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Allied Forces and French Resistance
Charlie Barton
- Brave Scot: She is of Scottish descent, and is operating deep behind German lines in order to make the Nazis' lives as miserable as possible.
- But Not Too Foreign: She's the daughter of a Scottish father and a French mother, thus explaining why she's been posted to France.
- Code Name: As the SOE's main agent in France, goes by the codename of "Blue Viper" in order to help her evade Nazi forces.
- Establishing Character Moment: Her introduction has her overpower and kill a Nazi officer with ease, showing that she's an experienced operative.
- The Handler: She serves as the SOE's main liason with the French Resistance, namely by providing them with vital intel, training, weapons, and communication with the Americans and British.
- Ms. Exposition: Serves as one for Fairburne following his arrival in France. She informs him about Möller, a "secret operation" he's been planning for months, and his plans to eliminate the French Resistance for good.
- Old Friend: She's established early on to be one of Karl's old contacts, and once they see each other again in France update one another on their wartime experiences thus far.
- Remember the New Guy?: She is introduced as an old friend of Karl's, them having apparently known each other since before the war. Justified, on account that Charlie herself was only operating in France ever since 1942, while Karl had been assigned to North Africa and then Italy beforehand. Their encounter with one another in the game indicates that it's been years since their last meeting.
Marie Chevalier
The leader of a French Resistance group operating in Normandy, who serves as Charlie's main contact. She later aids Fairburne on Charlie's recommendations, serving as his guide and getaway driver.
- Action Girl: A female French Resistance fighter, who proves to be no slouch when it comes to killing Nazis or getting Fairburne in and out of heavily guarded enemy bases.
- Affectionate Nickname: She refers to Karl as "Monsieur Shadow".
- Authority Equals Asskicking: The leader of a French Resistance cell, with dozens of dead Nazis to her name.
- Canon Immigrant: She was originally a character from the Zombie Army games. Here, she is introduced into the parent series as the main contact within the French Resistance. She's also the first of the original characters from ZAT to appear in the parent series.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: She is this to Sofia Di Rocco. Both are the female Rebel Leaders of their respective La Résistance factions, vehemently oppose the local Axis commander, initially distrust Fairburne, and ultimately help Karl kill the Big Bad and stop their Evil Plan. But while Sofia is ultimately a Faux Action Girl who gets most of her group killed including herself due to reckless and impulsive decision-making, Marie is a genuine Action Girl who competently leads her French Resistance cell while suffering fewer casualties who survives unscathed alongside most of her resistance cell. Also, Sofia, throughout 4's campaign, distrusted Fairburne despite him proving himself to be a reliable asset, while Marie immediately comes to genuinely trust Fairburne thanks to Charlie Barton's assurance and Fairburne himself proving to be reliable during their first meeting.
- The Dreaded: The Germans in Occupied France absolutely fear her, no thanks to her ability to sneak into well-guarded bases singlehandedly and stealthily kill any poor German soldier she comes across.
- La Résistance: The leader of a French Resistance cell operating in Normandy, whose members as well as herself prove to be very helpful guides and informants for Fairburne in his missions. They're vehemently opposed to Möller's operations, no thanks to the former's brutal extermination campaign against both French civilians and Resistance fighters alike.
- Nazi Hunter: She's personally killed dozens if not hundreds of Nazis prior to the games events, as indicated by the numerous reports by clueless German patrols of a lone French Resistance fighter tearing through their bases and ranks.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Her prior infiltration and slaughter of several German soldiers in "Secret Weapons" is this, with the German guards scared shitless to the point that they double patrols in and around the facility in an attempt to prevent another similar incident from happening.
- Rebel Leader: She's the leader of a French Resistance cell operating in Normandy, and is a vital contact for Karl, Charlie, and later, Sullivan.
Lieutenant Jeff Sullivan
- Character Development: He goes from initially opposing and distrusting Karl to respecting the SOE agent after Karl relieves several other Rangers during "Liberation". By the ending of the game, Sullivan even shakes hands with Fairburne, grateful for Karl stopping Kraken and potentially saving his family's lives.
- A Father to His Men: He cares about the men under his command, to the point he doesn't want to risk his surviving men's lives following the ambush that sank their submarine transport and most of Sullivan's men still onboard at the time.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted. In contrast to every other character on the Allied side, Sullivan is notable in that he wears a US M1 Helmet whenever he's on the frontline or operating behind enemy lines, a stark contrast to Fairburne, Brauer, Hawker, and even Weaver.
- Hero of Another Story: He and his Rangers are responsible for taking out another set of Atlantic Wall defenses at the same time as Karl, they take part in the D-Day air drops and continue the offensive inland while Karl goes after the research facility, and later come in to clean up the remaining Nazis in St. Nazaire.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's abrasive to Karl from the word go, but only because he's looking out for the rest of his men. At the end, after Karl deals with Operation Kraken, Sullivan swallows his pride and thanks Karl for stopping it, as doing so most likely saved the lives of his family living in Washington.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He wasn't in the wrong when he refused to help Karl and the French Resistance raid the Kraken factory, due to his men having suffered heavy casualties only days prior, on top of being Trapped Behind Enemy Lines and low on ammunition and other supplies.
- Ranger: He's a member of the US Army Rangers, one of the most elite units in the US Army during World War II.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He refuses to commit his surviving men to helping Karl deal with Operation Kraken, instead deciding to escape back to Britain.
