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HardCorps
Col. John R. Blade
Voiced by: Eric Mills (games), Markham Anderson (The Movie)
- Awesome McCoolname: John Blade is a name that is pure 90's cheese.
- Badass Normal: Capable of sustaining multiple gunshot wounds and injuries (which would kill any other person in the game), and is not opposed to swimming in sewers, engaging attack helicopters and going hand-to-hand with massive monsters. He even handles his own transformation into a brute with relative nonchalance!
- Controllable Helplessness: In the opening of Emergence, seen through his perspective, as he's strapped to a table in a SinTEK office.
- Dreadlock Warrior: His hairstyle, dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail.
- Exposed to the Elements: He goes swimming at several points in the game (including deep below the sea, where temperatures drop rapidly) in nothing more than a standard-issue HardCorps Police uniform. Later on, he can stand directly beside a pool of lava without being burned in any way (jumping into lava will cause smoke to rise and the player to start shouting, along with a decrease in health, but this is played as a temporary inconvenience).
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the original, he's a beast during regular gameplay, mowing down enemies with all sorts of insane weapons. This doesn't extend to the cutscenes, where he gets knocked out by a single blow to the back of the head from a mook. Also qualifies as Cutscene Incompetence.
- Heroic Mime: While he's a chatterbox in the original and its expansion pack, he is practically silent in Emergence (speaking only when acknowledging the optional comm radio request). The devs stated they thought he worked better like this and that players would prefer it, only to be surprised that - while there was some agreement - most players wished he still talked. Further episodes were planned to add a more robust voice track for him, as well as an option to mute him.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: He can carry several different weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammo and several miscellaneous items on him at any one time. At one point, Blade (who has been turned into a brute) undergoes a painful transformation process that reverts back to his human form, and he immediately gets his armor, weapons and ammo back (even though he was previously seen having nothing on him but a pair of shorts)!
- It's Up to You: Blade is seemingly the only person in the original game who is able to stop Elexis, and rarely (if ever) calls in backup to his location, even when JC's still connected with him and outright saying that backup would be a good idea.
- Limited Wardrobe: He's worn the exact same uniform throughout the entire game series. The only costume change he has is when he dons a worker disguise to infiltrate the SinTEK offices (which is just put over his uniform) in the original.
- Magic Pants: What his transformed self has to wear during the laboratory missions in the original. The pants disappear when he's transformed back into a regular human.
- One-Man Army: By the time any of the games (or the anime film) ends, he will have killed several dozen (or several hundred) SinTEK mooks by himself.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the commander of HardCorps and tougher than all his men combined.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Emergence starts with him being strapped to a table, just as Elexis has finished performing some unknown experiment on him. Jessica arrives to rescue him soon after.
J.C. Armack
Voiced by: Billy O'Sullivan (games), Chris Patton (The Movie)
- Deadpan Snarker: Loves to throw darts towards Blade whenever he screws up anything.
- Mission Control: Stays in the command base of HardCorps, guiding (and exchanging snarks with) Blade.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: As noted below, he's based on John Carmack in appearance and in profession.
- Punny Name: Separate the J from the C, and unite the C with his surname. What do you get? J. CArmack. Bonus points because he's portrayed as an intelligent hacker and programmer.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Talks with Blade through HardCorps's communication system.
- What the Hell, Player?: He will call you out if you kill civilians or hostages.
Jessica Cannon
Voiced by: Jen Taylor
- Action Girl: Despite being a rookie, she assaults the SinTEK offices in the beginning of Emergence by herself in order to rescue Blade, and proves to be a very capable fighter.
- Expy:
- Blatantly one to Alyx Vance, serving a near identical role, reusing several of the same animations thanks to being on the same engine, and likely even using some of the same entity code.
- She's also very similar to Jennifer Carmack from the SiN anime movie, right down to having the same initials, though personality-wise she's more or less the opposite, being friendly and willing to work together with Blade from the beginning.
- Ms. Fanservice: She wears a form-fitting Spy Catsuit with and low-riding latex pants that exposes her midriff.
- Mysterious Past: Likely a consequence of the lack of future episodes, she clearly has some sort of backstory involving Radek based on what she says where she appears to hold some sort of grudge against him though Radek himself doesn't seem to be aware of it.
