History Characters / DeadIsland

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[[folder:The Playable Characters]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dipc.jpg]]
The player character of Dead Island is picked from one of four vacation-goers on the island of Banoi, with the additional option of a quarantined navy-man they meet in ''Riptide''. Each character has a distinct preference in weapons and fighting styles based on their personal history. The four (later five) travel together as a group throughout the island of Banoi (later Palanai) trying to find a way to escape. Their shared immunity to the zombie infection make them go-to errand boys and protectors of many more vulnerable survivors.

!!Tropes exhibited by all playable characters:
* AmbiguousSituation: The ending. [[spoiler: The fact that ''Riptide'' was specifically denied to be "Dead Island 2" has left some believing that the 5 heroes will be back. The fact that Xian Mei appears alive and unmutated in ''Escape Dead Island'', which takes place several months after ''Riptide'', suggests at least some of the team survived the cliffhanger.]]
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler: This is what the ending seems to imply, possibly due to the extra dose of mutagen they took for the final boss (which they ''hoped'' wore off), but the whole thing is so quick and sudden that it's impossible to be sure if it isn't some trick being pulled on the player.]]
* TheBerserker: ''Riptide'' clarifies that the "Rage Mode" power-up is a side-effect of the zombie virus within them, which becomes more severe in that game. Exactly how this ability gives Logan and Purna infinite throwing knives and bullets respectively is not explained.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: John counts more than the rest, due to being an expert martial artist and sailor before the outbreak, but the other four are total badasses by the end of the first game. In ''Riptide'', everyone is forced to travel through storage facilities filled with chemical weapons and mutagens, causing the zombie virus to mutate and augment their Rage Mode and make them more explicitly invulnerable.
* EmergencyTransformation: [[spoiler: The player takes an additional dosage of mutagen to take on the drugged-up, insane, mutated Harlow in ''Riptide'', giving them infinite Rage-Mode for a while. Thankfully, the heroes are able to handle the mutation better and the symptoms actually wear off.]]
* GoodIsNotSoft: Xian and John, in contrast to the others, are essentially the Chinese embodiment of death and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, but very kind, caring, and helpful. Especially Xian, who can be heard expressing sympathy to special infected. Before killing them.
* HeroicWillpower: During the final boss of ''Riptide'', everyone displays this [[spoiler: when taking the mutagen and going berserk]]. Except possibly Sam B, who has no problem dealing with it.
* TheImmune: It's the reason they do all the work. This turns out to have ramifications in ''Riptide''.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Everyone except Xian Mei and John Morgan. Sam B and Purna in particular are very rude and aggressive, and Logan is very gruff and coarse. All of them seem to care about other survivors and willingly help out, but those three will blow up at anyone who questions them or slows them down.
* LeftHanging: [[spoiler:The end of ''Riptide'' shows the boat they escaped in, one week later, to be abandoned on deck. The camera then focuses on the handle of the door to the cabin, which turns. What exactly this means has left players and fans confused.]]

* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: If you believe they were zombified in the ending.]]
* TrueCompanions: Definitely so, by the end of the first game. In addition to this in the second game, there's also the group of survivors who you actually manage to shepherd through the entire game.

!!Xian Mei
->Voiced by Creator/KimMaiGuest
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dead-island-artwork-concept-002-XianMei-wallpaper_7640.jpg]]

[[hardline]]

* ActionGirl: [[http://deadisland.deepsilver.com/characters.php Her bio]] describes her as "a passionate sportswoman" who is "quick on her feet." And then there's her ''in-game'' biography, which is totally different. The website and manual make her sound like an idealistic young girl who wants to travel the world. If you pick her off the character selection screen, you get the real story, told to you by Xian Mei herself. It's been noted that, being an undercover cop, the website is most likely telling the lie from her end, and playing as her reveals the truth about what she does.

* BackStab: Has an ability that increase the damage done to zombies from behind. Combined with another ability that decreases the chance that zombies will notice her and her GlassCannon status, this is probably the best way to play Xian until the higher levels.
* BringIt: When confronting a zombie with a knife Xian might do a cute little finger wag.

* CombatStilettos: Xian can actually learn a move that involves driving her high heels into a zombie's head.
* DivergentCharacterEvolution: ''Escape Dead Island'' has her dressed similar to her resort receptionist look, but with proper pants and combat boots. She's more snarky and standoffish, essentially uses Cliff as a patsy to accomplish her own ends (essentially rescue Rob and blow up the island) and rather than seek a cure for the virus destroy the labs it was created in (though she does give Cliff a chance to find a cure himself before blowing up the infected labs).
* {{Expy}}: There's also more than a bit of [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil Ada]] in ''Escape Dead Island''. Chinese ActionGirl, AntiHero, DeadpanSnarker whose loyalties are unknown, whether she's with the Chinese government, Geopharm, or someone else, and has a few PetTheDog moments.

* GoingCommando: Not entirely sure how someone found the time to discover it in-game, but apparently Xian [[http://kotaku.com/5843556/evidently-dead-islands-xian-does-not-wear-panties-%5Bnsfw%5D isn't a fan of underwear]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy-TPe_Iut4 going from her model]]. Granted, this might be from an oversight or conflicts in development or is otherwise unreliable due to contradicting official art (note how her model has darker skin than her art) since all of the model's lower half behind the skirt looks to be textured similar to the visible [[StockingFiller stocking]] covered bits (which don't reach past Xian's thighs as shown in her art). Needless to say, the links are {{NSFW}}.
* TheHero: Moreso than Purna below, she was featured prominently in the first game and works to uncover the truth in the upcoming ''Escape Dead Island.''

* IOweYouMyLife: In ''Riptide'', she'll sometimes say this when you tackle a zombie off of her. Along with "You shall die an honorable death/you will die with ''honor''" (to zombies, not to the players), it makes her come as very refined even when fighting for her life.

* TheMole: In ''Escape Dead Island'' it's left unclear whether she's working for the Chinese government, the evil Palm Garden Order that controls Geopharm, or some other secret organization, but she clearly knows more about the zombie outbreaks and the global conspiracy behind them than she let on in the first two games.
* NoRespectGuy : Her back-story.
* OffModel: Her artwork depicts her as a fair-skinned woman while her model is on the darker tan side. Her first-person model has her hands match her artwork's skin color but her shoulder oddly still has the tan.

* PrecisionFStrike: The game does not shy away from swearing, but Xian only does this twice: once after recovering when the kuru virus had made her into a BloodKnight that would have [[VideoGame/SaintsRow Johnny Gat]] propose, and to Serpo upon his admission of all the atrocities he is behind.

* TokenGoodTeammate: In the cutscenes, Xian Mei comes across as the most idealistic of the four heroes. She disagrees with the other three's suggestions to abandon the other survivors and save themselves and agrees with Jin's desire to help everybody. In the beginning of Act III she even gives a RousingSpeech to the other 3 characters to convince them to search for the vaccine and save the world instead of heading straight for the extraction point and just saving themselves.

