open/close all folders
Main Characters
Rourke
Rourke "Weisner" / Soldier 716
"I don't think we can run away forever."
A sniper for The Core. Naive and idealistic, Rourke decides to flee when he realizes the horrors of war The Core takes part in.- Apologizes a Lot: Especially with Adair, due to feeling that he dragged Adair into the whole thing. Adair calls him out on it if they room together in the hostel on Germany.
- The Atoner: One of his primary drives in Kaliningrad is to atone for the deaths of several Russian citizens by protecting the townspeople that are still alive.
- Dude in Distress: Together with Adair, he's kidnapped by Branna and Beqiri in Kiel, leaving Lynn to lead the group and save them.
- Friendly Sniper: He's an awkward but compassionate man looking to atone for unknowingly participating in the killing of innocent people.
- More than Mind Control: While pretty much all soldiers of The Core have been indoctrinated in some fashion, Rourke's mental conditioning is shown to be particularly insidious, as he goes into his first mission not even knowing that he's targeting civilians, outright dissociating when he shoots his targets. When he suddenly recognizes that he was hunting down civilians, he's shocked and undergoes a Heroic BSoD unlike anything the rest of his squad (who do have full awareness of their mission) undergo; even Adair, who comes to agree that what they were doing was wrong. This also ends up being The Core's undoing, as Rourke's crisis of conscience spurs him to desert and ultimately take their leadership down, while the other squad members who hadn't been so intensely manipulated mostly stay loyal.
- Rousing Speech: During many boss fights, it's possible for Rourke to make some choices that will rally his group and raise their morale in battle.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He deserts The Core after he finds out he was killing civilians all along. Certain dialogue options can also embody this trope.
Adair
Adair "Weisner" / Soldier 802
"We cannot afford to give up."
A medic for The Core. He's an odd, but reliable guy that understands Rourke unease in participating on their acts of war. He's accidentally branded a deserter together with Rourke.- Brutal Honesty: He's the first one to tell Rourke that War Is Hell without sugar-coating it at all. It gets on Rourke's bad side due to him being unaware of The Core's crimes on the surface.
- Combat Medic: He's a medic on the field, and in battle, has the skills to back it, but he also fights.
- Dude in Distress: Together with Rourke, he's kidnapped by Branna and Beqiri in Kiel, leaving Lynn to lead the group and save them.
- No Social Skills: He's overly logical and rarely minces his words at the start, to Rourke's annoyance. He grows out of this after assisting Rourke in defending Kaliningrad.
- Took a Level in Kindness: He has a Jerkass attitude towards Rourke at the beginning of the game. He becomes more supportive and friendly towards Rourke as the game progresses.
Lynn
Lynn Lightner
"We're all counting on you!"
A kind-hearted girl that lives together with Ivan.- Action Girl: She has experience with firearms and starts the game with decently high attack power.
- Alliterative Name: Her first and last name begin with "L".
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Her one earring switches position depending on which way her character portrait and cut-in art is facing.
- Ambiguously Gay: During a side mission, an old lady tries to push her to try some of her cake, saying that men like a healthy woman. Lynn responds with "I'm not really into—" before they're interrupted. In general, she never shows any interest towards any member of the opposite sex, even Ivan and Rourke, who she's the closest to. However, it's just as likely that she's completely asexual.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's a friendly girl who finds her purpose helping others. She also just so happens to be the one who encourages the party to engage in legally dubious actions and typically is against showing enemies mercy. Character Development pulls her out of this as she learns to finally start trusting people again.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She spent a lot of time traveling around and looking for a place to live away from her home. When she tried to settle down in Kiel on Germany, she was captured by the Beqiri family, and almost became a victim of human trafficking as she was held captive in the casino for weeks, but managed to escape just before being shipped away.
- A Day in the Limelight: The mission on the Casino is this for her. She becomes the main playable character for the duration of that mission and that part of the story is dedicated to show her past and trauma.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: If Rourke decides to room with her in Germany, Lynn will reveal that she never went to college and just started traveling looking for something to do. Ever since she started living with Ivan, she never found a job, and joining Rourke has sparked purpose in her for the first time.Lynn: This is the first time in years I have felt like my life has purpose.
- Glass Cannon: Her starting attack stat is the highest of the party, but she also has the lowest HP and defense.
- Hair Colors: The fact that she has purple hair makes her stand out significantly amongst a cast of relatively realistic hair tones. She used to be a long-haired brunette, but cut it short and dyed it after escaping from the Beqiri's human trafficking ring to prevent herself from being tracked by their men.
