I've watched the first two episodes and I've really liked it so far. While FO4 as a game was OK at best (at least vanilla; Sim Settlements 2 is great fun), I've liked the art direction on it. I know the "chunky" look has been a bit… divisive, I think it looks suitably retrofuturistic and less drab than the earlier games, so it's fun that the show has really leaned into the style. The score by Ramin Djawadi is also really good, at times really reminds me of Ben Frost's and Marc Streitenfeld fucking amazing score for Raised by Wolves.
The dark humor and a somewhat quirky and sarcastic take on things is also very Fallout; it doesn't take itself too seriously, but is also surprisingly dark in many ways, and not just because it's postapocalyptic and bloody.
spoilers for first 3 eps
Things like what Maximus did to whatstheirname, with the razor in the boot, and then what happened between him and Titus after the yao guai attack. It's like everybody's at least a little bit of an asshole and that there's not too many if any unambiguously "good" characters in the main cast.
Edit: did that axolotl-looking huge mutant with fingers coming out of its mouth drop loot when it died‽
All in all, it's been a really nice surprise that the show seems to have turned out well; my cynical old ass was definitely prepared for something worse, heh. How have you folks liked it?
(Oh and for the love of the gods and all that is fuzzy, please remember to use spoiler tags if you talk about plot points 😁 It's the second button on the right on the comment format bar.)
Ok, I gotta ask, I know almost nothing about the lore of Fallout, is this show for me? Does it have enough content for newcomers that makes it worth it?
I did enjoy the Twisted Metal TV show, if that brings any context about what stuff I like, although at least I did play some of their old games and enjoyed them, but I remember next to nothing about the game's "plot", if there was any to begin with.
EDIT: Thank you so much for your replies guys, it seems definitely like a fun show and I'm craving for one lol (I just finished Titans S03... and... it was not good), I'm gonna give it a try!
the reason why the fallout story is very flexible on a any place no context story is because each individual vault has its own story, and stories are hyper regionalistic. so while all regions may share the same start (nuclear fallout of course) and prewar tech, what happens after is up to the writers imagination, as long as a writer doesnt pick an already existing vault number that already has a rule.
minor lore spoilers ahead:
each vault was not built the same, all were a major experiment and had different conditions to see how humanity would adapt to different conditions presented to them.
this is why fallout is super flexible on where a story can start, game, or show wise. for example of something that won't be in a game or show, Vault 68 was an experiment where what would happen if you put 1 woman, and 999 men in a bunker. Vault 69 was what would happen if you had 1 man, and 999 women in a bunker.
I remember next to nothing about the game's "plot", if there was any to begin with.
I only remember the first 2 TM games and the plot was some rich fuck made a death match competition and the winner gets a single wish granted as their prize; but the wish every character makes in their ending (by beating the game as that character) is always corrupted Monkey's Paw style.
If you enjoyed Twisted Metal, you will enjoy Fallout. Both are excellent TV adaptations of their respective games, and have a thick layer of dark humour underpinning the action. Twisted Metal was particularly surprising, I want to shake the hand of whoever was looking at that crusty old PS2 game and saw dollar signs for TV!