Fallout 5 has not been confirmed yet, but that won't stop fans from speculating on what could be in store should a fifth installment be announced. If Bethesda is cooking up another Fallout game behind the scenes, then there are five locations that it should take Fallout 5 that would make for a unique Fallout experience.
To date there have been a total of four unique locations in America that the Fallout games have explored already. The Mojave Desert Wasteland is the focal point of Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout: New Vegas, which contains famous locations like San Francisco and Las Vegas. Fallout 3 has the DC Wasteland and shows players a post apocalyptic DC Capitol Hill and the surrounding area. The Boston Commonwealth is the location of Fallout 4, complete with its own Fenway Park and even the MIT campus. Fallout 76 is the most recent Fallout game and it is centered around the West Virginia Shenandoah Valley. With all of the previous locations out of the way, it is time to consider what the next Fallout location could be.
Fallout 5: China
It's no secret that this would probably be the most difficult for Bethesda to do right now since its usual method is to send a team to surveil an area before drawing up the map for their games. However, this is probably one of the most important locations for the Fallout games to venture to as it pertains to the storyline. In Fallout lore, the United States engages in a nuclear war for scarce resources against the People's Republic of China in 2077. It's unlikely that China made vaults like the US, but if something was preserved in China after the war then there could be a Fallout story to show what happened. Across several of the Fallout games there have been vestiges of the Chinese insurgency with locations like Mama Dolce's in Fallout 3 and the Chinese nuclear submarine in the Boston Bay of Fallout 4, so it would make sense if there were still remnants of the People's Republic of China in Fallout 5.
Fallout 5: Chicago
Chicago was technically a location in Fallout Tactics, but Bethesda has come out and said that the game is not a canon Fallout game except for a couple of details such as the presence of the Brotherhood of Steel in Chicago. Chicago has been mentioned off-hand in other circumstances across various Fallout games, such as when EDE reveals that there are Enclave outposts there in Fallout: New Vegas. Brotherhood of Steel activity in Chicago has also been alluded to by Scribe Rothchild in Fallout 3 and Lancer Captain Kells in Fallout 4. As a potential location for Fallout 5, Chicago ranks as the most probable due to the setup given by many previous games.
Fallout 5: New Orleans
As a location for Fallout 5, New Orleans would be one of the most fun to work with. There are two scenarios that Bethesda could explore with the setting: one where the levees are destroyed and one where they are still standing by some miraculous circumstance. Bethesda already tackled the post-apocalypse bayou scenario with the Fallout 3: Point Lookout DLC and the Fallout 4: Far Harbor DLC, so it stands to reason that it would be capable of creating a whole game with that atmosphere. Poseidon Energy would no doubt be the focus of the story in this scenario as they are the oil company in Fallout lore that the Enclave has been shown to occupy in Fallout 2 and New Orleans in real life has its own oil companies that use its ports for trade. There hasn't ever been any mention of Louisiana in the Fallout series, but it could still be a potential location because of its real world ties to the oil industry which has had a pivotal role in the Fallout lore.
Fallout 5: Alaska
Alaska was the proving grounds for the final battle that eventually sealed the deal for the Great War and lead to the use of the nuclear option. The purpose of the war was to gain control of the last big oil reserve in the world and it came down to America and China. Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage and the intro sequence for Fallout 4 show the ground assault on Anchorage, Alaska in 2077 by the US after the Chinese military invaded in 2066. The US was able to take back Alaska using the newly invented T-51 power armor in January 28, 2077, but in October the Chinese launched the first nukes, which were matched by the US and the world was ended. Because of the 10 month gap, it is possible that Vault-Tec was able to construct several vaults in Alaska which would allow for Alaska to be a probable location for Fallout 5.
Fallout 5: Colorado
Colorado may not be on the minds of Fallout fans, but there is good cause to consider it as a potential location for Fallout 5. Most of the setup for this location comes from scraps given to hardcore fans of Fallout who have read the Van Buren Project files. The Van Buren Project was originally meant to be Fallout 3, but it was canned in 2003 when Black Isle Studios ran into financial difficulties. Other information about the Colorado area comes from the Legate Lanius in Fallout: New Vegas as he explains to the player that Caesar's Legion conquered the area as well as Utah, but the war was costly to the Legion. Leila Rahmani in Fallout 76 also mentions that there is a missing chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel in Colorado that they lost contact with after they crossed over the Rocky Mountains. All this being said, it wouldn't be a stretch for Fallout 5 to take place in Colorado.
These 5 locations represent some of the most pertinent locations for the Fallout series to move towards should Fallout 5 be announced. Until it is announced, fans of Fallout will continue to speculate and try to find nuggets of info in the lore that would point toward the future of the series.
Fallout 5 has not been announced.