Steve Robbins

• Ambiguously Absent Parent: In the second game Steve mentions Charles was his last living relative and after he died Steve had noone else left, implying their parents are also gone.
• Anti-Hero: Steve may go after criminals, drug lords and other low-lives and avoids innocent casualties, but he's also violent, short fused, all too willing to kill and has controllable but still very present anger issues all of which does not make him a good man, something he freely admits.
• Blood Knight: By the second game he's this, as he's all too happy to bust gangs and kill criminals in side missions Sean and Lee Da send his way.
• The Dreaded: By the second game, Steve's name alone is enough to strike fear in some of the city's most hardened gangsters, given his one-man rampage-of-revenge. Even if you try to complete as many missions as possible without killing anyone besides mandatory targets, the man will have a double-digit body-count by the end of the first game, and be feared regardless for taking down three of the city's biggest gangs singlehandedly.
• Drugs Are Bad: He hates drugs and drug users with a passion. In the second game he's the only one who cannot activate his Bullet Time via a drug inhaler.
• Everyone Has Standards: For all his violent tendencies he still has a functioning moral code, and draws a hard line on things he finds wrong, like killing innocent people and non-criminals.
• Experienced Protagonist: In the second game. Not only does Sean turn to him as a mentor for training, Steve's character sheet has most of his skills begin at level 3 (except for Stealth Operations, which is at level 2).
• Famed in Story: By the second game Steve's exploits have made him The Dreaded among the underworld. Many mooks and targets react with fear when they realise who exactly they're dealing with.
• From Hero to Mentor: In the second game, where Steve acts as a mentor and support figure to Sean in addition to just training his skills.
• Heroic Build: Story events, main menu and other art shows that he's pretty jacked.
• Hero Insurance: He never has to face the legal consequences of his actions in the first game, including things like killing a bunch of people in his own home and subsequently vanishing without a trace, which is justified by the Mole pulling strings for him. In the second game's good ending he's fine with lingering on the scene of the final level with Sean, confident that even if the police catches them there they will still be released.
• He Who Fights Monsters: By the end of the first game, Steve understands exactly what he's become, and he reveals to Sean that he tried to settle down only for it to backfire; when taking a girl out on a date, he overreacted to another guy making advances on his girl and absolutely brutalized the other guy in an unnecessarily excessive beatdown. This scared off his date and lead to him taking up his old career.
• Inexplicably Awesome: We have no indication that prior to the first game's events Steve had any combat training beyond visiting a firing range from time to time. However, that and a month of self-training at the hideout provided to him by the Accomplice was seemingly sufficient to turn him into a force of nature capable of tearing through entire drug gangs all on his own.
• Ink-Suit Actor: His appearance is based on the series' developer.
• Knight in Sour Armour: In the second game he has a rather cynical view of himself, things he does and his chance of making a world a better place, but still tries to do the right thing the only way he knows how.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: One of the few lines Steve draws in pursuit of his enemies. If Sean hurts or kills civilians during levels, or executes mission targets Steve asks him to spare, Steve's trust in Sean will be damaged.
• No Place for Me There: By the second game he's still too traumatised by the events and things that he did in the first game, to the point where he can no longer function in a normal society. The main reason he decides to look out for that job where he stumbles onto Sean is he doesn't really know what else to do with his life.
• Screaming Warrior: With a high enough bodycount or just in certain missions, Steve will start slinging taunts and insults whenever guards are on high alert. Amusingly enough this doesn't generate actual noise, so he can be yelling insults as you sneak up behind a guard who is searching for you and they somehow won't hear said yelling.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: He goes around in a black sleeveless shirt, leaving his arms exposed.
• Unstoppable Rage: What drives him throughout the first game. Even after he chases down the last of his brother's killers, completing his Revenge, he still cannot stop, and decides to take out those above them in the drug trade just because he's that angry.
• Vigilante Man: After his brother is (accidentally) murdered by junkies in a mugging, Steve reinvents himself as a stone cold killer and sets off on a quest to bring down the city's drug kingpins. While he gets his revenge in the first game, he continues his vigilantism in the sequels, and picks up Sean as an apprentice along the way.