Ivan
Ivan Nikolaevich Cherevatenko
"I wish we could have met under different circumstances."
A chill looking man from Russia. He lives together with Lynn in Kaliningrad and works as a teacher in an orphanage. He's a pacifist that refuses to use weapons.
- Actual Pacifist: He refuses to use guns or violence, and even in battle, he sticks to it, only guaranteeing boosts instead of attacking or using damaging items.
- Affectionate Nickname: Lynn calls him Vanya.
- Friend to All Children: He values all the children at the orphanage he works at. One of the reasons he refuses to resort to violence is because he doesn't want to set a bad example for them.
- Support Party Member: Ivan refuses to use violence or weapons. In battle, he doesn't really attack, he only uses the "Boost" command to raise allies' stats and heal them.
Atiye
Atiye Çalik
"I'm not going back without putting up a fight first!"
A reporter for GS News in Kiel, Germany. The main group decides that she could help them get word about the Core's actions out.
- Action Survivor: She's willing to pick up a gun and fight, but she's far less experienced with them than the rest of the party (sans Ivan who doesn't fight at all). This is communicated in combat by her being unable to target specific parts of an enemy like everyone else.
- Intrepid Reporter: She's eager to report on important world events and ditch celebrity gossip work. She jumps at the chance to get important information from the main group. The main difference between Atiye and Zoe is that the former is more reluctant to report on news that could potentially invoke the ire of their editor and subsequently get cancelled.
- Trash of the Titans: Atiye's house is a huge mess. When the group finally enters it, they think her house has been raided.
Cygnus
Cygnus / Pascal
"This is my grave now."
A strange, solitary man that is Zoe's source in finding information about the NSB.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Like other characters, he was kidnapped and tortured, but unlike them, his sprite only shows him with slight but very negligible scrapes on his face, unlike Zoe, Rourke and Adair's. Ivan however is certain that something terrible was done to him.
- Hikkikomori: By the time the main group finds him, Cygnus has been driven insane with paranoia and decides to stay locked in his hideout and never leaves, not even for food.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: When the group gets to the Transcontinental Train, he tries to drive it, though he admits he is entirely basing himself on a game he played where he was driving a train.
- Properly Paranoid: He refuses to leave his hideout, swearing that a whistleblower like him is likely to be hunted down by the Beqiri family. When the Rourke and the others invade de Aldebaran casino, he was proven right when it's revealed he was kidnapped and tortured for information as soon as the group found him by tailing Rourke.
Russia
Leonid
Leonid Kazimirovich
- Big Damn Heroes: When Rourke and Lynn were surrounded by enemy soldiers inside the Cathedral, he sneaks up from behind and guns them all down.
- Crazy Homeless People: He seems to have shades of this due to him living in a decrepit home with a target range on his backyard, but he is actually a Downplayed example. He is pretty sane and is the one who puts up the best fight when fighting off Polish troops (actually Core personnel in disguise).
Germany
Zoe
Zoe Liebezeit
Atiye's camerawoman. Like Atiye, she wants to dedicate herself to reporting important things.
- Big Damn Heroes: Before the main group invades the Aldebaran Casino, Atiye tells Zoe to call the police if they don't return in thre hours. Because Zoe does this, the group manages to escape while Loran is arrested.
- Damsel in Distress: She playes this during day 4. She is kidnapped and tortured by the NSB, and the main characters have to save her.
- Intrepid Reporter: Even more than Atiye. Angry at the fact the NSB had been harassing her and her friend, she starts to investigate and look for evidence that they are up to no good.
Horst Weber
Horst Weber
The leader of the NSB party in Germany. He leads the pools to be elected by the public.
- Ambition Is Evil: According to Branna, he is so eager to get to power, that he is willing to forgo the interests of himself and of the public to put the interests of The Core first as long as they get him to power.
- Corrupt Politician: He's a reactionary politician with tons of anti-minority and anti-immigrant policies, and being heavily influenced by backdoor deals with a mercenary group, being basically a puppet for them.
- The Unfought: He's not an enemy in the game. In his place, the boss for invading the NSB building is actually his assitant Matthias. In fact, Ivan and Lynn are able to grab him and tie him up.
Matthias
Matthias Köhler
- Faux Affably Evil: He maintains a cool, polite and even friendly attitude during all time. Regardless, he is willing to torture Zoe, attempts to kill the main characters and in one email, he hints that he intends to stage a coup if Weber doesn't win the election.
- Uncertain Doom: He gets badly battered up by the main characters after their fight. While he doesn't seem to be in a good shape and might die soon, his final state is not seen.
