Amid the success of Amazon’s Fallout series, the number of players in the games of this post-apocalyptic series has increased. The excitement has led to a doubling of the number of players in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 on some platforms, and a 200% increase in the number of players in Fallout 3. On Steam, the maximum number of players in Fallout 76 and Fallout 4 doubled in the last week. As of April 10, the numbers were as follows:
The series proved to be extremely attentive to the details of the game universe, but still deviates from the franchise canon or makes significant changes to the lore in many moments. The series has several easter eggs and references to the Fallout games, and it also conveys the feeling of them quite well. Nevertheless, the differences from the games are not minor, but very significant.
The personal computers of the vault’s inhabitants, the Pip-Boy, at least in Fallout 3, was biometrically attached to the body and could only be removed with the hand. In Fallout 4, however, the Pip-Boy could be easily removed. It seems that the series imitated this version. In addition, it received new functions in the series: the ability to connect wirelessly to devices and a target tracker, which helped Lucy a lot. The flashlight has also undergone changes; in the games, it was just a screen light, without a separate light.
Fallout’s vaults are one of the most unique aspects of the game. Their brutal experiments and iconic images, like the blue and yellow jumpsuits, made them perhaps the most interesting part of the games. The Fallout series kept most of the details about vaults in the games, but it also showed an unheard-of type of vault. Vaults 31, 32, and 33 were connected, which has never happened in a game before. It worked as part of a larger experiment, but it’s still a change. In the games, vaults were completely independent of each other — the idea of connected vaults was never even mentioned.
The actor Cooper Howard popularized the thumbs-up gesture, after which it obviously moved on to images and figurines. Vault Boy is the mascot of Vault-Tec and another symbol of the Fallout games. Despite its popularity among fans of the franchise, Vault Boy did not have a colorful origin. This was a bad memory for Gul, who destroyed a billboard with Vault Boy.
The vials that Gul drank were a huge new addition to the Gul lore. In both the series and the games, the Ghouls were humans who survived deadly levels of radiation after the war. However, survival came at a price, as humans turned into unpleasant creatures, although they gained an unusually long life. In the series, the Guli were almost immortal and could heal almost any wound. They had to drink vials of some kind of liquid to keep from going wild, but this was a deviation from the lore that had previously existed. It seems that because of the need for these vials and because they were so expensive, it was almost inevitable that the gul would go wild. To put it mildly, this calls into question the fact of their survival 200 years after the war.
In the games, the Gul’s eventually went wild due to high levels of radiation, which caused their brains to rot. However, the Ghoulies in the Fallout games didn’t need to drink anything to stay sane. Also, there were a lot of them and they were not as hardy — they could be killed as easily as anyone else.
Power armor, like Pip-Boys, has undergone significant changes even in the games themselves. In the first parts of Fallout, power armor was used just like any other type of clothing, although it increased the strength of the character. However, in Bethesda games, it finally became clear that it was more of a power suit. The power armor in the series follows the latest games.
The armor has also received other changes. In particular, it has the ability to fly thanks to motors on the wrists and a voice modulator. There is also a new version of the T-60. But one change had a significant impact on the series’ plot: it was made so that it was impossible to even get out of the armor without a power core.
The capital of the NKR, Shady Sands, was not destroyed in the games, in particular, in the series close to the chronology of Fallout: New Vegas. When the show’s characters came across the Shady Sands sign, Maximus explained to Lucy that the capital of the NKR was destroyed by an atomic bomb. It was a devastating blow, after which the Republic became a much less important part of the region than it was in the games.
The NKR was prominently represented in Fallout: New Vegas, but there was no mention of the destruction of Shady Sands. Since Hank destroyed the city in 2277, and New Vegas takes place only four years later, in 2281, any of the dozens of NKR citizens represented in the game should have had some mention of this tragedy. The destruction of Shady Sands completely changes the context of Fallout: New Vegas and turns the fight for the Mojave Wasteland into a fight for the survival of the NKR.
The Enclave, a group directly descended from the pre-war United States government, has been an important faction in several games. However, until Fallout: New Vegas, the Enclave was practically not represented in the West. Most of its representatives either returned to the East Coast, where the Enclave was stronger, or joined other factions. Because of this, they had little influence on the main events of the games.
The Enclave is not shown much in the series, but Siggy Wilzig escaped from them with the key to cold fusion. The level of participation of the Enclave in California is very high compared to New Vegas.
There were fan theories about this, but they were confirmed only in the series. One of the most shocking facts was that Vault-Tec, the company responsible for the vaults, dropped the nuclear bombs that destroyed the world. Allegedly, Vault-Tec dropped the bomb to ensure that their vaults would be profitable and literally destroyed all competitors. The plan was to simply outlast all other companies in the world and gain the largest monopoly the world had ever seen.
There was never much information in the games about the root causes of the Great War, other than words about the resource wars that preceded it. The official explanation was only that China and the United States launched missiles at each other.
Shortly before the revelation of Vault-Tec’s involvement in the Great War, representatives of many companies discussed their plan. In the series, the pre-war companies decided to collaborate on the vaults, each setting up different experiments in their respective vaults. The promise of destroying the competition with nuclear fire and creating «a true monopoly» after the apocalypse was enough reason to make them join forces. In games, prewar companies were mostly separate entities that had little to do with each other. If they did interact, it was usually hostile, and these interactions often took the form of corporate espionage and sabotage.
At the end of the first season of Fallout, Gul saw New Vegas, but it was very different from the city in the games. New Vegas was destroyed and seemed abandoned. Since Hank went there to continue the Vault-Tec mission, it seems that the city will still be important even in its abandoned state.
The destruction of Shady Sands and New Vegas was a huge change from the games, and it leaves the future of the Desert and the entire franchise uncertain. Since New Vegas occupied a strategic position as the gateway between East and West, it was an incredibly important and well-protected area. The one who destroyed the city was extremely powerful — enough to influence the course of the plot of subsequent seasons of the series and games.
Sources: Insider Gamimg, Screen Rant