'Fallout' Is The Latest Fantastic Series That Has Me Asking If Video Game Curse Is Finally Over
ICYMI, the entire first season of 'Fallout' dropped on Prime Video last night.
Fallout is one of my favorite games ever, particularly New Vegas. So I am beyond happy to report that they have absolutely nailed this* (I'm only 4 episodes in so I'll note *SO FAR). Here is a quick bullet point rundown for those of you on the fence.
- The original story. The storyline isn't a 1:1 adaptation of an existing story from the games like 'The Last of Us' meaning they had to create a new one from scratch. On top of that, the game is not linear, meaning player choices drive the entire structure of the story. These were both reasons for concern but they have completely crushed it with their new additions.
- The production value. Not only do they do a great job with the giant scope of the wastelands & smaller sets like vaults but they also do a great job replicating items from the game. Stimpacks, guns, racks, pipboys etc all look perfectly game accurate.
- Music and sound. They use the atomic era songs from the game while adding a great selection of new ones. On top of that, one of the great little easter eggs for fans is that they use some of the exact sound effects from the game in the series.
- The dialogue. Most of the script rocks but but, in particular, Goggins is given some of my favorite lines I've ever seen from him.
I'm extremely harsh when it comes to video game adaptations because they have, by and large, sucked across the history of movies/TV. Super Mario Bros, Wing Commander, Moral Combat, Wold of Warcraft, Hitman and, most recently, the monstrosity that is the Halo adaptation. And, to me, it hurts way worse than any adaptation of a book, graphic novel etc because we invest so much more time in these games than we do in almost any other form of media. If I had to guess how many hours of gametime I have in the entire Fallout series, it might be in the months. So when the powers that be have an actual reverence for the game and take care to satisfy fans of the game while making a story that new fans can enjoy, I have no choice but to pump the shit out of it.
As a reminder, the creator is Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Tomb Raider) and is written by her + Graham Wagner(Silicon Valley). It's also being produced by Jonathan Nolan's (Westworld, also helped write most of his brothers movies) production company. Nolan is also directed the first 3 episodes.