With the likes of The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Arcane, Castlevania, and more, we now have more than a few examples of film and TV adaptations of video games being done right. It now looks like another name has joined that list, and jumped straight to its top end.
Amazon Prime’s Fallout show, based on Bethesda’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic games, is set to premiere in matter of hours, ahead of which critics have started publishing their reviews for its entire eight-episode run- and the verdict is glowing, to say the very least. At the time of writing, it’s sitting at a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93%.
Awarding the entire season a score of 9/10, IGN’s review reads, “A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout stands up there with The Last of Us among the best game adaptations ever made. Brilliantly constructed, its three distinct leads travel through cleverly linked storylines that build to a fantastic finale. Along the way, there’s a megaton of treats for long-term fans thanks to immaculate production design and attention to detail, but never at the expense of making this an ideal starting point for the uninitiated.”
In a four-star review, The Telegraph writes, “It’s hard to think of another video game adaptation that better conveys the sheer, giddy hedonism of a top-notch shoot ‘em up.”
BBC’s review is similarly glowing. Awarding it four stars, it says, “Viewers who love the games will relish the chance to discover new aspects of the Fallout universe. Those who’ve never played them will enjoy a vivid, brutal romp with flashes of absurdist comedy and set in an engrossing, richly detailed world.”
THR offers a relatively more mixed take, saying, “That most of Prime Video’s Fallout consists of getting sidetracked by bullshit is simultaneously one of its main charms and one of its most frustrating flaws. At its liveliest, the sci-fi adventure captures the fun of simply getting to explore a strange new world, meeting colorful characters and going down mysterious rabbit holes. But the lack of urgency also means its eight hours take an awfully long time to get where it’s going.”
On the other hand, Rolling Stone’s review is much less positive, calling Fallout “an arch and overly-familiar series, with enough interesting performances and background details to keep it from being a waste of time, but not enough spark of its own to be fully satisfying.”
All eight episodes of Fallout’s first season will premiere later today, April 10, at 6 PM PT on Amazon Prime Video. A second season of the show already seems to be gearing up for production.