The Fallout franchise has an extended and complicated historical past and timeline that has been increasing its post-apocalyptic future ever because the authentic recreation’s launch again in 1997. With 4 mainline video games, a handful of spin-offs, and now a TV show that’s set throughout the similar universe, the collection has an enormous, meaty timeline to wrap your head round.
Under, we run by means of all the franchise’s storyline in chronological order to get you in control. (There is a video recap out there, too.) For those who’re trying to dive into the video games for the primary time, try our picks for the best Fallout games and the best Fallout 4 mods, which might dramatically enhance the expertise.
Our timeline kicks off within the mid-Twentieth century in a post-WW2 world that appears lots like our personal. However that’s all about to vary.
You see, the world of Fallout diverges from our personal within the interval after World Conflict 2 in some unspecified time in the future between 1945 and 1961, and imagines a technologically superior world steeped within the design aesthetics of the Nineteen Fifties–hence all of the retro-futuristic vibes. Regardless of this, our personal historical past and Fallouts share a couple of key moments–namely the US getting into the Vietnam Conflict within the mid-Sixties amid a heightening of tensions within the Chilly Conflict.
However in 1969, the similarities come to an abrupt finish, and the timeline of Fallout branches off in its personal distinctive path.
With the specter of communism looming massive in Fallout’s America, the US makes the unconventional resolution to reshape itself from 50 states into 13 commonwealths. Whereas this plan type of works, in that not one of the 13 commonwealths grew to become communist, it does flip the nation right into a unstable cesspit of political strife, paranoia, and unrest.
However the hostile depth of this new political environment–coupled with the ever-rising temperature of the Chilly Conflict–led the US to make enormous technological developments within the fields of AI and robotics. Harnessing the atomic energy that introduced WW2 to an in depth brings about innovations that was once consigned to the realm of science fiction.
And on the forefront of those technological leaps is one Robert Home, who’s born within the 12 months 2020. Home grows as much as turn into a pacesetter within the robotics area, and he ultimately units up an organization by the title of RobCo, which turns into fairly instrumental to the world of Fallout. Amongst their most notable creations are the Protectrons, the Sentry Bots, Fallout 3’s Liberty Prime, and the iPhone of the Fallout world, the wrist-mounted Pip-Boy.
However regardless of all these nifty bits of tech, the specter of nuclear conflict nonetheless looms massive over the world of Fallout. And by April 2052, issues have gotten so dire on the worldwide scene {that a} new conflict takes maintain of the world: the Useful resource Conflict. With fossil fuels working on empty, the superpowers of the world begin to battle over the restricted reserves that they’ve left. Europe declares conflict on the Center East in a bid to put declare to the area’s bountiful provide, whereas within the Western hemisphere, the US invades Mexico, annexes Canada, and has to defend its Alaskan territory from the armies of China.
This useful resource conflict naturally units off the spark that results in the nukes dropping, however I’m getting ever so barely forward of myself.
You see, earlier than we get to the fateful day of nuclear devastation, we’ve got to speak about Fallout’s iconic Vaults. The 12 months is now 2054, and worldwide tensions are sky-high. Studying the room, the US government–and a secretive group generally known as the Enclave–commissions Vault Tec and RobCo to start out work on slightly one thing generally known as Challenge Secure Home. This entails constructing 122 public vaults throughout America, with every Vault able to housing 1000 US residents from a possible nuclear cataclysm.
That is the official story anyway. The fact is way weirder, as every vault was the idea for a totally completely different social experiment. Many of those vaults opened within the years previous the Nice Conflict of 2077–most notably Vault 76, which opens on the three hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Throughout the nation, native residents are picked because the lucky–or unfortunate, relying on the vault in question–future inhabitants.
Naturally, Vault-Tec is sort of a distinguished enterprise at this level of time–to the purpose the place they’re the most important firm within the US. Within the Fallout TV present, we get a more in-depth take a look at the inside workings of the corporate by means of the eyes of Cooper Howard, performed by Walton Goggins. Cooper is a big-time Hollywood star who’s mainly the John Wayne or Clint Eastwood of the Fallout timeline. His spouse, Barb, nonetheless, is one in every of Vault-Tec’s main executives, who’s just about in command of the aforementioned Challenge Secure Home, which is all however up and working by the point of the Pre-Conflict sections of the tv present.
Fallout TV collection spoilers forward
If you have not but seen the present, think about this your spoiler warning.
Barb encourages her Hollywood husband to assist promote the Vaults to the American lots, with one photoshoot particularly inspiring the corporate’s future mascot–Vault Boy, a picture-perfect blonde lad with a gleaming smile and an enormous thumbs up. Thanks Coop!
