- In The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood is asked, while challenging a pirate to a duel, to "Choose your weapon," and is presented with a case full of pistols. No matter the weapon he chooses, he loses the duel. If the player closes the case, a banjo is revealed to be behind it. The correct option is to choose duelling with banjos.
- Doubly played with, in fact, as the pirate proves to be an exceptional banjoist. Instead of admitting defeat or being an even better player, Guybrush has to defeat him by picking up one of the aforementioned pistols and shooting the banjo, thus proving himself to be sneaky and dishonourable enough to be a pirate captain.
- In Myst, you're presented at the start with brothers Sirrus and Achenar trapped in books, each accusing the other of destroying their father's books and being wrongfully imprisoned by said father. Additionally, Achenar claims that Sirrus killed their father, while Sirrus says that father went on a journey to discover the truth and was never seen again. Throughout the game, you collect pages that allow you to hear more of the brothers' stories. In the end, you're confronted with the choice between freeing Sirrus or Achenar. The correct answer: They were both in on it, and you shouldn't free either or you'll be trapped yourself. Instead, you have to use the green book which both brothers warned you against, freeing their father to destroy the red and blue books. Oh, and make sure you take the right third option, i.e. get the white page before using the green book.
- The whole series has many problems like this (as well as many puzzles in which you just have to solve it the long way). For example, in Riven, Gehn gives you the option of using the Trap Book (which he thinks is a Linking Book that will take him home), or of refusing, which will get you killed if you do it too many times. The solution is to voluntarily use the book and trap yourself, which will convince Gehn to use it as well, thereby taking your place in the Trap and freeing you.)
- In Myst 3: Exile, once you've finally caught up with Saavedro and gotten the Releeshan book back from him, you can either leave him imprisoned, or free him to come and take his revenge on you. Letting him go and escaping back to Tomahna doesn't work, because he'll follow you. The solution? Open the outer wall first, letting him see that his civilization is still alive. Then open the inner gate and let him take the transport home.
- Well, you don't have to let him go. You can just let him see his civilization and then leave him there, forever knowing it's just out of reach. It depends on how much of a Jerkass you think Saavedro is, and how much of a jerkass you are. In fact, you'll even get called out on leaving Saavedro in the ending if you do this.
- In Myst 4: Revelation, you're confronted with Yeesha strapped to a chair, asking to be freed by pulling a silver-colored lever. Her brother Achenar is also in the room, and claims that Yeesha is actually Sirrus, his brother, transferred into her body, and demands that you pull the amber-colored lever instead. Taking a third option by refusing to act is not the correct solution in this case (subverting the trope); in fact, this is one of two ways to get a bad ending (the other one is pulling the silver lever). The correct choice is to trust Achenar and pull the amber lever, which transfers Sirrus out of Yeesha's body.
- In Knights of the Old Republic, there is a quest of sorts presented to you on Dantooine by a Twi'lek jedi named Bolook, who is investigating a recent murder. The two suspects, Rickard Lusoff and Handon Guld, must be questioned in order to determine which one actually killed the victim, a farmer named Calder, in addition to corroborating evidence with an information droid. After 4 rounds of questioning, and calling both parties on false testimony and possible motives, you find that they were both guilty, and that Calder was sleeping with Handon's wife and had a business deal with Rickard which went sour. This gets you the more than double the XP of just naming one murderer.Full Details
- Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 sees (and deals with the results) of this exchange:
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Raziel: You said it yourself, Kain - there are only two sides to your coin. |
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- The above was due to a choice Kain had to make. If he killed himself, it would seemingly restore the pillars of Nosgoth, but that would finish off the vampires. If he didn't kill himself, then the vampires would remain due to his presence, but Nosgoth would remain. At first it seems he chose option two out of a desire to survive. It turns out that the entire situation was crafted carefully by Moebius and his Elder God. If he killed himself, Nosgoth would be doomed anyway because the vampires kept the pillars preserved. He actually took a third option. In a convoluted (but awesome) scenario he purified himself so he could fulfill his destiny as the Scion of Balance, making the pillars unnecessary.
