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Multiple Appearances
Sidereal Plexus
- Dimensional Traveler: An entire company of them.
- E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi: With alternate timelines instead of aliens; the reason Sidereal came up with so many high tech inventions is because they are in contact with a large number of alternate universes, and have access to any technology already invented there.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: They believe in this. A note next to the MEM BOOST floppy disk will always state the universe of said playthrough is considered expendable by Sidereal Plexus.
- Greater-Scope Villain: They exist across an unknown, but likely massive, amount of alternate realities and have managed to destroy multiple Earths through Lunar Incidents alone. Despite this, they are never faced by the main characters or directly opposed by them, since anyone they consider important enough to save has long since left to another reality.
- Karma Houdini: They face no repercussions for their actions in causing several occurrences of the Lunar Incident, even in the Golden Ending of 4 Days to Survive. Justified in that the main party both lacks the means to bring evidence of Sidereal's misdeeds to the good universe, and their survival and escape are more pressing concerns than fighting Sidereal.
- MegaCorp: The world’s leading technology company thanks to the fact they can travel between realities.
Don't Escape
The Werewolf
- Easy Amnesia: Averted. Part of the inversion of usual escape games is that he remembers everything, including why he must not escape.
- No Name Given: Just a nameless werewolf.
- Painful Transformation: The Werewolf screams in agony while transforming.
- Reluctant Monster: His main goal is making sure that he doesn't hurt anyone when the full moon comes out.
Don't Escape 2
The Survivor
- Asshole Victim: Potentially, if they use Jeremy and/or Bernard as bait, but don't do enough aside from that to protect themself from the undead.
- Featureless Protagonist: They don't even get a portrait in the inventory like the protagonists of the first and third games.
- No Name Given: No official name.
Bill
- The Load: Averted; when given painkillers, Bill is able to shave off some time when fortifying the base, although it's not as much as the other two party members.
- Mercy Kill: Bill's infected at the start of the game, and if the player wishes, they can do this to him, either humanelynote or inhumanelynote . Doing so means the player will have 1 less zombie to deal with… but depending on how they do so, might attract more zombiesnote .
- One Last Smoke: You can give Bill a bottle of alcohol to knock him out, which removes most of the moral difficulty from the "inhumane" kill option as he'll be effectively sedated for it.
- Zombie Infectee: Bill's already been bitten by a zombie at the start of the game. Unlike most examples, he doesn't try to deny it.
Jeremy
- Blind Without 'Em: Jeremy won't go anywhere or help you in any way unless you can find his glasses first.
Father Bernard
- Crisis of Faith: When you first find Father Bernard, he's lost his faith in everything.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Should there be too many zombies, he will throw himself in front of them and allow them to devour him, saving your life. Should there still be too many zombies, however…
Don't Escape 3
The Pilot
- Heroic Sacrifice: Should the player choose to blow up the lab section or the entire ship along with themselves once they discover that they're infected.
- No Name Given: The Pilot doesn't get a name, and it isn't listed on any of the files scattered throughout the UEFS Horizon. They're only referred to as the Pilot, or as "Lieutenant" in one of the logs.
- Tomato in the Mirror: They're the one that killed the other crew members, possessed by an alien crystal.
Rick
- Posthumous Character: He was the first victim killed by the murderer (the pilot infected with the crystals), who bludgeoned him to death with a fuel tank.
Jeff
- Posthumous Character: The murderer killed him by stabbing him to death with a kitchen knife while he was eating in the mess hall.
Engineer
- No Name Given: Never referred to by any name.
- Posthumous Character: He died when the murderer sabotaged the fan conduits of the ship; he was suffocated by the toxic vapors.
Dr. Amanda Grodberg
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: After a brief struggle, the murderer killed her by impaling her head on the crystals in the mummified corpse she was studying.
- Posthumous Character: The murderer killed her while she was studying the crystals in her lab. Thankfully, her research comes in handy for dealing with them…
- Small Role, Big Impact: While she's dead before the game begins, like the rest of the crew, her logs provide vital information on the crystal's parasitic lifecycle and how to destroy it.