As Cooper learns extra about Vault-Tec, he turns into disillusioned with the corporate’s message and ultimately meets with a radical group in search of to undermine the megacorp. And so Coop begins spying on his spouse, which results in him overhearing a handful of main revelations. In a gathering with a few of the US’s largest players–including RobCo.’s Robert Home amongst others–he learns the horrifying reality behind the Vaults and their weird social experiments. Not solely that, however he learns that Vault Tec even intends to drop the bomb themselves to ensure their enterprise mannequin.
Fallout 4 Prologue – 2077
All of this ultimately leads us towards the fateful date of October 23, 2077, the day when the bombs fell.
With the useful resource conflict reaching a fever pitch, the superpowers of the world began launching nukes at one another, and within the area of two brief hours, just about destroyed the world. Naturally, the overwhelming majority of the planet’s inhabitants straight-up died. However the aftermath of the fallout led to simply as a lot devastation, as a unending storm of black rain lashed the nuclear wastelands and poisoned the world with excessive ranges of radiation, which in flip killed scores of previous species, and created a couple of new ones to interchange them.
Earlier than you’ve even acquired time to complete your morning espresso, a Vault-Tec consultant turns up at your door and asks you, the player-character AKA the Sole Survivor, a couple of private questions on your future. Good factor too as a couple of brief minutes later, the primary nukes begin to fall on the US, and also you, your partner, and your toddler son, Shaun, are whisked off to Vault 111.
And simply within the knick of time as nicely, as a nuclear blast eviscerates the horizon as you descend into the underground vault. The Sole Survivor and his household don the long-lasting blue and yellow vault fits and settle in for an extended, peaceable sleep in a cryogenic chamber. We’ll compensate for their slumber in a great 200-odd years, however within the meantime, we’re heading west to LA for much more nuclear devastation.
Occurring concurrently to the blasts again in Boston is the overall nuclear obliteration of Los Angeles, as seen within the prologue of the Fallout TV present.
Right here we meet up with Cooper Howard, who’s fallen from the heights of his Hollywood profession to turn into a glorified youngsters’s entertainer. He is acting at a birthday celebration at a swanky LA villa overlooking the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles. Stated skyscrapers are usually not lengthy for this world although, because the horizon is inevitably lit up by the harrowing sight of mushroom clouds. With the sky falling down on town of Angels, Coop scoops his younger daughter up onto his horse in an ill-fated try to flee the nuclear devastation.
Fallout 76 – 2102
The primary vault to open–that we learn about at least–is Vault 76, which opened 25 years after the Nice Conflict on Reclamation Day, 2102.
Located within the Appalachians of West Virginia, Vault 76 is house to the very best and brightest minds that the USA has to supply. Tasked with repopulating the Wastelands of West Virginia, the intelligent little residents of Vault 76 head on out into, nicely, a little bit of a dull, lonely world. No less than that was the case when the multiplayer recreation initially launched. You see, non-player characters–or NPCs–didn’t begin populating the sport till the Wastelanders DLC launched.
The player-character is given a secret mission by the Vault Overseer: a mission to safe a metric ton of nuclear weaponry. Solely there is a little bit of an issue within the Appalachians. Within the 25 or so years because the nuclear devastation, a plague of beasts generally known as the Scorched has taken management of the lands.
Thoughts-controlled by some large Queen Bee-like Scorch beast, the Scorched presents fairly the impediment to re-populating the wastelands. And so the majority of Fallout 76’s narrative sees the player-character monitoring down a solution to destroy the Scorched, and the reply, as everyone knows, is to nuke them.
En path to this endgame, the player-character ultimately discovers that the Scorched may even have been created in a lab, however regardless of this revelation, the plan remains to be to nuke the crap out of them. After they kill the Scorchbeast Queen, the connection to the remainder of the Scorched breaks, and the residents of Vault 76 can lastly begin the work of re-settling the realm.
There be treasure in them hills, or so the rumors go within the first DLC growth for Fallout 76, referred to as Wastelanders.
With the specter of the Scorched extinguished, folks began to return to the realm in dribs and drabs. Two main factions start to emerge out of the rabble: the Settlers, and the Raiders. Rumors of an enormous treasure lead the player-character to find the existence of Vault 79, which mainly homes all the gold reserves of the US in a single tiny dwelling area.
The participant chooses their allegiance to both the Settlers or the Raiders and heads off to raid Vault 79. And relying in your decision-making you possibly can select to unfold the wealth in any variety of methods, most of which is able to simply break the fragile steadiness of energy within the space between the 2 factions.