- Soul Reaver is one big quest for that 3rd option which will satisfy everyone who hated the end choices from Blood Omen: Save the world but sacrifice yourself, or rule over a crumbling Nosgoth.
- The above was due to a choice Kain had to make. If he killed himself, it would seemingly restore the pillars of Nosgoth, but that would finish off the vampires. If he didn't kill himself, then the vampires would remain due to his presence, but Nosgoth would remain. At first it seems he chose option two out of a desire to survive. It turns out that the entire situation was crafted carefully by Moebius and his Elder God. If he killed himself, Nosgoth would be doomed anyway because the vampires kept the pillars preserved. He actually took a third option. In a convoluted (but awesome) scenario he purified himself so he could fulfill his destiny as the Scion of Balance, making the pillars unnecessary.
- In Mass Effect 2, Tali's loyalty mission involves being her being accused of treason. While investigating a quarian science ship, Shepard finds evidence that Tali's father was conducting dangerous experiments on the geth. Shepard cannot tell the quarians about this, which is what Tali wants. This results in Tali's exile, but earns her loyalty. Shepard can also reveal the evidence, which gets Tali acquitted but loses her loyalty. Or Shepard can call out the quarian admirals for their politicking and shame them into acquitting Tali while still earning her loyalty.
- There's actually a fourth option here, or a second third option, as it were. You can convince the other quarians you've encountered to stand up for Tali to the Admiralty Board, which has the same result as doing it yourself, but doesn't require the high Paragon/Renegade score that the first one does (and is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for them). You do have to make sure that they're alive and sane, though, and that's far from given.
- The entire Mass Effect series is full of these, in the form of Charm/Intimidate checks. Most of them are "third options" that both do roughly the same things despite being tied to different karma, and that typically solve whatever problem needs to be solved without any trouble. This is why charisma is a good thing.
- A Good Example is in Lair of the Shadow Broker, Tela Vasir is holding a random woman hostage, the normal options are to do as she says and drop all your ammo, shoot through the woman, or (with sufficiently high Paragon or Renegade) give either a Badass Boast or a "The Reason You Suck" Speech while Liara hits her with a table.
- The ending of the third game plays out this way. There's two regular options that are suggested by Admiral Anderson and the Illusive Man respectively, destroying all the Reapers (and all synthetics by extension) or controlling the Reapers and ordering them to leave. However, if your "War Assets" score is high enough, you can Take a Third Option of combining synthetics and organics, ending the cycle of synthetics vs. organics. Whether or not taking this third choice is "better" than the other choices is entirely a matter of perspective.
- Fans were...not satisfied with the ending of Mass Effect 3 for various reasons that will not be elaborated upon because even the specifics on what is so unsatisfying are major fighting territory. As opposed to the usual reaction fans have to situations like this, the fans demanding a new ending acted with composure and manners, to the point that their main campaign involved donating to a charity in the name of Retake Mass Effect. Despite attempts by EA to paint them as an Unpleasable Fanbase colliding with Fan Dumb, Bioware CEO Ray Muzyka promised DLC to address fans' concerns, meaning the fanbase chose to Take a Third Option with the Mass Effect series itself.
- Played straight in Neverwinter Nights. When you reach the village of Charwood, you are told to affix the blame for a centuries-old massacre. It turns out that the murderer was neither of the adversaries responsible for half the events, but rather the demon that was manipulating them both.
- On the other hand, exposing the demon leaves you in another dilemma; you can either let a demon lord go free and bag yourself a magical trinket, or doom an entire town of people to eternity in amnesia and madness in order to trap the balor. Great, huh?
- Even after revealing the demon lord you can still decide if one off the former suspects is guilty. One of the suspects could have chosen not to execute the massacre and abandoning his plan with eternal undead. The overall outcome is more positive.
