With theFallouttelevision series scheduled to release next month, the post-apocalyptic franchise is back in the public’s eye, and not always for positive reasons.
After the release of promotional posters featuring three of the series’ main characters, fans took to social media to bemoan the prominence of Nuka Cola in the images. The three posters (below) depict Ella Purnell as Jean, a vault dweller, Aaron Moten as Maximus, a Brother of Steel squire and Walton Goggins as The Ghoul, a ghoulish bounty hunter.
These posters have all the iconography people associate with Fallout: the trademark yellow/blue vault suit, power armour, Vault Boy and of course, Nuka Cola. The only thing missing is a Deathclaw tearing through the frame.
It may seem an inconsequential complaint, but the soft drink parody is certainly excessively featured in the promotion. Jean’s poster is a Nuka Cola pin-up, Maximus sits atop a Nuka Cola sign and The Ghoul strolls past a shelf stocked with various Nuka Cola bottles. It’s in-your-face product placement, and the product isn’t even real.
Yes, one of Fallout’s themes, like anything post-apocalyptic, is the collapse of capitalism. Yes, there is an element of real-life caricature there, placing brands front and centre as commentary on our real world. But, with each subsequent Fallout release, they’ve ramped up the parody to such a degree that it’s gone full circle and now Nuka Cola, despite not even being a real product, has become an obnoxious brand promotion.
A Caricature Of Itself
Nuka Cola originated as a consumable in the original Fallout. It doesn’t even do anything; its inclusion was just for parody’s sake and to act as a bridge between the old world and the new. You meet a guy addicted to Nuka Cola who drinks five litres a day, that’s the only character in the game who gives a damn about the stuff. It’s tongue-in-cheek, understated and in line with the sardonic nature of Fallout.
Fast-forward eighteen years to the release ofFallout 4, and it’s clear to see that Fallout has fallen victim to its tropes. Those sharp, creative inventions and threads that gave Fallout its quirky charm have become dominant, warranting immediate and visible inclusion rather than their original intention as flavouring.
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One of the opening quests of Fallout 4 is an illustrative example of how priorities have shifted in how Fallout is portrayed. After introducing the settlement mechanic in Sanctuary, you’re ushered towards the town of Concord.
After fighting your way through scores of raiders, you emerge onto the roof of the Freedom of the Museum and naturally, there’s a suit of power armour waiting for you, complete with a mini-gun for your destructive pleasure. You then proceed to leap off the roof and face down a Deathclaw, traditionally one of the strongest enemies in Fallout, in a cinematic battle across the town square. This all happens less than two hours into the game.
I’m not saying that it isn’t a cool sequence, but you’ve been given equipment traditionally aspired to in the power armour and fought what is traditionally a legendary enemy in the Deathclaw. This is because the tropes of Fallout now demand immediate inclusion, the Vault, power armour and Deathclaws. If Preston Garvey stepped over the corpse of the Deathclaw and offered you an ice-cold Nuka Cola, then that would just complete the whole thing, wouldn’t it?
He wouldn’t have to, as Bethesda would release Fallout 4’s first expansion, Nuka World in August 2016. It’s an entire theme park dedicated to the stuff, a veritable wonderland for lovers of Nuka Cola, which is who exactly? I get the comedic appeal, but you’ve pigeon-holed your whole expansion for a gimmick; there’s a reason why Far Harbor is preferred by most.
We’ve Strayed From What Fallout Used To Be About
Fallout is about telling the stories of the post-apocalypse, it’s about the characters that are enduring these extraordinary circumstances. Yes, the series has always included dark humour and comedic elements, hence the existence of Nuka Cola and Vault Boy, a mascot that was created as a reference to nuclear-scare social guidance films for kids. But, there is a real darkness in Fallout too, an exploration of the depraved potential of humanity.
These elements were more faithfully portrayed inFallout: New VegasandFallout 3; despite the praise for New Vegas’ capturing of the roleplaying spirit of the original two games, Fallout 3 does a better job at capturing the darkness of the series.
Those sharp, creative inventions and threads that gave Fallout its quirky charm have become dominant, warranting immediate and visible inclusion rather than their original intention as flavouring.
There was a noticeable tonal shift in Fallout 4, almost like Bethesda was making a game for someone with a surface-level interest in Fallout, a game based on the popular conception of the series. From what we’ve seen, Amazon’s Fallout is shaping up to be Fallout 4: The Movie. Executive producer Jonathan Nolan’s continued likening of the series to “a non-interactive Fallout 5” only supports the sentiment that this is what Fallout is now.
The Fallout that was is gone, having been replaced with a trope-laden parody of itself, and that’s a real shame.