- Undying Loyalty: His loyalty to Weber and the NSB's cause is absolute. An email implies that he was planning to stage a coup if Weber failed to win the election.
Beqiri
Loran Beqiri
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Beqiri believes himself to be an integral part of The Core's success and dislikes how Branna is pretty free to step all over him, disrespect him and not care about what happens to him, his business or his staff. Branna, for her part, thinks his ego is overblown and reiterates he is replaceable.
- A Father to His Men: He believes himself to be entitled to more from Branna in part because he actually values his men and hates how many of them died to Rourke's party just to achieve The Core's ends.
- Faux Affably Evil: He is generally polite but in an incredibly condescending way. And it pretty much slips entirely after his operations start going south and his frustrations with The Core become more apparent.
- Precision F-Strike: He has the distinction of dropping the only F-bomb in the game, calling The Core "fuckers" for not doing anything to stop the police from raiding his compound and arresting his men.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He shows nothing but disdain towards The Core, mostly because The Core treats him as nothing more than a disposable asset and refuses to properly compensate him for his continued service. His lines before he gets arrested implies he also hated having to traffic women for them.
- Trapped in Villainy: When he is captured, it's implied he wasn't really happy with what he was doing. He quietly says when the police surrounds him that he "doesn't have to do this anymore".
- Uncertain Doom: An email found in the Spire reveals that The Core sent out the order to have him disposed of following his arrest. It is possible that they killed him, but it is also just as possible that Rourke's party inadvertently stopped this from happening by infiltrating the Spire and killing Eugene, which would have halted all of The Core's current operations.
- The Unfought: When Lynn finally leads the group to get to him, it's right after Zoe has already called the police on the Aldebaran Casino. Lynn and the others decide to leave him behind to face the authorities while they get the elevator to find Rourke. As for Loran, he goes pretty quietly into that goodnight.
- You Have Failed Me: In the very last area, an email can be found revealing an order by The Core to have him disposed of and replaced after his arrest.
The Core
Sgt. Branna
Sgt. Branna
A Sergeant of the Ravens and Rourke and Adair's superior. She specializes in Surveillance and Communication.
- Alas, Poor Villain: When Branna is dying, the main characters, especially Rourke, take some pity on her breaking down in her last moments, though she rebukes them as she doesn't want their pity, and defiantly says that her dignity is all she has left now.
- Affably Evil: While she does have a slight mean streak thanks to considering Rourke an inadequate substitute for Coyle, she can show a softer side if he picks the right dialogue options when interacting with her. This holds true even after his desertion, as she makes an earnest attempt to understand why Rourke defected to begin with, and tries to convince him and Adair of The Core's righteousness despite their atrocities. Her fanatical loyalty still makes it impossible to reason with her, but her affability does serve to make her Villainous Breakdown and death more tragic, as both Rourke and Adair acknowledge they could've easily ended up like her.
- Arc Villain: From days 3-4, she's the most active and high ranked member of The Core to have a bone to pick with Rourke. Day 4 reveals she is behind everything that's been happening to the heroes in Germany.
- Dark Is Evil: Both her uniform and her civilian garb are predominantly black, and she is unquestioningly loyal to The Core.
- Dissonant Serenity: She's genuinely affable, even cheerful, when she tells Rourke and Adair she's come to take them back to The Core, even though both she and they know full well it's a death sentence. It's strongly implied to be tied to her own twisted morality, as she genuinely seems to believe giving them an "honorable" execution is the best she can do for them.
- Dramatic Irony: Branna was defeated and killed by solely civilians (as the only soldiers of the group, Rourke and Adair, are restrained). Just prior to her defeat, she had been belittling Lynn and the other ordinary people, saying things like how they are nothing with actual soldiers helping them.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Branna is eluded by why Rourke would throw away a chance other recruits would kill for, not understanding why killing innocents would make him turn away. She also doesn't understand why would Lynn, Ivan, Cygnus and Atiye even be with Rourke aside from using him for their survival.
- The Fundamentalist: Easily the most fanatically loyal member of Raven Squad, in contrast to Sgt. Faye, who got sick of The Core's atrocities and deserted of her own volition, and even Sgt. Coyle who has major reservations about what General Eugene is doing and can be convinced to turn on him. Branna however is both aware of what The Core is really like, and fully buys into the hype, to the point that Faye states that the reason she initially hesitated in defecting was because she didn't want to leave Branna in charge of the "Mothers".
- Flunky Boss: When she is fought, she automatically summons 4 drones to help her.
- The Man Behind the Man: She is the one that is controlling Beqiri and Weber as the emissary of the Core.
