The Last Of Us proved that with great care, a long runtime and a ton of money, video games can successfully translate to TV. This month, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, co-creators of Westworld, attempt to join this tiny pantheon with their ambitious adaptation of the beloved Fallout series. While there have been numerous Fallout games over the past 27 years since the original’s launch, they all share a distinctive look: a retro futuristic post-war US aesthetic, heavily inspired by the 1950s Atomic Age, replete with robot butlers, mutants and nuclear-powered cars. Players begin as a ‘vault dweller’, sealed in a vast underground nuclear-fallout shelter. Each game follows a standalone story but, in each case, players must leave this relative sanctuary for the vast badlands outside.

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game was released in 1997 and is credited with helping turn around the fortunes of gaming during its late 90s slump. It’s still fondly regarded, along with the sequel which swiftly followed a year later. It would be another decade before Skyrim developer, Bethesda, took over the series with Fallout 3, a phenomenally successful title that retained much of the classic iconography but brought it up to date as a first-person adventure set in a beautifully realised post-apocalyptic Washington DC.

In 2010, Obsidian Entertainment released a spin-off title, Fallout: New Vegas. Despite being constrained by the same buggy engine as Fallout 3, New Vegas has long been regarded by many fans as the series highlight. In 2015, Bethesda returned as developer for Fallout 4. Despite glowing reviews, many fans baulked at its relatively light RPG elements and it remains a contentious entry; although it’s not nearly as controversial as 2018’s Fallout 76 whose launch has gone down as one of the worst in history. Its reputation has been somewhat redeemed thanks to a vast amount of (ongoing) support, including a drastic decrease in its reliance on multiplayer mechanics.

Rather than adapt a previous story, the TV series is wisely following its own path while cherry-picking suitable elements from the games. It follows vault dweller Lucy (Ella Purnell) and features Kyle MacLachlan as her father while Walton Goggins plays a mutated bounty hunter. The trailer is set to The Ink Spots’ melancholic 1941 hit ‘I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire’. That same song featured in the much-loved teaser trailer for Fallout 3, a hat-tip that might help allay some fans’ fears.

All episodes of Fallout are available on Prime Video from Thursday 11 April.