!!Logan Carter
->Voiced by Creator/DavidKaye
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dead_island_logan_full_4962.png]]

[[hardline]]

* ActionSurvivor: While all the other player characters have actual combat training (a cop, a covert operative, an ex-soldier, and a rapper who grew up in a HADToBeSharp environment) Logan's just an ex-football player caught in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Doesn't stop him from hanging tough alongside the other badasses.

* TheAtoner: Zigzagged. He's not originally out to atone for his sins, but one gets a feeling that he starts thinking of his efforts at helping other survivors as a small payment for the asshole he used to be.
* BrokenPedestal: His street racing accident did this for most of his fans, on account of killing an innocent woman and violating his contract's morals clause.
* CareerEndingInjury: in the backstory.

* HumanPackMule: The backpack should clue you in. As such, he's the only character who in cutscenes can pull plot-important items out of somewhere without looking ridiculous. And of course, one can only imagine that a Hyperspace Backpack must be exponentially more spacious than the HyperspaceArsenal everyone else totes (hint: [[GamePlayAndStorySegregation it's actually not]]).

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Heavily implied when [[spoiler: he's the only one looking on at Yerema, who herself is looking to where Jin had fallen dead. He waits for some time before calling to her to get in the helicopter.]]

* TokenWhite: Logan is the only Caucasian playable character in the original game. ''Riptide'' introduces John Morgan.
* TooDumbToLive: Only in the novel. Novel!Logan habitually mixes painkillers, antidepressants, and hard liquor, to the point where his being alive at all is a minor miracle. (It's amazing that he was allowed to donate blood.)


!!Sam B
->Voiced by Creator/PhilLaMarr
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deadisland-artwork-SamB_7084.jpg]]

[[hardline]]

* TheBigGuy: The largest player character. His team role as the tank suits him well.

* DropTheHammer: His specialty is blunt weapons. On the character selection screen, he is depicted holding a sledgehammer (with a [[ShockAndAwe Tesla mod]].)
%% ZCE * EarWorm: "Who Do You Voodoo, Bitch?"

* HADToBeSharp: Credits his survivability with having grew up learning to fight on the mean streets of N'Orleans.

** Though it's never outright stated, it's pretty clear that his OneHitWonder falls squarely under this genre.
** Now followed up by "No Room in Hell", showing that he got typecasted into this genre.
* LargeHam: Probably the loudest of the PC's. Being a rapper and hip-hop star, he has a natural combination of [[ClusterFBomb uncouthness]] and gregariousness.
** ChewingTheScenery: In Riptide, once some mutagens enhance his rage mode, making him even more berserk.
--->''PVP'', '''MOTHERFUCKERS'''! This is how we churn ''BUTTER'', '''[[TheBigEasy N'AWLINS STYLE]]'''!
* MagnumOpusDissonance: In-universe: Sam always wanted to be a socially conscious, political rapper and considers that material to be his life's work. The fact that the only song he ever wrote anyone else wants to hear more than once is the {{Horrorcore}} track he wrote as an elaborate joke for a Halloween party has left him very bitter.
* OneHitWonder: [[invoked]]Invoked InUniverse by "Who Do You Voodoo, Bitch?". Sam was an aspiring rapper who didn't make the charts until he churned out that song, which he had made as a joke. Of course, this one song happens to be the only one anyone wants to hear, and Sam's attempts to distance himself from it fail as he fades into semi-obscurity again after unsuccessfully trying to produce another hit.

* PatrickStewartSpeech: Some TXT files have a good one that could have been his closing dialogue. It's essentially his musing over how extreme conditions [[WhatYouAreInTheDark bring out]] [[HiddenDepths the integrity and strength of the best of people]], and that seeing those gave him inspiration. Once he punches his way out of the zombie apocalypse, [[WorldHalfFull he'll have a song to sing.]]
* PunnyName: Sam B. Zombie. Get it?

* RegeneratingHealth: He's the only character that has this, via his skill tree.

* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: His in-game bio is essentially a by-the-numbers play on this trope: he generated ''one'' song that became extremely popular, spent more than he earned through partying and self-indulgence, realized he needed another hit, and failed to make another hit despite making several new songs.
* StoneWall: He's got the most health of the 4 original survivors, and his skill tree has talents focused around damage reduction, health regeneration, and drawing aggro. As a tradeoff, he has fewer stamina-related perks and can tire quickly


!!Purna
->Voiced by Peta Johnson
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dead-island-purna_93821-1024x768_6331.jpg]]

Purna is a former UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} police officer. Embittered by harsh racism, sexism and rampant corruption in the force that prevented her from advancing her career and doing her job, she one day decided to [[CowboyCop take the law into her own hands]], confronting a child molester who had used his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney wealth]] and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections connections]] to escape prosecution. The man laughed at her and pulled a gun on her, which she turned on him and shot him with. While it was correctly argued to be an act of legitimate self-defense, she was fired regardless. Bitter and cynical, and with no clear future left for her in Australia, she turned to working as a {{bodyguard|Babes}} for [=VIPs=] in dangerous places all over the world. She is hired as much for her looks as her skill with firearms.
[[hardline]]

* AwesomeAussie: Like her voice actress, she's from down under, and she's sending the zombies back there, too.
* BodyguardBabes: Her current job, much to her chagrin.

* GroinAttack:
** She didn't kill the child molester she shot. She gelded him. Purna's in-game bio has her say specifically that she "just" blew the guy's balls off. In the novel, however, she killed him, and tells Logan and Sam without any hesitation that she enjoyed doing it.
** She treats a drunk to this when he [[TooDumbToLive gropes her breasts]] in the intro sequence.
* TheGunslinger: Of the four, she's the most proficient with guns, and her [[LimitBreak Rage attack]] has her pulling out her gun (a {{revolver|sAreJustBetter}}, of course) and firing on all zombies in sight, [[BottomlessMagazines ammo not being an issue]].

* KickChick: In addition to her gun skills, Purna has a number of skills in her fury and combat trees that focus on kicking enemies to death.
* TheLeader: Most likely, considering how she narrates the intro for Riptide. Her "aura" skills also make the other player characters fight better when they're near by sharing her boosts.