The Captain
- Posthumous Character: The pilot strangled him to death while under the influence of the crystals.
Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive
The Survivors
David
- Badass Longcoat: David sports a brown trenchcoat.
- Badass Normal: He doesn't have any special training in anything unlike his companions (excluding Cody) who has pilot experience (Cate) or is a decent mechanic (Barry). Despite all that, David clearly thinks on his feet and can prove to be practical, oddly charismatic, and intuitive enough to survive the dangers of each individual day.
- Big Brother Mentor: Of sorts to Cody. Open to interpretation of course, but unlike Barry who seems to act more like a father figure or potentially uncle as he mentions at one point, David can choose responses that makes him seem more like a big brother towards the little kid. Given that some of his responses and choices are often snarked at by Cate as being childish, it seems fitting.
- Determinator: Fitting of the main hero and Badass Normal just trying to survive each day. Despite admitting numerous times that the world is about to end, he's insistent on living just one more day…
- Guile Hero: While he knows how to use a gun, David would like to avoid violent confrontations whenever possible. However, he's not above using lethal force if his hands are tied.
- The Hero: He's the player character in this game, and a generally good-hearted man.
- I Did What I Had to Do: If you choose to kill Razor, this is how David will rationalize his actions. Barry or Cody will still chastise you for it, though.
- Some of the choice of responses to Barry/Cody for why he saved them and left the other to fall to his death on Day 3 amounts to this.
- Jerkass: Typically averts this, but there's several cases where he can play it straight:
- He doesn't have to convince Sarge and his men to stand down on Day 3 if they're with the bandits. He could simply just shoot the guy with the rifle and be done with him.
- Likewise, he can also choose to poison the bandits' food, which even the game will warn you is especially immoral. This bites him hard when one of the poisoned men is one of Sarge's, who will attack out of vengeance with the others.
- While the least sympathetic response to Cody for letting Barry die at the Sidereal Plexus Offices on Day 3 isn't quite as… awful ("I don't think he really wanted to live anymore"), he can be especially brutal in his response as to why he left Cody to die and saved Barry by stating simply "You're more useful".
- Kleptomaniac Hero: He will absolutely grab anything and everything essential to his survival. This comes to bite him at least once during the story when he takes the locket of Barry's wife and Barry accuses him of looting the dead; though in David's defense this ends up being a necessary step to recruit Barry, as the locket contains a posthumous letter from his wife encouraging him to live on for her sake. It also gets a Lampshade Hanging on Day 4, if David tries to launch the rocket while carrying more than 1kg of stuff.Cate: I've made some calculations, and we barely have enough fuel to get to our destination. We have to limit our weight...and you seem to be carrying a lot of stuff with you.
David: I like picking things up. You never know when you're gonna need a water sprayer. - Maybe Ever After: With Cate, in the golden ending, she has David's picture on her computer. Close examination reveals that she's searching for him, despite an entire game of treating him somewhat poorly. The implication is that they both like each other and may end up together.
- Nice Guy: Most of the time he's this, some player choices aside, to the point where he gets called mostly harmless by Cate.
- Prophetic Dreams: Every night, David experiences a dream of dying in some horrible way. After waking up, he'll devote the entire day to making sure that the nightmare does not come true.
Cate
- Captain Crash: You're introduced to her after she crashed her chopper into the roof of your house. This happens again with the Space Shuttle, although how severe it is will depend on how prepared you were. Do just shy of perfect and she gets speared by a loose beam.
- Cassandra Truth: Downplayed but present, as much of the information about Sidereal Plexus and the explanations for their actions she offers up later on sounds pretty ridiculous, which is a lot of the reason she refuses to offer up anything initially. Even she will admit how difficult all of it is to believe.
