The player character and main protagonist of the game, an augmented agent of UNATCO tasked with defeating the NSF, only to find out that the situation is considerably more complicated than it seems..
A God Am I - In Invisible War, after merging with extremely powerful, omniscient AI Helios
Badass Longcoat: Lampshaded when Anna tells you you will have to do more than just scare your enemies with a coat that makes you look bigger that you really are.
Iron Woobie: If you speak with Morpheus, he'll confirm to JC he was genetically engineered and that most of his life was a lie. JC's response is basically "So? Who cares?"
One-Man Army: What you are considered after the halfway point of the game.
Creepy Monotone - Intended to allow the player to insert their own emotion, though even divorced from its justification, it fits JC's character design.
Dark Is Not Evil - JC is as dark and serious as his brother, but he's good.
Deadpan Snarker - JC Denton has a few witty quotes in line with such.
"You mechs may have copper wiring to reroute your fear of pain, but I've got nerves of steel."
"I was never properly trained in its operation."
Genius Bruiser: While possibly and at least built to be a killing machine, at more than a few points, such as with the bartender in China and with Morpheus, is quite able to sit down and talk philosophy.
Happily Adopted - Like Paul, he was fond of his adoptive parents.
Healing Factor - Regeneration is, unsurprisingly, the most popular augmentation amongst most players, especially since at full power you regain health faster than a roomful of enemies with assault rifles going full auto can take it away.
Nigh Invulnerable - It's possible to make him this to pretty much anything but long falls or explosions at point-blank range, even on realistic difficulty.
Phlebotinum Rebel: Oh yes indeed. From expendable prototype testbed for the real deal in the head conspirators to bane of the head conspirators' existence.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: JC is potentially Red to his brother Paul's Blue. He can be played as someone who thinks before he shoots, but that still doesn't get around the fact that he usually still has a far higher propensity to shoot than his brother (unless you go full Pacifist)
It can also work the other way, since JC is stoic and dry while his brother is much more emotional and social.
Sunglasses at Night - Lampshaded by Anna, and Handwaved via JC's 'My vision is augmented' explanation. In game terms, the reason probably has something to do with the fact that the glasses conceal one of the only visible signs that JC is a nano-aug.
Weak, but Skilled: On the "Realistic" difficulty setting. It's still possible to go through the game as an One-Man Army, but you have to be extra-careful.
Happily Adopted - Indicates he liked his parents and JC mentions he and Paul realized they were not genetically related growing up.
Meaningful Name - Saul changed his name to Paul when he decided to switch sides from persecuting the early Christians to converting to Christianity. Paul Denton goes from persecuting the NSF to joining them.
Technical Pacifist - Will lecture the player on avoiding fatalities, but put him in a room with a hostile and he'll gib the poor guy with a plasma rifle.
Subverted. He's secretly a member of the NSF, so he's aiding them by making sure none of them die, which is why when JC joins him, he drops this line of thought entirely
Bob Page
Voice: Cliff Stephens
The richest man in the world, head of Page Industries and member of the Illuminati.
A God Am I - His goal is to become one by merging with the Helio AI so he can rule the world.
Bald of Evil - At the end, as he's preparing for the merger.
"Why contain it [Gray Death and the subsequent rioting]? Let it spill over into the schools and churches, let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end, they'll beg us to save them."
Crazy-Prepared: Unlike most villains, he does think far enough ahead to have a Plan B AND C.
Villainous Breakdown - If you follow Everett's suggestion to kill him, he'll get increasingly unhinged and desperate. Amusingly, since his taunting messages to the player are scripted by location, he'll come across as bipolar, switching between pleading with JC and mocking him.
While it's not nearly as loud, he does this if JC is doing the steps to reach the Helios Ending as well. His final line in this case is an almost child-like "Helios? Icarus? Don't leave me..."
"Denton? Walton Simons here. What an expensive mistake you turned out to be. I ordered the troops to kill you, because frankly I don't have the patience to wait for one of those damn killswitches to work."
I Have Your Wife: Threatens an NSF's prisoner's family to try to get him to talk.
Impossibly Cool Clothes: Just look at the design of his trenchcoat and try telling yourself government employees IRL get to walk around in threads that awesome looking.
Informed Ability: You can find a list of his augmentations and powers, but the only power he is seen using is invisibility and remote detonation.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Simons is a "philanthropist", who has made very large "donations" to assure UNATCO is properly equipped and supplied. While UNATCO technically falls under his command anyway, this makes them especially eager to follow orders.