* MiniDressOfPower: Judging by her pic in the bio.
* MoreDakka: Her Rage attack.
* TheMusketeer: While her main skill is with firearms, she also has some skills that boost her ability with melee weapons. At least one is specifically for blades, so it fits this trope.
* OffModel: Her artwork depicts her as a tanned woman, befitting her being half-Aboriginal, but her in-game model is very dark-skinned, similar to Yerema.
* PetTheDog: Some of her actions and attitudes through the storyline are quite questionable (to say the least), but she shows a soft spot when she comforts Jin after [[spoiler: she's been captured and (it's implied) raped by the criminal gang that took over the Police Station.]]
* RealityIsUnrealistic: A lot of people complain about how fake Purna's Australian accent sounds, but her voice actress, Peta Johnson, is actually from Queensland.
* ThrowAwayGuns: It's common at mid- to high level for Purna to carry several loaded guns in order to maximize the amount of ammunition she's got at any given time. She can eventually take points in her Hail of Bullets skill to expand her carrying capacity, but it's still often very useful to double up on her weapons, as switching guns takes much less time than reloading them. It's easy to imagine she's doing a New York reload.

!!John Morgan
->Voiced by Creator/AdamCroasdell
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deadisland-riptide-all-all-artwork-concept-john-morgan-640_9068.jpg]]

The new playable character, introduced in ''Riptide'', John is a sergeant in the Australian Defense Force, third-generation career military, and a self-taught martial artist.
[[hardline]]
----
* ApocalypticLog: Throughout the game you can snippets of a diary John wrote against orders where he describes the outbreak, reacts to the bombing of a village [[AcceptableTargets like a Collingwood fan after a loss]] and his capture after refusing to kill civilians and infection.
* BareFistedMonk: Specializes in hand-to-hand combat.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: He was an expert martial artist before ''Riptide'', and his skill tree allows him to augment his unarmed combat skills (which normally do piddly damage) to be a viable alternative to other weapons.
* IHaveAFamily: One of his diaries mentions that his wife and two young daughters lived in Palanoi and he has no idea where they are.
* MilitaryBrat: A benign example. Morgan's grandfather was a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran who married a native, and his father reached the rank of sergeant-major in the ADF. John followed suit and enlisted as soon as he could.
* MrExposition: John records a series of diaries describing the madness of his squad operating in Palanai and the events leading up to his infection and eventual capture by the army. Listening to them you really cannot blame [[BigBad Ryder White]] going off the deep end.
* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Morgan's unarmed attacks are strong enough to punt a zombie through the air and send it flying across the room.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Was the only soldier in his unit to speak out against the "solution" to the Banoi incident. This got him thrown in prison.
* StoneWall: John begins the game with the least health of any survivor, but at high levels, can be built up to have the most, along with talents that regenerate health after a kill and give him a chance to heal back up and keep fighting instead of dying upon taking a fatal hit. This is designed to help him get in close, where he's able to do the most damage.

[[folder:[=NPCs=] introduced in Dead Island]]
!! The Voice[=/=]Colonel Ryder White
->Voiced by Joe Hanna

The first person you "meet" in the game, The Voice contacts you through the hotel's intercom system and guides you to safety through the prologue level. Throughout the game, it's mentioned that he has been contacting the various groups of island survivors (most prominently John Sinamoi's group) in an attempt to coordinate a response to the zombie outbreak. When the players eventually succeed in making radio contact with him, he reveals his identity as Colonel Ryder White of the Banoi Island Defense Force, the leader of the military contingent sent to contain the outbreak on the island. He requests that they help him by retrieving a vaccine for the zombie infection before meeting him in person to escape the island. His primary motivation is to save his wife Emily, who has been infected by the zombie virus and is slowly turning into one of them.

[[spoiler: At the end of the game, he knocks out the heroes and steals the vaccine from them, becoming the final opponent of the game.]]

Ryder White serves as the protagonist of Dead Island: Ryder White, the second DLC for the game, which sheds new light on many aspects of the main campaign's plot.
[[spoiler:The campaign reveals that not only was Ryder ''not'' the Voice (It was Kevin/Charon, impersonating him in order to manipulate the heroes), but he actually did ''not'' order in a nuke. Kevin had manipulated the heroes into believing Ryder had betrayed them, leading to his desperate act of stealing the cure and ultimately his death.]]

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: Subverted. He has the ''exact same goals'' as the Survivors: make an antidote out of the vaccine. Unfortunately Kevin/Charon manipulated the Survivors into thinking he was going to nuke the island and hoard the vaccine, and as a result the main campaign paints him as a monster. However, he never had any intention of harming the heroes, nor did he call down a nuke. Sadly, he loses his temper at the wrong moment, and in an act of desperation turns himself into the monstrous FinalBoss without ever explaining himself.]]
* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Aside from his methods and AxCrazy tendencies Ryder holds the rank of Colonel, an officer who would not be in an active wartime environment (though it's shown the conspiracy were pulling the strings). But his uniform clearly holds the rank of Sergeant and there is no such Sergeant Colonel rank.

* MeaningfulName: The fourth horseman of the apocalypse is a rider on a white horse (in other words, a White Rider), identified by some as Conquest or the Anti-Christ. So the name Ryder White is rather appropriate for [[spoiler: a BigBad who kicks off the zombie apocalypse]]. Subverted when you learn that [[spoiler: Colonel White was GoodAllAlong and it was Charon who was the real BigBad.]]
* MissionControl: This is done interestingly in Ryder White's campaign. MissionControl gives Ryder objectives over the radio, but Ryder is clearly the one in charge and issuing orders. It's an unusual dynamic that doesn't seem to have been done before in another game.
* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler: If he had just told the Heroes that Kevin was The Voice[=/=]Charon all along, it might have gone a long way towards defusing the whole situation (assuming he could convince them to believe him, of course).]]

* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: The man went through sheer hell trying to cure his wife, but it turned out he was too late. Even then, he had the hope of producing a full antidote out of the vaccine, and thus shared his main goal with the heroes. Unfortunately, PoorCommunicationKills and, well, that was pretty much the end of it.]]
* TragicMonster: [[spoiler: The DLC campaign certainly puts the final boss fight in a whole new light.]]
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:It turns out he was never the BigBad at all, and spent the entire outbreak simply fighting to survive just like the Heroes.]]
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: He's the first (living) contact encountered in the game, and he communicates to the survivors through radios on the island while they try to reach him for salvation. [[spoiler: Subverted in the Ryder White campaign, where it's revealed the Voice was Kevin impersonating Ryder all along.]]


!! Jin

[[hardline]]

* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler: Ignoring everyone's advice, she attempts to help the gangsters who have taken over the police station by giving them some food. They repay her kindness by capturing and (it's heavily implied) raping her. Afterwards she's heavily traumatized and also much more cynical, agreeing with Sam B, Logan, and Purna that everyone on the island can just go straight to hell (Xian Mei convinces the other 3 to save everyone after all, but Jin has simply stopped caring). To make things worse, she's later forced to mercy-kill her infected father. It's understandable she's more than a little bonkers by the time the final confrontation rolls around.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Jin is clearly on the edge of a total breakdown throughout the final stage in the prison, is visibly wracked with self-loathing after shooting her father, and her actions towards Ryder White are hard to interpret as anything other than a blatant suicide attempt.]]