- On the other hand, exposing the demon leaves you in another dilemma; you can either let a demon lord go free and bag yourself a magical trinket, or doom an entire town of people to eternity in amnesia and madness in order to trap the balor. Great, huh?
- An infamous moment in video game history, in Final Fantasy VIII: when you are trying to acquire the Guardian Force Bahamut, you are asked several questions to test your character. The... worst gag - or however you like to consider it - is the answer to the third question is an invisible third answer, which is only seen when you've decided on it. Really great, Square...
- However, it's entirely in character for Squall: presented with two options with which to explain what he fights for, he declares that they are both wrong (only after trying them both), and that what he fights for is not something so simplistic. Still really annoying when you have to fight two very tough enemies to get to that point, and then Bahamut himself immediately after, with no chance to heal.
- The third option is also a big plot point in Final Fantasy X: Between letting Sin continue it's endless rampage against Spira and sacrificing Yuna (and probably Tidus as well) in order to destroy it, only for it to inevitably come back anyway. The third option in this case was to take advantage of Sin's (i.e. Jecht's) weakness to the Hymn of the Fayth, then use the airship to get inside it, destroy it (him) from the inside, and use regular aeons and good old-fashioned beatdown to destroy Yu Yevon (who created and controlled Sin) before he could recover. This was probably Auron's plan to begin with; he probably just let Tidus and the others figure it out on their own.
- In Deus Ex early on in the game you are instructed by your CO to kill the unarmed leader of a group of terrorist/freedom fighters who has already surrendered or else she will kill him for you and report you for insubordination (which she will do if you try to leave or even so much as talk to him for too long). An unsaid, but also perfectly viable option, is to just kill her instead, and claim she got killed in the crossfire. It is difficult to do without killing the terrorist leader anyway because your CO explodes when you kill her.
- It's possible: when you enter the terrorist's bedroom, put a LAM or two on the wall. After the first chunk of dialogue, when you hear Anna Navarre's footsteps, run to the bathroom, so you won't die too. When she's blown up, you can continue your conversation with Lebedev - it's worth it, for he has some crucial and interesting information.
- Or you can take the fourth option, try for a non-lethal kill. It's impossible to actually knock out your CO, but you can do sufficient damage to cause her to run from you without landing the killing blow. Your still be forced to kill your CO later in the game to move forward. Unless you take the third option again via sequence breaking. The game never adequately explains why your bosses seem to be unaware that you attacked your CO despite her being alive and perfectly capable of reporting the incident.
- It's possible: when you enter the terrorist's bedroom, put a LAM or two on the wall. After the first chunk of dialogue, when you hear Anna Navarre's footsteps, run to the bathroom, so you won't die too. When she's blown up, you can continue your conversation with Lebedev - it's worth it, for he has some crucial and interesting information.
- Aigis of Persona 3 FES has to make a tough choice - leave behind the memories of the person she loved, or go back in time to save him (which would doom humanity or get them stuck in their dormitory forever). Instead she decides to find out how exactly the Main Character performed his miracle and if there's a way to save him using the last remaining Door of Time, which allows them to use the Key of Time for something else, like leaving the dorm.
- Fire Emblem:
- In Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, Micaiah at one point has to kill King Pelleas to save her country, at Pelleas' own request. The player originally has the choice to carry out the order or pass the duty to someone else (more exactly, Tauroneo), but after the first playthrough, a third option appears where she refuses to let him die, and ultimately he joins the cast.
- In Fire Emblem Awakening, when Gangrel tells Chrom that either he hands the titular Emblem to Plegia (and doom the world) or he will execute Chrom's sister Emmeryn by throwing her off a cliff... Emmeryn herself takes another option: willingly jumping off said cliff.
- This trope is VITAL to the whole plot of Fire Emblem Fates: via choosing to side with neither Nohr nor Hoshido, the Golden Path will be unlocked.