- Closest Thing We Got: She's a helicopter pilot, not an astronaut, but the fact that she's the only one with any training with any sort of aircraft means she gets put in the driver's seat of the spaceship. If you roll the Fuel Scenario and fix the crack on the fin on the outside, the summary states that her piloting skills are enough to compensate for the slight difference in aerodynamics.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Emphasis on a SLOW defrost, but while she's initially hostile upon meeting David, she eventually mellows out, albeit slowly. While she justifies it as finding it easier to cope with strangers dying compared to friends, she clearly comes to care for her companions, which is shown by her complaining about "wasting" time burying Maggie for Barry, but will not complain in the slightest if Barry or Cody dies at the Sidereal Plexus Offices on Day 3 and David chooses to bury them, despite it also taking up time. She also justifies her lack of trust as practicality due to being a former Sidereal Plexus employee, albeit a low-ranking one, and not wanting to be attacked for the actions of her employers, though she begins opening up about the truth over time, despite how outlandish much of it sounds.
- Deuteragonist: The most important character in the game after David; she is the only one of David's 3 allies who will always join him, and if David survives to day 4, so does she (Cody and Barry are optional to recruit and can die on days 2 & 3).
- Friend to All Children: She will go out of her way to protect Cody's feelings despite being a jerk to everyone else. It's implied that she honored her promise to build a snowman with Cody after the Flash Freeze scenario, as on the subsequent day you can find a snowman outside after you wake up, despite grumbling about digging a grave for Maggie as wasting time.
- Hair Flip: She occasionally does this in her idle animation.
- Jerkass: She's very sarcastic and brash. Whenever this is addressed in-universe, she tells the other characters to just get used to it.David: Are you upset about Barry?Cate: No, not at all.David: I know that look.Cate: Really? We've known each other for how long? Several hours?David: Maybe, but still...Cate: Fine, that guy is annoying me. I know he lost his wife, but it's all he talks about. I'm tired of that, we have more important things to do than listen to a mourning man.David: That's kinda harsh.Cate: I'm harsh, get used to it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: But she's got a good side. Some of her dialogue after Barry or Cody die imply she cares more than she's willing to admit. She has some other Pet the Dog moments too.
- More Expendable Than You: Inverted. She has no problem with sacrificing anyone and everyone if she has to in order to survive. It's a lie. She draws her gun all the time, but even hesitates to kill Razor long enough to be talked out of it. However, in gameplay terms, if she dies before the Moon landing, then David is also guaranteed to die: while Cody and Barry can be killed through inadequate preparation on night 2 and night 3, Cate only dies if David also dies, as she is essential to the plot and cannot be otherwise killed. The only exception is the moon flight, which can kill her as she is no longer required at that point.
- Must Have Caffeine: Coffee is the one thing she misses most about the pre-apocalyptic days. In the Golden Ending, she's shown finally drinking coffee.
- Maybe Ever After: With David, in the golden ending, she has David's picture as her desktop background and/or is searching for him on the internet. The fact that she even has David's picture, and the fact that she considers it significant enough to use it as a background, is probably a good indication of their relationship.
- Only Known By Her Nickname: Cate's almost never called by her full name, Catherine Mayweather.
- Prophetic Dreams: She has one on Day 2, which leads you to the Sidereal Plexus building that lets you find out the location of the launch base.
- Sarcastic Devotee: She never stops snarking on David, even as she supports him every step of the way.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only female main character in the game.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She softens up considerably on a second playthrough, still retaining the level of trust she and David developed on the first one despite not entirely knowing why.
- Tsundere: She starts off as standoffish, cold, and sarcastic, but eventually warms up to the party, especially David. She gets incredibly flustered when Cody assumes that they're married and the Golden Ending implies that she was more than a little interested in him, at least enough to try and track him down in the new reality.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Cate is about to kill Razor in the bandit route, David can choose an option that says "You're better than this." Cate thinks otherwise, but this can potentially cause her to reconsider killing him. Also, if Barry is alive in the playthrough and when saying goodbye to him when they are going into the sleeper pods, Cate says to him that she knows she can be unpleasant, Barry agrees, but says that it's just a mask and says she is a good person and tells her to keep it that way.