!! John Sinamoi

[[hardline]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Despite being by far the most prominent quest giver in the first half of the game, after Act III he completely disappears from the plot (you can go back to the starting map and revisit him, but he has nothing to say). ''Dead Island: Epidemic'' shows that he survived Banoi and managed to escape, only to end up on ''another'' zombie-infested tropical island.

!! Mother Helen

[[hardline]]

* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: Compares the crew to the Horsemen.
* NeverMessWithGranny: Sure, she doesn't actually perform combat within the story, but considering the large amount of very dangerous weapons she hands out for doing chores, you have to figure that she hasn't survived on luck.


!! Yerema

[[hardline]]

* DoomMagnet: People tend to die around her. ''A lot''. [[spoiler: Partially justified in that she's the source of the outbreak.]]
* KickTheDog: Yerema's entire life ''sucks''. Women in her tribe are considered possessions, to the point where her father traded her away to another man in order to settle a bet. She apparently bonds with Jin almost immediately, [[spoiler: right in time for Jin to get shot dead.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: Starts the infection on the military vessel in Riptide by biting a guy who grabbed her!]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: She's taken away by the military in the intro of ''Riptide'' and plays no further role in the game. [[spoiler: Unless one counts causing an outbreak on the vessel.]]

!! Kevin Barrister

[[hardline]]

* BadassBookworm: Sure, he literally writes himself off as not being one of "the badasses" at the endgame, but he managed to escape alive from the three-way battle between [[spoiler: Titus's crew, a group of other prisoners, and the undead to then rescue the protagonists from the elevator]].

* NonActionBigBad:[[spoiler: It's heavily implied that he's Charon, the hacker-for-hire who has worked for everyone from Al-Qaeda to the Yakuza. This is confirmed in the Ryder White DLC, where Kevin is revealed as the true identity of The Voice and the true villain of the entire game.]]
* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler:''Escape Dead Island'' reveals that the virus killed his father. So he perfected it, seeks to destroy those who created it then unleash it on the whole world.]]
* SequelHook: [[spoiler: At the very end of the game, just before fading to credits, he gives a sinister smile when looking at Yerema (who's heavily hinted to be a Typhoid Mary carrier for the zombie virus) and promising the heroes that "the world will never be the same again".]] Of course, it's not followed up on in Riptide as [[spoiler:he and Yerema are dragged off and detained by the military]].
** [[spoiler:Becomes FridgeBrilliance, when you remember that Riptide is not Dead Island 2...he's still a Sequel Hook...just not for this game!]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: ''Escape from Dead Island'' presents him as this, by revealing tragedies he underwent that give him his motivation, but it's unclear whether it's sincere or simply more manipulation on his part.

!! Jason

[[hardline]]

* MacheteMayhem: His weapon.

!! Roger Howard

A reporter who came to Banoi to investigate illegal logging, and ended up getting a lot more than he expected. He has a wife and son (Karen and Jakob), and the recordings he leaves that the protagonists can find are often addressed to them as a [[ApocalypticLog last will and testament]].
[[hardline]]

* HopeSpot: One recording is made as he is holed up in a small store, with the undead swarming outside. He knows that the door won't hold, and says goodbye to his wife and son, apologizing that he wasn't home as much as he ought to have been. And then... they leave, apparently having detected better prey. In fact, he escapes his apparent death in virtually all the logs, which tend to end in [[CurseCutShort curses]] or screams of the undead. [[spoiler: And then the player finds the last two audio logs in the prison, the last of which having been recorded after he'd turned and contains the voices of the guards who had to shoot him.]]

[[folder:[=NPCs=] introduced in Dead Island: Riptide]]

!!Colonel Sam Hardy
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-dead_island_riptide_sam_hardy_bust_5627.png]]

The Colonel in charge of the military contingency that picks up the heroes at the beginning of the game. He's essentially the Palanai counterpart to Ryder White, although his role in the story is completely different. After his ship is overrun by zombies in the first chapter, Colonel Hardy ends up shipwrecked along with the heroes, and travels with them in an attempt to escape the island.
[[hardline]]

* ColonelBadass: His uniform reveals Hardy is a member of the US Army Rangers, essentially the elite of rank and file soldiers before going into special operations commandos like SEALS and Delta.
* JustFollowingOrders: The reason he gives for his treatment of the main cast at the beginning of the game. The survivors don't really see things his way...
-->'''Hardy:''' I'm a soldier. I follow orders.\\
'''Logan:''' Here's an order: Go fuck yourself.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:With the five immune to back him up, he tried to intimidate a lower ranking soldier to rescue all the survivors. Unfortunately, the soldier deferred to his standing orders and shot Hardy.]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He repeatedly tries to treat the immune decently when they're taken prisoner, expresses relief when they survive the crash, and along with Harlow does his best to lead the survivors safely.
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Sure, Xian Mei will consider his final act of trying to climb onto a chopper while a soldier repeatedly ordered him off as this, but under the circumstances it was a gamble that might have been worth making, even if it was desperate.]]

!!Frank Serpo
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-dead_island_riptide_frank_serpo_bust_7785.png]]

A representative of the shadowy Consortium that seems to be somehow manipulating the zombie outbreaks for their own ends, Serpo has authority over all government activity on Palanai, including bossing around the island's military contingent.
[[hardline]]

* BigBadWannabe: If not for the fact that he has the entire local military in his pocket he'd probably be long dead by the time the survivors reach Henderson.
* ConsummateLiar: Almost everything he says is one lie over another.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive
* DevouredByTheHorde: [[spoiler:After successfully avoiding the consequences for his actions for nearly the entire game his karma finally catches up to him and he is abandoned by the survivors who leave him to be a snack for the approaching hordes of zombies.]]
* DirtyCoward: It quickly becomes clear that saving his own ass is his top priority. [[spoiler:Near the end of the game he even shoots one of his own men to serve as a distraction for the zombies after the heroes crash his helicopter.]]
* FourEyesZeroSoul: He shows no remorse for his actions and doesn't really seem to care how many people die so long as it suits his goals.
* HateSink: Particularly the most despicable person in the entire franchise. While [[spoiler:Kevin/Charon]] has his own agenda, he still helps the Heroes every way he can. Serpo on the other hand is a DirtyCoward who cares only for himself. In fact, he is the culprit behind the outbreak on Palanai.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: He alternates rapidly throughout most of his appearances between being genuinely helpful and backstabbing someone.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Tells the Heroes not to trust Hardy and Harlow but this guy is even worse in every way.
* {{Irony}}: His death is ironic considering [[spoiler:he left his pilot as a distraction to the zombies.]]
* NonActionBigBad: All he really does is order most people around and smooth talks others, but he's still the reason things go south in ''Riptide''.
* TheSociopath: [[spoiler:He shot his pilot to distract the infected while he escaped]],He shows absolutely no remorse for the experiments that lead up to the devastation of the outbreak on Palanai and finally doesn't give a shit at how many lives he ruins or causes the death of as long as it leads to his personal goals coming close to fruition.
* VillainousBreakdown: Suffers a short one after [[spoiler:the protagonists leave him on Palanoi to the mercy of the undead.]]

