Season two of Amazon’s Fallout (2025) continues the difficult task of successfully translating Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic role-playing game series to television. Performances from Walton Goggins as Cooper Howard and The Ghoul, and Ella Purnell as Lucy are particularly strong, especially in episode five. At the same time, Howard Cummings’ set design captures the retro-futuristic wasteland that gamers were expecting to a tee. However, for some long-time gamers, the show can feel frustrating. Lore changes, faction politics are simplified, and, most of all, the decision to centre season two in Las Vegas, arguably the franchise’s most beloved setting, has drawn criticism from diehard fans. But as someone who has spent many years wandering Fallout’s wasteland across the states of America, I think that’s the price of adapting a video game into a television series.
The core difficulty with video game adaptations, particularly for role-playing games such as Fallout, is that player autonomy is completely lost on television. In episode four, Lucy and the Ghoul encounter the Kings, a beloved faction within Fallout: New Vegas. In the game, they are an instrumental group capable of granting access to the Strip (a critical area to advance the game), weakening major factions and even changing the course of the Mojave. When Lucy and the Ghoul encounter them in the show fifteen years later, they are irradiated, zombified, and within two minutes, Lucy kills them. While this may frustrate longtime players, the scene ultimately demonstrates Lucy’s growing adaptation to the wasteland’s brutality, abandoning her sheltered morality.
Focusing on what the show gets right, one aspect that stands out is the remarkable dedication to detail in Howard Cummings’ set design. From the sweets packaging, unique to the Fallout universe, to the Legion’s nearly identical costume design, the attention to detail is something gamers like me appreciate. Another strength is the show’s tone. A defining feature of the games is their ability to balance the sadness of a post-apocalyptic world with absurd humour, and the show captures this seamlessly. Walton Goggins’ portrayal of the Ghoul exemplifies this balance, shifting from Cooper Howard’s cynical humour to the Ghoul fighting for his life whilst impaled on a pole for an unknown number of days.
Ultimately, Fallout’s second season shows both the strengths and limitations of adapting a massive role-playing game series to television. While some narrative choices and lore changes may frustrate longtime fans who spent years shaping their own stories in the wasteland, the show’s performances, world-building, and attention to detail make it one of the strongest video game adaptations in recent years. It may not replicate the freedom of the games—nothing ever will, that’s why you need to play them—but it still delivers an entertaining journey through the wasteland. With Colorado teased as the next location, we waste landers are excited to see what comes next!
Photo by Fredrick Tendong on Unsplash.