When Infamous Second Son dropped back in 2014, it wasn't just another superhero sandbox. It was a massive technical gamble for Sucker Punch Productions. Most people remember the neon lights of Seattle or the satisfying "thwip" of smoke dashes, but the real soul of that game lived in the faces. Seriously. If you look closely at Delsin Rowe, you aren't just looking at a collection of pixels and textures. You’re looking at Troy Baker.
Not just his voice. His literal face.
The infamous second son actors weren't just stuck in a booth reading lines for this project. They were squeezed into tight spandex suits covered in ping-pong balls, wearing helmets with cameras inches from their noses. It was one of the first times we saw "Emotion Capture" at this scale on the PlayStation 4. Honestly, the chemistry you feel between the characters isn't a fluke of good writing—it’s because the lead actors were basically family in real life.
The Brotherly Bond: Troy Baker and Travis Willingham
You can’t talk about this game without talking about Delsin and Reggie. Their relationship is the entire emotional anchor. If that didn't work, the game would have just been a flashy tech demo.
Troy Baker, who played Delsin, was already a titan in the industry by then. He’d just come off The Last of Us and BioShock Infinite. But playing Delsin was different because Sucker Punch decided to map his actual facial features onto the character model. That scar? That smirk? That’s all Troy.
Then you have Travis Willingham as Reggie. In the booth, these two are actually best friends. It’s why the bickering feels so authentic. They weren't just acting like brothers; they had a decade of real-world history to pull from. There’s this famous bit of trivia among fans: during the motion capture sessions, the two would often ad-lib or mess with each other between takes, and the developers kept some of those subtle physical cues in the final game.
Why the Facial Tech Mattered
Before this, game faces were often "hand-keyed." An animator would manually move the jaw or the eyebrows. For Second Son, Sucker Punch used a system called FACS (Facial Action Coding System).
- They scanned 168 different "joints" on the actors' faces.
- They used "vacuform" masks to make sure the tracking dots were in the exact same place every single day.
- The result was a level of micro-expression—like a lip quiver or a squint—that was unheard of at the time.
The Real-Life Connections You Might Have Missed
It gets even more "small world" than just two best friends. Enter Laura Bailey. She played Abigail "Fetch" Walker, the neon-powered conduit with a tragic past.
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Here’s the kicker: Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham are married.
Imagine the dynamic on set. You’ve got your husband playing the grumpy older brother and your best friend playing the "rebel" lead. There’s a specific scene in the "Evil Karma" path where Delsin and Fetch... well, they get pretty close. Apparently, Travis was standing right there on the mocap stage while his best friend and his wife had to film those romantic beats. According to some behind-the-scenes interviews, Travis was jokingly clenching the game director’s shoulder during those takes.
It’s that level of comfort—or hilarious discomfort—that makes the performances stand out. They weren't afraid to push each other.
The Rest of the Powerhouse Cast
While the "Big Three" get most of the spotlight, the supporting cast was equally stacked with industry vets.
- Christine Dunford (Brooke Augustine): She brought a terrifying, measured authority to the D.U.P. leader. Unlike the younger cast, she played Augustine with a rigidity that perfectly contrasted Delsin’s fluid movement.
- Alex Walsh (Eugene Sims): He captured the awkward, shut-in energy of a kid who literally lived in a basement.
- David Stanbra (Hank Daughtry): He played the "cowardly" conduit with a lot of nuance, making you hate him and pity him at the same time.
It’s worth noting that many of these actors, especially Baker, Willingham, and Bailey, went on to form the core of Critical Role. If you’re a D&D fan, playing Second Son today feels like watching a high-budget home movie of the world’s most famous voice-acting troupe.
Why the "Face Model" Trend Started Here
Before Second Son, developers often tried to create characters from scratch. They’d draw a face and then hire a voice to match it. But Sucker Punch realized that if you want the performance to be "human," you have to let the actor's anatomy do the work.
If an actor has a certain way their cheek bunches up when they smile, it’s incredibly hard to animate that from scratch. By scanning the infamous second son actors and using their actual likenesses, the developers avoided the "Uncanny Valley"—that creepy feeling you get when something looks human but feels "off."
Even though the game is over a decade old, the facial animations still hold up remarkably well against modern titles. That’s because the technology was built around human muscle movement, not just digital guesswork.
What Most People Get Wrong About Mocap
Kinda funny, but people often think "motion capture" is just recording a video and tracing it. It’s way more physical. Troy Baker has talked about how he loves the "suit." He says it’s like being a kid in a sandbox. You have to imagine the neon, the concrete towers, and the D.U.P. soldiers because, in reality, you’re just in a giant empty room with some PVC pipes.
The actors had to deliver intense, emotional performances—like the scene where Reggie dies—while wearing a heavy plastic helmet and a leotard. That takes a specific kind of skill that traditional film actors sometimes struggle with. You have to be "big" enough for the sensors to catch the movement but "small" enough for the camera to catch the emotion.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Aspiring VAs
If you're looking back at Infamous Second Son and wondering why the acting feels "different" than other games from that era, here’s what you should take away:
- Chemistry is Unhackable: You can’t simulate the rapport between Troy and Travis. If you're creating a story, the relationship between the performers often bleeds into the work.
- Likeness Matters: When a character looks like the actor, the performance is usually better because the "rig" (the digital skeleton) matches the actor's actual range of motion.
- Context is King: The cast didn't just record lines; they were involved in the "physicality" of the characters. Delsin's "swagger" is just Troy Baker’s actual walk.
If you want to see more of this specific crew, you should check out the Infamous First Light DLC, where Laura Bailey really gets to shine as the lead. It's a tighter, more emotional story that proves Fetch was just as compelling as Delsin.
Next time you’re climbing the Space Needle in-game, remember there’s a guy in a spandex suit somewhere in a studio in Bellevue who had to "act" that climb with nothing but his imagination.
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To really see the evolution of this, compare Delsin’s facial rig to the characters in the original Infamous or Infamous 2. The jump in "soul" is almost entirely thanks to the decision to let the actors be themselves. Sucker Punch didn't just hire voices; they hired people, and they let those people's real-life friendships define the world of the Conduits.