Cody
- Badass Adorable: Somewhat downplayed. Cody is a cute kid, being playful and optimistic in spite of the obvious dangers and impending doom of the Earth. While he's severely limited by his age in how much he can help out with, you can depend on him to help you with tackling the tasks to survive each and every night. He can't help much, but gosh darnit, he's going to do his best!
- Break the Cutie:
- If you teach him how to shoot on Day 3 and he ends up having to do it, he will be visibly shaken by it afterwards and refuse to talk about it.
- If you shoot Sarge on Day 3 in the Bandit scenario, Cody absolutely freaks out and hides in a corner, yelling at you to stay away until he calms down.
- If you choose to save him and not Barry on Day 3 during a normal run at the Sidereal Plexus Offices, Cody will be so shaken by the event that he won't produce any levity for the remainder of the time there. Even though David likely means well, telling him "He (Barry) would rather I saved you" will only make him believe it's his fault Barry died.
- Once you find out that you have to travel to the moon on Day 4, David (and Barry in the Awakened Playthrough) becomes livid with Cate. Cody will beg them not to break up because he's terrified of being alone again.
- Child Soldier: You can teach Cody how to shoot a gun on Day 3, if you're going against the bandits. If Barry is alive and Cody kills someone, Barry will chastise you for taking away Cody's innocence.
- Convenient Coma: Originally suffered from this. The protagonist of the Deep Sleep series gave him back his Tiger Plushie in the dream world, allowing him to wake up.
- Death of a Child: There's a handful of ways to get Cody killed, from failing to prepare for the bandit raid on Night 3, choosing to save Barry instead of him on Day 3, to even ignoring him altogether on Day 2 where he'd then ultimately freeze to death or burn alive at that night's conclusion.
- Early-Bird Cameo: It's heavily implied that he's the same Cody from the second Deep Sleep game where he fell into coma until reunited with his Tiger plushie.
- It is implied that the protagonist of the second game is also an alternate older universe version of Cody since Cody dreams of zombies. Dreams in this game come from alternate versions of the characters from either versions that died or barely survived previous loops.
- From the Mouths of Babes: He often speaks his mind on various subjects openly if you ask him, which results in a lot of times saying things that either embarrasses one of the adults present or says something everyone in the room was avoiding trying to say. What he says usually snaps the adults back to reality once they realize the awkwardness of the situation.
- Happily Adopted: The Golden Ending strongly implies Barry and Maggie adopt him.
- Kill the Cutie: Sadly, you may be forced to on Day 3 during a normal run assuming you value Barry over him. Not helping matters any is that Cody's help only alleviates a minor amount of time in comparison to Barry's greater strength and knowledge, making the choice lean stronger in Barry's favor. He can also be killed if you must deal with bandits on Night 3 and don't prepare adequately enough.
- The Load: Averted. While he can't help with anything too complex for a ten-year-old boy, he'll still help with what he can. The small fraction of time his help can shave off may even be the difference between life or death.
- While he himself averts this, the player can choose to have David believe this about him by letting him die at Sidereal Plexus' Offices on Day 3 and telling Barry that he's more useful than Cody was. Barry will call you out on this, though.
- Morality Pet: Even Cate will chastise you if you start making him upset (by telling him how the world will end) and he often brings the good out of those around him.
- The Pollyanna: He's generally in a cheerful mood, even as the world continues to get worse around him.
- Tagalong Kid: After you feed Cody, he tags along behind you for as long as you're able to keep him alive.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Face it, there's plenty to do that caters to taking care of this kid. Finding him food, being willing to build a snowman with him, being willing to do a treasure hunt with him (Cate breaks it up and calls you a child), choosing to save him instead of Barry during a regular run on Day 3 at Sidereal Plexus Offices and then later trying your hardest to comfort him through his survivor's guilt, and even if he DOES die there, David can choose to sacrifice a small amount of time to bury him. There's plenty of ways to interact with Cody and treat the kid nicely.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Of course, however, you can do any of the things named above in Death of a Child to get him killed. Bonus points for being able to bluntly tell Barry that he wasn't as useful as the older man is.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In his own way, he'll call David out if he has Razor killed on day 4, saying that David and company should be above Razor.