As an ever-expanding multiplayer recreation, the story is continually evolving in Fallout 76. However there are a couple of key beats nonetheless to say. The primary is the introduction of a Fallout franchise staple: the Brotherhood of Metal. This extremely militaristic faction is a post-war creation, constructed up out of the remnants of the U.S. military with the core aim of securing and preserving technologically superior pre-war weaponry and package.
They’re typically seen sporting the nice massive hulking tank-like Energy Armor. They arrange their base of operations in West Virginia within the previous Atlas Observatory, which they re-christen Fort Atlas, as that has presumably acquired extra of a military vibe to it. Because the player-character, you possibly can ally your self with the Brotherhood in a bid to assist hold the wastelanders of the Appalachians protected or assist the Brotherhood of Metal double down on their mission to safe pre-war weaponry. And lastly, for Fallout 76 are the expeditions, which take the player-character away from West Virginia to go to the ruins of Pittsburgh–affectionately generally known as The Pitt–and Atlantic Metropolis.
Fallout – 2131
From the wastelands of West Virginia, we journey west to the remnants of California within the 12 months 2161 for the occasions of the very first Fallout recreation.
Right here we witness the story of the Vault Dweller, a citizen of the ill-fated Vault 13, which has acquired an issue, an enormous one. An all-important microchip that controls their water processing unit has given up the ghost, and it is the Vault Dweller’s job to enterprise out into the Wasteland to find a brand new one.
This mission takes him to the ruins of the close by Vault 15, after which onwards to Vault 12, which is situated beneath a metropolis generally known as Necropolis, which is populated by Ghouls–humans who’ve turn into hideously deformed by nuclear radiation. And it is right here beneath this metropolis of the strolling lifeless that the Vault Dweller finds a alternative chip to resolve Vault 13’s water drawback.
One of many first main settlements that the Vault Dweller visits is slightly place by the title of Shady Sands, which is able to turn into one of the crucial necessary townships in the entire collection. For now, it is a humble little place that is managed to determine itself as a thriving little group. We’ll meet up with this place a couple of extra instances, however let’s simply say its future isn’t wanting vibrant.
There is a lurking risk within the wastelands of California, a contingent of mutants which have proliferated all through the world generally known as Tremendous Mutants. The Vault Dweller traces these experiences again to a quasi-religious motion referred to as the Youngsters of the Cathedral, which is headed up by an excellent mutant referred to as the Grasp.
Lengthy story brief, the Vault Dweller is tasked by the Overseer of Vault 13 with eradicating the Tremendous Mutants, which leads him to come across a conspiracy throughout the Cathedral. It seems that the Grasp is capturing people and turning them into Tremendous Mutants utilizing one thing generally known as the Compelled Evolutionary Virus–or FEV–which is contained inside a collection of vats that glow with an unhealthy inexperienced glow, which simply screams hazard.
As Fallout is a basic RPG, you possibly can full this mission in a handful of various methods, with the last word finish aim of destroying the vats of inexperienced FEV goop and neutralizing the tremendous mutant risk. And for all of the Vault Dweller’s effort, you’d suppose they’d be cheered again into Vault 13 as a hero proper? Flawed.
The Overseer in the end denies the Vault Dweller entry again into the house as a result of he is nervous that your actions will encourage future generations to go away the Vault and undermine all of the exhausting work of conserving it going sturdy. And so Fallout involves an finish with the Vault Dweller exiled again into the wastelands.
Fallout Techniques – 2197
All of which brings us to the 12 months 2197, the 12 months through which Fallout Techniques takes place. However that is the place issues get a bit funky, as whereas Techniques isn’t canon, some components of the story are kind of canon.
The principle gist of Techniques is that it vastly expands the story behind the Brotherhood of Metal, particularly {one of the} faction’s chapters within the Midwest of America. The sport sees you be a part of the Brotherhood as an provoke and assist them transfer throughout the nation from Chicago right down to Colorado.
Bethesda has outright stated that the sport is not part of the bigger franchise’s canon, however they’ve included a couple of references to the Brotherhood’s operations within the Midwest since they took over the collection. All of that is additional confused by one other recreation, helpfully referred to as Fallout: Brotherhood of Metal, which launched on consoles in 2004 and can be thought-about completely non-canon.
Briefly, we will largely ignore each of those video games within the grand scheme of issues.
Fallout 2 – 2241
After our non-canonical detour, we’re again on the West Coast within the 12 months 2241 for the occasions of Fallout 2. Right here we be taught what grew to become of the Vault Dweller after he was exiled within the first recreation. He ultimately settles in a village referred to as Arroyo, the place he has a household, and 80-odd years down the road we meet up with one in every of his descendants, who goes by the grandiose title of the Chosen One.
