History Main / DeadCharacterWalking

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart DS'' battle mode, a dead (read:out of the contest) driver can still drive around the battlefield, laying boxes, albeit invisible and intangible.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'': By a glitch, you could walk [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wa5ytBcsOE Zombie Link in a dim world]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jQHKMe6fiY&feature=watch_response A different method]] allows Zombie Link to walk around in regular lighting, but nothing can be done anyway, everything is frozen, and many features are disabled.

* There is an infamous glitch which crept from the infamous ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)]]'' to the otherwise excellent ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' which makes Sonic, if he receives mortal damage while on a autoscrolling sequence, still slide with his dead body on the track. He can even be controlled sometimes with the directional pad!

* In ''{{STALKER}} Call of Pripyat'', theres a stalker called Crab in Skadovsk that was severely injured by a Chimera after [[DirtyCoward Magpie]] betrays Gonta's squad, and it's (supposed to be) laying in a bed (Okay, he's not ''dead'', but he isn't supposed to move from there until he recovers, so it counts). Sometimes Crab can be seen walking around Skadovsk, if that isn't weird enough, he walks in a very erratic manner ''with his torso rotated 180 degrees only for him to suddenly stop, lay in the ground and '''float''' up to his bed''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WikVYjAw7Hs You can't make this stuff up]]

** The game was prone to this in earlier builds which were much buggier. The game could occasionally forget that someone was dead and bring them pack to life upon reloading a save. If you had hacked or exploded someones limbs or head off, the game would creepily reassemble them from all the gibs and severed parts. The resulting abomination would walk around and talk as if nothing was wrong.
** Some respawning NPC can also coexist with their corpse or, more frequently the pile of ash or plasma that was there past self. When you try to loot the glitched corpse or ash pile, the living version will respond to you as if you just tried to talk to them. The most prominent place this occurs is the guards outside camp McCarren, who are already likely to die multiple times thanks to the Fiends that spawn near them. These [=NPCs=], and all other that trigger this glitch, are counted as unique, and thus have saved facial structures and load outs, but use the same code as generic re spawning [=NPCs=]. This results in creating another instance of that NPC when they respawn, without necessarily removing the old instance (their corpse) in the process. In the game's eyes, the corpse and the person are the same thing.
** Both this game and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' occasionally have dead-on-arrival NPC's spawn alive, with no dialogue options. On other occasions, enemies killed offscreen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LASKohDRQKU will have their corpse continue to animate in some fashion as if they're alive]] once you catch up to them.

* Occasionally in ''VideoGame/{{Conduit 2}}'''s online multiplayer, a killed enemy's model will remain in their standing pose, even though they are counted as killed. Continuing to shoot at these model (which other people will most certainly do if you don't) will give you a "Double Tap" medal.
* In [[Website/FunOrb ''Steel Sentinels'']], a minor programming oversight causes mecha to not die until their hit points are negative- meaning that mechs with precisely zero hit points will cling to life with an empty health bar until they are felled by a stray point of damage. Although this glitch isn't much use against [[MoreDakka machine guns]] or [[DeathOfAThousandCuts lasers]], it is immensely satisfying to complete a [[PvP Fleet]] CaptureTheFlag objective while technically dead.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' mobs have a glitch where if you kill them, and exit quickly and on return they will be alive and moving around in whatever position in their dying animation they was in when you exited.

* Certain versions of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom'' has Merlin Prismriver continue attacking even after the Prismriver sisters are supposed to be defeated, potentially killing your character. So much for sisterly solidarity. This bug has been [[MemeticMutation mercilessly ridiculed]] by {{doujin}} artists.

* In Hitman: Silent Assassin's final level, the player can stealth-kill the final boss through a confession booth door with the fiber wire. This doesn't actually complete the level, but when the player triggers the cutscene where the final boss leaves the confession booth, the boss's corpse will ragdoll across the ground.

* In ''ShadowsOfTheEmpire'', if you use the [[{{BFG}} Disruptor]] while in the Outrider at the end of the second level, Dash will come back to life as a "zombie" after the cutscene.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Halo3}}'', it's possible to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXYt6-2OasM save Sergeant Johnson at the end of the game and have him ride along with you in the final escape sequence]]...but pulling it off can be quite difficult and time consuming.

* In the video game adaptation of ''VideoGame/{{ToyStory2}}'', pausing the game when the player dies (specifically, when Buzz yells), and then quitting will resurrect Buzz and make him invincible. However, the spin attack will no longer inflict damage, and because a few bosses can only be damaged that way, it will become impossible to complete the game.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront'': Players that was in craft that crashed sometimes turn into immortal players that can't be killed. Company is banning those who abuse this. [[http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2015/11/star-wars-battlefront-suffers-immortal-player-glitch/ Here.]]