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (the second game, Justice for All), Phoenix at one point must decide whether to save Maya from an assassin while condemning an innocent woman, or convict his guilty client but let Maya die. In the end, he manages to convince the assassin to drop his contract by revealing that the guilty client had planned to betray him all along; he releases Maya and announces his intention to kill the treacherous client next, who is scared for his life to the point that he demands a guilty verdict.
- Subverted at the very end, though: after that reveal, you must still either accuse your client of being guilty or defend him to the end, asking for a "not guilty" verdict. The outcome is the same.
- There's also multiple points where Phoenix/Apollo/Edgeworth reconcile a contradiction by saying that the contradiction itself is true. The most notable is in the final case of Trials and Tribulations when Iris appears to be in two places at once according to two separate pieces of testimony. Which testimony is true? Both. One of the 'Irises' is her twin sister Dahlia, being channeled by Misty Fey.
- Edgeworth gets one too. Who is the real Yatagarasu? Neither Byrne Faraday nor Calisto Yew...because the real answer is both. The Yatagarasu was a Collective Identity made up of Faraday, Yew, and Detective Badd.
- In the final puzzle of Star Trek: A Final Unity, Picard is forced to choose between using a superweapon to annihilate a Borg Fleet, or simply using it to nonviolently halt their invasion. Naturally, the correct choice is None of the Above.
- In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, after playing through the game as Riku, Riku meets up with King Mickey, who suggests that he keep his dark powers, saying something to the effect of, "You chose a road I never even thought of; I want to see where that road leads." Later, when asked whether he'll take the road to light or the one to darkness, he takes the one in the middle... "the road to dawn."
- Donkey Kong Country 2:: In this game, DK is kidnapped by Captain K. Rool, who then attempts to extort the banana hoard in exchange for his safe return. Dixie Kong proposes they give in to K. Rool, but Diddy Kong points out how upset Donkey Kong would be if he returned home to find his hoard empty. So they decide to try to rescue him instead.
- In Mario and Luigi Partners In Time, when the titular Bros. try to access the Star Shrine, the Sprite gives a test of purity. Examining Mario's spirit, the Sprite determines that he is pure enough (and mildly overweight, at that), but Luigi's past is dark enough (illiciting some horrified mutterings from the Sprite) to bar him from entering, and he must hit a special block in order to get in. After completing the puzzle to get the block to the door, Luigi is unable to hit it, and the Sprite asks who was responsible, giving you three choices: 1) Mario, 2) The Babies, 3) Luigi the correct answer is 4). After taking the test, the Sprite is dissatisfied with Luigi's dishonesty and agrees to only let Mario and the babies in, ignoring the point-out that he only gave three answers, none of which were correct. Mario debates on Luigi's behalf to the outraged Sprite, and his selflessness is apparently strong enough for both of them. He then reveals that the whole event was a test in and of itself, and they passed with flying colours.
- The Wii, and to a smaller extent the DS, is Nintendo's third option. Following the relative failure of the Game Cube, Nintendo was faced with either continuing the graphics arms race with Sony and Microsoft and continuing to struggle against its "kiddy" image, or reorganizing as a third-party developer and continuing to struggle against its "kiddy" image. Nintendo decided to ignore all that, embrace its family friendly nature, and try to redefine the video game market. And it's working BECAUSE it's become the Third Option To Take for non-gamers and former gamers.
- And of course, gamers.
- Geneforge 4 has you start off allied with rebels who will kill thousands to overthrow the government, but will let you defect to the other side, which will smash the rebellion and reinstate oppression and servitude. Both refer with distaste to some group known as the "Trakovites," which they're doing their best to stamp out...
