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Yes—several Resident Evil games let you control someone other than Leon Kennedy. The clearest examples are Resident Evil 6, which has a dedicated Ada Wong campaign, and Resident Evil Revelations 2, whose Episode Select lets you choose Claire Redfield’s or Barry Burton’s campaign. Other games offer alternate characters only in a side campaign, a short story segment, co-op, or a bonus mode.
That distinction matters. A character appearing in a cast list does not automatically mean you control that character. The guide below separates confirmed campaigns from bonus-mode and Raid play, then identifies games that need version-specific checking before they can be called confirmed examples.
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What counts as “playing as someone other than Leon”?
Resident Evil uses several different forms of character control. They are not interchangeable when you are deciding which game to buy or replay.
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- Dedicated campaign: a substantial story route built around a different protagonist, such as Ada’s Campaign in Resident Evil 6.
- Selectable story episode: the game lets you choose between different campaign leads, as in Resident Evil Revelations 2.
- Story section: control changes briefly during the main narrative, but the character does not have a complete campaign.
- Co-op role: a second player controls a partner who assists the lead character. That partner may have restricted story functions.
- Bonus mode: an optional mode such as Mercenaries or Raid, often with an unlockable roster that is separate from the main story.
The confirmed examples below are labeled by mode so that “playable” does not imply a full Leon-free campaign when the evidence only supports a bonus character.
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Confirmed games with non-Leon playable characters
| Game | Character or characters | Where the alternate play occurs | What the documentation establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil 6 | Ada Wong | Ada’s Campaign | The official manual documents a dedicated Ada campaign and its co-op arrangement. |
| Resident Evil Revelations 2 (PlayStation 4 manual) | Claire Redfield or Barry Burton | Episode Select campaigns | The manual instructs players to choose either Claire’s or Barry’s campaign. |
| Resident Evil Village with The Mercenaries Additional Orders | Chris Redfield, Karl Heisenberg and Alcina Dimitrescu | Mercenaries Additional Orders | Capcom producer Tsuyoshi Kanda identified these three as the expansion’s new playable characters. |
| Resident Evil 4 (edition covered by Capcom-hosted guide material) | Ada Wong and four unlockable Mercenaries characters | Separate Ways and Mercenaries | The guide documents Ada’s Separate Ways and four unlockable characters in Mercenaries; the source is edition-specific. |
| Resident Evil Revelations | Morgan Lansdale | Raid Mode | Capcom states that Morgan is not playable in Story Mode but is playable in Raid Mode. |
Resident Evil 6: Ada has a complete campaign
Resident Evil 6 is the strongest answer if you want a substantial campaign led by someone other than Leon. Its official manual includes “Ada’s Campaign,” making Ada Wong’s control a documented campaign feature rather than an inference from the game’s cast list.
Ada’s route also has a distinctive co-op rule. A second player can join as an agent who supports Ada in combat, but the manual explains that this co-op-only agent cannot perform story-progression actions reserved for Ada. In practical terms, the support character helps during fights without becoming an equal story protagonist or taking over Ada’s required interactions.
The wider Resident Evil 6 story is organized around several leads, including Leon, Helena, Chris, Piers, Jake, Sherry and Ada. For the specific question “Can I play as Ada?”, however, the manual’s campaign documentation is the useful confirmation. A cast summary alone would not tell you how control is divided between campaign routes, co-op roles and scripted sections.
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Resident Evil Revelations 2 gives you two clearly documented campaign choices. The official PlayStation 4 manual’s Episode Select screen tells players to choose either Claire’s campaign or Barry’s campaign.
This is different from a game that merely switches perspective for a cutscene. Episode Select presents Claire and Barry as separate campaign routes, so both are direct answers to the question of whether you can play as someone other than Leon. Leon is not the defining playable lead in this title; Claire and Barry are the characters the manual explicitly places at the center of the selectable episodes.
Because the cited documentation is for the PlayStation 4 version, check the manual or in-game menu for another platform or release if your copy uses a different edition. The campaign-choice evidence is clear for the documented version, while ports and remasters can package episodes and bonus content differently.
Resident Evil Village: three alternate characters in Mercenaries Additional Orders
Resident Evil Village adds non-Leon play through The Mercenaries Additional Orders, an expansion to the Mercenaries bonus mode. Capcom producer Tsuyoshi Kanda identified three new playable characters: Chris Redfield, Karl Heisenberg and Alcina Dimitrescu.
- Chris Redfield
- Karl Heisenberg
- Alcina Dimitrescu
These choices do not replace the main story’s protagonist. They belong to the expansion’s Mercenaries mode, where the objective and structure differ from the campaign. If your priority is to experience the central Village narrative as Chris, Heisenberg or Dimitrescu, this content does not establish that; it establishes playable control in the additional Mercenaries mode.
This is a useful example of why the wording “multiple playable characters” needs a mode label. Village has a selectable alternate roster, but it is bonus-mode play rather than a second full story campaign.