Very like their ancestor, the Chosen One is tasked with saving their community–in this case Arroyo–which is affected by the consequences of a devastating drought. And so the Chosen One is distributed out into the world to seek out one thing that is named the Backyard of Eden Equipment–or GECK for short–a terraforming package that’s able to creating life out of nothing. The Chosen One ventures out in the hunt for the GECK and ultimately comes throughout the stays of Vault 13, which has turn into infested with Deathclaws, vicious dinosaur-like beasts.
Only a fast phrase on our previous buddies at Shady Sands, which the Chosen One can go to in Fallout 2. Not content material with being only a thriving group, Shady Sands has turn into the house and capital of one in every of Fallout’s largest factions: a company generally known as the New California Republic, or NCR for brief. In Fallout phrases, they’re mainly the closest factor to an precise functioning group. Keep in mind the NCR. they’ll turn into crucial additional down the road.
Upon returning house to report on their findings, the Chosen One discovers that Arroyo has been taken over by a company referred to as the Enclave, which is mainly made up of what is left of the US authorities. Sitting on a cache of subtle know-how and weaponry, the Enclave mainly tries to rule the US with an iron fist, so naturally, they must be taken down a peg or two.
And in order that turns into the Chosen One’s core mission: take down the Enclave and save the poor residents of Arroyo. They set about this by charting a course on an enormous freight ship to the Enclave’s base of operations: an offshore oil rig the place they uncover that each the residents of Arroyo and Vault 13 are being held captive. To make issues worse, the Enclave has advanced the nasty FEV from the unique recreation into an airborne virus, which is able to assist them keep their management over the native populations.
The Chosen One naturally throws a spanner into the works although, saves the Arroyo and Vault 13 hostages, and kills the pinnacle of the Enclave, who’s additionally the President of the US in addition. With this joyful ending, the mixed forces of Vault 13 and Arroyo create a affluent group along with the help of a newly discovered Geck. Simply don’t point out these devastating deathclaws…
Fallout 3 Prologue – 2258-2274
Subsequent up, we’re heading again east to Vault 101, the house of the Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3, whose life we see play out within the prologue of that recreation. Kicking off proper on the very starting of the Lone Wanderer’s life, as they’re introduced into the world and into the arms of their father–voiced by Liam Neeson and his fantastic Irish purr–and throughout the subsequent 16 years, we see the Wanderer develop up, toddling round their playpen, having their tenth birthday, and sitting their GOAT exams as an adolescent. Life appears fairly idyllic in Vault 101, as idyllic as you will get for all times underground in a grim, gray vault.
Fallout 3 – 2277
Naturally, that peace does not final. The crap hits the fan in Vault 101 because the Lone Wanderer turns 19 within the 12 months 2277, which kickstarts the primary plot of Fallout 3.
Issues go sideways for the Wanderer once they’re awoken to be instructed that their Father has left the Vault–something that has by no means occurred earlier than in Vault 101–although that’ll show to be a lie. With the Overseer and his males going slightly loopy within the circumstances, the Lone Wanderer is compelled to flee for his or her security and into the encompassing Capital Wasteland, the irradiated stays of the land surrounding Washington DC.
It is an actual “out of the frying pan, and into the hearth” second for our younger hero. And so the Lone Wanderer ventures out into the Capital Wasteland in the hunt for their Father, a quest that makes up the majority of Fallout 3’s story.
On their travels by means of the Wasteland, the Wanderer travels to a wide range of completely different settlements, chief amongst them the city of Megaton, named for an unexploded nuclear bomb buried within the foundations of town; the remnants of Washington DC, which homes the Galaxy Information radio station and it is DJ, Three Canine, and an enormous battleship that has been re-christened Rivet Metropolis. Whereas chatting with Colin Moriarty–one of the denizens of Megaton–the Lone Wanderer discovers an important deal extra about their mum or dad’s historical past, specifically that they weren’t really born in Vault 101.
That is really a double shock as we additionally uncover that 101 was designed by no means to be opened as a part of these sinister social experiments. As they proceed to discover the wastes, the Wanderer ultimately meets a scientist referred to as Dr. Madison Li who labored alongside their father. Whereas chatting to Dr. Li, we be taught that James–the Wanderer’s father–was as soon as concerned in one thing generally known as Challenge Purity, however needed to take refuge in Vault 101 within the wake of his companion’s demise throughout childbirth.