- The Mega-Ten Series has this Trope as a major theme, as the main character has the choice of aligning yourself with Law(Usually represented by the Messians who worship YHWH, a vain dictator who created the world to be his) or Chaos (Usually represented by the Gaians, who think that it's every man for himself, and are usually aided by Lucifer). Neither is the right option however as the Law path has no liberty while the Chaos path results in self destruction. The (arguably) correct path is Balance which supports personal liberties and individuality while not falling in a state of total anarchy. Again this is arguable since the games allow you to choose whichever path you want and treat you as the victor no matter which you chose.
- In Apocalypse, you can side with Merkabah, you’ll save the kingdom of Mikado this will result in the destruction of Tokyo. But if you side with Lucifer, you’ll destroy Mikado instead, though Tokyo will be safe. Luckily, you can choose to fight them both, and once they’re out of the picture, humanity is safe…at least until Krishna returns.
- At the end of The Dark Meadow, you are seemingly given a Sadistic Choice between triggering The Bad Guy Wins ending and triggering another boss battle that is followed by a Downer Ending. You don't have to choose either though, just look behind you and touch the pit to unlock the much more positive Bittersweet Ending.
- Add in Fallout 3 as part of the Broken Steel Downloadable Content. Rather than sending either Sarah Lyons or you to commit a Senseless Sacrifice at the end, you can send the radiation-immune companions Fawkes, Charon or RL-3 in to do the job (though the game still considers this a cowardly move).
- Somewhat of an aversion as well. Broken Steel gives you more options, but every option you have is non-canon, since Broken Steel retcons the ending to explain why the Lone Wanderer and Sarah are both incapacitated, but neither is dead.
- In Kingdom Hearts II, the villain Xaldin of Organization XIII has the Beast caught between a Sadistic Choice. He has stolen the Beast's rose, as well as Belle. However, he will let one of them go, at Beast's choice. And there's not a damn thing Beast can do about it. Belle, on the other hand, catches Xaldin off guard by elbowing him in the side, takes the rose, and runs like hell. Even Sora notes that as Belle's running, she seemed to be having a really good time.
- Twisted Metal: Head-On has one of these in Agent Shepard's ending. The winner of the Twisted Metal Car Fu tournament gets a wish from Literal Genie Big Bad Calypso; typically they get screwed over. Rather than fall for this, Shep decides to just arrest Calypso.
- "I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture."
- At the end of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, you get demonized by mainstream vampire society and the sole helping hand you have left makes it clear that you're pretty much boned without aligning yourself to one of the various factions you've encountered throughout the game. This means going back to one of two different groups who've been using you as a dupe or a third that only cares about you for the power you could bring to their side. Or you could single-handedly butcher every filthy son a bitch who dared to play you in the first place.
- The best part of which is Flipping the Bird to members of the third potential faction (after having killed the other two) as you walk off into the night.
- Grand Theft Auto Vice City exemplifies the whole concept of sufficiently advanced video games allowing a third option. One mission has you chasing a crazed stalker. The official game guide suggests ramming his car until it explodes or doing a drive-by. It's possible to steal enough cars to create a roadblock and then use the rocket launcher. This is just one of dozens of examples.
- In the original Fate/stay night, after Saber nearly wipes her magical energy empty with the Excalibur, Shirou is initially faced with two options as to how to restore her energy: 1. transfer his energy to her, which is out of the question due to his poor magic skill. 2. Have her kill humans and steal their energy. Later, however, Rin reveals that there is a third option: to either have sex with Saber (original) or a Magic Crest Transfer ritual (Réalta Nua port). Too weak as a magus to transfer magic, and too moral to slaughter the lives of innocents, Shirou hesitatingly takes option three.
- Subverted in Heaven's Feel. There is no third option at one point. Either betray your ideals, or lose the person Shirou loves. And there is no third option to redeem one innocent victim.
- Parodied in the fake 'dead-end', on Fate route, where Shirou tells Saber they will fast. Tiger and Illya turn him into a cyborg with gatling guns, and offer him a chance to 'join the Tigers willingly, or be brainwashed and turn into a machine.' His response? Turn on the gatling guns.