- Spy Catsuit: Her outfit consists of a form-fitting latex jacket and low-riding latex pants, definitely invoking this.
Enemies
Elexis Sinclaire
Voiced by: Hannah Logan (games), Sian Taylor (The Movie)
Elexis in "Emergence"
Elexis in "SiN"
The Big Bad of the franchise, a rich and powerful mad scientist who owns and runs SinTEK. She aims to become Mother Nature.
- Bad Boss: She turns Mancini into a Manumit for failing his task and turning the operation in an attention-drawing bank heist. Downplayed in that Mancini did failed big.
- Blasphemous Boast: She repeatedly says that "(she) Is Mother Nature now."
- Bond Villain Stupidity: She captures Blade at two different points (both in the original game and Emergence). In the first instance, she leads him into a trap and assumes that her genetically-mutated father will finish Blade off (which doesn't work). In the second instance, she captures Blade at the beginning of Emergence, and attempts to change him into a mutated brute. Elexis' accomplice Radek lampshades this, asking why they don't just put a bullet in him while they have him there.
- Depraved Bisexual: She's a sultry Mad Scientist who wants to turn humanity into hideous mutants under her control and while she mostly employs her charms on men, her bio mentions that she may be bisexual and she has moments both with Elyse in the anime movie and in Emergence, where two artworks have her try to inject Jessica while either holding her across the back with one hand on her breast or while directly standing on top of her.
- Dressed Like a Dominatrix: In the original game, she wore a red latex leotard with a weird midriff window, thigh-high high-heeled boots and a choker. In the sequel, she wears a red and black business suit with a prominent Cleavage Window and a corset worn over the suit.
- Evilutionary Biologist: She wants to push humanity towards its ultimate genetic potential, but has only created monstrosities and mutant creatures using her gene-splicing experiments.
- Expy: Seems rather like Xenia Onatopp if she were also a Mad Scientist and Corrupt Corporate Executive.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Her appearance in Episodes is modeled after Bianca Beauchamp, who cosplayed as her as part of a marketing gig.
- Karma Houdini She's gotten away every time, except for the movie.
- Male Gaze: Especially in the opening of Emergence, where you get a below view of Elexis amazing cleavage.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's a Femme Fatale scientist with big breasts that the camera loves zooming in on.
- The Queenpin: She manages to be this alongside being a Mad Scientist and Corrupt Corporate Executive, being the one behind a huge drug trafficking operation.
- Supervillain Lair: Estate Sinclaire/Mount Phoenix, which is so big that it takes three separate levels to explore.
- The Unfought: At the time of Emergence, she hasn't been dealt with directly.
- Villain with Good Publicity: She became this in Emergence, considering that Blade is pretty much the only one trying to stop her ploys.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: Most if not all of her interactions with Blade are filled with sexual tension.
- You Have Failed Me: Says this to Mancini in the original game when he screws up the opening bank robbery and gets Blade on his trail. She then douses him with a chemical that transforms him into a Manumit.
Mooks and bosses
Manumit
Mutated humans who served as guinea pigs for Elexis's experiments.
- Degraded Boss: The first Manumit you fight is Mancini's mutated form, who stalks you across the entire abandoned subway in four separate battles. Manumit come back later in the game as standard enemies.
- Wolverine Claws: They only use this kind of attack. It's also true for both Mutated!Mancini and Mutated!Blade.
Bachrodai
The test subjects in Xenomorphic Laboratory levels.
- Body Horror: One arm longer than the other, pale skin, mutated features and a disturbing battle cry.
SinTEK Enforcers
- Lightning Bruiser: They wear heavy armored suits and wield miniguns; they've got the durability and firepower of a Heavily Armored Mook, while still being just as fast and maneuverable as a normal enemy.
Antonio 'Tony' Mancini
Voiced by: Robert Zenk (SiN), Andy McAvin (The Movie)
The first baddie Blade tacks on in the main game, your run-of-the-mill mafioso that assaults a bank on Freeport City at the beginning of the game.- Lightning Bruiser: His Manumit self is surprisingly fast for all his bulk, which can be quite aggravating when you fight him in the train car with limited space to move.