!!Harlow Jordan
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-dead_island_riptide_harlow_jordan_bust_9346.png]]

The first person the Heroes meet after being shipwrecked on Palanai, Harlow is a reporter for the World Health Organization and the unofficial leader of the Paradise survivor camp. She travels alongside the Heroes for most of the game and has a central role in ''Riptide's'' plot.
[[hardline]]

* ActionGirl: She can handle herself pretty well in a fight. [[spoiler:Just look at her boss battle.]]
* AmbiguouslyJewish: If you check Harlow's bio in the Crew screen, it lists her as a former member of the Israel Defense Forces (as is, to be fair, ''any'' Israeli who's older than twenty-one). That and her occasional hint of an accent are the only clues you'd get as to why she's a badass and where she's from.
* BigDamnHeroes: Does this after the cannibal doctor torches Paradise. She attempts this again after [[spoiler: finding out details of the infection, becoming infected herself then doing whatever it takes to stop it from spreading.]]
* ChainsawGood: She makes use of a chainsaw as a melee weapon.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: It's kind of hard to argue against trying to keep the infection from spreading off the island, [[spoiler: and when the survivors do she forces the issue by attacking them.]]
* PsychoSerum: [[spoiler:She injects herself with an experimental mutagen at the end of the game to kill off the survivors. The fight afterwards is completely one-sided... until the players inject some of the same stuff into themselves and overpower her.]]
* ShootTheDog: When [[JerkAss Wayne]] becomes infected she pushes him into the tunnels where chemicals are causing the kuru virus to mutate from the very real zombification into the NightmareFuel that had swept Banoi and Palanai, to find out more about it. She tries to justify this after the survivors kill him, and then there's the trope above.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Turns on the Heroes in order to prevent them from spreading the infection outside the island. Frank Serpo claims she's secretly a terrorist and mercenary, but there's nothing to indicate that he's trustworthy, and quite a lot to indicate that he's not.]]
** [[spoiler: She only saves Wayne on the way to Henderson because she wants to see what happens to an infected host upon exposure to the chemicals in the tunnel system.]]

!!Markus Villa

A strange man who may be able to help the survivors by providing a way to Henderson.

* AxCrazy: Despite his good intentions and whatnot, he's a few candles short of a candelabra.
* ImAHumanitarian: He thinks [[spoiler:eating the immune survivors will somehow save the island from the ZombieApocalypse]].
* MacheteMayhem: The only weapon he uses during the one time he fights. [[spoiler:Its no match for whatever the player uses to finish him off.]]
* MadScientist: [[spoiler: The collectible documents reveal he was Dr. Kessler's partner and probably the best scientist that was studying the zombie outbreak. Although he's clearly snapped, this does make you wonder if his plan to gain the survivors' immunity by eating them was really as crazy as it sounds.]]
* MolotovCocktail: [[spoiler:He uses this to burn Paradise to the ground.]]
* PermanentlyMissableContent: [[spoiler:It's fairly easy to progress to the next plot point without taking revenge on Markus for his actions thanks to the game placing the "next story point" location near a couple of regularly-used merchant [=NPCs=], especially if you're playing solo. Doing so will cause you to miss the revenge sidequest and cause Markus to disappear from the plot altogether.]]
* TheUnfought: If the player fails to complete the sidequest that involves tracking him down before [[PointOfNoReturn progressing with the game]] [[spoiler:after the cutscene where he sets Paradise on fire, he disappears from the main story [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse and his fate is left unknown]].]]
* UngratefulBastard: After saving his life and helping him out he [[spoiler:demands the immune survivors offer their flesh to be eaten in the hopes that it will save everyone from the virus. Then he throws a Molotov at them and burns up one of the only safe havens they had at that point.]]

!!Dr. Kessler

A doctor holed up in his laboratory on the edge of the jungle. After clearing out some of his assistants who fell prey to the virus and recovering some chemical samples for him he examines the player and gives them advice about their condition.
----
* DrJerk: He is fairly rude and egotistic, but his advice and information is usually spot on.
* HerrDoktor: He has a noticeable German accent.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: As abrasive as he can be, he does take genuine care of the player characters and show concern for their well-being. He's also a hell of a lot more stable than his former friend, [[spoiler: Marcus Villa]]>

[[folder:Characters Introduced in ''Escape Dead Island'']]

!! Cliff Cabo

The son of a famous media mogul, Cliff wants little more than to get his father's attention. When he learns how desperate his father is to learn what happened on and around Banoi, Cliff "borrows" a boat and sails out to the island chain.

* BadassNormal: Although it's arguable as to how much of the game actually happens, if taken as generally true, then Cliff fights his way through an army of zombies despite not being a trained combatant and suffering a severe concussion that leaves him suffering constant hallucinations.
* BladeOnAStick: His ultimate melee weapon mixes this with axes; it's a fireaxe with two knives bolted onto the head, giving it extended cutting surfaces, a spear-like tip and a backwards-facing hooking edge.
* CarryABigStick: His first melee weapon is a customized club armed with nails.
* ImprovisedWeapons: Uses a screwdriver as a stabbing weapon, unless he finds the knife later on.
* IntrepidReporter: If Frank West was younger and had a rich, distant dad, he'd be Cliff.
* LateToTheParty: Doesn't arrive on Narapela until six months after the initial outbreak.
* MindScrew: Cliff opens the first level of the game by taking his sailboat's boom to the face. The game treats his head trauma as an excuse to get extensively surreal.
* MoreDakka: He carries a pistol, a shotgun and an assault rifle.
* UnreliableNarrator: It's anyone's guess whether ''anything'' after the first level actually happened.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Cliff's entire motivation for going to Banoi in the first place is to make his father notice him. At one point, he hallucinates a radio broadcast that concerns his sister, and how she has a better relationship with their father than he does.

!! Linda Williams

One of Cliff's friends.

* [[spoiler: DeadAllAlong: Pretty much everything Linda says after she's bitten is a voice in Cliff's head. It appears she's dead for most of the game, but there's a line of dialogue during the final level that suggests Faith managed to save her after all.]]
* IntrepidReporter: She wants to be a famous journalist, so she was ''remarkably'' easy to persuade to come along on Cliff's little adventure.

!! Devan Mavropani

!! Faith Kimball

A scientist who was offered a blank check by Geopharm's CEO to work on health research.
----
* ApocalypticLog: You can find several video logs recorded by Faith as you work your way through the staff village. [[spoiler: The last one ends as a zombie bursts into the room whilst she's in mid-record and attacks her. Thought somehow she seems to get better later on.]]
* TokenGoodTeammate: Some of the collectible audio logs indicate that Geopharm withheld details about their most unethical experiments from her, although other logs suggest she was involved in at least some of the human experimentation.