- For a Rogue-alike, ADOM has an unusual amount of plot, and there are several Third Options available in the game. If you take the quest to look for the village carpenter, you'll find he's become a dangerous Chaos monster, who will attack you on sight. It's kill or be killed ... or you can lead him to the healer Jharod, who will fix his corruption and teach you the Healing skill as a reward. Later on, you'll meet an undead dwarven warrior, who can be defeated by force, or destroyed instantly by pouring holy water on his grave. Later still, you'll run into a dying sage who can't be healed by any normal spells, but he won't move off the stairs to the next level until you talk to him, at which point he dies. The third option is to give him an amulet of life saving. When it comes to the endgame, you can close the Chaos gate and kill all the monsters on the level, preventing it from being reopened ... or destroy the levers so the gate can't be reopened ... but if you've done a variety of difficult tasks, you can go through the gate instead and fight the god of Chaos for a special ending.
- Pokémon Platinum. Cyrus tells you that no matter what you do, if you defeat Giratina, the world will end and let him recreate it. Capture it? No good. Beat it in battle? No good. Cynthia tells you (rightly) that it is a trick, but even she says that you have to fight Giratina. Thing is, if you choose Run, Giratina calms down and the rift closes. Yeah, guess you didn't think that a deity would let a ten-year-old run when it was pissed off at the adult, Cyrus.
- Cynthia lampshades it if the players do choose to flee. Arguably a subtle Take That to the kinds of players who feel they need to capture or defeat everything.
- In Wing Commander III, at one point you're given a choice between kissing Rachel or Flint, which would make the one not chosen mad at you (and thus unavailable, leaving you to either fly short a wingman or configure your own ship loadout if you don't want to launch without missiles, respectively). However, you can choose to not kiss either of them, by bypassing the decision scene entirely, and have both still available. Both will be unhappy with you, but only for Flint does that really matter, as lowered morale makes her flying less effective.
- Details: If you kiss one, she'll get a morale boost, but not only will the other's morale PLUMMET, she'll pretty much never speak to you again. If you shun both, both take a slight morlae hit, but that's all. Since the later games say that Blair ultimately ends up alone, this makes the third option the best one AND the closest to canon.
- Choosing Rachel is actually closest to canon - the novelizations of the games (WCIII and WCIV) imply that Blair did indeed spend some time in a relationship with Rachel, but that his bitterness over being grounded ultimately drove them apart. Ironically enough, it's also the "best" ending (for the most part), seeing as how taking Flint with you on your final mission almost certainly results in her death (unless you cheat).
- Details: If you kiss one, she'll get a morale boost, but not only will the other's morale PLUMMET, she'll pretty much never speak to you again. If you shun both, both take a slight morlae hit, but that's all. Since the later games say that Blair ultimately ends up alone, this makes the third option the best one AND the closest to canon.
- Dragon Age gives you a third option at Castle Redcliffe, where the Arl's son Connor has been possessed by a desire demon, torturing the castle denizens and wreaking havoc on the village with frequent attacks from the undead. At first the choices are to kill Connor or sacrifice his mother, Arlessa Isolde, in order for a mage to enter the Fade and slay the demon. But, if you ask about an alternative, you'll be presented with the option of having the mages of the Circle Tower assist in the ritual, sparing both. If you are a mage and choose to enter the Fade yourself, you're also presented with a fourth option by the desire demon herself: Allow her to leave, temporarily relinquishing control over the boy, in exchange for a reward of your choosing.
- The ending also provides a third option. Instead of sacrificing yourself, or a comrade warden, to the Archdemon, you can have Morrigan impregnated, either by a male PC, or Alistair or Loghain. Doing this lets the Archdemon's essence join with the unborn child.
- There's a fourth option, instead of giving Morrigan a god-fetus, or sacrificing yourself or Alistair. When you take down Teyrn Loghain at the Joining, you can opt to recruit him for the Grey Wardens, and make him finish off the Archdemon.