Barry
- The Big Guy: If he's unarmed on Day 3 against the Bandits, he will take one or two of them down with just his bare fists (and possibly even jump Razor). They are armed with guns.
- The Conscience: Barry will chastise you for taking the more violent route, such as poisoning the Bandit's food or shooting an unarmed Razor.
- Death Seeker: Initially, Barry just wants to be left alone to die. Showing him the message in Maggie's locket can give him a reason to continue on. If you don't do so, he will be found the next day either frozen to death or burned to death, still sitting in the same spot you found him in.
- Friend to All Children: Quickly takes a liking towards Cody and becomes rather protective of him. If David tries to give his team provisions for the next night (like water against the heat or jackets against the cold), Barry will refuse his unless David gives Cody some first. He also doesn't take kindly to David sacrificing Cody.
- More Expendable Than You: He insists that you save Cody instead of him as both hang on the edge on top of the Sidereal Plexus building. You can either let him play it straight or invert it.
- The cruel part about this is that this is Barry's belief with regards to him and Cody, but from a gameplay standpoint, this is actually inverted, as Cody can only shave off a small handful of minutes with his help, but Barry can often save you up to 30min or more, therefore making him the LESS expendable choice.
- The Mourning After: Barry's wife dies only a short while before David arrives at his house.
- Survivor Guilt: Has this after his wife died. And again if you choose to save him over Cody.
- Team Dad: Acts more like an uncle whenever you ask for advice, but when interacting with Cody, he will often act more fatherly. Implied to have become Cody's actual adoptive dad in the Golden Ending.
- Token Black: Of David's "family."
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can choose to utterly ignore Barry and leave him to his demise at the end of Night 2, or you can choose for him to die instead of Cody at the Sidereal Plexus Offices.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Letting Barry die for any reason will cost you greatly, as he is the strongest of the team and his help in any of the tasks will tremendously reduce the amount of time spent on preparations.
- What's especially interesting in this case is that the game railroads you into a nasty decision with regards to Barry; do you invoke Would Hurt a Child and let a young boy die to keep a stronger asset to the team, or sacrifice Barry's enormous help with time to save a child, a more "moral" decision?
- What the Hell, Hero?: He will absolutely rip one into you if you choose to save him over Cody. Similarly, in the Golden Ending when you managed to save him and Cody, he will give you hell if you choose to shoot any of the bandits. If you shoot Sarge, poison the bandits' food, then teach Cody how to fire a gun, and fail to prevent them from entering the house (which will force Cody to use a gun), he will rip into you again for essentially traumatizing the poor boy.
Barry and Cody's Connections
Maggie
- Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: In the Golden Ending, Barry hooks up with another Maggie from a parallel universe.
- Happily Married: It's clear, by reading the note left in her locket, and talking to her ghost that Maggie really loved Barry.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: There are hints that despite her words, the ghost of Maggie that you saw isn't a just a figment of David's memory of Barry, but the genuine article. It's implied that her Lunar Incident universe variants might have left her body somehow and stayed in the dream realm.
- Posthumous Character: She's already dead by the time David arrives at her and Barry's house.
- Supreme Chef: Barry loved Maggie's cooking so much, he never even visited the burger restaurant that was a short drive away from their house.
- Undying Loyalty: She's just as devoted to Barry as a ghost as when she was a living woman.
Plushie Tiger
- Early-Bird Cameo: It's heavily implied that it's the same plushie from the second Deep Sleep game where you can pick up then place it in Cody's bed to wake him up from his coma.
- Living Toy: A talking tiger plushie.
- No Name Given:David: Excuse me, who are you?Plushie Tiger: Meow. I'm Cody's plushie tiger.
- Verbal Tic: This tiger meows a lot.
- Undying Loyalty: The plushie's dream world variant is this, at least. It helped Cody find his way out of his coma and urges David to have Cody stay away from the office building so he won't be imperiled and potentially die.