!! Aaron Wilkes

One of the scientists who was working on the island lab belonging to Geopharm. [[spoiler: An experimental treatment ended up transforming him into a hulking, giant mutant zombie.]]

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: The collectible logs show that Dr. Wilkes was fully aware of and involved in the unethical human experiments being conducted on the island, which makes his fate of being mutated into a freakish monster quite a lot less sympathetic.]]
* DeathByFallingOver: [[spoiler: At the end of the game, inside Emory Crown's villa, Wilkes will chase you one last time before the floor gives way under his weight and he falls down a single story. If you look down the resulting hole you can see him on the floor below buried under rubble. It's unclear if he's dead or just temporarily knocked unconscious, but given that you never see him again except as a hallucination it's a rather anti-climactic end.]]
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler: A hallucinatory version of Wilkes is fought as the game's final boss. It's unclear what happened to the actual Wilkes, as he falls through a hole in the floor shortly before Cliff reaches Emory Crown's office and kicks off the hallucinatory final level.]]
* TheHeavy: Other than the zombies, Wilkes serves as the primary threat towards Cliff and his friends throughout the game.
* ItCanThink: [[spoiler: Similar to the player characters of ''Dead Island: Epidemic'', Wilkes has been mutated into a monsterous brute by the virus, but retains his rational human mind thanks to the experimental serum he took before turning. Unfortunately, the process is imperfect and while he's still relatively sane, the mutation has given him one ''hell'' of a temper.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: You pretty much can't read ''anything'' about him without giving away huge secrets about the game in general and even ''Dead Island'' as a whole.

!! Rob

An associate of Xian Mei's, Rob went missing two days before the outbreak on Banoi.
----
* {{Expy}}: He's [[Franchise/ResidentEvil HUNK]] with a sword.

[[folder:Zombies]]

!! Walker
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dead_Island_-_Vessels_4784.jpg]]

The most common zombie as well as the weakest. They move slowly and don't deal as much damage as the other zombies, but often appear in large groups that can overwhelm their prey more easily. They are generally more mutilated, implying that this is what happens when someone killed by zombies subsequently comes back.
[[hardline]]
----
* FanDisservice: They tend to be dressed in revealing swimwear... and are also missing large chunks of flesh in various places... one wonders how some of them can even manage to stay standing...
* MookChivalry: A rather nasty aversion. As soon as one of them grabs you every other one within 30 feet or so will gleefully mob rush you without hesitation. God help you if an Infected is nearby when this happens.
* PressXToNotDie: The only advantage Walkers have over the elite zombies is a grapple attack that can hold the player in place for a few seconds. If the survivor fails the button prompt they lose health and stay trapped.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Depending on the level the player is at its possible for them to be knocked into a shallow pool of water and die in just a couple of seconds.
* ZombieGait: Walkers are the stereotypical lumbering, slow-moving zombie that only pose a threat when found in large numbers. However, while not nearly as fast as an Infected, they can lumber along surprisingly quickly at times. After they get close enough they can rush the player about as fast as an Infected would for a short burst in order to try and grapple the player.

!! Infected
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Infected_4562.jpg]]

The least durable type of zombie, but also the fastest. They deal high damage and often attack in groups similar to Walkers. In contrast to Walkers, they are rarely mutilated extensively, and often sport bloodied bandages. This implies that humans who are bitten by a zombie and then escape, only to succumb to the virus, become Infected.
[[hardline]]
----
* AndIMustScream: It's rare, but occasionally you will hear one growl "help me".
* AxCrazy: Hinted in Howard's logs and his infection to be those that were driven to murderous insanity by their fever causing them to hallucinate.
* TheBerserker: They care little for injuries and will keep coming until they are hacked/shot to pieces.
* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: They may be rated low on the threat level as far as Kessler is concerned but these can easily be the biggest danger thanks to this, they may not kill in one hit but have a tendency to attack in groups, hem you in and [[DeathOfAThousandCuts gang bash you.]]
* FragileSpeedster: A couple hits will put one down... [[GlassCannon if they don't kill you first]].
* GlassCannon: They pack a mean punch although they practically fall to pieces when you manage to start retaliating.
* OffWithHisHead: Probably the best way to kill them is to decapitate them with a single well-timed blade slash. The game will even encourage players to do this by offering an achivement for killing 5 infected in a row with one attack.
* ScreamingWarrior: Holy crap... the moment you hear this, run.
* SpitefulAI: ''Their lives depend on your death'' and they are not content to just chase you all over the map or rage if they cannot get at you, they even resort to spawn camp so even after killing you they can rush in and do it again in a vicious cycle.
* TechnicallyLivingZombie: Unlike the Walkers, which are implied to be those who either died/or killed and reanimated, these guys are hinted to be still alive as their ability to take punishment is about on par with a living, breathing person.
* UnstoppableRage: Their psychotic fury is truly terrifying to behold.

!! Thug
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/225px-Thug1_1456.jpg]]

Tall, muscular zombies that can send survivors flying with a single punch. They're the unfortunate end result of what happens when guys who were ''really big'' when they were alive fall victim to the virus. They move extremely slow and rely solely on brute strength.
[[hardline]]
----
* BattleCry: If you hear a really loud roar... keep moving. They'll also do it after being hit twice, which is the only time they can be attacked without retaliating.
* {{Determinator}}: Short of ramming them with a vehicle, they can't be reliably knocked down like the other zombies. One reliable way to deal with them alone is by breaking/cutting off their arms. They'll keep coming at you though, attacking with head butts while their arms flail around limply.
* MightyGlacier: They move slow, but have lots of health and can deal a lot of damage with just a single hit.
* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Any blow they land will send you flying.

!! Suicider
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Suicider_Zombie_3740.jpg]]

Painfully self-aware zombies whose only form of attack is to blow themselves up next to a survivor and kill them with the resulting blast. Luckily, they can also harm other zombies this way.
[[hardline]]
----
* ActionBomb: The only way they can attack is with a self-destructive explosion.
* AndIMustScream: Making them quite possibly the most tragic type of zombie in the game.
* BodyHorror: Probably the worst case out of all the zombies; they're covered in pulsing, pustulant tumors. Making things worse, there's enough of their human mind inside to dimly realize how awful their body is and ''plead mindlessly for help''.
* GlassCannon: It's the only zombie who can [[OneHitKill one shot]] the players, but a couple decent attacks from a distance will easily dispose of them.
* HellIsThatNoise: [[RuleOfThree When you hear a raspy, creepy voice calling for help]] that signifies one is nearby, ''don't'' run, odds are you'll get too close in a bid to escape.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: If the survivor has a gun they basically serve as a "wipe out this zombie horde" button. Boom.
* MadeOfExplodium: Their bodies have some built up gases inside which causes the explosion. If you manage to get close to one without it blowing up first, you can hear some cries of pain coming from them, suggesting they're not very happy in the situation they're in.
* OneHitKill: If a survivor is too close when one goes off it kills them instantly.
* TakingYouWithMe: If you're unlucky enough to kill one while standing too close to it...