- In Fable 3, after taking the throne, you discover why your brother Logan was such a terrible ruler, and you are faced with the same choice: either keep your promises to those to whom you have made them, thereby dooming Albion to the demonic presence looming on the horizon, or break your promises, gaining you enough funds with which to defend Albion from said evil. It's quite possible, though, for you to simply buy up all the property in the game, which eventually deposits enough money in the royal treasury for you to build up your defenses while keeping the moral high ground.
- There's also an inversion in the early game where Logan forces you to choose between killing a group of protesting commoners and killing your childhood friend/lover. If you take too long to make this choice, he orders all of them to be executed.
- Anders in Dragon Age II removes this option near the end of the game by blowing up the Chantry, which forces the player's Hawke to choose whether to side with the mages or side with the templars.
- Dragon Age II also subverts the idea that the third option has to be an optimal outcome in the quest Night Terrors. A boy with a rare magical talent is being threatened by demons. The choices first given to you are to either save him and let him run away to train his talents or to make him Tranquil (essentially a magical lobotomy). The third option is to let another demon posess his body, wreaking havoc with the boy's magical talent in exchange for a reward from the demon.
- A minor Game Breaker for The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, there is a quest for a daedra named Clavicus Vile to retrieve for him a sword called Umbra. If you do get the sword, you can either give it to him, for the reward of a crummy mask, or you can keep it. The only problem is, while it's almost certainly the best sword in the game, it's also quite heavy. There is a third option, of course... Since quest items are weightless, Umbra has no weight value until you complete the quest. Therefore, by simply not ever finishing the quest, you make it into what is VERY DEFINITELY the best sword in the game: superpowerful and light as a feather- and capable of eating the souls of those it kills.
- If you start looking into the Dark Brotherhood in The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, you'll find yourself waking up in a locked shack, where the Brotherhood's chief assassin explains that you owe her group one murder. She has three bound and hooded victims waiting for you - a harridan of a housewife, a blubbering Nord bandit, and a Kajiit who unrepentantly mentions that he's a rapist and murderer - and explains that there's a contract on one of them. Someone has to die before you leave the shack. Kill one and the assassin will welcome you as an initiate in the Dark Brotherhood. Kill more than one and she'll praise you for your thoroughness. Or... you can kill the assassin (no easy feat), free the captives, and report to a city guard, starting the "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood" quest in which you assault the assassins' lair and wipe them out for good. This is an improvement from Oblivion, where you could only opt in or out of the Brotherhood without doing anything else.
- In the end of the first Dino Crisis, Regina must choose between helping a mortally wounded Gail (Regina's commanding officer) apprehend the renegade scientist Dr. Kirk, causing Gail to die in the process; or knock Gail out, forcing him to escape the island without capturing Dr. Kirk. The third option comes when the player chooses to knock out Gail, only to go after Dr. Kirk alone.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword does this for the graphics. Instead of using cel shading like Wind Waker, or realism like Twilight Princess, Nintendo decided to combine the two to make a cel shaded but somewhat realistic looking adult Link. Many were pleased, but others hated how the style was not either cel shaded or realistic.
- Meta-example: The series is famous for its Alternate Timeline, but the older 2D games don't really fit anywhere on it. Instead of making a game to connect them to more recent entries, Nintendo opted to create a third branch in which Link died during Ocarina of Time.
- In the MMORPG PlaneShift getting killed sends you to the Death Realm, which you have to explore to find the portal leading back to the mortal coil. Your first choice comes when the bridge you're on branches. Right or left? Both paths are dead ends, just keep going straight ahead and drop off the bridge.
- In Jade Empire, instead of (Good Ending) healing the water dragon or (Evil Ending) claiming her power for yourself, you can sacrifice yourself and let Master Li win. Your reward for allowing his evil dictatorship? A statue of yourself. Derp.