* A rare plot-related example occurs in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' where Galuf [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments successfully fights off Exdeath at 0 HP.]] [[spoiler: He dies immediately after that, though.]]

* A rare plot-related example occurs in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' where Galuf [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments successfully fights of Exdeath at 0 HP.]] [[spoiler: He dies immediately after that, though.]]

* There was a bug in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate 2'' that would occasionally cause a monster not to register that it has died, rendering it undead in a manner the authors hadn't anticipated. This required either a reload or a hasty escape as the player would be chased around the area by an unkillable cloud of flying LudicrousGibs.

** Some respawning NPC can also coexist with their corpse or, more frequently the pile of ash or plasma that was there past self. When you try to loot the glitched corpse or ash pile, the living version will respond to you as if you just tried to talk to them. The most prominent place this occurs is the guards outside camp McCarren, who are already likely to die multiple times thanks to the Fiends that spawn near them. These NPCs, and all other that trigger this glitch, are counted as unique, and thus have saved facial structures and load outs, but use the same code as generic re spawning NPCs. This results in creating another instance of that NPC when they respawn, without necessarily removing the old instance (their corpse) in the process. In the game's eyes, the corpse and the person are the same thing.

* The early Playstation game ''Loaded'' had a cheat menu to immediately boost the player to full health. If the player had just been killed, however, it would allow them to move around the map as an invulnerable [[LudicrousGibs splattered corpse]]. Unable to shoot, open doors or pick up keys. However, they could still detonate smart bombs, whilst a second player could deal with the doors for them, but still not much point.

* If the player enables the invincibility cheat in ''OddworldStrangersWrath'' but then falls into a fan, they will remain able to move and attack as continuous fountain of LudicrousGibs.

* ''Videogame/PlanetSide 2'' has a wide variety of glitches that can cause dead characters to continue fighting. On rare occasions, players who have been using their MagicTool on a friendly vehicle can continue to repair it even past its destruction, which will "revive" the vehicle albeit with no turret. An animation glitch can cause dead players who have been revived by a medic to slide around the ground as a corpse while shooting at enemies.

** In it's predecessor, ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}, dead characters where actually ghosts following the leader of your party.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' has a similar Zombie Link glitch where the player must rapidly press the A and B buttons alternately as soon as Link loses all his health, but before the death animation plays. This glitch is called "death jumping" or "zombie hovering", as Link will start vibrating, as the jump animation is played in rapid succession. The glitch allows one to travel anywhere within a room, but if Link enters another room, he will immediately die.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' has a similar Zombie Link glitch where the player must rapidly press the A and B buttons alternately as soon as Link loses all his health, but before the death animation plays. This glitch is called "death jumping", as Link will start vibrating, as the jump animation is played in rapid succession. The glitch allows one to travel anywhere within a room, but if Link enters another room, he will immediately die.

This is often considered a {{Good Bad Bug}}. Not to be confused with DeadStarWalking, or with those placed high on the SortingAlgorithmOfMortality.

* The original QWTF Team Fortress had a bug where a spy could feign death, and then start moving around as an apparent sliding corpse on the ground.

* If the player enables the invincibility cheat in ''OddworldStrangersWrath'' but then falls into a fan, they will remain able to move and attack as continous fountain of LudicrousGibs.

* The original VideoGame/{{Tenchu}} has a player-accessible DebugMode that can cause all sorts of amusing glitches when abused: much like the VideoGame/MegaMan example above, if you jump into a BottomlessPit and then use the debug menu to teleport back to the beginning of the level after you drop to 0 HP, you'll be essentially invincible and all enemy attacks go through you. However, this also gives you the same SuperDrowningSkills the enemies suffer from, but thanks to the debug menu, you can teleport yourself out of the water as well and revive yourself on command: depending on how long you let your character drown before you revive then, their lower torso [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe might disappear entirely]] or they might turn completely invisible with only their weapon floating in the air.

Through a glitch or various methods, one of game characters is supposed to die, but somehow is kept alive, possibly with bizarre effects. Applies to players where Game Over normally happens, or able to do unexpected actions like ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s "travel by suicide". Applies to enemies or {{NPC}}s if they are not supposed to be immortal. Does not apply if when fatally hit, die after scripted period of time or script saved.

This is often considered a {{Good Bad Bug|s}}. Don't confuse with DeadStarWalking, or with those placed high on the SortingAlgorithmOfMortality.

* Straight game mechanism: Simplest form of all. Just die, and some games allows you do unexpected things while dead. Sometimes, the dead character can harass living ones, resulting in a kind of KingmakerScenario.
* Glitches: Some form of glitch allows player or enemy to die and stay around and move around, and in some cases still fight! Exploiting this can fall under NotTheIntendedUse.
* Cheat code: First enable some form of cheat, then die. The interaction of cheat and dying code causes unexpected abilities while dead.

