As Fallout Season 2 attracts to a shut, all indicators level in the direction of Colorado because the setting for the following journey. A postcard left in an deserted cryopod all however confirms that The Ghoul’s spouse and daughter are ready for him there, and a shot of the Enclave’s secret headquarters means that the present’s newly-revealed massive unhealthy is working out of the Rocky Mountains.
For followers, that is an fascinating new route. After the primary season explored California, the setting for the unique two Fallout video games, and the second expanded into the Mojave wasteland of Fallout: New Vegas, it appeared logical that the story would proceed to go to acquainted areas. Washington, D.C. or Boston, the settings of Fallout 3 and 4, respectively, appeared wise bets. However definitely not Colorado, which regardless of geographically making sense for the following steps past the New Vegas strip, is barely a footnote within the RPG’s intensive lore.
Dive deeper into the Fallout archives, although, and Colorado turns into considerably extra essential. The state was deliberate to be the setting for what would have been Interaction and Black Isle Studios’ third Fallout sport, codenamed “Van Buren”, which was cancelled again in 2003. Since then, dozens of design paperwork have fallen into public arms, revealing the meant storyline for what might have been the unique Fallout 3. And because the present alerts its intent to journey to the Centennial State, it’s unimaginable to not surprise if Season 3 will probably be at the very least a little impressed by the Fallout that by no means was.
The Second Apocalypse
Akin to Hank MacLean’s makes an attempt to carry “civilization” to the wasteland, Van Buren would have advised the story of a man who regarded out at what’s left of humanity and yearned for a higher world. That man, Physician Presper, noticed hope within the fires of nuclear armageddon (sure, one other one) and deliberate to take command of an orbital missile system in an effort to cleanse the planet’s floor. He and his followers would sit secure in Colorado’s Boulder Dome, a colossal, bomb-proof analysis facility, and later emerge into a brighter tomorrow. Sounds a little like Vault-Tec’s plans for the unique apocalypse, proper? Which, as we’ve discovered this season, was truly orchestrated by the Enclave.
It appears unlikely that Van Buren’s precise plot might turn into the story of Fallout Season 3, although. Introducing Presper’s cohort of mad scientists and their mission to protect their imaginative and prescient of the human “grasp race” appears redundant when the Enclave, a faction of mad fascist scientists, are already a key a part of the present’s story. However the overlap between these two teams, at the side of the Colorado setting, factors to precisely the place the 2 tasks might merge: What if Presper, or a Presper-like determine, is accountable for the Enclave’s actions within the American Southwest? And now, 200 years after the primary bombings, the faction intends to do it once more in an effort to attain the precise outcomes it hoped for the primary time round?
There’s one other fascinating overlap: In Van Buren, the orbital missile system is locked behind a collection of safeguards. The satellite tv for pc regularly assesses the planet’s inhabitants and tracks the unfold of “New Plague”, a extremely contagious illness that had beforehand required a full quarantine of the US to manage. Ought to the variety of New Plague-infected individuals improve previous a sure threshold, the satellite tv for pc will launch its missile launch codes, permitting its controller to finish the epidemic in nuclear hearth. Presper’s plan was to unfold the plague throughout the wasteland, which in flip would grant him management of the missiles.
The New Plague is an fascinating piece of Fallout lore as a result of, through the 2050s, the race to develop the treatment led to the event of the Compelled Evolutionary Virus. The FEV is already one of many present’s thriller plot factors, by some means linked to the Vault 31, 32, and 33 experiment. And, as we are able to infer from Steph’s triggering of “Part 2” within the Season 2 finale, the experiment is probably going managed by the Enclave. The query, then, is why does the Enclave need a bunch of FEV-infected vault dwellers? Nicely, maybe in an adaptation of Van Buren’s story, they’re the important thing to wiping the floor clear and permitting the Enclave full management of the wasteland.
