying air of superiority about him. —AM
Marios Gavrillis as Emmerich Voss in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
I’d argue that Troy Baker, who did amazing work, doesn’t even turn in the best performance in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. That honor goes to Marios Gavrillis, who plays the villainous Emmerich Voss. Gavrillis is fantastic as Indy’s Nazi rival, showing range and depth in the character. At times, he’s menacingly cool and collected. He’s that brand of creepy sociopath who shouldn’t quite be so commanding. But Gavrillis’ power comes in the ways he slowly reveals the cracks in that facade, letting the character’s madness poke through as the stakes get higher. It’s a slimy bit of acting that acts as a perfect foil to Baker’s charismatic Indy. You don’t get one without the other. —GC
Becca Q. Co as Nemesis in Hades 2
If I could, I’d award the best performance of the year to the entire Hades 2 cast. But since we’re picking favorites here, I’m going to single out Nemesis, the goddess of retribution. Supergiant really said, what if your rival in Pokémon but, like, hot?
Nemesis, who is voiced by Becca Q. Co, is designed to rile the player up. She’ll show up midway through your run to challenge you, perhaps even steal your money. She’ll beat you to the punch and buy items from the shop before you have a chance to look at them. She’ll run through a door that holds a juicy unlockable, barring it from you. She’ll berate you for not working hard enough, long enough, or well enough. She’ll insist it should be her who is tasked with beating time, not some scrawny witch who might crumple under her might.
And she’ll do it all with this dusky rasp that’s so perspicuous, it’s like you can feel the words forming in her throat. The sound engineers knew exactly what they were doing. —Patricia Hernandez
Kelly Burke as The Traveler in Cronos: The New Dawn
Cronos: The New Dawn protagonist The Traveler spends the entirety of the game wearing a spacesuit-like garment that completely obscures her face and body, and comes from an extremely utilitarian culture. The only real way for players to learn about her is to pay attention to the way she moves and speaks.
Making a character with no facial expressions and a generally flat affect both interesting and relatable is a tall order, but actress Kelly Burke pulls it off masterfully, delivering a beautiful performance that’s removed and almost robotic for much of the game’s 15-hour run, but raw and open when the game’s time-bending story calls for it. The Traveler’s strange way of speaking is immediately interesting, and Burke’s performance is pivotal in creating a connection between the player and the character they’re controlling. According to the developers, Burke even came up with the idea for the game’s most moving moment herself. —Claire Lewis
Johnny Santiago as Don Bernardo Torrisi in Mafia: The Old Country
From the second his character steps into the frame in Mafia: The Old Country, Johnny Santiago steals the show. Santiago, a Brooklyn-based model and screen actor, doesn’t have the deepest résumé of video game roles, but now I want to see him in every big-budget production. As Don Bernardo Torrisi, the head of a fictional early 20th-century Sicilian crime family, Santiago brings a quiet menace to the early 20th-century mob saga. Obsessed with his legacy, he plots and plans and dotes on both family members and business associates alike, staying outwardly calm as he does, but you can always sense a barely contained wrath boiling under the surface. Every scene he’s in, you wonder when it’ll break through. And when he inevitably does? It’s legitimately scary, in a way few gaming characters who aren’t Greek demigods covered in their dead family’s ashes have been able to attain. —AN
Makato Koji as Hornet in Hollow Knight: Silksong
Silksong’s dense craft nearly bursts at the seams. Stitching it all together is Hornet, alive and determined, a gossamer thread of a performance that can easily go overlooked and underappreciated. Voiceover artist Makoto Koji’s bug gibberish is the kind of transcendent dialogue a trained actor would kill to deliver from the gut. In brief interviews, Koji, an animator by trade, says she made up most of the recorded lines for Hornet, and that they were “instinctual” based on the encounters. Complemented by written dialogue and subtle animation, you feel the pure emotion pumping out of Hornet’s scenes, from random villager chit-chat to declarations of her holy mission.
Koji is modest in what she brings to the table, yet the ups and downs of her bug-speak jazz put the stakes of Silksong into visceral terms. Lore is one thing, but Hornet can assuage fears or shriek in terror. Students of Sanford Meisner spend lifetimes repeating nonsense words to awaken the inflections inside of them that can push dialogue beyond surface-level meaning. Somehow Koji does it from the stage of a Steam Deck. Michael Chekhov might call that sublime state the Psychological Gesture. I just know it rules. —Matt Patches