Before watching there was skepticism that from such an obviously experimental adaptation, by the standards of including the conversion of a game into a movie and vice versa, and on top of everything being released on a not-so-well-known streaming service, something worthwhile could come out of it (in particular knowing the fact how "Altered Carbon" (2018) ended, which also once began quite cheerfully), but so far the overall impression is relatively positive.

Among the advantages can note the general correspondence of the surroundings to the original one, rarity by today's standards, colorful characters, many references, and also the fact that the movie partly resembles a kind of mixture of "Judgment Day" (2008) and "The Book of Eli" (2009). On the other hand, there is enough of the now fashionable, dubious pun, regardless of the specifics and context of the series itself, flashbacks, where would we be without them, and predictable, standard drama, while in the mentioned two films, which at one time were not objective something outstanding, this kind of "obligatory elements" was not observed, which in many ways, despite all the flaws, made them interesting, as well as distinguishes them favorably from today. The latter is sometimes called an unofficial adaptation of the Fallout series, while the former, I think, is quite acceptable to be called a free adaptation of Rage (2011), before the actual release of it, although the theme and surroundings are certainly not unique. The soundtrack is rather secondary and has little in common with what the series offered, two games from which are available on PC.

The format itself probably introduces some limitations, as does the timing. Who today would watch a purely dark, melancholy story, where a lonely traveler is pursued by a mysterious, mad ice cream man and the further east you go, here to some extent following the Fallout paradigm, the more bizarre? Instead the main character is provided with a partner, and, as usual, she must be impulsive and hysterical. By definition, there cannot be any other "options", a cheerful beginning and ending, but episodes that sag in the middle.

In a conventional game with an open world, it could probably be different, as proven by the same Mad Max (2015), which is not similar to anything else, including the "ideological original," but in a modern series it is not. The sum of these factors once again makes it clear that it is clearly not worth waiting for any truly original projects, as well as the same adaptations, both today and in the foreseeable future, while in the past there were projects like the same "Duel" (1972), published more than fifty years ago, took place.

The theme of the tournament itself, where any wish of the surviving winner will be fulfilled, remains untouched in the first season - by and large it serves only as a free prehistory to it, revealing different, but not all, personalities involve and the plan is to cover it directly in the second season, if it comes to it in future.