Fallout’s Vaults have even crazier experiments in the games
polygon.com[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Fallout season 1, as well as information from the Fallout games.]
The Vault systems in the Fallout franchise are meant to be a utopia, a shelter away from the harsh apocalyptic Wasteland and nuclear fire.
Of course, nothing is ever as it seems, and a little bit of digging (Lucy’s journey in Fallout season 1 or playing to the end of Fallout 2) reveals that the Vault systems are actually a way to experiment on survivors. Some of the premises are so wild or impractical that it doesn’t seem like an experiment at all, and many failed spectacularly. (According to series creator Tim Cain, the purpose was to test humanity’s ability to travel through space, but this isn’t in any of the games so far.)
There are two experiments in the Prime Video show that we get to see: Vault 4 and the combined network of Vaults 31, 32, and 33. Something like Vault 4 is relatively straightforward: a society ruled by scientists. Unfortunately, the scientists’ experiments got out of hand, creating the monstrous gulpers and requiring a total restructuring of their society.
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Vaults 31, 32, and 33 are a little more complex. These interlinked Vaults rely on each other, with the members of 33 and 32 arranging marriages in order to diversify their populations. Early on, it appears that 32 fell to raiders. However, Norm and Chet soon find that the inhabitants of 32 died long before raiders ever arrived due to a terrible famine. As for Vault 31, we learn that Vault-Tec executives are frozen in here, and thawed whenever a new Overseer must be installed.
If you’re curious as to the other Vaults scattered across Fallout’s vast canon, here is a list of the monstrous experiments that Vault-Tec carried out after the apocalypse.
Vault 4: Those poor, unfortunate scientists. Now populated with the survivors, combined with refugees from Shady Sands. Chris Parnell plays the good-spirited Overseer, with a slightly strange single eye.
Vault 8: A control Vault,
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