- What the Hell, Hero?: He openly accuses Karl Fairburne of playing hero when the former asks Sullivan if he can lend his men for the raid on the Kraken factory. Given that most of his men had just been killed only days prior, and he and the surviving men under his command had just managed to make it out alive, he's understandably still shaken by the Nazi ambush from the opening mission, and just wants to get himself and his men out alive.
Axis Forces
Obergruppenfuhrer Abelard Möller
- Bad Boss: It's mentioned that Möller tests his V2s by firing them at his own troops on the frontlines, as way of "encouraging" them to stall the Allied offensive into France.
- Big Bad: He's the main antagonist of the game, being the mastermind behind Operation Kraken. In addition, he's also responsible for the deaths of numerous French Resistance fighters under Marie Chevalier's command, as shown during the "Atlantic Wall" mission.
- Boom, Headshot!: While Karl can be creative in killing Möller as he flees his headquarters, the achievement "Brains of the Operation" requires that the player shoot Möller in the head to kill him.
- Commissar Cap: Wears one as part of his SS uniform, helping to indicate that he's a high-ranking officer.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Möller seems to be modelled on controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Möller is a lot more insecure and openly terrified of Karl than previous antagonists Vahlen and Böhm, who were supremely confident and arrogant in their superiority and inevitability of their success.
- Dark Is Evil: Wears a black SS uniform, and is established to be an utterly repulsive individual who doesn't care about his men's lives and is planning on launching a sneak attack on the US mainland with English-speaking German spies.
- Dirty Coward: Rather than face backlash from both Hitler and his Japanese allies following Operation Kraken getting botched by Fairburne, Möller decides to go into hiding at the end of the game. Then Fairburne kills him just as he tries to flee.
- Evil Plan: Operation Kraken is intended to bring the horrors of the European War to the mainland United States, by means of several stealth-plated German U-boats and Japanese submarines, a number of English-speaking German spies from the Ausland SD Division of the SS, and modified V2 rockets launched from searborne platforms.
- Final Boss: He's the final target that Karl must assassinate, albeit by killing and preventing him from fleeing instead of fighting him.
- Nervous Wreck: He's notably terrified of Karl Fairburne in contrast to his predecessors Vahlen, Bohm, and Bosch. Given that Fairburne had wrecked the latter's operations completely in the years and months prior to the events of the game, he has every right to be nervous.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His attempt to wipe out the French Resistance during the start of the story only attracts more unwanted Allied attention towards Operation Kraken, with Fairburne immediately becoming suspicious of the German officer and his Evil Plan. What's more, the French Resistance's leadership manage to escape unharmed, rendering the German's efforts vain.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Not once does he even try to face Karl Fairburne, the French Resistance, or the Allies personally, with all of his scenes showing him in the safety of either his own headquarters or a remote command bunker. He is the only Big Bad in the series with combat A.I., due to you killing him while he's on foot, but since he's only armed with a luger pistol he's no threat to you as you snipe at him from a few hundred meters away.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: He has a town suspected of being a French Resistance hub attacked, having its entire civilian population killed.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: It becomes clear early on that Möller has massive political and military influence within the Axis Powers, as he manages to convince the SS, Kriegsmarine, and Imperial Japanese Navy to pool their resources together for Operation Kraken. And when Kraken is stopped dead in its tracks by Fairburne, he decides to invoke this trope and go into hiding via his aforementioned connections, refusing to answer for his mistakes and failures to Hitler and/or his Japanese allies.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the game's ending, he attempts to flee after Karl destroys the Operation Kraken fleet in the St. Nazaire U-boat pens., unwilling to report to Hitler or his Japanese allies for his failure.
- Villainous Breakdown: The ending of most of the campaign levels has him rant in desperation and anger following Fairburne's successfull operations against the facilities where Operation Kraken is being prepared from.
- You Have Failed Me: On the receiving end of this trope. He knows that with Operation Kraken's failure that he'll be sacked or hanged by Hitler himself, so he decides to take one step ahead and attempt to flee.
Obersturmbannfuhrer Friedrich Vogel
- Arc Villain: Of the Downloadable Content campaign mission, "Kraken Awakens", where he's been tasked with restarting and finishing Operation Kraken's remaining fleet.
- Bearer of Bad News: He's often tasked with delivering bad news to his superior, which usually involves Fairburne or one one his allies destroying an important facility or stealing vital intelligence from under their noses.
- The Dragon: To Moller, being the one responsible for briefing Moller, coordinating their forces, and arranging his superior's meetings with other German officers.
- Dragon Ascendant: He ends up becoming the new commander of Operation Kraken following Moller's death.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: While he manages to survive the campaign thanks to slipping away before Karl could get to him, he's ultimately killed a few months later when Karl stops the remnants of Operation Kraken from seeing the light of day.
- Mr. Exposition: He ends up briefing and warning his superior Moller about Fairburne's recent actions in France during his first cutscene.
- Nervous Wreck: In each of his cutscenes, he's shown to be nervous when delivering bad news to his superior, which is pretty much justified given that Karl Fairburne has already destroyed three German wonderweapons projects prior to Operation Kraken.
- Number Two: He serves as Moller's chief-of-staff.
- Satellite Character: His scenes mainly have him alongside his direct superior.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At some point after "Rubble and Ruin", Vogel ends up leaving Moller on his own, presumably to avoid being killed or captured by the Allies.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He remains unaccounted for following the Final Battle, with Moller himself angry that Vogel had abandoned him. That is, until the Downloadable Content campaign mission "Kraken Awakens", where he finally gets killed.
- You Are in Command Now: He ends up becoming the new commander of Operation Kraken, thanks to Moller's death, and the other officers under the latter's command being killed in action as well.
