The world as we know it has been nuked into oblivion and over 100 years later, various tribes have emerged from the ashes. There’s the vault people–wholesome, organized, but.. let’s say sheltered. There’s the intimidating, soulless military, living above ground. And don’t forget the clusterfuck of raiders, mutant cowboys and god knows what else, fighting for scraps in the wasteland.

Welcome to the world of Fallout—Prime Video‘s entry into the prestige, big-budget videogame adaptation sphere. But is Fallout the new Last of Us–a mature, gorgeously realized yarn that may as well have been a show to begin with–or more of a Halo, exploding with budget and world-building, but not much else?

I’m going to say–on first impression, premiere episode only–Fallout falls comfortably in between the two. Fallout, the game, is all about crafting your own character and finding your own path. By the end of the hugely customizable adventure, you could be the hero the world needs, the greatest villain it has ever known, or anything in between. Fallout the series manifests this idea through a solid ensemble–giving us an idea of every possible direction one could venture in this strange post-apocalypse.

The Show is working off an extremely well-realized world, and essentially a blank slate in terms of characters. That’s a major hurdle to overcome, unlike, say, The Last of Us, which as a game is more or less fixed in terms of its characters and script. Fallout shows promise in its characters in the first extended episode, but it clearly hasn’t been synthesised from as rich a source in that regard.

It also leans really hard into depicting its innumerable acts of violence with as many closeups of gore as it can muster. Again–this is true to the game–but it’s a bit much for TV. On the other hand, the visuals and the world-building are undeniably awesome. Fallout has a distinct tone. It’s a clash of ’50s aesthetics and futuristic technology. It can be goofy in one breath and devastating in the next.

And thus far, Fallout does a great job of bringing that wonderfully weird juxtaposition into a live-action cinematic reality. It’s extremely cool to see such an unfettered realization, given all the budget this universe needs and then some. For that alone, I’ll definitely be sticking around to see how the remaining 7 episodes unfold!