The Story of Fallout 2
A Post Nuclear Role
Playing Game
It's been 80 long years since your ancestor trod across the wastelands. As you search for the Garden of Eden Creation Kit to save your primitive village, your path is strewn with crippling radiation, meglomaniac mutants, and a relentless stream of lies, deceit and treachery. You begin to wonder if anyone really stands to gain anything from this brave new world.
The War
How could a "Post Nuclear" game be created with no major war in it's prequel. Some time ago (several decades before Fallout 1) there was a massive war. The cause is unknown even though the effects are painfully clear*. America annexed Canada in an attempt for more natural resources. Europe tore itself apart while Russia launched warheads. The American counter launch sent every one back to the stone-age.
The Vaults
As can be learned from the president in F2, the US was more prepared than most. Huge underground facilities had been created, protecting a small portion of the population from destruction. These Vaults were located all over the country and were programmed to open at different times. Some opened too early exposing the occupants to mutating radiation. Others released their inhabitants to found cities and towns.
Fallout 1
In the oringinal players exited their Vault to find a waterchip and save their people. After exploring the wastes a new threat was perceived. The Master, an oranic-machine freak, was creating SuperMutants in an effort to "evolve" mankind to the next step. As the hero, the player of course killed him and the deadly Vats which stored the FEV virus. Yet all was not well, thus the need for Fallout 2, and when the hero returned home, he was rejected by the very people he saved.
*It is theorized by the Brotherhood Medical Computer (ACE), that advanced AI is to blame.