Amazon Prime’s popular TV adaptation has a lot of material to draw from.

How to play the Fallout games in order (including its spinoffs)

Amazon Prime's popular TV adaptation has a lot of material to draw from.

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on *The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer*, and many other publications.

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December 17, 2025 4:54 p.m. ET

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'Fallout'; 'Fallout: New Vegas': 'Fallout 76'. Credit:

Interplay Entertainment; Bethesda Softworks (2)

Welcome to the wasteland, smoothskin.

*Fallout* is one of Amazon Prime's most-watched titles to date, drawing over 100 million viewers since its April 2024 premiere. Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins lead the cast of the action-comedy, which tracks a motley crew of survivors in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic wasteland centuries after a nuclear holocaust.**

But fans were scurrying around that wasteland decades before the show's debut, as *Fallout* began as a role-playing video game marrying combat, strategy, and deep wells of silliness. Imbued with a striking aesthetic drawn from '50s sci-fi, *Mad Max*, and nuclear anxiety, the franchise has spawned multiple sequels and offshoots since the first game arrived on PC in 1997.

Interested in navigating your own journey through *Fallout*'s irradiated expanse? Read on for an overview of the gaming franchise and how to play the *Fallout* games in order.**

Fallout (1997)

'Fallout' cover art.

It often takes gaming franchises a few titles to find their groove (see: *Grand Theft Auto*). But nearly 30 years later, *Fallout* remains a compelling, cohesive, and, most importantly, fun introduction to the wasteland.

It efficiently establishes the scenery, namely that the world was ravaged by a nuclear war between the U.S. and China in 2077, with society now comprised of vault dwellers who live in underground fallout shelters and scavengers who live dangerously on the surface. The game also introduces several of the factions that will continue to be integral to future games, from the Brotherhood of Steel, a fanatical military order, to the monstrous Super Mutants.

Set on the West Coast roughly 80 years after the nuclear holocaust, *Fallout* puts players in the boots of a vault dweller in search of a computer chip for your vault's water supply system. On the surface, you'll encounter a number of unsavory characters who assign you tasks on your path to finding the chip. Along the way, you run afoul of the mutated Master, whose goal is to turn every surviving human into a Super Mutant.

While not as sprawling as its sequels, *Fallout* nevertheless satisfies with its all killer, no filler story and immersive locations. It all unfolds with the help of a crack voice cast, including Ron Perlman (who returns in later entries), Keith David, Tony Shalhoub, Richard Dean Anderson, and CCH Pounder.**

Fallout 2 (1998)

'Fallout 2' cover art.

*Fallout 2* jumps forward another 80 years, with the player taking up the journey of an ancestor of the original protagonist, here dubbed the "Chosen One." Your task is to retrieve a Garden of Eden Creation Kit for your small village of Arroyo, which is suffering from a drought.

Bigger, harder, and goofier than its predecessor, *Fallout 2* expands both the map and the amount of threats faced by the player. It also sets the stage for what's to come by introducing a karma system in which your actions and dialogue determine how NPCs will react to your presence. Will they welcome you into their communities and offer you quests, or will they attack on sight?

This mechanic forces the player to choose the factions with whom they want to align, which can require some careful politicking. This becomes particularly thorny once you encounter the various crime families of New Reno, as well as the Enclave, a fascist coalition that's taken control of your humble village. Will you play the hero or the villain? That's up to you.**

Fallout Tactics (2001)

'Fallout Tactics' cover art.

The appeal of *Fallout*'s first two games wasn't in combat so much as character and exploration, so *Fallout Tactics *was a strange new direction for the franchise. Set in 2197, between the first two games, it doesn't continue the story. Rather, it sends players east to Chicago, where they link up with the Brotherhood of Steel to battle raiders, monsters, robots, and other adversaries to claim territory and expand their reach.

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There's little role-playing here, so don't expect to navigate tricky conversations or spend time exploring the world. That said, it does count the legendary R. Lee Ermey (*Full Metal Jacket*) among its cast, so kudos to that.

For those who enjoy tactical strategy, there's plenty to experiment with across the game's numerous missions, specifically in terms of its three combat modes. While you can only engage in Individual Turn-Based combat in the first two games, *Tactics* also allows for Continuous Turn-Based and Squad Turn-Based modes.**

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004)

'Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel' cover art.

Set between the first two games but after *Fallout Tactics* is 2004's *Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, *a spinoff that's also combat-focused, though not in a tactical sense. Rather, *Brotherhood of Steel* plays more like an arcade game, tasking the player with hacking, slashing, and shooting hordes of enemies across a handful of maps, none of which are explorable in the open-ended style of the first two games.

In this maligned entry, you play as a Brotherhood of Steel initiate in search of some missing comrades. The gameplay is repetitive, the story is threadbare, and the maps lack the texture of the previous games. Its worst sin? Swapping out the moody '50s tracks of earlier entries in favor of a metal soundtrack featuring the likes of Slipknot and Killswitch Engage. It's just not the vibe.**

Fallout 3 (2008)

'Fallout 3' cover art.

Following the critical and commercial failure of *Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel*, *Fallout* developer Interplay Entertainment sold the rights to Bethesda Game Studios. They reinvigorated the franchise with *Fallout 3, *a next-gen reimagining with a vast open world, real-time combat, and the ability to play in either first- or third-person. It was hugely celebrated upon release, being lauded as the best game of 2008 by several publications.