On high of all these meaty revelations, the Lone Wanderer will get embroiled within the energy wrestle between the 2 heavyweight factions within the wasteland: the corrupt bureaucratic bastards on the Enclave led by President Henry Eden–who is definitely an AI–and a splinter group of the Brotherhood of Metal led by the charismatic Elder Owyn Lyons.
On the heart of those two warring factions is the aforementioned Challenge Purity, an enormous water processing plant that helps feed a clear water provide to the broader DC space. Whilst you can ally your self with both faction–along with an entire host of different oddballs and eccentrics throughout the Capital Wasteland–you’re largely pushed in direction of becoming a member of the Brotherhood after you be taught that the Lone Wanderer’s father labored with them previously.
All of this ultimately leads the Lone Wanderer into taking on their father’s mission, by in search of out a GECK in an effort to reignite Challenge Purity. Amidst serving to out with the Challenge, the Wanderer really tracks down their father to Vault 112, the place they need to free him from some weird digital actuality nightmare.
With James and the Wanderer reunited, they staff up with the great Dr. Li to renew work on the gestating mission. The Enclave has completely different concepts although and an ambush led by Henry Eden’s right-hand man, Colonel Autumn Augustus, ends in James’s demise when he sacrifices himself to maintain the mission out of the bureaucrats’ fingers.
The Wanderer ultimately hunts down a GECK in Vault 87 with the help of the Brotherhood of Metal and a high tremendous mutant lad referred to as Fawke–if you select to befriend him–but it is all for nothing as they’re captured by the Enclave once they go away the Vault. And this all leads us in direction of the bombastic conclusion of Fallout 3.
After they break away from the shackles of the Enclave–who are about to execute their dastardly plan to pollute the water provide with a modified anti-mutation variant of the FEV no less–the Wanderer is thrown right into a full-scale assault towards the Enclave. Becoming a member of them on this daring assault is the Brotherhood’s poster boy, an enormous iron large by the title of Liberty Prime. Keep in mind, nothing hits more durable than democracy… and an enormous killer robotic.
This all results in a closing confrontation with Colonel Augustus, who you possibly can both kill or persuade to go away. With the Colonel out the best way, the route is clearer to save lots of Challenge Purity, or not, the destiny of the Wasteland is in your fingers and you are able to do no matter you please. Because the management heart for the Challenge is in the course of a extremely irradiated space, turning it on will kill whoever does so, which results in but extra life-or-death decision-making.
Besides, that’s, within the Damaged Metal DLC which added the choice to ship Sarah Lyons or your radiation-immune buddy Fawkes to modify the machine on and save the Capital Wasteland. And when you go for this ending, the Lone Wanderer wakes up two weeks later to witness how the consequences–good or bad–play out throughout the wastelands.
Alongside Damaged Metal, there have been a complete of 5 expansions for Fallout 3, which expanded the story in a number of completely different instructions. The primary took the Lone Wanderer to Anchorage, Alaska–albeit through digital reality–for a navy simulation of the pivotal second in Fallout’s historical past the place the US took again management of their northernmost territory from China. Subsequent up we had The Pitt, which noticed the Wanderer journey to the stays of Pittsburgh, which had turn into overrun by raiders and slavers alike.
Then there’s the meaty Damaged Metal growth, which altered the ending, raised the sport’s degree cap to 30, and noticed the Wanderer root out the remaining members of the Enclave after Liberty Prime is destroyed.
The fourth growth, Level Lookout, takes the Wanderer to the State Park of the identical title in Maryland, the place they need to settle a feud between an irradiated ghoul and an enormous speaking mind. And if that does not sound bizarre sufficient, Fallout 3 is rounded out with a visit to Mothership Zeta, a UFO that really began out life as an easter egg in each the unique Fallout and Fallout 3.
And with that, we’re executed within the Capital Wasteland.
Fallout: New Vegas – 2281
Fallout: New Vegas is subsequent up on the timeline, taking us again west to the Mojave Desert and the glowing metropolis of New Vegas, the post-apocalyptic overhaul of town of sin.
The 12 months is 2281, and in contrast to the irradiated wastelands we have already visited, New Vegas is a thriving metropolis full with working water and electrical energy courtesy of the close by Hoover Dam. And all of that is due to our good previous mate, Mr. Robert Home–the similar pre-war Robert Home who based RobCo over 200 years in the past. He is nonetheless knocking about on account of his protection system capturing down many of the nukes heading for Vegas, and the considered use of a stasis chamber situated inside his base of operations within the Fortunate 38 On line casino.
And it is from right here that he’s poured his intensive sources into conserving New Vegas alive and kicking. However his dominion over town is underneath risk from an entire host of various factions all vying for management of New Vegas.
