It's all over- but the crying.
Those TV executive leeches won't leave well enough alone, will they? And at this point, I think it's fair to say that we can no longer write off every new video game adaptation as hot-air nonsense, doomed to blow about in perpetual pre-production until it withers and dies. No, if the Uncharted movie made it to publish, then any movie can. Or TV show, for that matter. But this sudden reliability does no come with a provable stamp of quality, not even close. Still we have to deal with the hare brained ideas for game adaptations that make no sense, "Oh, let's adapt Uncharted into a film; you know, that game which is popular becomes it apes popular film-making techniques and translates them neatly into gaming language so people feel like they're playing the cool set pieces? Yeah, we're gonna do that but without the intractability." 'No', 'stop it' and 'why would you even think that was a good idea?'. And then there's the Bioshock movie. Yes, a gorgeous world that will definitely translate to the silver screen, but the knock-out punch of Bioshock was the story twist which effortlessly deconstructed the typical 'call to adventure' set-up that games had been taking advantage of forever, that twist will be pitiful in comparison when executed on any other medium! But at least we have the Fallout show.
Announced what feels like a couple of years ago, The Fallout show is absolutely still on the docket to be made by... Amazon? Oh crud. (No matter what we can't escape 'Netflix-adaptation Lex Luthor', can we?) My point is that this idea works, Fallout can absolutely make the jump to TV flawlessly without becoming lost in translation and if it does; audiences who have even never heard of these games before are in for an absolute visual treat. There's no other post-apocalyptic series out there that treats the after-earth with such recognisable style, and which skilfully teeters between absurdity, relatability and abject tragedy all across the breadth of personal and sweeping narratives. Fallout isn't about the end, it's about the after; and that is what makes it stand out so brilliantly even amidst the bevy of post apocalyptic games within gaming, let alone outside of it. Which is all to say that I approve of this project, and hope it scores a big one.
And it might have already done that, what with the casting of Walter Goggins- are you serious? An honest to goodness character-actor with the sort of face you expect to see, and often do see, from a western. This is the kind of actor you can just feel sliding into the Fallout world so well it's almost too good. Why was this singular casting choice made public? Is it to distract from something godawful in the works behind the scenes? They're not going to do the unthinkable and set this Fallout show in Canada, are they? Actually I would totally love to see somewhere outside of America in the Fallout series, I know the 'American Dream' is a big part of the set-up, but after 5 entries (Including 76) you've got to start wondering if the series has the legs to expand it's horizons. Besides, Bethesda have dibs on the East coast stories, Obsidian (Formerly Black Isles) has the West Coast; what's left for the TV show? The Middle states? Yeah, 'cause we'd love a Fallout series which consists of 8 episodes of wondering around irradiated corn fields, wouldn't we?
If there is one thing I want, nay need to be true when it comes to this Fallout series, and I know it's a long shot, but I want it to be an original story so bad. I know the temptation to adapt the Fallout 3 narrative is there, because of how its very set-up, child leaves the safety of the Vault to brave the wastes in order to track down their Liam Neeson Father, seems so gift-wrapped and tempting for the lazy writer out there. Don't steal it! That story, and New Vegas', belongs to the players. Weighing in on it with any sort of adaption will drop that poisonous mist of 'canonicity' into a world that so-far exists exclusively within every player's copy of Fallout 3,4 and New Vegas. For the same reason why a direct Mass Effect adaptation would be a terrible idea, we have to put our foot down and establish an adaptation etiquette, so Hollywood can realise that this isn't the same as just book adaptations. There are gaming industry unique variables to really consider and respects that should be paid.
Whatsomore, don't we deserve a new story? Something I've been thinking about for a while when it comes to Fallout is how much we've been denied the truly expansive universe that these games could have been, simply because we have to wait for an entire massive RPG to be made each time the universe is touched. Why not authorise some cool games of different genres from talented studios out there such as, and I can't believe I'm advocating for this, an RTS? There could be a smashing RTS Fallout game based on the 'Ceaser's Legion v NCR' war alone, or maybe new factions entirely! Bring us a new world with new vaults and new places to be excited about in this new show, make us fans who already love this series to bits, anticipate and speculate about the prospect of having our expectations exceeded.
What I'm looking for is several-fold; I need a story that is going to introduce the key tenets of the Wasteland in a satisfying, timely way for the new fans. That means we're going to have to see the 50's soul in the design of the ruins and old world advertising, the relation to the tragedy of the lost America will need to be shown off in some way other than old terminals and holotapes and I want to see Super Mutants. I know mutants are a little overplayed in the series right now despite their specific role in the first Fallout, but now they've become a deeply ingrained part of the core identity and thus shouldn't be shunned. There needs to be a Deathclaw. The Brotherhood are too easy to misconstrue as defacto heroes, and so should be kept back until a Season 2 plot point. Oh, and the Vault Tec Vault experiment that features in this season should be really twisted, so as to convey the absolute twisted moral depravity of the series-iconic Vault Tec company.
I would like a Fallout story set sometime between the events of Fallout 76 and the rest of the Fallout canon (there's a good hundred years or so) with which we can tell the story of some event that is sweeping, an event with consequence and lasting ramifications that shape this corner of the wasteland, wherever that corner ends up being. I'd love a totally new, imaginative, major faction to be introduced: and to that effect I think the one of the biggest post-apocalyptic tropes that Fallout hasn't adequately explored yet is sci-fi feudalism, so that's still open. Although a colonialism-themed post-war faction would be just as cool. Maybe there could even be shades of the Enclave littered throughout the narrative, just enough that we know they exist without becoming some overarching enemy, and I'd love a story that confronts the trauma related to living in this world and/or growing up as a Vault Tec lab experiment, as that's an angle we've never really had the chance to explore in any of the games, what with them being choice-heavy action RPGs.
With enough care and effort put into the script and casting, I genuinely believe that Amazon's Fallout could be a powerhouse series, totally shattering the curse of video game adaptations that we've taken for the norm for so long. It's just a ripe franchise with so much potential on the silver screen which you just know, with the right budget, would quickly grab attention and become a 'butts-to-seats' winner for the Prime service. I just hope that everyone is aware of what needs to be put in, financially and effort-wise, in order to achieve here, because if we seen a Supermutant waddle up in some rubber green mask, or T-45 Power Armour awkwardly jutting in weird carboard-looking angles (Like Master Chief's kind of does in the Halo show) it's going kill the dream before its started. After hearing definitively that Paramount is going to disrespect the series of Halo and drink deep from their own hubris in order to unmask Master Chief, (what makes you think you even have that right? Self righteous asshats.) the pressure falls now to this long awaited Fallout show to further legitimise gaming in the mainstream as a source of art. So no pressure, Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment