Dead Island | Riptide | Escape Dead Island | Dead Island 2
Tropes relating to the characters introduced in Dead Island: Riptide.
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The Heroes
For tropes relating to the other Heroes, see the Dead Island sheet.
John Morgan
Voiced by: Adam Croasdell
The newest member of the group, John is a sergeant in the Australian Defense Force, third-generation career military, and a self-taught martial artist.
- Apocalyptic Log: 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 like a Collingwood fan after a loss and his capture after refusing to kill civilians and infection.
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Specializes in hand-to-hand combat.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: 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.
- I Have a Family: One of his diaries mentions that his wife and two young daughters lived in Palanoi and he has no idea where they are.
- Military Brat: A benign example. Morgan's grandfather was a World War II 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.
- Mr. Exposition: 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 Ryder White going off the deep end.
- Punched Across the Room: Morgan's unarmed attacks are strong enough to punt a zombie through the air and send it flying across the room.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Was the only soldier in his unit to speak out against the "solution" to the Banoi incident. This got him thrown in prison.
- Stone Wall: 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.
Non-Playable Characters
Colonel Sam Hardy
Voiced by: Andy McPhee
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.
- Colonel Badass: 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.
- Just Following Orders: 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. - Killed Off for Real: 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.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: 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.
- Too Dumb to Live: 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
Voiced by: Jon Curry
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.
- Big Bad Wannabe: 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.
- Consummate Liar: Almost everything he says is one lie over another.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive
- Devoured by the Horde: 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.
- Dirty Coward: It quickly becomes clear that saving his own ass is his top priority. 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.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: 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.
- Hate Sink: Particularly the most despicable person in the entire franchise. While Kevin/Charon has his own agenda, he still helps the Heroes every way he can. Serpo on the other hand is a Dirty Coward who cares only for himself. In fact, he is the culprit behind the outbreak on Palanai.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: 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 he left his pilot as a distraction to the zombies.
- Non-Action Big Bad: All he really does is order most people around and smooth talks others, but he's still the reason things go south in Riptide.
- The Sociopath: 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.
- Villainous Breakdown: Suffers a short one after the protagonists leave him on Palanoi to the mercy of the undead.
Harlow Jordan
Voiced by: Jennifer Cruise
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.
- Action Girl: She can handle herself pretty well in a fight. Just look at her boss battle.
- Ambiguously Jewish: 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.
- Big Damn Heroes: Does this after the cannibal doctor torches Paradise. She attempts this again after finding out details of the infection, becoming infected herself then doing whatever it takes to stop it from spreading.
- Chainsaw Good: She makes use of a chainsaw as a melee weapon.
- I Did What I Had to Do: It's kind of hard to argue against trying to keep the infection from spreading off the island, and when the survivors do she forces the issue by attacking them.
- Psycho Serum: 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.
- Shoot the Dog: When 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
Nightmare Fuel 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. - Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- 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..
- 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.
- Ax-Crazy: Despite his good intentions and whatnot, he's a few candles short of a candelabra.
- I'm a Humanitarian: He thinks eating the immune survivors will somehow save the island from the Zombie Apocalypse.
- Machete Mayhem: The only weapon he uses during the one time he fights. Its no match for whatever the player uses to finish him off.
- Mad Scientist: 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.
- Molotov Cocktail: He uses this to burn Paradise to the ground.
- Permanently Missable Content: 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.
- The Unfought: If the player fails to complete the sidequest that involves tracking him down before progressing with the game after the cutscene where he sets Paradise on fire, he disappears from the main story and his fate is left unknown.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After saving his life and helping him out he 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
Voiced by: André Sogliuzzo
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.
- Dr. Jerk: He is fairly rude and egotistic, but his advice and information is usually spot on.
- Herr Doktor: He has a noticeable German accent.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 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, Marcus Villa.
Zombies
Drowner
A common type of zombie introduced in Riptide that lays face-down in water, waiting for victims.
- Lightning Bruiser: 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.
- Playing Possum: 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.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: 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
A zombified scientist in a hazmat suit who pelts targets with bloody, explosive chunks of his own body.
- Body Horror: 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.
- Gas Mask Mooks: In their case, the gas mask is broken, partially revealing their badly decomposed face.
- Hazmat Suit: They wear the remnants of one; it makes them a lot harder to hurt.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: 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.
- Mighty Glacier: You can kite a Wrestler around more or less forever, but if it hits you, you'll be knocked over.
- The Right Hand of Doom: 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 scream.
- Enemy Summoner: Its screams can also alert a bunch of zombies.
- Lightning Bruiser: 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.
- Lean and Mean: Extremely emaciated and a vicious opponent.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Its scream causes the players to temporarily cover their ears preventing them from fighting back.