Resident Evil 4: Ada’s Separate Ways and Mercenaries characters
Capcom-hosted guide material for an older edition of Resident Evil 4 documents two forms of non-Leon play. Ada Wong appears in the side campaign Separate Ways, and Mercenaries includes four unlockable characters.
Separate Ways is more substantial than a single cameo because it is a distinct Ada-focused scenario running alongside the main game’s events. It should still be described as a side campaign, not as the Leon campaign with a freely selectable protagonist. The guide also confirms the existence of four unlockable Mercenaries characters, but the supplied documentation does not identify their names, so a version-neutral list should not guess them.
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Edition matters here. The guide is an older, edition-specific source, and later remakes, ports or bundled releases can include different content or unlock conditions. Before buying a particular version for Ada’s story or the Mercenaries roster, check that edition’s manual and feature list.
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Resident Evil Revelations: story perspective is not the same as playable control
Capcom describes Resident Evil Revelations as a story that moves among multiple characters and perspectives rather than following one protagonist throughout. That narrative structure can make the game feel like a multi-character adventure, but the mode still determines whether a named character is actually playable.
Morgan Lansdale is the clearest documented boundary: Capcom specifically says Morgan is not playable in Story Mode but is playable in Raid Mode. Therefore, Revelations qualifies as a game with non-Leon play only when you identify Raid Mode as the context. It is not evidence that Morgan can be selected for the main story.
The same rule applies to other characters discussed in descriptions of Revelations. A character can be important to the plot or appear in a promotional cast summary without being a Story Mode avatar.
Games often cited as multi-character Resident Evil titles
Capcom’s franchise timeline lists the following non-Leon story characters. Those entries are valuable for identifying the games and their principal casts, but they are not, by themselves, a complete control scheme. Treat this table as a checklist for version-specific verification rather than as a blanket claim that every named character is freely playable.
| Game | Non-Leon characters named in Capcom’s timeline |
|---|---|
| Resident Evil 0 | Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen |
| Resident Evil | Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine |
| Resident Evil 2 | Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Ada Wong and Sherry Birkin |
| Resident Evil 3 | Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira |
| Code: Veronica | Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield and Steve Burnside |
| Resident Evil 5 | Chris Redfield, Sheva Alomar, Jill Valentine and Albert Wesker |
| Resident Evil 6 | Leon Kennedy, Helena Harper, Chris Redfield, Piers Nivans, Jake Muller, Sherry Birkin and Ada Wong |
For these titles, confirm the exact remake, port, platform and mode before promising a particular character as a playable lead. A timeline establishes who belongs to the story; a manual or in-game character-select screen establishes who the player controls.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can you play as Claire, Chris or Ada?
Claire Redfield
Yes. Resident Evil Revelations 2 explicitly lets you select Claire’s campaign in Episode Select. Claire is also listed in Capcom’s timelines for other games, but those cast listings should be checked against the specific edition before treating each appearance as direct control.
Chris Redfield
Yes, in a confirmed bonus-mode example: Chris is one of the three playable characters in Resident Evil Village’s Mercenaries Additional Orders. Other games list Chris as a major character, but the available timeline evidence alone does not establish the precise control arrangement in every version.
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Yes. Ada has a documented dedicated campaign in Resident Evil 6, and Capcom-hosted guide material documents her Separate Ways scenario in Resident Evil 4. Those are different forms of play: a campaign route in one game and a side campaign in the other.
How to choose the right game for alternate-character play
- For the clearest full campaign: choose Resident Evil 6 for Ada’s Campaign.
- For a choice between two story routes: choose Resident Evil Revelations 2 and use Episode Select to start Claire’s or Barry’s campaign.
- For Chris, Heisenberg or Dimitrescu: choose Resident Evil Village only if Mercenaries Additional Orders is the mode you want.
- For Ada in a side story: use the edition of Resident Evil 4 that includes Separate Ways; verify the release because the guide evidence is edition-specific.
- For arcade-style alternate play: look at Raid or Mercenaries rosters, but do not assume that a character selectable there is available in Story Mode.
What about Resident Evil Requiem?
Capcom’s 2025 Integrated Report identified Grace Ashcroft as the protagonist of Resident Evil Requiem and described a February 2026 scheduled release. That report predates the released game and does not provide a final, verified character-control roster.
Accordingly, it is safe to identify Grace as the reported protagonist in that document, but not to use the report alone to claim that other characters are playable, that the game has multiple campaigns, or that a particular alternate-character mode exists. Those details require current documentation for the released version.
Bottom line for shoppers and players
If you want a confirmed non-Leon campaign, start with Ada’s Campaign in Resident Evil 6 or Claire’s and Barry’s selectable campaigns in Resident Evil Revelations 2. If bonus modes are acceptable, Resident Evil Village adds Chris, Karl Heisenberg and Alcina Dimitrescu in Mercenaries Additional Orders, while Resident Evil 4 offers Ada’s Separate Ways and four Mercenaries unlockables in the edition covered by Capcom’s guide. Resident Evil Revelations demonstrates the opposite case: Morgan Lansdale is playable in Raid Mode but not in the main Story Mode.
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