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Playable Characters
The Player Character
The Player Character/The Patient
- Ax-Crazy: Very possibly so in the sequel, seeing how much he has gone through in the first game, only to end up getting mind-raped again.
- Action Survivor: He went through a mansion and an abandoned hospital filled with zombies and other paranormal activities while being constantly mind-raped and haunted by a ghost, and somehow still managed to come out alive.
- Featureless Protagonist: No details about him is known.
- Implacable Man: Survived two zombie assaults, numerous mind-rapes, large explosions, fire hazards and more.
- Heroic Mime: Never speaks or even make a sound.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Turns out near the end that turning off the radio equipment allowed the Core to influence a greater distance, consequentially results in the death of the SWAT squad, their evac chopper, and his one chance of getting out of here.
- No Name Given: Referred to simply as "the Patient" by the SWAT guys.
- Player Character: The only one in the series so far.
- The Rest Shall Pass: After Romero has the players SWAT allies killed, the patient is left to face Romero and his zombies alone. Downplayed as Emily was helping the patient in their fight.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on one against Romero as both Emily and the SWAT teams proxies, fighting and killing him for everything he's done and put them through.
- Unwitting Pawn: Romero and Emily are both using him, the former to further his experiments, and the latter to get revenge on the former.
- You Are Not Alone: Teams up with a SWAT team part way through the game to survive and escape the hospital. This lasts up until Romero had the SWAT team all killed. Even then when the patient sets out to kill Romero, they got supernatural backup in the form of Emily.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: A lot of the zombies he fought are actually hallucinations conjured by either Emily or Romero.
Non-playable characters
The Ghost
The Ghost / Emily Romero
- Dark Is Not Evil: Though she's abrasive, she's ultimately trying to keep the player on guard rather than hurt them.
- Expy: Of Alma, though with a marginally less tragic backstory.
- Good Is Not Nice: Yeah, she wants Romero dead and, yes, she's a good guy, but she will kill the player if he tries to leave before taking out Romero.
- Jump Scare: Does this very often.
- Psychic Powers: Capable of tossing people around the room, ripping open your stomach, and (possibly) inducing hallucinations.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: A subdued type, but she's definitely set her sights on a certain Dr Romero and isn't planning on resting until he's dead.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Not the typical kind.
- Walking Spoiler: Her backstory and motivations are not revealed until the end of the second game.
Doctor Romero (Unmarked Spoilers)
Doctor Romero
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Begs both the Patient to stop destroying the Core, and tries to convince Emily (without success) not to kill him.
- Ax-Crazy: Despite faking sanity through much of the series, he ultimately reveals himself near the end of the second game to be a sadistic, power-crazed lunatic.
- Big Bad: Reveals himself to be this in the second game.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The Ghost/Emily violently throws against walls like he's a ragdoll before ripping him into pieces.
- Dirty Coward: He refuses to accept any responsibility for actions, far more concerned with saving his own life and completing the Core. He never confronts the Patient until the end either, and pretty much freaks when Emily shows up.
- The Heavy: Neither of the games could have happened if he hadn't killed Emily and created the Core.
- Faux Affably Evil: He tries to be personable and friendly, but eventually it becomes clear he's using it as a facade now that his back is against the wall between the SWAT team being on the way, Emily at his doorstep, and the zombies not obeying him. Once he's back in control, he becomes a vindictive, smug monster who only regrets being caught more than he does his actions.
- For Science!: How he justifies most of his crimes, though he also strays in The Evils of Free Will territory.
- For the Evulz: Although he claims it's For Science!, some of his actions just cross the line into wanton sadism.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul
- Gaslighting: His attempts to guide you can feel as such. A telling moment is when he asks for you to look behind a washing machine for a vent to crawl through. If you check behind that exact washing machine before he tells you to double back, there's nothing there.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: In the 2015 remaster, he has a new line of dialogue during his death.Doctor Romero: Emily! Listen! You're about to make a big mistake! The Core, it's also— *explodes into gibs*
- Mad Scientist
- Manipulative Bastard: Tricks the player into increasing the power of the Core by having him destroy the jamming signals that are in the hospital. However when he tries to talk Emily down he fails.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Whatever he got his doctorate for, he's abused it to no end.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He has one after he activated the Core and caused the destruction of Never Lose Hope Hospital. Subverted, as he refuses to accept what he did was wrong and tries to justify it as self-defense.
- Mission Control: Acts as this in the second game, telling the player where to go next in order to help him escape the hospital.
- Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: When the player starts to confront him he's turned into a Type I
- Oh, Crap!: Panics mildly when the Patient starts destroying the Core, which gets worse over the course of the battle.Doctor Romero: Hey, hey, hey! Don't touch that, it's mine, everything here is mine!
- Puzzle Boss: In order to defeat him, you have to deal with the support beams he has in place to keep the Core stable.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Downplayed, but the way he finds the Patient's struggle to survive and destroy the Core reeks of this.
- The Sociopath: While he initially seems apologetic for his actions he eventually reveals in his boss fight that he couldn't care less about what he's done, and he
even brags about killing the SWAT team. - Smug Snake: Is extremely overconfident in his fight between him and the player
- Treacherous Quest Giver
- Villainous Breakdown: Has one when the player starts destroying the Core. It goes into full gear when Emily arrives.Doctor Romero: No... that can't be, she can't be here, stop it! You can't even imagine what will happen if this whole thing falls! [...] The Core is the only thing stopping her from getting here, you can't destroy it!
- Villains Want Mercy: When Emily arrives and the Patient is destroying the Core, he practically begs them not to as it is the only thing keeping her away.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to dance around how deeply entrenched in the plot he is.