New Van Buren
The introduction of Colorado, a virus, and a clan of genocidal scientists obsessive about human purity on no account ensures that Fallout Season 3 will adapt the concepts created for Van Buren. However I current this principle not primarily based on wild hypothesis, however Fallout’s personal historical past. Whereas the Fallout 3 that was finally launched to the world in 2008 shared nothing in frequent with Black Isle Studio’s blueprint, Fallout: New Vegas did. Van Buren was set to function a number of competing factions, tough decisions that form the wasteland, and deep character-building programs – the very construction that New Vegas was constructed atop. Nevertheless it goes deeper: Caesar’s Legion, the violent military of Roman cosplayers, was initially created for Van Buren, as was a battle for management of the Hoover Dam, the climax of New Vegas’ marketing campaign.
The resurrection of these cancelled concepts was in no small half due to the truth that a number of of Van Buren’s designers grew to become the architects of Fallout: New Vegas at Obsidian Leisure. The present, nevertheless, has no such connection to the collection’ misplaced previous. And but, regardless of being executive-produced by Bethesda’s Todd Howard, the present is eager to repeatedly discover past the boundaries of his studio’s tenure as Fallout’s proprietor. Shady Sands, the NCR city so key to Maximus’ and Lucy’s tales, was solely ever within the authentic Interaction video games. Vault 33’s failing water chip storyline is a direct nod to the plot of the primary Fallout. And the depiction of the Brotherhood of Metal veers nearer to that proven within the early video games than it does Bethesda’s interpretation. All that thought of, it wouldn’t be that stunning if showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet resolve to dive into the Van Buren recordsdata and adapt its concepts, turning Fallout Season 3 into a homage to the Fallout sport we by no means received.
Dead Techniques
When speaking about Colorado, although, we are able to’t ignore Fallout Techniques. Whereas not precisely “lifeless” in the best way Van Buren is, Fallout Techniques is one thing of a lifeless finish; a spin-off created in 2001 that failed to begin a sub-franchise for the collection. It tells the story of a Brotherhood of Metal squadron on a mission to search out Vault 0, a pre-war command bunker buried deep under the Rocky Mountains in El Paso County, Colorado. Their journey in the direction of the vault sees them battle a military of robots, that are revealed to be managed by The Calculator; a fusion of human mind and digital pc that resides on the coronary heart of Vault 0.
Contemplating Season 2’s post-credits scene sees the Brotherhood’s Elder Quintus proclaim himself “The Destroyer” whereas unfolding the blueprints for a big nuclear robotic, it’s simple to see how Season 3 might draw inspiration from Fallout Techniques. Quintus might dispatch his knights to Colorado in the hunt for a vault that accommodates the components required to construct Liberty Prime. The Calculator can be lengthy gone – Fallout Techniques takes place in 2197, a century earlier than the present – however the worthwhile relics that Quintus requires might properly lie in watch for him.
Whereas Fallout Techniques’ place within the lore is a little murky, we do know that Vault 0 was designed because the “nucleus” of Vault-Tec’s bunker system. Nicely, that was its ultimate kind: through the improvement of the unique Fallout RPGs, collection creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky had the concept it might have been managed by the Enclave, gathering information from each different vault to assist their grand plan. And who, in line with the present, is the shadowy puppet grasp behind Vault-Tec? The Enclave. Season 3 has the chance to weld these concepts collectively. And if the Fallout video games are something to go by, the Brotherhood of Metal and Enclave are destined to butt heads finally. Will Vault 0 be the place Quintus proves his destroyer credentials by eradicating the Enclave?
That is, after all, all simply theorycrafting. An exploration of the lesser-known corners of the Fallout universe on the off probability that their tales turn into related, somewhat than a real prediction of the present’s future. However writers – particularly these dealing with pre-existing universes – do not dive in blind. They’ll learn about Fallout Techniques. They’ll learn about Van Buren. And so, even when Fallout Season 3’s journey to Colorado is totally composed of authentic materials, I’m prepared to wager that there will probably be references to Fallout’s lifeless previous littered among the many Rockies.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Govt Editor of Options.