Fallout season 2 isn't actually a New Vegas adaptation

The Mojave Wasteland still shows Mr. House as the king of New Vegas, but the story explores aspects beyond the games

Fallout: New Vegas is widely considered to be one of the best entries in the hit RPG series, so naturally, fans were excited that season 2 of Amazon's TV adaptation also explores the Mojave Wasteland. Seeing Justin Theroux decked out in a suit as Mr. House only amplified the hype for new episodes of the show. But before you get too caught up in wishing for a nuclear winter, you should know that the latest Fallout season is not a recreation of the Obsidian spin-off.

By necessity, any adaptation of a video game is going to be inherently different than its source material. That's doubly the case for an RPG, where much of the fun is in making choices and adapting to their consequences, not merely watching a pre-ordained story. The first season of Fallout also wasn't an exact retelling of the post-apocalyptic games, instead offering a new story within its world. So it's doubtful anyone is walking into Fallout S2 with an expectation of seeing a 1:1 recreation.

The market around season 2, however, hones in on the iconic gambling haven nestled in the arid desert. Characters like Mr. House are front and center in the first episode, where viewers will start to get a taste of the tech mogul's terrifying influence and power. The start of the episode even features Novac, one of the early locations players can visit after getting shot in the head at the start of Fallout: New Vegas.

The similarities end there, however. This is a story that largely takes place outside the timeline presented in Fallout: New Vegas. Flashbacks before Cooper (Walton Goggins) turns into the Ghoul happen well before the events that happen in the 2010 game. The show's current day, meanwhile, transpire roughly 15 years after what players experience in Fallout: New Vegas.

That means you won't be seeing Benny shooting down Lucy, nor will the charismatic New Vegas character who sets the game into motion croak after getting seduced. Novac does look like the giant dinosaur location fans discover in the games, and Lucy does have a moment where she's prompted to shoot a gun from the prehistoric statue's mouth. This scene is a clear shout-out to the excellent quest in Fallout: New Vegas, where players are tasked with putting a beret on someone so that a sniper hiding nearby can exact revenge for his dead wife. But you won't be meeting Boone or his tragic backstory in Fallout season 2, nor will the companion sharpshooter join Lucy (Ella Purnell) on her adventure to find her dad.

In actuality, Fallout season 2 mixes and matches elements of the game to tell a unique story. Episode 1, for example, recreates the opening of Fallout 4 to a T, down to the salesman who helps the player pick their stats near the start of Bethesda's adventure. Eagle-eyed fans will note that the show has such fidelity to the games here that you can spot a lesbian couple in the background as Cooper anxiously watches everyone run to a nearby vault. That's a deep cut that was introduced to the world in Fallout 4's initial announcement trailer, and it's been recreated in its full glory for TV.

That Easter egg is a perfect encapsulation of how the show approaches the games as a whole, really. Fans of the games will find themselves recreating the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme left and right in Fallout season 2, but mostly for small moments. Think, for instance, watching a character fumble with a computer or hearing mention of a broken water chip. There are some overlaps — Mr. House is still treated like the savior of New Vegas. But there are huge swerves, too. Where in the games, Mr. House predicts the end of the world and develops a plan to survive the mess, in the TV show he's a key part of Vault-Tec's capitalist plot.

The timing and orientation of the show is a smart move by the showrunners, who don't have to worry too much about messing up the lore that made Fallout: New Vegas legendary. Like a Vault-Tec employee frozen in stasis, the vital bits are preserved in the TV show. But it also means that fans of the games should temper their expectations. This is not Fallout: New Vegas on TV, for better or worse.

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Fallout season 2 episode 1 is streaming on Prime Video. New episodes air weekly each Wednesday.