- In the fifth chapter of "Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People," Strong Bad needs some tech support. Unfortunately, the guy on the phone isn't interested in helping and tries to impersonate a voicemail system with multiple responses if Strong Bad says "One," "Two," or "Three." None of the responses are helpful to the player; the way to proceed is for Strong Bad to take a fourth option and say, "Four." This causes the tech support guy to panic and concede defeat.
- In the extensive Baldur's Gate (1) NPC mod, there are three romantic suitors for a female PC. Two of them, a knight and a rogue, will go through a series of impressive challenges in the hope of winning the PC's heart, which may well make it very difficult to decide between the two. Since the third opts out due to thinking his chances are hopeless, this makes him an endearing and tempting third option (as evidenced by polls, wherein he is the single most popular choice of either gender.)
- Strange Journey presents you with a dilemma in Grus. A demon has sealed the path to Maya, the area's boss, and demands that you kill the newly-pacified Jack's Squad before he'll let you through. However, the newly-angelic Zelenin offers you another option: use her song to brainwash the demons and make them open the path. Killing Jack's Squad is the Chaos option, while using Zelenin's song is the Law option. There is, however, an unpresented Neutral third option: Kill the demon that's sealing the path in the first place.
- In The Strange Leaflet Quest in Kingdom of Loathing, a giant presents you with two goblets of potion; he says he'll reward you if you pick the right goblet, and the wrong goblet will poison you. Both goblets are poison; the correct response is to use the CLEESH spell which turns the giant into a newt.
- Also in one quest you are required to start a war between the Hippies and the Frat boys, then lead one of the two sides to victory. The way to get the best reward is to carefully whittle down both armies to just 1 soldier each, then kill them both at once with a certain item.
- A third example in the undersea area: A turf war is being fought between two gangs of fish obsessed with sport: The Ice Skates and The Roller Skates. You can help one side against the other, or help a third faction, The Skate Board, drive both away.
- In Fallout: New Vegas, rather than just choosing to side with the NCR or Caesar's Legion, the Courier is given the choice to secure Vegas under the rule of Mr. House. You can even go one step further and decide to screw them all in order to make Vegas an Independent city-state under your own rule with the help of the Yes-Man A.I.
- In Monster Girl Quest at one point you're given the option to either touch a Kitsune's fluffy tail or have some of her fried tofu. Both choices lead to bad ends, since she takes away a magical artifact you need to continue. The third option is to ask her to hand over the artifact. Not a huge surprise, since all three options are listed from the start. But if you take the wrong option on purpose, you get scolded by Alice and Luka is surprised that there was a third option.
- To get to the secret Music Test in Radical Dreamers you have to choose an invisible third option at one point in the game.
- In the ending of Dubloon, Russel has to choose between rescuing his friends or taking the Golden Chest and run, in which case the other option falls into oblivion. If you collect all the chests, however, you get the option to rescue both, via a single button.
- Almost all the solutions in Star Trek: Borg are almost never either the two choices given to you, but an absolutely insane third option that nobody would try on their first time. Thankfully Q gives you lots of tries...
- Clementine gets bit by a walker on her left leg in episode 4 of The Walking Dead: Season Four. Her health severely deteriorated, she either tells AJ to kill her or leave her and let her turn, just like Lee did with her. Regardless of what she says, AJ instead amputates her leg, which ends up saving her life.
- Used in Zork Zero. You're faced with being executed, along with several other people, and everyone gets to make a last request. If the executioner can do it, he hangs you. If he can't do it, he cuts your head off. When it's your turn, the correct command is to say "executioner, cut my head off." So he'd have to cut your head off, then hang you. But he's only supposed to cut your head off if he can't do it, not to mention the fact you wouldn't have a head or neck anymore to be hanged from... The executioner eventually gets so confused and befuddled, he ends up letting you go.
- Back to Take a Third Option