Sean

• Anti-Hero: He's still a contract killer, but he took up the craft to help his father and tries to limit himself to killing only bad people. Depending on how you play him, what targets you kill or spare and whether or not you avoid civilian casualties, Sean can come off as more or less moral than Steve.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Compared to Steve he's far less bloodthirsty, and also more emotional and less confident. He also comes from a poorer background - even though he has his own place it's a flat in an appartment block, while Steve has his own house.
• Excellent Judge of Character: He's quite good at reading people, so he realises that Dave cannot be a child trafficker as he was led to believe.
• Hitman with a Heart: What he tries to be, only taking contracts on people who he feels deserve to get killed. When he realizes he's been lied to about one of his targets, he immediately gives up the hit, which leads to the Big Bad blackmailing him.
• Honor Thy Parent: Sean very much loves his father, and takes up hits to find money for his eye surgery. When his dad is kidnapped Sean turns half the city upside down in order to save his life and ultimately rescue him.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Even more pronounced than Steve. Sean's reputation in the underworld is not really good, and his starting skills are unsurprisingly lower than Steve's, but as the gameplay shows he's actually quite good as a hitman. This is the whole reason Jacob decides to use Sean and coerce him into doing his dirty work - Jacob realised that for Sean to get into Dave's place, have him at a gunpoint, walk away and manage to escape, Sean must be good at what he does.
• No-Respect Guy: Other mercenaries and underworld figures (Gideon in particular) treat him like crap for being picky with his jobs and generally don't think that high of him.

Charles Robbins

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Getting buzzed is likely why he decided not to take a taxi home from a bar, instead opting to take a walk through a dangerous neighbourhood.
• Convenient Coma: Hell no. Charles falls into a coma after a brutal beating, and dies on the next day without regaining consciousness.
• Cool Big Bro: Past the friendly ribbing at the shooting range, he was clearly very close and supportive to Steve.
• The Lost Lenore: A rare male non-romantic example. Steve dearly loved his brother, and his death serves as the catalyst for the first game. In the second game, half a year later, Steve still very much misses him.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He only appears in the prologue of the first game.

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Once Steve reaches him he wastes no time before groveling and begging to be spared, trying to buy Steve off. It doesn't work.
• Big Bad: For the first Intravenous: While he's not responsible for Charles' death, the Accomplice uses Steve and manipulates his grief to turn him into a weapon against the Baker's drug cartel, so that his gang can seize control of the city's underworld. He then places a hit on Steve, fearing the very Vigilante Man he created.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: He's a dead ringer for Kurt Cobain.
• Final Boss: The epilogue of the first game is storming his hideout to kill him. He's not much of a 'boss' by himself though - like all mission targets, he dies in a scripted scene.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Had he just left Steve alone once he eliminated his competition for him he would've lived to enjoy his newly-grown drug empire. Instead, fearing him, he decides to remove Steve as a loose end. The rest is history.
• Manipulative Bastard: Pretending to be a sympathetic figure he's actually another drug lord who uses Steve to remove competition.
• Mission Control: Serves as this to Steve, offering him intel but also guiding him throughout his missions.
• Mysterious Benefactor: He offers Steve weapons, support and intel in his crusade against drug gangs with near limitless cash at his disposal, but offers very little about himself.
• Treacherous Quest Giver: The Accomplice is eventually revealed be a crime boss using Steve to take out his rivals in the drug trade. After the Baker's business is dismantled, the Accomplice puts a hit on Steve to clean up loose ends.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Steve never meets him face to face until the very end, talking to him over the phone and radio. He also has access to the city CCTV network, and often gives Steve advanced warning and information based on what he sees.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Tries to invoke this on Steve once he removes the Baker.

• Red Shirt: They're no more important in the grand scale of things than any other random drug addict mook Steve has to get through to get to them (except maybe the last one, who seems to be some low-level executive in a drug network), with only their personal involvement in Steve's brother's death making them important to him.
• Starter Villain: It takes a few levels to hunt down and kill them all, but ultimately they're just bumps on the road before Steve decides to take things further and hunt the real big players.

