When you get down to brass tacks, Prime Video’s adaptation of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic video game series perfectly captures the experience of playing a Fallout game. Sometimes to a fault.
Ella Purnell’s Lucy MacLean did the whole leaving the vault to explore the wasteland for the first time thing in Fallout season 1, and five episodes into season 2, and I’m certain there has never been a video game adaptation that’s felt so true to the spirit and heart of the gameplay it was adapting. Nor has it become so obvious Lucy and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) are still only a couple of hours into the main questline of the TV series.
[Ed. note: spoilers for Fallout season 2 episodes 4-5.]
Last season ended with Lucy teaming up with the Ghoul to bring her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), to justice as the truth of who he really was (a Vault-Tec employee trained to carry out the company’s evil experiments) came to light. But at the end of the season, Hank escaped to New Vegas, setting up the show’s second season.
Four hour-long episodes into season 2, Lucy and Ghoul have finally arrived at their destination of New Vegas, but not without falling into some early game shenanigan pits along the way.
For one thing, Lucy’s Golden Rule of doing no harm unto others has gotten them into some real pickles, first with The Great Khans at the beginning of season 2, and again when she saves a dying woman who leads her into the arms of the worst faction within the Mojave Wasteland. While Lucy is doing the right thing in picking up quests, her playstyle means she’s not taking advantage of bartering for caps — Fallout’s in-world currency.
Look, we get it. The best thing about Fallout’s early game is that, as you first venture out, you discover the only real way to learn what does and doesn’t work in the Wasteland is by making some choices. Those choices can be very bad, like murdering or incapacitating shopkeepers to get something you want; or good, such as helping foster and develop a community. But the best part about some of these decisions is that only a few come back to bite you in the ass later on. Considering Lucy’s running and gunning of Sonny’s Sundries in episode 5, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if she became vilified by the community. Gamewise, that can mean vendors and NPCs may refuse to speak to you, and some NPCs will even start to hunt you down if you’re in the nearby area. While it may not be applicable right now to Lucy, we wouldn’t be surprised if this comes back to haunt her — mentally and physically — later on.
However, Lucy’s kamikaze shopping trip does manage to capture how chaotic a new player’s first trip into the Wasteland can be. Any self-respecting Fallout player will tell you that, no matter whether you’re playing the older games, New Vegas, or the more recent 4 and 76, the early game has you running dangerously low on caps. This can be a real bummer, depending on your level of difficulty and overall playstyle. The fewer caps you have, the less likely you’ll have the resources you need — such as stimpaks — to heal you mid-combat.
So what’s a person to do? Be a moral and upstanding citizen and help everyone you meet? Sure, you could do that. But that’s hard in the early game when you’ve got zero bullets and you’re dying of radiation poisoning. Life in the Wasteland is far from fair, and when you’re like Lucy, a victim of inflation that puts Addictol, an inhaler-like cure that only costs a measly 125 caps in Fallout 4, to 1000 caps… Well, you have three options: theft and murder, selling items to get the caps necessary, or walking away. We’ll give you three guesses on which Lucy picks. (Hint: It’s the first one.)
Jokes aside, this chaos of Lucy and Ghoul’s journey has been a wild ride to witness as a long-time fan of the franchise. While Prime Video’s adaptation has had moments that haven’t been my favorite as a fan of the franchise (RIP the Kings), it’s been fascinating to watch the gameplay get adapted into a medium like TV. The show has straddled the line between leaning into the franchise’s gaming aspect (for example, becoming immediately addicted after a shot of Buffout doesn’t exactly reflect real life) and knowing when and where to be serious. Lucy’s character arc, in particular, has her realizing that her “do no harm” attitude and her rules for treating others as you want to be treated aren’t always possible. In the game, while there are plenty of morally grey choices, you can play a fairly angelic character. It’s tough, especially in the early game, but it’s possible.
However, Lucy doesn’t have the luxury of time or a save button, and thanks to her drug addiction, she’s not thinking straight. The result is that she violates her own moral code. But hey, who hasn’t been guilty of shooting a guy because you really needed that Rad-Away he was carrying?
Moral of the story? There isn’t one. How you play any Fallout game is up to you, but if we had to give a single slice of advice for anyone looking for an easier time in the early stages of Fallout, it’s this: Don’t be a Lucy and Ghoul. Barter your items. Ask for more caps on side quests. Don’t kill shopkeepers, even if the shopkeeper might actually be a raider. In fact, especially don’t do that, because you never know if said raider’s buddies are just around the corner.