For starters, there are our previous buddies, the New California Republic, who’ve expanded from their base in Shady Sands to construct an empire throughout the West. The NCR is trying to increase into the Mojave and annex the at the moment unbiased New Vegas.
Nonetheless, their sources are divided, with a lot of their consideration put towards combating Caesar’s Legion, the antithesis of the NCR and an extremist faction that has styled itself on the Historical Roman Empire. Their finish aim is mainly to wipe out the NCR and enact a navy dictatorship over town of New Vegas.
And with each of those main factions vying for energy, their main goal turns into the Hoover Dam, which mainly controls New Vegas. Whereas the sport takes place in 2281, Caesar’s Legion made an unsuccessful try at taking management of the Hoover Dam in 2271, a battle that went down within the historical past books because the First Battle of the Hoover Dam.
Into this chaotic combine falls the Courier, the primary protagonist of Fallout: New Vegas, who begins off the sport with a bullet to the mind. The bullet in query is fired by the dapper gangster Benny, voiced by the late Matthew Perry in a gap sequence that sees the Courier robbed of his quarry–The Platinum Chip–and dumped in a shallow grave.
Naturally, the story does not finish there, or else New Vegas can be a really brief recreation. Rescued by a robotic referred to as Securiton Victor after which nursed again to well being by a lovable previous lad by the title of Doc Mitchell, the Courier is all patched up and unleashed on the Mojave Desert. And from right here, the primary quest of Fallout: New Vegas kicks in, and at its core, it is comparatively easy: Find and kill Benny, and retrieve the Platinum Chip.
Whereas the Courier’s quest for revenge towards Benny could be easy on the floor, it unravels into one thing much more sophisticated. For starters, Benny is wanting to make use of the Platinum Chip to take New Vegas for himself proper from underneath the watchful eye of his boss, Mr. Home. You see, the Platinum Chip–a pre-war invention–contains an all-important improve program that was initially designed to assist shield Vegas, however within the flawed fingers, may fully change the steadiness of energy within the metropolis.
And that is the place the storytelling of Fallout: New Vegas falls into the fingers of the participant. As there are 4 completely different endings out there relying on what factions you pledge your allegiance to. All of it boils right down to an important massive bloody battle for the Hoover Dam, with the Courier on the attacking facet as a part of Caesar’s Legion; on the protection with the NCR; as a part of a sneaky beaky infiltration with Mr. Home; or lastly by taking Benny’s mission and claiming New Vegas as an unbiased territory.
Relying in your actions, you get a neat little slideshow of your impacts throughout New Vegas and the Mojave Desert.
However the story of New Vegas doesn’t finish there, as very like Fallout 3 earlier than it, there have been a wholesome quantity of post-release story expansions.
The story of New Vegas continues throughout 4 meaty story DLCs, which noticed the Courier roped into a wide range of completely different misadventures. The primary, Lifeless Cash, whisked the Courier off on a heist throughout the Sierra Madre On line casino on behalf of a rogue member of the Brotherhood of Metal. The second, Sincere Hearts, noticed the Courier journey to Utah’s Zion Nationwide Park, and get caught up in a tribal conflict between two completely different factions. The chief of one in every of these factions is one Joshua Graham AKA the Burned Man, who is about on fireplace and thrown into the Grand Canyon by Caesar as a result of his failure to take the Hoover Dam through the First Battle. He is now a religious post-apocalyptic Mormon.
The third growth is titled Outdated World Blues and sees the Courier kidnapped and despatched to the Massive MT analysis facility to participate in a collection of heinous scientific experiments by the suspended brains of a bunch of pre-war scientists.
The fourth growth, Lonesome Street, concludes the story of the Courier by taking them to the extraordinarily hostile areas surrounding the Continental Divide. Right here they turn into embroiled within the story of Ulysses–a former Courier himself–whose resolution to not ferry the Platinum Chip to Mr. Home led to the occasions that got here to be in the primary marketing campaign of New Vegas. Lengthy story brief, Ulysses has a little bit of a bee in his bonnet concerning the Courier and lures our hero to the Divide to enact revenge on them.
This doesn’t finish nicely for Ulysses, who regardless of being {one of the} strongest characters within the entirety of the Fallout franchise, lastly will get his comeuppance, which brings the story of New Vegas and the Courier to an finish.
Fallout 4 – 2287
Proper, it is lastly time to compensate for our previous pal, the Sole Survivor, who we final noticed over 2 centuries in the past once they have been cryogenically frozen inside Vault 111.