!! Ram
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1982466-275px_ram_5263.jpg]]

Huge zombies strapped inside straightjackets. It's implied that they originated from the prison, presumably having been unstable prisoners who happened to be in restraints when they were infected or even prisoners who were restrained ''because'' they became infected. As their name implies, they attempt to rush the player with a powerful charging attack.
[[hardline]]
----
* AttackItsWeakPoint: It only takes one point of damage unless you attack the exposed flesh on its back.
* TheBerserker: It’s not very concerned for its own safety, and will attack any survivor in its line of sight relentlessly with charges and kicks until they or their prey are dead.
* BaldOfEvil: Not a single hair on their heads.
* BullfightBoss: Dodge. Attack. Dodge. Repeat until it goes down.
* FoeTossingCharge: Any survivor hit by its charge is knocked off their feet, which makes them a huge pain to deal with when there are large groups of other zombies nearby.
* LightningBruiser: He's huge and has lots of HP. He also moves extremely fast when charging and will take out a significant chunk out of your HP if he hits you.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Works for it, apparently.

!! Floater
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Floater_3638.jpg]]

Bloated zombies found near water that can spit a strange type of slime at survivors to damage them from afar.
[[hardline]]
----
* BodyHorror: Just look at it. His grotesquely bloated body plus transparent skin that lets you take a good look at its innards are not pleasant to look at.
* BreathWeapon: Nasty acid slime stuff.
* DeadWeight: Much like a [[VideoGame/Left4Dead Boomer.]] They even use similar attacks!
* FanDisservice: Maybe even worse than the Walkers. This thing is almost naked like most of the other zombies, but as its name implies, it's fat and bloated. Also, its skin is transparent and its guts spill out when it dies. Lovely.
* HellIsThatNoise: When traversing flooded areas, if you hear a loud roar/gurgle, a Floater is nearby.
* LogicalWeakness: If you can trigger the electrocution effect of a weapon on them, they die pretty quickly, being bloated, water-filled corpses and all.
* {{Kevlard}}: Besides having lots of health, they're also resistant to most forms of damage, especially bullets or fire.
* MightyGlacier: Moves at a slow waddle, takes a large amount of damage before dying.
* VomitIndiscretionShot[=/=]ZombiePukeAttack: Their long range attack.

!! Butcher
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/789px-Butcher_2497.png]]

One of the strongest types of zombies in the game. Butchers move fast and deal heavy damage with the sharpened, exposed bone on their arm stumps, which can make them a pain to deal with when other zombies are nearby. Butchers appear as mini-bosses in ''Escape Dead Island'', albeit with a visual redesign.

[[hardline]]
----
* {{Autocannibalism}}: Its heavily implied that the reason it has arm stubs is because it ate its own hands sometime during or after infection.
* BaldOfEvil: Their scalp is peeled off in the original and ''Riptide'' games.
* TheBerserker: Like the Infected above, once they spot you they will pursue you relentlessly until you or themselves have been killed.
* BladeBelowTheShoulder: Their forearms have been reduced to one (or two, in ''Escape Dead Island'') curved, sharpened bones, which they use like knives.
* EliteMook: In ''Dead Island'' and ''Riptide'', closer to mini-boss status in ''Escape Dead Island''.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Uses its own arm [[BadWithTheBone bones]] as weapons.
* LightningBruiser: Like Infected, they sprint at you and can deal a huge amount of damage in a short span of time. Unlike Infected, though, they have a lot of health and can't be stunned, save for with elemental effects or knockdown modifications like the Magic Wand.
* YouDontLookLikeYou: The ''Escape'' version is quite different in appearance. It lacks the flayed look of the classic Butcher, instead having gnawed-off lips and a few gashes on an otherwise untouched body, and it has two curving bone-blades emerging from each gnawed limb-stump.

!! Drowner

A common type of zombie introduced in ''Riptide'' that lays face-down in water, waiting for victims. Only appears in ''Riptide''.
----
* LightningBruiser: The Drowner is a Walker on the Infected's pure adrenaline high. It is capable of running in waist-deep water fast enough to catch up with a boat unless you engage the turbo boost.
* PlayingPossum: You'd think a water-logged body floating face down in the river would be a long dead corpse. Some of them really are corpses but most are just Drowners playing dead.
* SuperNotDrowningSkills: However the Kuru virus mutated them they now have the ability to survive while floating face down in large bodies of water. They won't even try to attack unless the player gets really close to them.

!! Grenadier
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grenadier_1721.jpg]]

A zombified scientist in a hazmat suit who pelts targets with bloody, explosive chunks of his own body. Only appears in ''Riptide''.
[[hardline]]
----
* AttackItsWeakPoint: The Grenadier has a tank on the back of its hazmat which will explode and kill it if shot at.
* BodyHorror: Not only is the guy flinging weaponized tumors at you, which are visibly bulging through its suit, but imagine ''becoming'' one. Every Grenadier seems to have been the result of someone's moon suit tearing or proving insufficient.
* GasMaskMooks: In their case, the gas mask is broken, partially revealing [[FacialHorror their badly decomposed face]].
* HazmatSuit: They wear the remnants of one; it makes them a lot harder to hurt.
* LovecraftianSuperpower: The Grenadier attacks by pelting enemies with organic grenades grown from their own decaying flesh.

!! Wrestler

A huge, lumbering zombie with a massive, mutated arm that he slams into the ground to create a powerful area-of-effect attack. Only appears in ''Riptide''.
----
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Like the Ram, it takes more damage when attacking its back. It will also take much higher than usual headshot damage if you shoot the wound on the right side of its head, although this is quite difficult to do.
* MightyGlacier: You can kite a Wrestler around more or less forever, but if it hits you, you'll be knocked over.
* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Its punches can knock the survivors to the ground.
* TheRightHandOfDoom: It has a very large right arm that it use to attack.

!! Screamer

An emaciated zombie with claw-like hands, the Screamer races directly at survivors and attacks with a disorienting, well, scream. Only appears in ''Riptide''.
----
* EnemySummoner: Its screams can also alert a bunch of zombies.
* InterfaceScrew: Their scream blurs the player's screen and takes away their ability to fight and use medkits for a few seconds. It can even cause them to trip and fall backwards while they are trying to get away.
* LightningBruiser: It can move ''fast'', and if it manages to melee you during a stun, it can drop an equal-level Xian or Purna in seconds.
* LeanAndMean: Extremely emaciated and a vicious opponent.
* MakeMeWannaShout: Its scream causes the players to temporarily cover their ears preventing them from fighting back.
* ShoutOut: Its design is clearly based on a similar creature encountered near the beginning of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest IV''.