The Shopkeeper

• Conspicuous Consumption: He lives in a Big Fancy House with carpet-lined hallways and elaborate gardens, with a ton of Mooks patrolling the premises. The Accomplice speculates that he either isn't worried about scrutiny, or he hasn't put much thought into how suspicious his spending habits are.
• More Despicable Minion: While far from a saint, the Baker at least has some positive qualities. This guy is just a malicious bastard.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: He just sasses Steve once he puts a gun to his face. His bravery evaporates once Steve puts some bullets into him though.

The Baker

• Anti-Villain: He doesn't try to justify his bad deeds, but by now he has grown tired and regretful of his involvement in organized crime and secretly wants out. His henchmen have noticed his shift in demeanor, but wouldn't dare say it in earshot. He also offers his aid to Steve should he need it if he agrees to spare him, and keeps his word if Steve obliges.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Alludes to this when he says that killing him is pointless if Steve wants to stop drugs - someone will take his place anyway.
• Face Death with Dignity: He does ask to be spared but he doesn't exactly beg or grovel, and doesn't seem to hold it against Steve if he decides otherwise.
• Mercy Rewarded: Keeping him alive lets Steve retain his access to the black market and his usual loadouts once the Accomplice betrays him. Otherwise you get only what you can find on levels.

The Empathetic

An underworld fixer of a sort who, among other things, serves as an intermediary for contract killings. Steve visits him in the first game and his influence plays the role in the second.

• Affably Evil: He helps arranging contract killings besides god only knows what else, so he's far from a good guy. But when Steve crashes his place and holds him on gunpoint he doesn't seem to be offended (or even that surprised), and once they reach an agreement he lets Steve leave seemingly without holding any grudges, even thanking him for the reality check he provided.
• Information Broker: Implied to be this as well, but we mostly see him through his involvement in contract killings.
• Just You and Me and My GUARDS!: Inflicts this on Steve - when Steve steps into his office two of Empathetic's guards emerge from the shadows, holding Steve at gunpoint, turning the game's usual meeting with a target into a Mexican Standoff. The fight does not escalate further however, and both Steve and Empathetic survive the episode.
• Murder, Inc.: What he effectively runs. The second game hints they have a literal job board.
• Totally Not a Criminal Front: He runs his business out of his restaurant. It seems to be at least somewhat subtle, but it doesn't look like mercenaries operating there actively try to hide either.

The Mole

An undercover cop who gets in contact with Steve late in the first game.

• Ascended Extra: Plays a much bigger role in the sequels as Lee Da.
• Friend on the Force: Reveals to Steve who put a hit on him, and pulls some strings for him after the game.
• The Mole: Duh. He's one for the police inside another drug gang.

Gideon

• Anti-Climax Boss: While the story gives him some build-up as a formidable antagonist, there is no scripted confrontation scene with him unlike with other targets, and he goes down just as easily as any other mook.
• The Brute: Jacob describes him as a bloodthirsty maniac incapable of subtle work. Gideon himself implies that he typically goes in loud and bloody and likes it that way, however you can clear his levels stealthily and with no casualties if you so wish, implying that it's a matter of preference rather than lack of ability.
• Foil: To Sean. Both are contract killers, however unlike Sean Gideon is completely amoral, takes any work that pays and revels in the bloodshed he causes.
• Jerkass: Eggs Sean for his principles just because he can. In his own mini-campaign he also rubs it into Pablo's face that he has no choice but to do what he says if he wants to live, also just because he can.
• I Shall Taunt You: If he's still alive by the final level he will taunt the heroes over the radio.
• Psycho for Hire: Has this reputation. Judging from chapters made from his point of view he's not necessarily psychotic but rather completely ruthless.
• The Many Deaths of You: There are actually three chances to off him - in the dedicated mission to do so, as one of the reinforcements who show up on Theo's mission, and in the final mission if you didn't kill him on other occasions. That said, seeing how he's slated to reappear in 3, none of it sticks.

Sean's father

• Distressed Dude: Once he's kidnapped finding and rescuing him becomes Sean's motivation for most of the game.
• Fingore: If you refuse to kill enough targets the kidnappers will eventually threaten Sean to cut off his fingers as punishment. It's not actually confirmed whether they went through with it or not, but considering the kidnappers' characters it's likely that they did.
• I Have Your Wife: Father in this case. After the kidnappers take him they threaten Sean into killing more people if he wants to see his father again.