It’s not a cheerful reunion for our nuclear household as in some unspecified time in the future earlier than the Sole Survivor is awoken from their cryogenic slumber, they witness the homicide of their partner and the kidnapping of their toddler son Shaun in addition. And so the primary quest of Fallout 4 kicks off–which in an analogous vein to Fallout 3–is all concerning the rescue of a member of the family.
Couple this with the Fallout TV present, and we’re beginning to see one thing of a trope develop… Anyway, the Sole Survivor ventures off into the Commonwealth, the irradiated wastes of town of Boston and its environment, and experiences one thing of a Fallout biggest hits mixtape all throughout the first hour of the sport.
Befriend a brand new canine companion?
Test.
Meet a brand new faction?
Test.
Don some Energy Armor and battle a Deathclaw?
Double test.
After this breathless intro, the Sole Survivor makes their solution to Diamond Metropolis, a township situated throughout the stays of Fenway Park, the previous baseball stadium of the Boston Purple Sox. And it is right here that they begin to hear whisperings of Fallout 4’s massive bad–no, not the lad who kidnapped Shaun–a secretive group that goes by the title of the Institute.
The rumors that encompass the Institute discuss a terrorist group of types who go across the Commonwealth kidnapping peculiar folks and changing them with Synths (mainly, human-like artificial robots). The Sole Survivor will get caught up within the machinations of the Institute once they lastly find their son’s kidnapper, a lad named Conrad Kellogg.
Kellogg is a way to an finish although, as he reveals that Shaun is now within the possession of the Institute, which signifies that the Sole Survivor must enterprise into the stomach of the beast.
Solely that’s simpler stated than executed because the Sole Survivor quickly finds out. They uncover that the one method into the Institute is through teleportation, and in an effort to construct a working teleporter, they need to ally themselves with {one of the} recreation’s three anti-Institute factions.
For starters, there’s the Minutemen–the faction that they meet within the intro–and who’re styled after American Revolutionary Conflict troopers. Then there’s the long-lasting Brotherhood of Metal, who’ve an enormous airship hovering across the skies of the Commonwealth. Lastly, there’s the Railroad, a bunch who’re primarily based on the Underground Railroad, who search to save lots of and rehabilitate Synths from the Institute.
Naturally, you possibly can ally your self with any one in every of them en path to getting into the Institute, which all leads you to the surprising revelation of who the sport’s massive unhealthy is: Shaun.
Yep, your personal child is all grown up–60 to be precise–and is the large unhealthy on the heart of the Institute’s evil shenanigans, which confirms that the Sole Survivor overslept by a whopping 60 years of their cryogenic pod. Shaun–who now confusingly goes by the title Father–reveals that he was initially kidnapped in order that his treasured pre-war DNA might be used to experiment on with the Synths.
And so we attain that second in a Fallout recreation the place the story decisions fall again on to the participant, and this one’s a bit on the market. Shaun invitations the Sole Survivor to turn into his successor after his demise, and when you settle for this engaging supply, your son reveals to you that he is not lengthy for this world as he has most cancers. However when you refuse Shaun’s supply, issues get slightly bit extra explosive.
The Sole Survivor hightails it again to their faction of alternative to plot a plan to destroy the Institute, which ultimately results in them blowing up their son’s evil group by detonating a nuclear reactor, which brings the primary marketing campaign of Fallout 4 to an in depth.
However wait, there is–of course–a entire host of story DLC nonetheless to get by means of within the Commonwealth.
Sure, the story of the Sole Survivor continued in 4 extra story expansions, with the primary one being Automatron. The Sole Survivor will get caught up in a conflict with the Mechanist–a supervillain who kind of seems to be like a child’s drawing of a robotic. Subsequent up we have got Fah Hahbah, which sees the Sole Survivor journey north to a spooky island group with a good few secrets and techniques. They’re despatched there on a mission to discover a lacking particular person by the title of Kasumi, an investigation that naturally unravels into one thing much more sinister.
Then there’s the Vault-Tec Workshop, which noticed the Sole Survivor uncover Vault 88, an unfinished bunker. Whereas the growth predominantly provided gamers the possibility to construct their very own vault, it did supply a story throughline of types, with the Sole Survivor successfully turning into the Overseer of Vault 88.
And lastly, there’s Nuka World. Right here the Sole Survivor secures a fortunate ticket to the most well liked amusement park on the Jap Seaboard, solely it is fully overrun by Raiders and nightmarish creatures. The Sole Survivor explores the ruins of Nuka World, and ultimately defeats the pinnacle Raider, giving them the possibility to run their very own theme park.
Warning: Extra Fallout TV spoilers!
