Location is everything in the Fallout franchise, and Fallout 5 will be no different. "The first thing for us is to figure out 'where the hell is this game set?'" said Bethesda Design Director Emil Pagaliarulo, discussing the development of Fallout 4 in the documentary The History of Bethesda Game Studios. The setting of each game has a huge impact on the aesthetics, factions, and the parts of pre-War American life that get the tongue-in-cheek Fallout treatment.

There are plenty of places that would fit Fallout well, but only a few have just the right recipe to form the foundation of Fallout 5. Here are the 5 real-world locations Bethesda should consider for Fallout 5's setting, and why each one could help the franchise find the right mix of the series' past with new possibilities.

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Setting Fallout 5 in Chicago could be a great way for the next game to take the series back to its roots while getting the opportunity to play with new genre elements. Fallout: New Vegas pleased many fans of the first two games by taking players back out west, exploring the fate of the NCR while also infusing the game with cowboy and Sin City aesthetics unique to the Mojave.

Fallout Tactics established that Fallout's Chicago is a battleground between the Brotherhood of Steel and the remaining Unity Super Mutants from the first Fallout game. Like New Vegas, this would give a Chicago-based Fallout game the chance to really explore the changes that have come to Fallout factions since their introductions.

Chicago is also known for organized crime and as a classic setting for noir fiction, a reputation already touched on in Nick Valentine's backstory. The Windy City got its name from its politicians' reputations for blowing hot air, and a local post-War political scene plagued by crime and corruption could create some fascinating factions. A Fallout game set in Chicago could explore story elements from the series' past while infusing the game with a noir-aesthetic that could give the next game as unique a personality as New Vegas.

Anchorage, Alaska already has a unique role in the Fallout lore, and could be a great setting for Fallout 5. In 2066 the city was captured by China, and was the site of the Battle of Anchorage in the lead-up to the Great War of 2077, explored in Fallout 3's Operation: Anchorage DLC.

While the Operation: Anchorage DLC gave fans some insight into the area, the DLC was combat-focused, and took place within a virtual reality training simulation which is unlikely to have portrayed events with total accuracy. A Fallout game set in Anchorage could see fans explore a colder climate than the other games so far, fighting off mutated moose, Yetis, and perhaps getting a glimpse at the fate of the world across the Bering Strait. The area could be a landing point for survivors from post-War Asia and Europe, giving fans an insight into the rest of the world without leaving behind Fallout's Americana aesthetic.

When it comes to locations with unique personalities, it's hard to find a city with more potential than New Orleans. With a unique blend of cultures and creatures, the Big Easy would give Bethesda the chance to infuse Fallout 5 with music, architecture and animals which haven't been seen in the games so far but which would still fit Fallout's general aesthetic.

The city could also add some color to Fallout's post-war world, with nature reclaiming the already brightly colored streets of New Orleans. A Fallout game set in New Orleans could play on local culture, folklore, and even ghost stories from Louisiana Voodoo to vampires. Seeing how the people of the Fallout world rebuilt in a city with such a broad blend of influences could make for one of Fallout's most fascinating settings yet.

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Atlanta doesn't come up much when discussing potential Fallout settings, but it should. In fact, the Deep South is notably underrepresented in the franchise. The Georgia capital, however, has features which could make for a great Fallout 5 setting. The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, for example, is the largest in the world, and in the Fallout universe could have become a city in its own right or a horrifying dungeon filled with mutated sea creatures.

Six Flags Over Georgia could be the basis for a theme-park based DLC to blow Nuka-World out of the water, not to mention the real-life World of Coca-Cola based in the city. Atlanta could be a breath of fresh air for Fallout, while providing locations with immense potential for reimagination in the franchise's post-War world.

Hawaii offers Fallout a unique opportunity to leave the mainland USA far behind while still exploring an area overtaken by the very '50s commodification the series parodies and critiques at its best. The post-World War 2 image of Hawaii as a tropical paradise and idyllic vacation location for affluent suburban Americans could make the state ripe for exploration in the Fallout universe, especially the ways in which the image of the islands does not live up to that imagined ideal.

It's also possible that Hawaii's location could have shielded it from the world of the Great War compared to other areas of the Fallout world. Just as '50s commercial culture survives long past its sell-by date in the Fallout timeline, Hawaii's reductive reputation as a paradise may as well, giving Bethesda the chance to explore the pop-culture depiction of the state versus its reality. Bethesda would have to be careful that its exploration of these tropes didn't also play into them, but if the studio could get the balance right it could also take advantage of a variety of locations from jungles to army bases and even active volcanos.

Fallout 5 is not confirmed to be in development.

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