- Plethora of Mistakes: He royally botches the opening bank robbery in the original game. The police surround the bank after the alarm is tripped (forcing him to stall for time), it takes much longer than he expected to get into the bank's vault, and when he does get in, he doesn't even find what he's looking for!
- Punched Across the Room: One of his Manumit self's attacks is an extremely powerful uppercut that can send Blade up to the roof of the room.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's the one whose actions lead HardCorps to investigate SinTEK, and only lasts 4 levels with the final level being his transformation into a Manumit. Without his failures, however, Elexis's plan would have gone without a hitch.
- Starter Villain: He's the Big Bad for the first levels until Elexis Sinclaire reveals to be the behind everything and turns Tony into a Manumit.
- Story-Driven Invulnerability: It is possible (if you're quick enough) to shoot him during several points. Of course, he won't die until he gets into the abandoned subway station to transform, and can only be taken out during the climactic battle in the active subway platform.
- Transformation Sequence: His transformation into the first of the brutish Manumits in a cutscene during the original game.
Spoiler boss (Main 1998 game)
Thrall Sinclaire
Elexis's father, who was mutated into an abomination at the end of the original game.- Boss-Altering Consequence: Picking up a document in the very first level reveals his name in the final fight, unlocking other cutscenes as a result.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: He's enormous, fast and able to attack with deadly force with both rockets, acid spit and a giant buzzsaw grafted to his arm. The arena you fight him is even locked and limited... but also houses a colossal stone pillar in the middle, which can help you avoiding the boss' attacks with ease.
- Chainsaw Good: A variation, he has a giant buzzsaw blade attached to his arm. Unfortunately, he's going to cut you like a pizza with it!
- Final Boss: Fought inside a ring-shaped pit in Elexis' island.
- One-Winged Angel: This instance is unique, as he is in that form when you reach him (meaning that he either experimented on himself beforehand, causing the transformation, or his own daughter experimented on him without his permission).
- Playing Possum: He does this after you beat him in his first form.
- Walking Spoiler: Not only you get to meet and fight him at the end of the original game, it's also a requirement that you pick a document in the early levels in order to know his real name.
Spoiler boss (Wages of SiN)
Gianni Manero
Voiced by: Mike Shapiro
The mob boss and main Big Bad of Wages of SiN. Attempts to produce genetically-mutated creatures under secret supervision. Wants to use Elexis's own research to level the entirety of Freeport into the ground.- Hate Sink: There's NOTHING redeeming about Manero.
- Mirror Boss: Rather than turning himself into some sort of hulking mutant, he fights you man to man, albeit with a ton of expensive weapons and equipment, including a rocket backpack, a nuke cannon, an invincibility shield, and a cloaking device (which are all weapons and items you have access to, but Manero's versions have infinite charge and ammo).
- Supervillain Lair: Manero Tower. It's both a casino, but adds a penthouse which the Big Bad uses, as well as a tram system that links to his secret mutangenic facility, and it pretty much fits the bill.
Viktor Radek
Voiced by: David Scully
A sidekick to Elexis, introduced in SiN Episodes: Emergence, he wants to use Elexis's research for his own goals.- The Mafiya: A russian mafia boss.
- The Unfought: Blade doesn't directly confront him, even when he can shoot him.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: As his arc was intended to conclude quite late in the Episodes series, the last we saw of him, he injected Jessica with the formula he tried to get out of Blade's hands, and he escaped in an helicopter.
Non-Player Characters
Garrison
Voiced by: Bill Martin
A shady individual that Blade meets near the start of Episodes.- Ambiguous Criminal History: His speech about being a "Businessman" who "tried to maintain some sense of decency" all-but states he was involved in some criminal activity before the game but very little is elaborated on it, since he's involved in Import & Exports it's likely some sort of smuggling but little else is hinted at.
- Even Evil Has Standards: His dialogue makes it clear he thinks Radek's actions cross a line.
- Ironic Echo: In a cut conversation seen in this video
Martin was supposed to throw Garrison's "I'm a Businessman" words back at him in a deleted scene. - We Hardly Knew Ye: Appears in exactly one scene then vanishes with his fate unknown, it's unknown if he was planned to return in future episodes.
