Fallout: How the Prime Video Series Relates to the Games
As you’d expect, Prime Video’s new Fallout TV series borrows more than a few ideas from the video game franchise it’s based on. Not only does the show use the same overall tone and look seen in the games, but it also incorporates plot elements and locations that have appeared in specific gaming titles. To that end, here are all the major connections between the video games and the TV adaptation in the first season of Fallout. Warning: Spoilers for the entire Fallout TV series are peppered throughout this article. One of the showrunners of Fallout, Jonathan Nolan, is a passionate player of the series and his love for the video game saga convinced Todd Howard, one of the central figures of Bethesda, to start this show, when many before him had failed, because their vision was too different from that of the original video games.
Fallout: How the Prime Video Series Relates to the Games
The world of Fallout brings with it 27 years of stories, the first game came out in 1997, followed by the second chapter the following year, when the saga still belonged to Interplay and Black Isle and was a strategic turn-based RPG. In 2008, Fallout 3 was released, the first made by Bethesda, which introduced a system halfway between a first-person shooter and a role-playing game, thus revolutionizing the series. This style also returns in the fourth chapter of 2015. There are also many spin-offs, the most famous of which are Fallout: New Vegas and the online multiplayer Fallout 76, but all the chapters, although with different settings, eras, and protagonists, share various elements of the narrative background that have now become iconic in the gaming world, such as, for example, the Vault Boy, the mascot of the saga.
Fallout
Of course, much of the Fallout TV show’s DNA comes directly from the original Fallout as this entry established what the entire franchise would become. More directly, however, Fallout is also set in Southern California and is the first case in which locations like Shady Sands have appeared. The Brotherhood of Steel also makes its first appearance in Fallout, which is why the faction is probably the most important in the entire Fallout series.
Towards the end of the Fallout TV show, there is a direct reference to the original Fallout. Specifically, the water chip in Vault 33 ends up being destroyed, meaning that the inhabitants of the place are now on the verge of running out of clean water. This same plot element is what sets the stage for the original Fallout and is the reason why the game’s protagonist leaves his Vault.
Fallout 2
Set 80 years after the first, Fallout 2 is once again set on the West Coast of the United States and surrounding areas. The game chronicles the rise of the New California Republic, which begins to gain a foothold in various cities and locations across the state. Additionally, this is the first game in the series to introduce the Enclave. Both of these factions are featured in the show’s series, with the NCR and its eventual defeat ending the group’s existence that first began in Fallout 2.
Vault-Tec also plays a slightly bigger role in Fallout 2 as the roots of the mysterious organization are brought a little more to light. Subsequent Fallout games further explored the goals of Vault-Tec, with the TV series openly divulging the goals of the organization that existed long before the nuclear bombs fell.
Fallout 3
Unlike the first three, it is set on the opposite side of the country and is set in the “Capital Wasteland,” aka the destroyed remains of Washington D.C. As a result, Prime Video’s Fallout doesn’t mock or showcase any location found in Fallout 3. What it does, though, is emphasize the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave and the ongoing war between the two factions. Although they are not shown often in the first season, it is assumed that the Enclave will continue to become more important in future seasons. When this happens, another battle will likely erupt between the Brotherhood and the Enclave.
The most direct link between Fallout 3 and the television series is associated with the main character’s goals. Both the protagonist and Lucy of the series leave their respective Vaults for the first time in search of their fathers. Lucy’s father ends up having a nefarious past, while her father in Fallout 3 (voiced by none other than Liam Neeson) has a much nobler end to his story arc.
Fallout: New Vegas
New Vegas is fully featured in the Fallout TV series, although it doesn’t appear until the final shot of the first season. The implication is that season two will be heavily focused on what happened in New Vegas after the events of the title. game. As a result, it is expected that the series’ main characters, including Lucy, The Ghoul, and Maximus, will at some point travel to New Vegas in search of Lucy’s father, Hank.
Apart from this, Fallout: New Vegas is another chapter that features the Republic of New California. The faction has a major presence in the areas around New Vegas as they vie for control in the Mojave Wasteland. It is unknown whether there will still be remnants of the NCR in New Vegas with Season 2 or whether their fall to the Brotherhood of Steel to conclude Season 1 will permanently dissolve the organization.
Fallout 4
Fallout 4 might be the game the TV show borrows the least money from. Much like Fallout 3, the fourth main installment in the series was set on the East Coast (Boston, to be specific), so there are no direct geographic ties in that way. There’s a very important feature of Fallout 4 that returns towards the end of the first season, and that’s cryogenic pods.
Introduced in Fallout 4, cryogenic pods are what allow the game’s main protagonist to stay alive for hundreds of years, only to awaken in the wasteland that has become Boston. These pods are later seen again in the Fallout show, primarily as a means for Vault-Tec employees to stay alive within Vault 31. It is implied that other Fallout characters may have also used cryogenic pods to stay alive (Moldaver, Cooper Howard, etc.) and awaken centuries later. It looks like the implementation of cryogenic pods will continue to be a big plot element moving forward into the rumored second season.
