Fallout TV show production designer Howard Cummings says there's one combat-related Easter egg you might have missed.
"Jonathan Nolan never does things small and he said, 'Oh yeah, we're gonna go to distant locations and we're gonna shoot it on film to give it a technical feel," Cummings tells GamesRadar+. "And the action sequences, you know, he wanted every crazy [effect], like when The Ghoul’s shooting people – those bullets are freaking huge and they’re blowing holes through people and stuff. That’s part of the game, too. But the detail in all the vaults, the crazy props, the weaponry – I sort of fell in love with it all and I didn't really know it very well and I didn't know the history and I didn't know how interconnected it was. "
In episode 2, there's an epic shoot-out between the Ghoul and the residents of Filly. Cooper Howard shoots comically large bullets through each of his targets with deadly accuracy, which actually caused some fans to wonder if Cooper was, in fact, using V.A.T.S. V.A.T.S., or the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, is a stat-based combat system used in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout '76.
One Fallout fan edited the episode 2 shoot-out to include what the VATS would look like over that scene – furthering the fan theory that Cooper Howard is indeed using Vault-Tec's advanced combat technology. Other franchise fans were quick to point out that, within the games, a Pip-Boy is needed in order to use VATS and that the Ghoul does not wear a Pip-Boy.
It's also possible that Cummings was simply referring to mirroring those same gory effects from the game – and that the Ghoul has simply had 200 years to perfect his combat skills.
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