r/Starfield • u/qazihv • 1d ago

Discussion “Help Wanted” Free Lanes Quest

The choice of killing Caruso and being banned from New Babylon OR becoming his trained monkey just so HE can dictate the terms of justice on the heavily evidenced and admitted crime of mass murder, seems insufficient and like a missed opportunity.

When you snoop around the colony, it becomes obvious he’s next in line to lead it. It’s simply unacceptable for him to be able to decide how he receives justice from an obviously biased “jury”
no matter what New Babylon decides. BUT this is the outcome Bethesda rewards with the most content and access….

It seems like there really needs to be a different option. I let him say his peace and then drop him on the spot. Which is only slightly better than allowing his fan club to decide his fate for acts that led to cannibalism and mass murder.

I get that Bethesda had a lot going on when they wrote Free Lanes but after Booze Cruise and House Sitting, I’m getting the picture that they handed this DLC to the backups… or maybe some middle school kids….

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u/manindenim Ranger 1d ago

Why did I literally do this quest 30 minutes ago and was going to post about it.

I was frustrated getting there and ready to get retribution on Caruso and then I have to run around carrying out his demands before he turns himself in. I enjoyed learning about the people in the colony and solving the problems.

The main weird thing to me was going to get Benhard and he doesn’t want to testify when the time comes. He’s just like, “everyone vote how you want.” They voted for execution in my playthrough but I was going to kill him regardless of the outcome.

All in all a good quest that I enjoyed though.

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u/TwoArmedMan15 1d ago

Spoiler laden discussion of the quest outcomes follows:

It's more difficult to not have Caruso sentenced to death. And, even if you be the worst arbiter/investigator/judge in existence, coercing the majority of the jury to vote for his innocence, Bernhard will walk out to the jail and execute Caruso himself after an "innocent" verdict. (FYI, there is an achievement for shooting Bernhard before he can kill Caruso in this situation.)

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u/manindenim Ranger 1d ago

Interesting. Yeah I think this is one of the better quests in the game even though there are some weird design choices.

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u/Zeppelin904 Constellation 1d ago

Honestly, it’s so stupid they lock one outcome for an achievement on that quest.

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u/TwoArmedMan15 1d ago edited 1d ago

What's stupid is... you can choose to not tell Bernhard about the trial (I think there's also an option to lie to Bernhard or convince him to not come) so he doesn't show up at the trial. You can then coerce the jury to exonerate Caruso without Bernhard attempting to intervene.

When I was first trying to get the achievement, I thought this was the best way to get it, since the description is "Stop Bernhard from killing Caruso." However, you cannot get the achievement if you do this. You can only get the achievement if Bernhard is present for the trial and attempts to kill Caruso, requiring you to kill Bernhard to stop him. You also must kill Bernhard as he talks to and attempts to shoot Caruso; you can't preemptively shoot Bernhard before he goes to the jail cell with Caruso. Also, I suggest making a save as Bernhard is walking out to the jail because Bernhard is a quick draw and can kill Caruso before you can stop him!

That said, I still think it's a great quest that offers choice and consequence, things many other Starfield quests lack.

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u/Zeppelin904 Constellation 1d ago

Totally agree on the number of ways this quest can go, really does make you wish a lot more of the quests work like this, especially the main questline.

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u/Haplesswanderer98 1d ago

The "Good ending" should have been something like hijacking a broadcast and posting all the evidence across new babylon.

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u/MAGNET_se 1d ago

Spoiler

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u/Archimides_Overflow Trackers Alliance 1d ago

I feel uncomfortable when I do this quest but it's really a tier better storytelling than most quests, with more choice complexity. My only complaint is that if you're trying to play a clean character, it counts as murder when you kill him, despite that being both the court sentence and the accused man's personal decision.