Wasteland 3is a game about choices, andeach choice the player makes will have a consequence. Sometimes these consequences are easy to predict and don’t require much foresight to understand, but other times they can be much more obscure. One of the first choices the player has to make in the game is whether or not to free The Prisoner.
The Prisoner is a somewhat quirky character, and when players find him he’ll be locked up in a cell in Ranger HQ. The player is given the freedom to choose this man’s fate, one of the first times of many that this type of decision will come into play inWasteland 3.
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Thankfully, players can rest assured knowing that this choice doesn’t have a major impact on the story of the game, and is more a way of teaching the player how theirchoices inWasteland 3will change things later ondown the road. Any choice here at the beginning won’t make a huge difference.
If the player opts to leave The Prisoner in his cell, he will remain there for the rest of the game. Players canreturn to the Ranger HQto visit him and enjoy his strange and quirky dialog. This can actually be somewhat useful as The Prisoner does spout off quite a bit of lore about the world in his ramblings. Alternatively, players can choose to kill The Prisoner where he stands in his cell. Predictably, this results in The Prisoner’s death, but doesn’t affect anything else later in the game.
Finally, players canchoose to set The Prisoner freeif they’d like, but this will require a lockpicking skill of at least 5. Alternatively, players can find the Brig Master’s Key in order to bypass the lockpicking requirement. After being released, The Prisoner thanks the player profusely and goes off on his merry way. Later on as the player is exploring the Colorado Springs Museum, they will find a dead body with a note from The Prisoner that simply says “Thank You” on it. Again, this doesn’t affect the story in any major way but does introduce players to howWasteland 3handles choice.
Why games these days love making players panic about a seemingly simple choice that may have drastic effects on the future is unclear, but at least this one starts players off with deciding the fate of oneWasteland 3’s quirky characters, something simple by comparison. With that in mind, players should be weary about other decisions in the game as well, since things will start to have more dire consequences in the future.
Wasteland 3is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
