Falloutshould be a simple enough video game to adapt for television. The medium is no stranger to apocalyptic fiction with shows likeThe Walking Dead, The Last of Us, and Station 11, while there’s plenty of source material to draw from and expand upon in ways the games just aren’t capable of.
I wrote recently that one of the show’s biggest boons is how it can finally give the protagonist a voice, which makes sense in the context of a ruined world, as they step out of their vault for the first time and are greeted with a society that is nothing like the one they were promised.
But this also takes away the agency of player decision, something that much of the audience will expect to see honoured as Amazon adapts such a beloved RPG franchise. But no matter what it does, it can’t please everyone, and I’m increasingly convinced that’s a good thing.
Prime Video recently releaseda clip from the first episode, which features our protagonist squaring up against a ghoul before a Brotherhood of Steel member crashes onto the scene to lend a hand.
Co-creator Jonathan Nolan recently toldT3that it’s impossible to please everyone when it comes to franchises, and I can’t help but agree with him:
“I don’t think you really can set out to please the fans of anything. Or please anyone other than yourself,” Nolan asserted. “I think you have to come into this trying to make the show that you want to make and trusting that, as fans of the game [ourselves], we would find the pieces that were essential to us… and attempt to do the best version.”
Nolan says that Fallout 3 was his first exposure to the series and subsequently took over his life, and he’s found himself drawn to the universe ever since. I was the same, but I’d be a liar if I said I knew what I wanted from the franchise all these years later, or how to shape it into something televised for a new audience. I’m not sure if it can be achieved, at least not without making mistakes or leaving someone behind.
This happened before when the Fallout rights went from Interplay to Bethesda, and all of a sudden this classic cRPG was reborn under an entirely different guise. I was a kid at the time, but I remember reading articles and watching videos about the big fear fans had about this beloved gem not only making a comeback, but being reimagined as a first-person RPG - or as it was popularly dubbed, Oblivion With Guns.
On the flipside, this was the first time millions of people were first exposed to Fallout, myself included, and how we would come to view the franchise for decades. When Fallout 4 came along with crafting mechanics, a spoken protagonist, and a different tone, this unfolded all over again.
Suddenly we were greeted with a different idea of what Fallout should be, and it flew in the face of expectations we’d formed after 3 and New Vegas. With the time it takes to develop games ballooning, the show is the first canon Fallout media we’ve had in six years, so it’s coming out of the gate with a mountain of pressure already weighing it down.
Nolan and the creative team behind the television show are evidently staying true to Fallout’s aesthetic, while the lore is already incorporating factions the games have featured for years, but with Los Angeles as the key setting and new characters making up the cast, Amazon is better off going its own way and trying something new.
I’d hate for it to lazily adapt the games because it wants to please fans spread over generations, and Fallout has always excelled when it flies in the face of those expectations, regardless of how they might be received. Yes, it might look too clean, it might lack the biting satire in its story, but at least it wants to craft its own identity. you may’t do that when fans weigh you down.
HBO’s The Last of Us was an excellent adaptation, but I ultimately found it underwhelming because it was so authentic in its respect to the source material. Entire lines were repeated verbatim, often with the same tone, which made it impossible to treat it differently.
But when it made changes to the established canon or explored new ideas, it was more exciting, which is what I want from Fallout. It can explore this post-apocalyptic world beyond the outlook of a single player character, jumping between perspectives and locations with a drive that an RPG like this isn’t capable of. Some fans might be let down, but that’s a worthy sacrifice.
Fallout 3
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Fallout 3 takes place in a ruined area around Washington D.C. two hundred years after the Great War. In a game met with critical acclaim, you must traverse this wasteland looking for your father, while solving the mystery of his disappearance.
