Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
The Fallout franchise has been around since the 90s and has seen multiple evolutions and a television adaptation. While most Fallout media focuses on its own unique characters and locations, it all takes place in one large universe. If you’re trying to figure out where everything takes place, here’s a full timeline of the games and the show that make up the Fallout universe.
Here’s where every piece of major Fallout media falls on the official timeline. Most stories take place in a different order than when they were originally released. The following information was shared by Bethesda Design Director Emil Pagliarulo.
The event that kicked off the story of Fallout. The dropping of nuclear bombs happened in 2077 and resulted in the deaths of billions of people, and sent many survivors into underground vaults. It’s an event covered heavily in the Fallout television show.
The most recent mainline game in the series, Fallout 76, is the first piece of media after the world became a wasteland. The multiplayer game sees members of Vault 76 attempt to re-colonize the Appalachian region of the United States.
The first Fallout game is up next in the timeline. Before Bethesda acquired the rights to the franchise, Interplay delivered a post-apocalyptic story about a Vault-Dweller who journeys into the Wasteland in order to retrieve resources for the members of their vault, Vault 13, which is located in Southern California.
The first Fallout spin-off, Fallout Tactics, centers its story on members of the Brotherhood of Steel, a military faction in the Fallout universe. This game is set in the Midwestern region of the United States.
Fallout 2 is a direct sequel to the first game, despite taking eight decades after its events. The game is once again set in California, and the protagonist is the grandchild of the protagonist from the previous game.
Fallout 3 is set exactly two hundred years after the bombs dropped. Often regarded as one of the best entries in the series, Fallout 3 marked a major shift for Fallout, as it was the first game in the franchise developed by Bethesda Game Studios, and made the switch from an isometric, turn-based format to first-person action gameplay. The game is set in Washington D.C., with parts of Virginia and Maryland also explorable.
Another beloved entry in the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and, as the name implies, takes place in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas (as well as other regions in Nevada and Arizona). While it retained the first-person action style introduced in Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas brought back several elements from the original Fallout games, including the reputation system from Fallout 2.
Fallout 4 took the series back to the east coast with its Boston and New England setting. Referred to as The Commonwealth, this region is home to Vault 111, where the protagonist awakes from cryo sleep as the vault’s sole survivor.
The Fallout show on Prime Video is set 219 years after the bombs dropped, making it the most chronologically up-to-date piece of Fallout media. It goes back to the series’ roots with its Southern California setting. The show explores the lives of Vault-dwellers, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the circumstances that led to nuclear warfare.
That’s a full rundown of where all the Fallout games and the TV show fall on the universe timeline. If you’re looking to get into Fallout, its anthology approach to storytelling makes most mainline games a decent entry point.