The five fixed protagonists include Rachel King (CIA officer and sole female lead with in-story justification), her husband Eric, Marines Jason Kolchek and Nick Kay, and Salim Othman. Casting draws from the multinational military setting without altering any pre-existing characters.

The core narrative driver is survival horror and branching choices, with a heterosexual love triangle (Rachel-Eric strained marriage and Rachel-Nick affair) and a prominent Jason-Salim platonic brotherhood arc focused on overcoming enmity. The US-Iraqi alliance and Jason's prejudice-overcoming arc remain secondary to the vampire threat and player-driven survival decisions rather than serving as thematic centerpieces. Developers stressed a nuanced war portrayal without activist messaging, and the game features no LGBTQ romances or DEI consultancy involvement. Minor audience complaints labeled the alliance theme as woke, yet these produced no critic-audience score gap and did not elevate the element beyond incidental background for the horror premise, keeping overall progressive content minimal.