* In the video game adaptation of ''VideoGame/{{ToyStory2}}'', pausing the game when the player dies (specifically, when Buzz yells), and then quitting will resurrect Buzz and make him invincible. However, the spin attack will no longer inflict damage, and because a few bosses can only be damaged that way, it will become impossible to complete the game.

** The game has so many bugs that one of them is NPC that will die, stand up then die again, sometimes stopping after a while, sometimes not. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60RFDklfIg Driv3r WTF 4 video]] Guess he really liked his death scene?

This is often considered a GoodBadBug. Don't confuse with DeadStarWalking, or with those placed high on the SortingAlgorithmOfMortality.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' has a glitch where, on occasion, enemies who are killed by being set on fire would continue to run around in their on-fire animation indefinitely. It seems the game gets confused at some point in the process of switching them from a moving fire damage source to a static corpse, since they can't hurt you past the point where they should have stopped moving, and you in turn can only remove them by hitting them with the splash damage from an explosion.
* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' has such a [[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Player_corpses_walking bug]], [[http://games.moria.org.uk/doom/research/running-body described in detail here]], where a players killed in deathmatch becomes a mobile corpse which runs (okay, slides) around. Kinda creepy.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', if an NPC has scripted dialogue, but you kill them before they begin to speak, the corpse will speak anyway. The mouth moves and the audio can be heard, but otherwise he is dead. (This works at least on the security guard at the end of the Power Up sequence.)

* Can be done in the second ''PhantasyStar'' game. First, kill off everyone except [[SpoonyBard Shir]], then enter a shop repeatedly until she steals something and leaves the party. You'll now be able to walk around with an all dead party, though the second you get into an encounter, you'll die immediately.

** Some respawning NPC can also coexist with their corpse or, more frequently the pile of ash or plasma that was there past self. When you try to loot the glitched corpse or ash pile, the living version will respond to you as if you just tried to talk to them. The most prominent place this occurs is the guards outside camp McCarren, who are already likely to die multiple times thanks to the Fiends that spawn near them. These NPCs, and all other that trigger this glitch, are counted as unique, and thus have saved facial structures and load outs, but use the same code as generic re spawning NPCs. This results in creating another instance of that NPC when they respawn, without necessarily removing the old instance (their corpse)it the process. In the games eyes, the corpse and the person are the same thing.
* ''RedFaction'' had a glitch in multiplayer mode when the invincibility cheat was active; the flamethrower's alternate attack would set CPU-controlled players on fire, but never let them die. They would run around forever screaming in agony until you turned the cheat off. It was possible to inflict this cruelty on an entire level's worth of bots.

* Occasionally in {{Conduit2}}'s online multiplayer, a killed enemy's sprite will remain in their standing pose, even though they are counted as killed. Continuing to shoot at these sprites (which other people will most certainly do if you don't) will give you a "Double Tap" medal.

* ''{{Minecraft}}'' mobs have a glitch where if you kill them, and exit quickly and on return they will be alive and moving around in whatever position in dying animation they was in when you exited.
* ''Driver3 :'' Odd things happening during replays, where events play out incorrectly, sometimes leaving Tanner dead for half of it.
** The game has so much bugs that one of em is NPC that will die, stand up then die again, sometimes stopping after while, sometimes not. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60RFDklfIg Driv3r WTF 4 video]] Guess he really liked his death scene?

* ''CallOfDuty'' has glitches with corpses, from just silently talking faces to really strange animation and postures. [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19507_the-8-creepiest-glitches-hidden-in-popular-video-games.html Cracked page explains it the best...]]
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': Has a similar bug as Minecraft game. If you save while character just died, there's various bugged things that happen, from floating hollow heads to weird corpses that's still alive. [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19507_the-8-creepiest-glitches-hidden-in-popular-video-games_p2.html Cracked explains it the best again...]]
** Both this game and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' occasionally have dead-on-arrival NPC's spawn alive, with no dialogue options.

* In [[FunOrb ''Steel Sentinels'']], a minor programming oversight causes mecha to not die until their hit points are negative- meaning that mechs with precisely zero hit points will cling to life with an empty health bar until they are felled by a stray point of damage. Although this glitch isn't much use against [[MoreDakka machine guns]] or [[DeathOfAThousandCuts lasers]], it is immensely satisfying to complete a [[PvP Fleet]] CaptureTheFlag objective while technically dead.

This is often considered a GoodBadBug.

* In the video game adaptation of ToyStory2, pausing the game when the player dies (specifically, when Buzz yells), and then quitting will resurrect Buzz and make him invincible. However, the spin attack will no longer inflict damage, and because a few bosses can only be damaged that way, it will become impossible to complete the game.

* In Halo 3, it's possible to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXYt6-2OasM save Sergeant Johnson at the end of the game and have him ride along with you in the final escape sequence]]...but pulling it off can be quite difficult and time consuming.