- Villainous Breakdown: After being defeated by Lynn, Atiye, Ivan and Cygnus and failing to deliver Rourke and Adair. She breaks down believing that because of this failure, she'll be severely punished and is no longer worthy of being in the army, let alone being a Raven. She subsequently dies.Branna: I'm not worthy. I'm no good. I don't deserve to be part of our army.
Sgt. Coyle
Sgt. Coyle
A sniper for the Ravens and Father General Weisner's right hand man. His injury prior to the start of the game freed up space for Rourke to join the Ravens.
- Always Someone Better: He is a superior sniper to Rourke in every way. Had it not been for his injury at the start of the game, there wouldn't have been a need for Rourke to enter the field. To hammer this point home, during his boss fight, he uses the same special attacks as Rourke, but they all have "Perfect" in their titles.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Between the Father General and the troops and world The Core is supposed to be protecting. He's been raised to always obey Eugene, but he feels a responsibility to the other soldiers as their older brother figure, causing him to hesitate whenever he's ordered to execute the deserters. With both Rourke and Faye, it's shown that he'd rather intimidate them into falling in line than kill them outright. And being The Dragon, he's well aware of the many terrible things The Core has done to the civilian population on the surface in the name of supposed peace but struggles to object to the man he considers his father. It's this that gives him the opportunity to pull a Heel–Face Turn, assuming Rourke selects the correct dialogue options.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Father General Eugene accuses Coyle of being able to prevent all the trouble Rourke and Adair caused had Coyle been able to be the operation's sniper instead of his replacement Rourke.
- The Dragon: Is considered Weisner's right hand man and is fought right before Eugene.
- Heel–Face Turn: Halfway through his boss fight, if your morale is high enough, Rourke can convince him to turn against Eugene with the right dialogue options.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The instances he's shown interacting with lower-ranking soldiers shows that he's quite lenient compared to the rest of the Ravens let alone the Father General himself, being strict without being uncompromising and never resorting to physical punishment first. It's the reason Faye believes him to be a much better leader than Eugene.
- Self-Deprecation: Because of Eugene's constant emotional abuse, Coyle doubts his own capabilities as a soldier let alone a possible leader, which is why he was too afraid to stop Eugene from enacting his insane vision upon the world.
- Spanner in the Works: If Coyle hadn't gotten injured prior to Operation Pregolya, then Rourke wouldn't have ended up becoming his replacement as the operation's sniper while being Locked Out of the Loop regarding the operation's true nature. So Rourke and Adair eventual defection wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Coyle's injury.
- Universally Beloved Leader: If he pulls a Heel–Face Turn, he'll succeed Eugene as the head of The Core and immediately convince the rest of the soldiers to assist him in dismantling The Core's remaining operations.
Sgt. Faye (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Sgt. Faye
The Core's former intelligence expert and Sergeant for the Ravens who Branna replaced. She's been in hiding after liberating the trafficked women Weisner was planning to turn into The Core's Breeding Slaves. She was actually the one responsible for breaking Coyle's arm after Coyle attempted to apprehend her during the escape.
- Action Girl: She can incapacitate an entire room of Core troops with just her bare hands.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: The Core's first living defector happens to be a redhead with dull green eyes.
- Spanner in the Works: She shares this role with Coyle, being the one responsible for breaking his arm after he attempted to restrain her in lieu of killing her outright. Had the whole altercation never happened, Coyle would never have been replaced, which means that Rourke would never had gotten to the surface and defected alongside Adair.
- Token Good Teammate: She's the only member of the Ravens who actually realized of her own volition how many lines The Core was crossing and worked to try to undermine one of their operations.
Lt. Gareth
Lt. Gareth
"You should be proud. For your pitiful names will be known by our dear Father"
The Lieutenant of the Ravens, who commands Rourke and Adair's squad in the attack on Russia.- Arc Villain: He's the main antagonist in during days 1-2, and the head of the force that is attacking Kaliningrad.
- Jerkass: He's an incredibly unpleasant man from his very first scene, and any hope of him revealing a Hidden Heart of Gold are promptly dashed when he guns down a civilian Rourke hesitated in shooting and berates him for it. He stands out even among The Core loyalists in not even bothering to understand Rourke's motivations for deserting, as his every dialogue after that moment betrays nothing more than bloodthirsty contempt.
- Sociopathic Soldier: He sees anyone The Core points him towards as an enemy that needs to be terminated without mercy and sneers at Rourke's capacity for compassion. The fact that he flashes a Slasher Smile whenever he attacks during his boss battle shows just how much of a violent nutjob he is despite his claims of working for a higher cause.
