“Fallout” was released 27 years ago on Oct. 10, 1997. Initially published by Interplay Studios, the game featured an incredibly unique aesthetic that has never been seen in video game form. Needless to say, it exploded in popularity.
The first installment sold over 600,000 copies worldwide, which is saying something for a cd-rom game from the 90s, and it sparked the release of six full role-playing titles, one RPG combat spinoff, an RPG dungeon-crawler, TTRPG and now an eight-episode Amazon Prime television series. While I was negative 10 years old at the release of the original “Fallout,” that hasn’t stopped me from being a (seemingly) lifelong fan of the series. I first picked up “Fallout 4” around the time of release, and while I wasn’t quite old enough to grasp most of the series themes, I had instantly fallen in love.
That being said, I was extremely skeptical about this television series going into it. The show follows main character Lucy (Ella Purnell) on her journey to rescue her father after he is kidnapped by a group of raiders. She ventures out into the wasteland from the comfort of her nuclear fallout shelter where she meets a cast of characters including Maximus (Aaron Clifton Moten) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins).
I truly thought there was no way they would be able to take everything that makes the game special and successfully translate it into a watchable form – but boy, was I wrong. A huge worry from myself and a number of other franchise fans was that the television show just wouldn’t look, or more importantly feel, like one of the “Fallout” games. However subverting expectations, the show gets the humor, aesthetic and overall feeling of the game franchise down to a T.
My personal favorite part of later “Fallout” games was the inclusion of “Pip-Boy” radio stations. For reference a “Pip-Boy” is a wrist computer/geiger counter that is a normal occurrence in the “Fallout” universe. More modern titles included in-game radio stations that allowed you to listen to music while trekking through the wasteland.
These radio stations feature real-world songs from “Crazy He Calls Me” by Billie Holiday to “Maybe” or “I Don’t Want to Set The World On Fire” by The Ink Spots. Needless to say I was completely hooked on the show after the very first episode opened with “Orange Colored Sky” by Nat King Cole. Call me dramatic all you want but dare I say it brought a tear to my eye.
I have also been listening to the “Diamond City Radio (Fallout 4)” playlist by user Hugo Meireles Gonçalves on Spotify ever since the release of the show. While I’m not trekking through the wasteland this playlist still makes for the perfect soundtrack while doing pretty much anything. I credit it to my love for vocal/instrumental jazz now in 2024. You should definitely check it out.
The casting is phenomenal and the acting by said cast is superb. Walton Goggins delivers one of the best performances I’ve seen in recent television history while in five hours worth of makeup.
The writing coupled with the talent of Ella Purnell and Aaron Clifton Moten provide a watch experience that is almost uncanny when compared to actually sitting down and playing one of the “Fallout” games. It’s those little – seemingly inconsequential – moments of dialogue in the games that make them so entertaining. The show captured the essence of this beautifully, my favorite moment happening in a conversation between Lucy and Maximus in episode 6.
All-in-all I may be completely and utterly biased when it comes to my review of this TV series, but clearly you trust my opinion considering you made it to the end of this article. At the end of the day any “Fallout” fan sitting down and watching this show is going to get the same enjoyment out of it that I did. But more importantly even those who haven’t been playing these games since the fifth grade will still have a heck of a time watching.