In case you have not watched it but, there are some main spoilers forward for the Fallout TV present.
Fallout (TV) – 2296
All of this lastly brings us to the primary occasions of the Fallout TV present, which takes us again to the wastes of California within the 12 months 2296.
The Fallout TV present takes place on the additional reaches of the timeline and expands on the lore and historical past of the California area. On the coronary heart of the present is Vault 33, which homes a seemingly idyllic society who’re ready for his or her likelihood to go to the floor and re-civilize the planet. Little do they know that they’ve missed that boat by an extended shot.
Vault 33 is a part of a trio of neighboring Vaults–the others being Vaults 31 and 32–which work in tandem to maintain their populations going.
Into this combine, we meet our plucky younger hero, Lucy Maclane, her brother Norm, and her father, Hank, who additionally occurs to be the Overseer of Vault 33. Their lives are fairly peachy till a bunch of murderous raiders ambush them from inside Vault 32 and kidnap Lucy’s father, Hank, which naturally kickstarts the sport’s essential marketing campaign and the present’s core plotline, as Lucy pursues her father’s kidnappers above floor.
Up on the floor, we meet up with what’s left of Cooper Howard, as he is nonetheless going. This can be a little bit of a shock, as he is nicely over 200 years previous by this level. He is seen higher days although, as he has been poisoned by radiation to the purpose of turning into what’s identified within the Fallout universe as a Ghoul.
Life is imitating artwork within the case of Coop who now ventures across the wastelands making his dwelling as a gunslinging bounty hunter. He will get thrust into the plot of the present as a result of a bounty that he’s after, specifically an Enclave defector, who has a crucial piece of know-how on his particular person.
The Brotherhood of Metal can be after the Enclave scientist, and one in every of their younger new recruits–a lad by the title of Maximus–finds himself on a mission to assist safe the bounty as nicely.
And so the TV present falls right into a plot that’s largely about folks searching MacGuffins, and naturally, there’s way over that happening within the present’s lethal wastelands. Because the present progresses, the worlds of the Ghoul, Lucy, and Maximus come crashing collectively, with all three chasing after the Enclave scientist, who by this level is only a severed head with the tech embedded within the neck. Yeah, the present leans exhausting into Fallout’s grim violence. As Lucy and Maximus staff up, they uncover the destiny of Shady Sands, which was destroyed through a nuclear blast again in 2277. Maximus realized this firsthand, nonetheless, as Shady Sands was his hometown till it grew to become an enormous crater within the mud.
Whereas searching for medical provides, the pair stumble onto Vault 4, which they be taught homes a staff of scientists which have, nicely, they’ve executed some fairly horrific experiments to say the least. The Vault is now house to most of the floor refugees from the Shady Sands blast zone, good trustworthy folks simply making an attempt to dwell their lives peacefully.
In the meantime, Lucy’s brother Norm is discovering the equally screwed-up historical past of Vaults 31 to 33 within the wake of the raider assault. As he investigates the ruins of Vault 32, he ultimately uncovers the true conspiracy behind the trio of neighboring Vaults. It seems that Vault 31 is definitely house to the cryogenically frozen administration staff of Vault-Tec, and the mission behind the trio of vaults is to play out Vault-Tec’s idealized model of a civilized future post-Nice Conflict.
And this all results in the foremost revelation on the coronary heart of the Fallout present: Hank Maclean is a Pre-Conflict Vault-Tec worker, who entered Vault 33 after waking from his cryogenic slumber. It seems that his spouse found a clue to the reality behind the three neighboring vaults, and this led her to go away Vault 33 with Lucy and Norm. They ultimately wound up at Shady Sands, and when Hank pursued them there, he was the one answerable for destroying town when his spouse refused to come back house with him.
Lucy learns all of this when she lastly finds her father on the New California Republic base at Griffith Observatory. After an enormous climactic battle between the NCR and the Brotherhood of Metal, the NCR can get their fingers on the Enclave Defector’s piece of tech, which seems to be a chilly fusion gadget, a supply of limitless energy.
It is ineffective with out a Vault-Tec passkey although, till Hank is coerced into giving his over, which leads to LA lastly getting its energy provide again on. The present ends with Hank escaping into the wastelands donned in energy go well with armor, Lucy and the Ghoul teaming as much as get revenge on Vault-Tec, and Maximus seemingly getting a hefty promotion.
In its closing shot, we see Hank coming throughout town of New Vegas, which has seemingly now fallen into ruins. I suppose we’ll simply have to attend for the second season to seek out out what precisely has occurred canonically to Mr. Home’s vibrant metropolis…