Summary
Is death really the end of all things? For a lot of video game characters, no, it’s not. Not even dying can stop some of them from making a triumphant return in a sequel in some form or another, even ifa character died a pointless death.
It could be for plot-related reasons, or to appease eager fans who were hoping to see their favorite characters become playable again. They could be resurrected as ghosts and zombies, or have been brought back due to science, genetic mutations, or even divine abilities beyond anyone’s understanding. Whatever the reason is, these characters never let losing their lives get in the way of making a big return.
Wesker’s return was not anticipated in the slightest. After all, he was brutally impaled by his so-called “ultimate life-form”, the hulking bioweapon known as the Tyrant. There was surely no wayAlbert Wesker could’ve survivedthat. And yet… he did.
The reason is because of the virus that was transmitted through his body from the Tyrant’s attack (one could argue that he was about to die, or, on the other side of the coin, he was killed and resurrected). Thanks to his superior genetics, it gave him exceptional regenerative abilities, increased strength and speed, and so much more. None of this was made clear yet when he appeared inResident Evil: Code Veronicawhen he confronted Chris Redfield’s sister, Claire. Nevertheless, it remains a shocker of a return.
Twisted Metal: Head-On
WHERE TO PLAY
TAKE THE DESTRUCTION ANYWHERE.The Twisted Metal competition is back and there is nowhere to hide. Experience the fast paced car-combat action re-invented to cater to gaming on the go. Take your battles anywhere and challenge anyone. wirelessly. Unleash your road rage and destroy the competition……HEAD-ON.
was developed by SingleTrac, though 989 Studios took over with a sequel that got ragged on by fans and critics. It wouldn’t be until 9 years later that Incognito Entertainment (made up of some of the original members of SingleTrac) would create a ‘true’ sequel to the game:Twisted Metal: Head-On,which featured somegreat destruction derby gameplay.
With it was the return of Simon Whittlebone, rider of the construction vehicle Mr. Slamm. In the second game, he won the Twisted Metal tournament to create the biggest tower in the world… only to fall to his death after gloating a bit too hard from its highest point. Here, he came back as a literal ghost in the machine, hoping to become reborn and prevent his beloved Whittlebone Tower from being destroyed.
First Appearance: Postal 2
Postal 4
The POSTAL Dude is back!Several years have passed since the events that devastated the once proud town remembered as Paradise. The only two to walk away from the cataclysm unscathed, the hapless everyman known as the POSTAL Dude and his loyal companion Champ, drive aimlessly through the scorching deserts of Arizona looking for a new place to call home. After a fortuitous gas station rest stop ends with their car, trailer home, and the rest of their worldly possessions stolen, all the Dude’s seemingly got left to his name is his canine cohort and his bathrobe, and neither of them smells all that great. However, on the horizon, the duo glimpses an unfamiliar and dazzling town that beckons to them. What untold prospects lie within? Fame? Fortune? Maybe a bidet or two? Edensin awaits.POSTAL 4: No Regerts is a satirical and outrageous comedic open world first-person shooter and the long-awaited true sequel to what’s been fondly dubbed as “The Worst Game Ever™”, POSTAL 2! (No third game is known to exist.)
Vince Desi is the CEO of Running With Scissors, the creators of thePostalseries. He appeared in the second game as… well, himself.The protagonist, Postal Dude, is fired by him on his first day of working at RWS. He miraculously survived the town of Paradise being nuked (a marketing tactic requested by Desi himself), and started his own religion in the add-onPostal 2: Paradise Lost. After being infected by zombies, he somehow becomes human again if the player decides to go and thank everyone in town for helping him find his recently reunited dog… only to have to kill him.
Once again, regardless of whether the player murdered him in the main game or add-on in his zombie or human form, Desi returned as a mob boss in the border town Edensin, ready to offer even more questionable work.
The curious case of how Sgt. Johnson managed to escape a Halo ring from being blown up, only to appear in a sequel, is a mystery that has perplexed players. The rest of his troops were wasted by the Flood, including Captain Keyes. InHalo: Combat Evolved, upon beating the final mission on Legendary difficulty, a secret cutscene shows Johnson fighting an Elite on the same ring that is obliteratedby the Master Chief.
Revealed to be alive and well in the sequel, no explanation of what exactly happened was ever given. When asked by Master Sergeant Gunns about how he “came home in one piece”, Johnson responded with “Sorry, Gunns. It’s classified.” However, he would officially meet his end in the third entry.
One of the most memorable characters fromThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivionwas Lucien LaChance of the Dark Brotherhood. After the player rises through the ranks, he directly offers them contracts to fulfill. Partway through, they end up getting tampered with, whereby the protagonist ends up bumping off members of the Black Hand instead! LaChance was mistakenly killed by the survivors, thought to have been the traitor.
InThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, however, he returned under the name ‘Spectral Assassin’. Capable of being summoned by the player, it turns out his soul was kept intact for all his years of servitude to the guild by the worshiped deity known as the Night Mother. LaChance was more than honored to keep murderingin the name of the Dread Father, Sithis, as a ghost.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliancepractically saved Midway when the fourth entry in the series didn’t quite leave the impression that they had hoped for. With a new entry for sixth-generation platforms, the developers pulled a shocking twist right from the get-go: theEarth-Realm champion, Liu Kang, dies.
Liu Kang canonically won most, if not all, of the Mortal Kombat tournaments up to that point. And then, he was defeated by the combined power of sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. It was revealed that the thunder god Raiden, after sacrificing himself inMortal Kombat: Deception, returned in his dark form. Consequently, he revived the monk’s body as a zombie, while his separated spirit still aided the good guys.
Thesavage Tarkatan clone Mileenadeserves a spot on her own as well, and there’s a darn good reason for that. Fans were outraged at her execution inMortal Kombat 10by D’Vorrah, who has killed off some of the series’ favorites and thus garnered a sour reputation. And, to the disappointment of many, she wasn’t in the sequel.
That was until theKombat Pack 2DLC dropped forMortal Kombat 11. Thanks to overwhelming support from fans (she herself says in one of her dialogue exchanges, “a million souls cried out for my return”), she made a triumphant return to great fanfare. It just goes to show that no one truly dies in this series.
The Mishima family has a long history of father-and-son Heihachi and Kazuya trying to kill each other.Heihachi dumped Kazuya off a cliffwhen he was a boy, but he just came back stronger. Kazuya reciprocated it in his ending forTekken. InTekken 2, Heihachi is revealed to have survived and got his revenge by dumping his son into a volcano.
Kazuya wasn’t around in the third game, being replaced by a new character, Jin. However, hecame back for the fourth entry, thanks to G Corporation reclaiming his intact remains days after his death. And so, he lived to fight another day.
1Kane (Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun)
First Appearance: Command & Conquer: Red Alert
The enigmatic leader of the fanatical Brotherhood of Nod said it best: “You can’t kill the Messiah”. For the longest time, there just seemed to be nothing that could stop Kane from returning.
In the first game, he was vaporized by an orbital laser. But he came back almost 40 years later to wage anotherwar in the famed RTS games,Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. After being stabbed by a GDI commander and tossed off a cliff into a canyon of the highly toxic crystal Tiberium, he still came back forCommand & Conquer 3: Tiberium Warsto start yet another war. It’s no wonder he’s got such a dedicated following when he’s capable of coming back for more bloodshed again and again.
