Amy: The region has been locked down for years. Between the extreme pollution and the vicious sandstorms, only madmen would come here. And I guess that's why it's the perfect place for Frank and Karen to hide!
Amy and the player arrive to The Wastes to chase after Karen and Frank and stop whatever they are planning to do with the stolen plutonium from the casino heist. However, their progress gets halted when they find the body of David Rosenberg, the tech genius they met in Innovation Valley, resting on a puddle of radioactive fluid.
Tropes:
- Abandoned Laboratory: One belonging to Albert Tesla, a pioneer inventor from the 1960s who one day vanished without trace, appears as a crime scene.
- Anonymous Benefactor: Played With. During the investigation, you receive a phone call from Frank telling you to go to a certain laboratory where you'll find more clues but refuses to tell you anymore, so you know it was him but don't know his reasons for doing so.
- Back for the Dead: David Rosenberg, who hadn't appeared since the finale of Innovation Valley, becomes the victim here.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: While giving you the report of David's body, Roxie excitedly remarks how his body glows in the dark.
- Brain Upload: You find a video tape of Albert Tesla during the Additional Investigation, where is revealed that he had been working on uploading his mind onto a supercomputer.
- The Bus Came Back: Trevor Neuman, who was incarcerated for his involvement with the Utopians back in Case 38, returns here.
- Call-Back: Andy Pascal, Allen Muir, Jess Prakti, and General Freeman reappear as suspects. Meteor Systems, the shady tech company you met in Innovation Valley, also makes a comeback.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Downplayed: Throughout the case, Amy and the player have to call the lab to receive information about the clues they send to be analyzed, with said calls being distorted and difficult to understand but barely managing to get the job done so you can solve the case. Hannah manages to fix the reception during the Additional Investigation though.
- Chekhov's Gun: Remember the Brain Upload experiments by Meteor Systems that you learnt about in Case 49? It turns out that they were trying to recreate Albert Tesla's fifty-year old work with it.
- Classified Information: Defied by Amy, who tells General Freeman to stop with his delay tactics and tell them everything he knows. It works.
- Cliffhanger: The case ends with Amy and the player finding a secret base belonging to Meteor Systems where they'll find more answers about their experiments in The Wastes, but they get stopped at gun point by Karen, who takes them prisoners.
- Continuity Nod: Plenty of them, since all of your suspects have appeared in different district before and so many of the events they were involved with are mentioned again.
- Andy mentions how the player solved the murder of his niece back in Jazz Town.
- Amy remembers how Jess wanted to grow corn in the desert.
- Colonel Spangler and his death are mentioned when you find a photo of his Weather-Control Machine.
- When discovering about Trevor's research, Russell recalls how he was the one responsible for the Utopian's brainwashing in Ivywood Hills.
- General Freeman tells you he was discharged from the army on medical grounds since he can't remember anything about what happened in Rhine Canyon.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: David was knocked into a puddle of toxic waste which, according to Roxie, gave him a massive dose of radiation, melted his organs, and made him glow in the dark.
- Deadly Dust Storm: Two of the crime scenes feature sandstorms. And according to Andy, they're also radioactive, which means they're much more dangerous than regular ones.Amy: A nuclear sandstorm?! Is it as dangerous as it sounds?Andy: It is! The atmosphere here is full of radioactive particles! If the hurricane-force wind doesn't blow your head off, you'll die of exposure to radiation!
- I Did What I Had to Do: Jess killed David because he was getting increasingly paranoid about Meteor System working on Tesla's projects, which she feared was going to delay their work.
- Fake Town: One of the crime scenes is a town used for nuclear experimentation.
- Foreshadowing: You learn about Albert Tesla in this case, a scientist from the 1960s who one day mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind his lab and unfinished work which now Meteor Systems is trying to continue. Guess who appears the next two cases and is revealed to be the mastermind behind the whole plot?
- Mad Scientist: According to Allen, Albert Tesla was dangerous, crazy, and had no conscience, which is why he finds repulsive that people remember him as a great scientist and want to continue with his experiments, which is what David and Meteor Systems have been doing.
- The Man Behind the Man: Allen is convinced that his father's works are behind everything bad that has been happening in Pacific Bay.Allen: <Player's Name> you've got to figure out what happened to my father after he vanished! I'm sure... I'm sure he's behind all the bad things that have happened around here!Amy: What "bad things"? Are you talking about what's happening in the Wastes?Allen: No, I'm talking about all the evil that has spread throughout Pacific Bay since 1961, the year my father disappeared! All these murders, all these criminals... Can't you see it's unnatural?!
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Jess killed David after she saw the results of Trevor's Mind Probe on him, which displayed David becoming increasingly worried about Meteor Systems and fearing for his life. Due to this, Jess believed David was going to delay the project to protect himself, so she took him out of the way.
- Mind Probe: Trevor had been working on one, which was a previous project that belonged to Albert Tesla. Thanks to this, he and Jess saw that David was worried about Meteor Systems killing them all, which led to Jess killing him to protect their work.
- My Greatest Failure: General Freeman laments how he failed to protect David Rosenberg like he was asked to, since it means he failed another job after what happened in Rhine Canyon.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: You find Karen's phone with a recording of her speaking to the killer, telling them Meteor Systems, their employers, can't help them anymore. Thanks to this, Amy and the player learn that the murderer works for said company.
- Properly Paranoid: Andy warned David about messing with inventions that could create disasters, which is more than justified since he and his niece experienced first-handed the works of a Weather-Control Machine.
- Science Is Bad: Allen is convinced that science is the root of all evil, hence why he became The Hermit.Allen: I don't want to talk about his experiments. Science tore our family apart, and it will ruin the world if we don't get it under control!
- Shout-Out:
- Albert Tesla is named after Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla.
- The Testing Site and Nuclear Village scenes are based on model towns used in nuclear experiments.
- There is an open fridge sitting in the middle of the Testing Site scene, referring to the (very false) theory that hiding in a fridge will protect you from a nuclear blast, this was popularized by the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Another reference to the film is Indiana Jones' hat in the Nuclear Village scene.
- In the Nuclear Village scene, there is a fuchsia teddy bear.
- In the Abandoned Lab scene, there is a picture of Nikola Tesla.
- In the Tesla's Lab scene, there is a copy of Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Amy (and also the player, though we don't get to see them) wear anti-radiation suits for the whole case to protect themselves.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: How the phone calls for analyzes are seen.
- Tap on the Head: David was knocked out with a baseball bat before being dumped onto the nuclear waste.
- Thrill Seeker: The reason for Andy being in The Wastes? He wanted to film a nuclear sandstorm.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Compared to his appearance in Rhine Canyon, General Freeman is more tame and willing to help you, even suggesting Amy and the player to leave the Wastes if they want to live. Justified, though, since Agent Z erased his memories about aliens in Rhine Canyon, so he has no reasons to be hateful or against you.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Andy tell you that something bad is brewing inside of The Wastes and the wind is trying to warn you about it.
- You Are Not My Father: Allen was Albert Tesla's son, but he decided to change his surname and join the army to forget about him after his experiments drove his mother insane and she died in an asylum.