Lee Da

Sean's friend in the killing business. One of the only people who treats him well, he helps Sean find contracts that he can fulfill without compromising his morals. Later, once his father is kidnapped, he helps him with tracking him down.

• Guile Hero: His actions and him helping out Sean come up in a very different light once we learn he's an undercover cop. It's even heavily implied that he intentionally sent Steve and Sean on the same job so that they could meet and team up.
• Only Friend: He's probably the only guy in the underworld who doesn't give Sean shit, and in fact encourages him to stay true to his morals.
• Quest Giver: He occasionally contacts the duo when he hears of a gang or a situation they would be interested in taking out. Seeing how he's an undercover cop, it's very likely that he's using Sean and Steve to clean up the streets a bit.
• You Don't Look Like You: You probably won't recognise him as the Mole from the first game until Steve points this out. Granted, he didn't have much screentime in the first game to begin with, but growing out hair and shaving off his goateedoes make him more difficult to recognise.

• Corrupt Politician: Averted - the fact that he is actually clean is what makes him the target of the Big Bad and puts him on the hit list. Luckily for him Sean ends up picking up the task.
• Establishing Character Moment: In and out of universe. When Sean confronts him and his first worry is to make sure that his wife is not killed alongside him he realises Dave cannot be an amoral scumbag. Him seeing genuinely clueless about the child trafficking convinces Sean that Dave wasn't actually involved, and he spares him as a result.
• Face Death with Dignity: He does not lose his nerve or plead to Sean when he realises he's there to kill him.

• Killed Offscreen: Dragged off to be executed after the last cutscene that features him.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He turns on Jacob after too much threats and disrespect from the latter.
• Noble Demon: Implied to have plenty of dirt and blood on his hands per Jacob's orders but still having some scruples and morals left. Which just gave him more shit from Jacob and the rest of his cronies.

• Dirty Cop: The chief of the police, and seemingly so deeply in Jacob's pocket it's a wonder how he can even breathe from there.
• The Dragon: Jacob's closest associate and the penultimate target before Jacob himself.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Advocates just killing Sean once he proves to be a loose cannon and gets subsequently captured. Fortunately for Sean, and unfortunately for himself and Jacob, the latter does not listen.

• Big Bad: Of the second game.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: After Gideon captures Sean and hands him off to Jacob he still decides to not kill him and try to get him to do his bidding, even after Sean had proven to be uncontrollable and blown up (one of) his cash reserves. He eventually pays for this mistake.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He practically brags to Sean and Steve about how much of a corrupt scumbag he is, and how ordinary people are suckers for falling for his lies and getting him elected, and so deserve being victims of his schemes.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: As the final villain to overcome he has a few key differences with the Accomplice - unlike that character, who is an underworld figure and exclusively uses an alias, Jacob is a public figure known to the people. Jacob is also a Hidden Villain, with the heroes narrowing him down as their culprit close to the end of the game and he otherwise does not attract their attention, while the first game's villain accompanies you for most of the game. He's also very crass, unlike the Accomplice who is fairly soft-spoken. Finally, Jacob manages to muster some bravery when heroes catch up to him and at the very least puts up a facade of being unafraid, while the Accomplice breaks down completely.
• Corrupt Politician: Very much so.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Seems to think that if he wasn't in control, then someone even worse than him would be.
• Jerkass: Foul-mouthed, abusive and rotten to the core. He also forces Sean to call his dad and confess to killing people, for no other reason than to be a dick and punish Sean.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: It's not just blackmailing Sean into doing his killing work, it's letting him live and try to still force him to be his minion after Sean goes off the rails and gets captured by his people, up to coming in person to threaten him - letting Sean know who was the architect of his misery in the process.
• Villain Takes an Interest: After Sean botches his hit on Dave Jacob is far from pleased, but realises that Sean must have potential to still be able to reach Dave and later walk away with his life. So he concocts the kidnapping plan to make Sean do his killings for him.