- Slasher Smile: His attack cut-ins have him flashing one.
- Starter Villain: He is the first of the named Raven Squad members that they dispatch and the initial catalyst of the plot when he kills a child that Rourke hesitated on attacking.
- Uncertain Doom: It is possible for Rourke and the others to just knock Gareth unconscious before fleeing Kaliningrad. However, Father General Eugene would comment on how one of the casualties of the attack by the Core involved a lieutenant. It is unknown if Gareth is the lieutenant who died in the report, or if it was somebody else.
- Would Hurt a Child: He coldly executes a child that survived the opening attack on Kaliningrad.
Father General
Father General Eugene Weisner
"Well... I've got to say, I'm a bit... disappointed... to say the least."
The General of The Core, who presents himself as a father figure to the soldiers.- Abusive Parents: Beneath the fatherly image he puts up, he's this to his soldiers. He makes it absolutely clear that his love for them is conditional and has raised them in an environment where they were never allowed to make their own decisions. It's most obviously shown with Coyle, who was left with crippling self-esteem issues due to Eugene's constant emotional abuse.
- Big Bad: He plays this role as the head of The Core, the main antagonist of the story.
- Control Freak: His idea of a better world is one where he calls all the shots for everything, something he drilled into the minds of his soldiers.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the A Father to His Men archetype. He's what you get when someone artificially attempts to evoke the mystique and cult of personality of a paternal military leader like Big Boss in order to achieve his own selfish ends, essentially showing what an abusive example of Parental Substitute-like leader would look like. And he does some truly screwed up things in order to cement his role as the "father" to his soldiers.
- Entitled Bastard: He started manufacturing wars in a bid to become the sole superpower in the world all because he felt slighted by the lack of power he held in the World Security Council.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: As he's dying, he asks which nation sent the party after him, believing that those opposing him are only interested in claiming the Core's power for themselves rather than them wanting to stop its atrocities for the sake of protecting people.
- A Father to His Men: Invoked. The entire Core think of themselves as his children and he is their actual father, to the point where Rourke and Adair believe their last name to be his. It's lightly hinted he might, indeed, be their biological father for real.
- Faux Affably Evil: He tries putting up a front as a fatherly and noble-minded leader, but unlike Coyle and Branna, his affability is completely an act. The mask slips very quickly after Rourke's desertion, as he becomes noticeably irate and abusive to Coyle and Branna both, but even when he puts on a dignified mask again during the final confrontation, it slips once the party defeats him, revealing him to be a spiteful, egomaniacal scumbag.
- Hate Sink: He's someone who only becomes more repulsive the more is unveiled about him and his operations, especially as he constantly refuses to accept the gravity of his crimes and dismisses them as necessary sacrifices for the greater good.
- Knight Templar: He continues to expouse how The Core is bringing about world peace even when it becomes obvious that he's just a megalomaniac.
- Narcissist: How else do you describe someone who commissions grandiose portraits of himself to commemorate the occupation of a country?
- Never My Fault: He never once acknowledges the true gravity of his crimes and continues to downplay them as nothing more than completely necessary sacrifices, and he's completely hostile in the face of dissenting voices.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims that everything the Core does is to bring a permanent peace to the world, but the growing number of people opposing him counter that everything he's done has been only to serve his own ego of ruling the world with an army that would never question his commands.
- Paper Tiger: You'd think someone who cultivated a Cult of Personality based around military prowess would be at least a competent fighter when the chips were down, but after being stripped of his soldiers and drones, he turns out to be a pathetic opponent with the lowest damage output of any enemy in the game.
- Psychopathic Manchild: As Faye breaks down, he is nothing more than a bratty Attention Whore who wants to be the most important person in the room, except said room happens to be the world stage.
- The Sociopath: He's a narcissistic manipulator who wants to be worshipped and has no empathy for the innocent people he needs to step on to get there. His only reason for fashioning himself as a "father" to his soldiers is so that they'll do everything he says without question, and they're ultimately expendable if they bother to question him in any way.
- Tom the Dark Lord: "Eugene" is frankly a very unimposing name for a cult-like military leader to have. Seemingly as an act of derision, several members of the party refer to him exclusively by his first name.
- Villainous Breakdown: When finally cornered and forced to fight on his own, his calm and condescending veneer shatters, revealing the misanthropic Control Freak underneath.
- Villainous Valour: He stands his ground during the final battle. Even after his elaborate turret is destroyed, he continues to come at the party on foot with just a pistol, even though his damage output is pitifully weak in that state.
