Review from a long time fan of the games: This series is everything my geeky middle-school ass wanted
I’m not sure how to explain this better, but it didn’t just feel like they made a TV series inspired by Fallout. It felt like they captured the experience of actually playing the game. The format/narrative structure even seems to reflect the gaming experience. Each time they introduce a new goal or objective, it feels like accepting quests from NPCs. You get this sense of the karma points, how making better choices can make things harder, but then benefit you in the long term. Including Stimpaks makes it so they can have these overdramatized/unrealistic injuries that don’t necessarily stop characters in their tracks, but also introduces the dilemma of resource management.
Even the characters themselves kinda make dumb gamer-like decisions that, while I may not appreciate them in a more traditional narrative, just give me this little kick of nostalgia every time. When Mximus was asked what’s his plan and he said he didn’t have one, that things just keep happening to him… guy’s that’s literally me, 13 years old, fumbling along a pre-set narrative, looking for the least-bad dialogue options to make this very-bad situation a little less destructive for everyone. Or maybe it’s my evil run and I’m just choosing chaos like Lcy’s brother.
With all that praise out of the way, I have to contradict myself and acknowledge the same elements I loved still don’t *entirely* convince me when placed in a traditional on-screen story-structure. I was worried the inclusion of Stimpaks would lessen the stakes. Having played the games, it still pretty much works, but I may feel differently if this was my first intro to the fallout universe (i.e. a stab wound to the stomach is a pretty universally accepted *character-is-fucked* injury, unless you have a magical device that reverses internal bleeding). There’s also a few moments where it just feels like things are just happened, which works when you’re playing the game since a lot of the fun is just fighting and scavenging, but can feel a little drawn-out when you’re not an active participant.
Still… this series made me very happy and I very much appreciate how well-thought-through this adaptation was. It makes me curious how other video-game adaptations could utilize actual game-play elements in the story.
I’ve been avoiding this sub until finishing the series, so I’m not sure what the common-takes are but would love to hear your thoughts! What are some other games that