!! Shambler

The common zombie of Narapela, perhaps due to their age they have developed differently from the Walkers of Banoi and Palanai.
----
* ZombieGait: Averted, despite their name; Shamblers are capable of ''running'' to try and catch up with you.

!! Bouncer

A hyperactive, snarling zombie that moves with far greater speed and agility than most. Only seen on Narapela.
----
* EliteMooks: Bouncers are much nastier than other zombies, and only found in rare occasions.
* InASingleBound: They can make powerful jumping attacks at you from a considerable distance. Fortunately, these are pretty obviously telegraphed.
* LightningBruiser: They're quick, but unlike the fast zombies from ''Dead Island'' and ''Riptide'', they're also pretty tough.

!! Spitter

Zombies whose bodies have mutated to produce a steady supply of toxic pus or mucus, which they spit prodigiously through the air at potential prey. Only seen on Narapela.
----
* BodyHorror: They have faces that look half-melted and lungs that are so full of glowing green poisonous pus that they have ''burst through their backs''.
* SuperSpit: They attack by gobbing green toxic slime at you.

!! Siren

A zombie whose body is covered in bloody scratches, the Siren calls zombies to its location with its alarm-like shrieks.
----
* EnemySummoner: Like the Screamer, they call more zombies when they shriek.

!!Dweller

An especially mutated zombie found only in the Underground Labs of Narapela. Having adapted to life in the darkness, their eyes are near-useless, but they have incredibly acute senses of hearing.
----
* EliteMooks: The most dangerous zombies in the game, with a ''massive'' amount of health and damaging attacks. Their incredible hearing also means you can't sneak up behind them to stealth kill them. Overall it's best to just try to sneak around them entirely.
* LightningBruiser: Extremely tough, extremely hard-hitting... and ''extremely'' quick.
[[/folder]]

->Voiced by Adam Croasdell

* TheChick: She's the quietest, meekest, most delicate, idealistic and generally non-combative of the main crew.

* HotScientist: She's brilliant, and was given a blank check for research by the CEO of Geopharm.

* AnAxeToGrind: He switches to axes for his upgraded melee weapon.

* BladeOnAStick: His ultimate melee weapon mixes this with AnAxeToGrind; it's a fireaxe with two knives bolted onto the head, giving it extended cutting surfaces, a spear-like tip and a backwards-facing hooking edge.

* {{Expy}}:
** Whether it's deliberate or not, her background is a ''lot'' like [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Chun Li's]].
** There's also more than a bit of [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil Ada]] in ''Escape Dead Island''. Chinese ActionGirl, AntiHero, DeadpanSnarker whose loyalties are unknown, whether she's with the Chinese government, Geopharm, or someone else, and has a few PetTheDog moments.

* {{Expy}}: His pose with WolverineClaws on the selection screen makes it explicit that he is modeled after Creator/HughJackman.

* {{Expy}}: Of the Charger from ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''

* {{Expy}}: To an extent, of the Infected from ''Dead Island'' and ''Riptide'' (being a faster-moving zombie), but more of the Hunter from ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' (springing attack).

* {{Expy}}: Of the Screamer above.

* AngryBlackMan: His rage skill tree heavily focuses on him drawing aggro from enemies and decreasing the amount of rage it takes for him to enter fury mode. He also has a few special abilities to support his rage skill, such as damage reduction or restored health per kill while in fury mode.

* KnifeNut: Pulls out a set of throwing knives for his Rage attack.

* KnifeNut: Her Rage attack has her pulling out a knife to carve zombies up.

* MartialArtsStaff: His fury is him swinging a staff against the undead.

* SimpleStaff: His fury is him swinging a staff against the undead.

* HazmatSuit: They wear the remnants of one; it makes them a lot harder to hurt.

* NiceHat: The "bayou witch doctor" top hat he wears while performing.

* LightningBruiser: Runs faster than the protagonists when they sprint, can one-hit-kill them, and has more health than any enemies except the Banoi Butcher and the final boss.

* OffModel: Her artwork depicts her as a tanned woman, befitting her MixedAncestry as a half-Aboriginal woman, but her in-game model is very dark-skinned, similar to Yerema.

* WhoWearsShortShorts: In her Survivor skin in the definitive edition of ''Riptide'' she changes her receptionist heels and skirt for a pair of sensible boots and shorts. She keeps her skirt as a sort of battle decoration or trophy by tucking it into her shorts.

* GlassCannon: Despite being a melee specialist, Xian has no defensive talents and her health pool grows more slowly than anyone else's. It is not unusual for even a high-level Xian to go down after two or three hits from a Thug or an infected with a weapon, which makes her the single worst character to play in single-player mode. On the plus side, her specialization in bladed weapons lets her attack quickly for high damage with very little drain in stamina, and in the late game she's absolutely devastating with a katana or [[InfinityPlusOneSword Zed's Demise]].

* StoneWall: He's got the most health of the 4 original survivors, and his skill tree has talents focused around damage reduction, health regeneration, and drawing aggro.

* BattleCry: If you hear a really loud roar... keep moving.
* {{Determinator}}: Short of dying or ramming them with a vehicle, they can't be reliably knocked down like the other zombies. One reliable to deal with them alone is by breaking/cutting off their arms. They'll keep coming at you though, attacking with head butts while their arms flail around limply.

* MixedAncestry: She's half Aboriginal, which means she faced racism in the police.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Some TXT files have a good one that could have been his closing dialogue. It's essentially his musing over how extreme conditions [[WhatYouAreInTheDark bring out]] [[HiddenDepths the integrity and strength of the best of people]], and that seeing those gave him inspiration. Once he punches his way out of the zombie apocalypse, [[WorldHalfFull he'll have a song to sing.]]

* GoodIsNotSoft: Xian and John, in contrast to the others, are essentially the Chinese embodiment of death and Franchise/{{Wolverine}}, but very kind, caring, and helpful. Especially Xian, who can be heard expressing sympathy to special infected. Before killing them.

* CowboyCop: She wound up taking the law into her own hands... [[RealityEnsues Naturally, this is the reason she was fired from the Sydney PD.]]

* DummiedOut: Purna's last name is Jackson, as given in some [[http://tcrf.net/Dead_Island files that were removed]].

* {{Hypocrite}}: Tells the Heroes not to trust Hardy and Harlow but this guy is even worst in every way.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: Like the Ram, it takes more damage when attacking its back.

[[quoteright:250:An insane hostile survivor leaving in a shack next to Overpass Camp.]]

* BonusBoss: Lives in an area involved in absolutely none of the main quests; it is possible to reach Overpass Camp without aggroing him, anyway.