Summary
- Frank West is the best playable character in Dead Rising due to his resourcefulness, compassion, and likability.
- Not all playable characters are equal in Dead Rising; some like Connor McMann stand out for their altruistic traits and reliability.
- Characters like Nick Ramos may lack distinctive personalities, while characters like Chuck Greene are relatable due to their motivations.
The Dead Rising franchise has had many playable characters, but which one is the best to have around when the zombies hit the fan? Some of these characters have featured in multiple games, while others appear only in side stories, DLC, and multiplayer modes.
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Each have their own unique charm, though. Even those who can only be used as multiplayer avatars all feature in the series' stories as NPCs. Still, not all playable characters in Dead Rising are equal. Fans have their favorites for a reason, and some are arguably better than others for various reasons.
11 Jordan Maxwell
A High School Sweetheart
Dead Rising 4
Jordan originally appears as an NPC in Dead Rising 4, meeting Frank West at the Willamette Jr. High School. She appears a couple of times in the story as a useful, if not particularly memorable, character.
Players can take control of Jordan in the Dead Rising 4 multiplayer mode, making her officially a playable character. Unfortunately for her, she is simply not the best one that players will have access to.
10 Connor McMann
The Altruist
- Dead Rising 4 (Multiplayer)
Connor pops up a few times throughout the Dead Rising 4 campaign, fighting alongside Frank and helping out other survivors. He's not playable during the campaign, but he makes for a good pick as a multiplayer character.
This is not only due to his altruistic personality, but it's also because he's the only multiplayer character who starts with a healing item, making him pretty reliable in dangerous situations.
9 Isaac Tremaine
A Natural Born Poet
- Dead Rising 4 (Multiplayer)
Isaac might be the most interesting of the multiplayer-only player characters in Dead Rising 4. In the campaign, he starts off as an enemy to Frank, working for Tom Pickton. Later, he helps Frank against Pickton, working with Jordan, Connor, and the other militia members.
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An interesting quirk of Isaac's is that the game establishes his love for poetry in-lore. Then, it reinforces it by having him recite poetry in the multiplayer mode. This interesting aspect of his personality helps him to stand out from his fellow multiplayer-restricted characters.
8 Dick Baker
Nick's Best Friend
Dead Rising 3
Dick acts as the main backup for Nick Ramos in Dead Rising 3. He's present throughout the events of the campaign, having been trapped in Los Perdidos along with Nick and the others. If players join a game as a co-op player, they take on the role of Dick.
It was a good way of adding a co-op character who has an excuse to be present whether there's another player or not. Dick's backstory is fleshed out further in the Dead Rising 3 prequel comic, revealing that he rescued Nick before joining his group and becoming a friend.
7 Hunter Thibodeaux
A Biker Boss
- Dead Rising 3: Chaos Rising
Hunter originally appears in Dead Rising 3 as the Psychopath leader of a biker gang, serving as an early boss encounter. In the Chaos Rising DLC, he was thrust into the main character role. The DLC covers his story immediately preceding the battle with Nick.
His story tells the straightforward tale of his escape from jail after the zombie outbreak, and it follows his subsequent revenge mission against a rival biker boss who murdered his friend. It all seems fairly throwaway given that his death is already guaranteed by the main story, but it still gives Thibodeaux more backstory and character than most villains receive.
6 Adam Kane
A Rogue Agent
- Dead Rising 3: Operation Broken Eagle
Adam Kane is a dogmatic American patriot and an experienced soldier. He's willing to carry out his orders even at the cost of lives, at least in his initial appearance in the Dead Rising 3 campaign. In the Operation Broken Eagle DLC, Kane takes the protagonist role, and a little more of his personality is revealed.
His dedicated approach to his mission is the same. He relentlessly pursues the president even after the rest of his team is killed. Then, in the latter part of the story, he ignores orders to preserve the truth about the government's activities in Los Perdidos. This is later shown to have positive consequences when he meets Brad Park, giving his death a little meaning and nobility.
5 Angel Quijano
A Fallen Angel
- Dead Rising 3: Fallen Angel
Angel Quijano was a minor character in Red's gang in the Dead Rising 3 storyline, but she gets a fully fleshed out DLC explaining her tragic and selfless demise. The Fallen Angel DLC had players take control of Angel and play out the events leading to her death at the Burgess-Dawson Hotel.
Her fight centers on the people of Los Perdidos, who are being rounded up and either killed or captured by the military. After rescuing the main bulk of the captives, Angel sets a trap for the soldiers. She leaks the hotel address to the soldiers, pretends that the freed captives are there, and then sets up an ambush. Unfortunately, she eventually dies in the ensuing fight. Her death is treated as a minor and forgettable tragedy in the main campaign, but the DLC story helped elevate her character with her noble sacrifice.
4 Brad Park
An Agent Of Change
- Dead Rising 3: The Last Agent
Brad Park first appears in Dead Rising 3's The Last Agent DLC as a ZDC soldier who eventually turns on his organization after finding out the atrocities they've been committing. He's a tough survivor and one of the few who manages to escape the events in Los Perdidos.
As part of his escape, he recovers evidence of the government's wrongdoing from Adam Kane. This is one of the key factors in him renouncing his former government loyalty. This changes later, as Brad appears again in Dead Rising 4 as a partner to Frank West, rejoining the ZDC and becoming a colonel.
3 Nick Ramos
Nick The Mechanic
- Dead Rising 3
Of the three major protagonists of the Dead Rising series, Nick Ramos probably has the least distinctive personality. The core of his character is defined by him being a mechanic and being able to make weapons. Add that to his initially mysterious past that even he doesn't remember, and he doesn't have much room to be an iconic character.
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He plays the role of reluctant hero well, though, and his backstory is neatly tied into the Santa Cabreza incident later on. (That's the precursor event to the storyline that unfolds in the original Dead Rising.) At least he offers a more stoic alternative to Frank West's sardonic and quipy character.
2 Chuck Greene
Father Of The Year
Dead Rising 2
Chuck might be the most relatable of the Dead Rising protagonists. While it's difficult to imagine being a war photographer thrusting themselves into ridiculous danger, it's much easier to feel the drive to protect a family member or loved one. That's the core of Chuck's character, he's a guy in an impossible situation just trying to protect his daughter. For him, saving the rest of the survivors and escaping the situation is all a means towards doing just that.
Adding to that, the story of him being framed and having to prove his innocence lends an underdog flavor to the character. His backstory, which suggests he wasn't always such a sainted family man, just makes him all the more likable.