Others
Razor
- Asshole Victim: You can convince Cate to shoot him on Day 4 after he attempts to kill you (whether or not he takes Cody or Barry's life). Also see Laser-Guided Karma below.
- Desert Bandits: Razor leads a pack of 20 bandits, including himself.
- Greaser Delinquents: One has to wonder how Razor managed to find the necessary supplies in the near-apocalypse to maintain this image.
- Laser-Guided Karma: As said above in Asshole Victim, this trope will be played straight if you convince Cate to shoot him when he caused the death of either Cody or Barry. Downplayed if you choose to let Razor live, where he accepts his demise in the end and doesn't attempt to get back at the party.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Sarge will point out how if the house is a great defensible position for the gang, it is also a good defensible position for the current occupants. Razor doesn't listen. In addition, if he's the last surviving member before they make it into the house, he'll still try to break down your barricade by himself (and fail). Cate will simply open the door and put her gun to her head to get him to surrender. If he becomes the last man standing after making it inside, he'll realize he has nothing left to lose and lunge at you, only for Cate to thwack him in the head with her gun.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He's as dangerous to handle as his namesake.
- Pistol-Whipping: On the receiving end if you prepare well enough to survive, but not enough to keep the bandits from getting inside.
- Too Dumb to Live: See Leeroy Jenkins above.
- Would Hit a Girl: He and the others in his gang will kill Cate, right alongside all the male members of David's team.
- Would Hurt a Child: He has no problem with gunning down Cody.
Bandits
- Undying Loyalty: To Razor, at least until they get hurt or killed, or David leaves a bottle of whiskey which at least two will drink and be too drunk to participate in the raid. Some will leave if David sabotages their ammo and their guns won't work.
Sarge
- A Father to His Men: He has the complete respect of the four men under his command. In fact, healing a wounded subordinate in the Thunderstorm scenario and convincing the moral choices for his men in Bandits scenario are good ways to get on his good side.
- Anti-Villain: In the Bandit scenario, he only joined Razor's gang to ensure his troops' survival and is cordial otherwise. You can also convince him to leave.
- Dying as Yourself: A variant; in the Thunderstorm Scenario, this is why he and his squad still act like they're soldiers; they know the world is ending, but would rather go out with their honor. In the Bandit scenario, this is how you convince him to leave the bandits.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His full name and rank is "Sergeant First Class Franklin McWillis." He's always referred to as "Sarge."
- I Did What I Had to Do: How he justifies joining the Bandits for survival. Averted in the Thunderstorm Scenario.
- It Has Been an Honor: If he survives Day 3 and you managed to fix the rocket, Sarge and his men will see you take off and toast a glass of whiskey to you as the world ends around them.
- One Last Smoke: See above.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: If you poison the bandits' food, one of Sarge's men will be laid low by it. He is not happy about this and will go back on his word about leaving if this happens.
- Would Hurt a Child: If Sarge is part of Razor's gang, telling him about Cody will not deter him from helping Razor try to kill David and his other comrades when night falls.
Josh, Mark, Steve, and Paul
The four soldiers of Sarge's squad.
- Band of Brothers: One of the last remaining military squads on the planet, and come hell or high water, they will stick together no matter what.
- The Engineer: Paul is the engineer of the group and the one who gives you the Storm Catcher devices. He also teaches you how to set it up and even offers to set one of them up for you if you complete some of Sarge's tasks.
- Honor Before Reason: At least three of them knows that sticking together would mean they all die even though you may be able to save one or two of them because they will never abandon each other. The fourth one is sorta between this and thinking you're a crazy conspiracy nut (which, to be fair, is quite understandable after you just told him you are trying to find a rocket into space).
- One Last Smoke: If they survive Day 3 and you managed to fix the rocket, they'll see you take off and toast a glass of whiskey to you as the world ends around them alongside Sarge.
- Undying Loyalty: They'll literally follow Sarge until the end of the world.