Evil Gloating - Icarus takes great sadistic joy in taunting you about how pathetic you are and how futile everything you do is at each step, plus going on about how much You Suck in response to any Videogame Cruelty Potential you take advantage of.
Gone Horribly Right: Daedalus was created by MJ-12 to monitor the internet and crack down on terrorist groups. By the logic that they put in, it identified them as a terrorist organization.
Blood Knight - Anna's SOP for any hostile situation is kill everything!
Body Count Competition - Gunther Hermann and Anna Navarre seem to have such a competition. If the Player Character is killed by Anna, she'll sometimes say "Nine hundred and ten. I'm catching up, Gunther".
Butt Monkey - Gunther suffers quite a few indignities of varying degrees, from getting kidnapped, to getting phased out in favor of agents with newer augmentations, to being unable to get the soda he wants.
Invisibility: Anna's augment of choice. She also runs the tutorial on stealth.
Jerkass: Anna. Unless you're a merciless killer, she treats you like crap. However, showing a little humility and deferring to her early on during the second mission) will delay some of her more abrasive tendencies, but still, she'll wind up treating you like shit for not being a cold blooded killer sooner or later.
Jerkass Woobie: Gunther. Sure he's a bloodthirsty killing machine with close to 1000 hits under his belt, but you can't help but pity him.
Morality Pet: Gunther truly does feel sorrow and rage after Anna Navarre dies, and it is that which is driving him to want to kill JC Deader than Dead. That said, this trope doesn't make him any less villainous, but at least his motives are a little more sympathetic.
Only Sane Man: Anna is very skeptical about Gunther's conspiracy theory that the maintenance man who stocks the drink machines at UNATCO is purposely trying to screw him over. Subverted in the sequel when you find out he was right.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold - He comes off as very crotchety and hardassed, but seriously, he's a stand up guy, and if you keep picking non lethal options and avoiding killing people, he even commends you on your humanity and restraint.
My Country, Right or Wrong: He refuses to leave UNATCO even after learning about the corruption, believing only by good individuals within can reform it. He is forced to leave and more fully help the player when MJ 12 tightens their grip on UNATCO even more.
Noodle Incident - He memorably claims to have dispatched an entire platoon with a pocket knife. He also mentions taking out a group of Afghans in an unspecified war.
A helicopter pilot who works for UNATCO and later defects along with you.
Badass Driver - It takes some balls to fly into the epicenter of hostile enemy territory, which he does regularly throughout the game.
Drunk Driver - The only time you meet him outside of his ride, he's hanging out in a bar. You can buy him two beers. You can call him out on this, and he'll claim he can't fly the helicopter properly when he's sober.
Properly Paranoid: To the point he drops hefty foreshadowing on later events very early in the game.
Reassigned to Antarctica : Suffers this as a result of JC escaping...if you don't kill him yourself. If you don't, it's then later implied he's killed anyway.
Too Dumb to Live: After confronting him, he'll act nonchalant and let you leave. When your back is turned, he pulls a pistol on you. He's typically gibbed a few seconds later. Unless you're playing at the "Realistic" difficulty setting, where there's a 50% chance or so that he will shoot you in the back of the head, fatally.
You Have Failed Me: Listed as dead even if you don't kill him, and he may have been killed for his failure.
Meaningful Name: His name is an allusion to the common Win32 networking tool "tracert" for looking up the hosts that a packet visits on its way to another host.
Mission Control: After you defect from UNATCO, he takes up Alex's old role.
The Triads and the Tongs: Not so much as his father was in Human Revolution from what we can see. He seems more interested in his lab than day-to-day gang activity.
Wicked Cultured: He's an Illuminati leader who happens to live in one of the nicest looking homes in the game, which goes nicely with his extremely polished manner.
Gary Savage
Leader of a group of scientists who defected from Area 51 and set up in Vandenberg Air Force Base to oppose Page.
A crime boss of New York who threatens to do things "lo bruto" when he doesn't get what he wants.
Bad Boss: Even his fellow NSF think he's an asshole.
Colonel NON Badass - He'd love to be seen as a tough guy and he is a colonel in the NSF, but he's basically a Dirty Coward thug who hides behind a gun, intimidation tactics, fake augmentations, and a big title.