The game picks up around 30 years after the events of *Fallout 2 *in the ruins of Washington, D.C. You play as a member of Vault 101 who ventures into the wasteland in search of their father (voiced by Liam Neeson), a scientist who departed the vault for reasons unknown. As you attempt to track him down, you get swept up in a plot involving virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and the nefarious Enclave.

"The game has such a rich and vast (albeit, spartan and dour) open world that you’ll probably spend more time getting into random shootouts, scavenging for supplies, and helping other people than you will looking for dear ol’ dad," reads* *'s A-grade review.**

The karma system is also back in a big way — and it's tested almost immediately. The first town you come to, Megaton, has an undetonated nuke in its town square, and players are given the choice to either defuse it or detonate it. In classic *Fallout* fashion, there are perks to both.

Fallout: New Vegas (2010)

'Fallout: New Vegas' cover art.

*Fallout: New Vegas* was published by Bethesda but developed by a different studio, Obsidian Entertainment. As such, it strays from its predecessor in terms of tone and role-playing elements, folding in some of the silliness of the earlier games while also taking a fresh approach to skill cultivation.

"The entire *Fallout* franchise rests on a nifty culture-mash — Atomic Age optimism and post-apocalyptic pessimism — but over a decade after the first *Fallout*, that empire-in-ruins sensibility feels more compelling than ever," EW's critic wrote in their review. "You’ll kill a lot of people in *New Vegas* — in self-defense, to punish wrongdoing, or maybe you just think their clothes would look better on you — and the game’s central genius is that every death feels like another nail in the coffin in the American Dream."

Here, you play a courier in the Mojave desert in 2281, just four years after *Fallout 3*. The game begins with your courier being shot and left for dead, the package you were meant to deliver stolen by a mobster named Benny (voiced by Matthew Perry). As you embark on a quest for answers (and revenge), you cross paths with a huge assortment of potential friends and/or foes, from the democratic New California Republic and totalitarian Caesar's Legion to a gang of Elvis impersonators called the Kings and the mysterious Mr. House, ruler of New Vegas.

"The overarching narrative — Who shot you? What was in the package? — is less important than the million tangential storylines you’ll find along the way," continues our review, which also emphasizes the "ethical knots" the game is primed to twist your brain into. That's because you have more power to control the narrative here than in any other *Fallout* game. The possibilities are vast, and the replay value immense.**

Fallout Shelter (2015)

'Fallout Shelter'.

Released in 2015, *Fallout Shelter *served as an appetizer of sorts for the upcoming *Fallout 4*. A free-to-play mobile game, it puts players in charge of their own vault and the many resources (food, water, power) that it needs to keep your population content. Since it's not story-driven, it exists out of time in the larger *Fallout* franchise.

EW counted it among the best games of 2015. "Not a day has passed since *Fallout Shelter* was released that I haven’t checked into my post-apocalyptic shelter and its many dwellers," said our writer, who also highlighted how the "adorable *Fallout* aesthetic and smart set-up makes it one of the strongest recent examples of its genre."**

Fallout 4 (2015)

'Fallout 4' cover art.

*Fallout 4* transplants players to Boston and its surrounding areas in 2287, six years following the events of New Vegas. This time, you play a character in cryogenic stasis who thaws out early, then sets off in search of their kidnapped son.

It's a *huge* game. “It has so much to discover, and that’s what excites us — for everyone to pick it up and experience that wonder of being in a new place," said game director Todd Howard at the time.

That wonder is key to its appeal, as this dilapidated vision of New England is truly a sight to behold. The story, meanwhile, is a bit baggy in its *Blade Runner* aspirations, with an overwrought emphasis on synthetic humans and what amount of humanity they should be afforded.

The biggest addition to the sequel is a new crafting system, which EW's review described as "a little dash of *Minecraft* [with] some influence from the gameplay of *Fallout 4*’s mobile predecessor *Fallout Shelter*." The review continues, "Certain settlements offer plenty of space for players to customize the designs of these locations with defenses, resources, furniture, and more."

Fans of *Sim City* and its ilk may delight in this element, but its a lot of bulk to add to an already massive game.**

Fallout 76 (2018)

'Fallout 76' cover art.

*Fallout 76* is a multiplayer game in which gamers team up to partake in missions and build (and defend) bases that are routinely attacked by enemies. Unlike the mainline entries in the franchise, it's less about narrative than it is about survival and the cultivation of resources.

It's set in 2102, just 25 years after the nuclear holocaust, making it the earliest game in the *Fallout* franchise. It's also the first entry set in the wilds of Appalachia. The goal? To repopulate the wasteland and rid it of its most dangerous denizens.**

The Fallout games in order by release date:

- *Fallout *(1997)

- *Fallout 2 *(1998)

- *Fallout Tactics* (2001)

- *Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel *(2004)

- *Fallout 3* (2008)

- *Fallout: New Vegas* (2010)

- *Fallout Shelter *(2015)

- *Fallout 4* (2015)

- *Fallout 76* (2018)

The Fallout games in chronological order:

- *Fallout 76* (2018)

- *Fallout *(1997)

- *Fallout Tactics* (2001)

- *Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel *(2004)

- *Fallout 2 *(1998)

- *Fallout 3* (2008)

- *Fallout: New Vegas* (2010)

- *Fallout 4* (2015)

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