Pinball Never Changes.

Pinball, however, does advance. Hands-on with Stern's latest: Fallout.

Stern Pinball spared no bottlecaps loading what it clearly intends to be a landmark release — if perhaps a war-ruined landmark, as the case may be.

Budget isn't everything — the mechs and toys only get so far if the execution isn't there. It's there, with some rough edges here and there.

But this isn't just pinball. This is the Wasteland. The Wasteland isn't always pretty.

I learned that right away on my first game on the Premium at Stern's media day Wednesday in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, draining quickly as if my eyes adjusted to the world outside the Vault — an event that generally begins every Fallout game story.

Elwin's atomic-age epic

Fallout shoots most like Godzilla among Keith Elwin games, but the shot geometry perhaps more of a Lord of the Rings feel than anything — particularly the shot up the middle at the Vault 33 door, which is functional and opens much like it does in the game in the Premium and Limited editions.

Stern Insider Connected's utility is getting further expanded, picking up where Venom started and Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye advanced. The system will allow leveling up for the selectable characters pre-ball launch; these characters are sourced mainly from the TV show, like Lucy MacLean and Maximus. For fans of the game series who didn't see the show, "The Ghoul" can easily be seen as the Fallout 4 anti-hero mayor of Goodneighbor, Hancock.

Insider Connected was not yet live for Fallout on media day. What was available on media day, though, was a chance to hear the game's sound package without much background noise. The game largely sounds like its source material. The Fallout theme is the main motif, and there are six licensed songs associated with the video game and series. There wasn't "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" — but the music in the game still carries Fallout's art-deco 21st century sci-fi mood. Other sounds, like the V.A.T.S. targeting blips, could have come out of a PlayStation 4 as you target a Deathclaw — which also is represented on the playfield as a Walking Dead walker-like bash toy that kicks the ball back toward the flippers.

The Wasteland is a brutal place to be

The video game series and its Amazon series spinoff are melded together seamlessly. The graphics integrate the game's feel with show clips that get reused much less than past television or movie-based Stern projects.

Perhaps the only backward step in Fallout from previous games can likely be fixed in code updates. Stern is unrivaled in the intuitiveness of objectives and what to shoot. However, particularly on the Premium and LE, there is a lot to process visually on the playfield. My first game was on the Premium, and I noob-flipped up the middle just to try to open the vault. Nothing else said, "shoot this."

I also learned the treacherous nature of the left outlane area, with a pop bumper Keith Elwin said was inspired by the classic Bally punisher Paragon. At least twice Wednesday, I didn't hit the bumper, but alley passed the ball into the outlane drain attempting to catch with the left flipper. The outlane design is closest to that of the right outlane in Cirqus Voltaire.

After a few games I started forming more of a strategy, which is the common progression for me getting to know games from makers like Jersey Jack and Spooky, both of which have been putting out games recently with a lot to take in at first glance. I picked up the fundamentals of the game better on the Pro, which lacks the upper playfield and Fat Man launcher.

The Premium and LE mechs, however, are a sight to behold. There's the vault door, but also the launcher that moves from side to side at the upper playfield targets unless you have qualified V.A.T.S. — that's the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, a mechanic from the game series that stops or slows time as you select a target for attack. This is just one of many ingenious theme integration elements.

Then there is the lower Magna-Flip playfield, which represents the vault interior, and feels much like the Powerfield from Twilight Zone. The mode is won with a similar technique as the Powerfield, but there are multiple targets to hit and an orbit. Completing the mode starts Vault multiball.

Balancing depth with playability

Elwin and Harrison Drake said during Wednesday's presentation that getting too deep into the game series' many factions and its storyline forks that often involve moral dilemmas without a clear-cut "good" outcome involved too much complexity to be folded into the fabric of the game. Elwin added that Avengers: Infinity Quest was an example of when rules got too complicated.

Still, players going for an evil playthrough can steal from the in-game merchant, which otherwise functions like the stores in D&D, The Mandalorian, and Game of Thrones. There is a significant chance you will be caught in the act if you do, much like the game's pickpocketing mechanic. You must then complete a timed hurry-up at the risk of losing your caps and items. Even if you do succeed, the prices double on future shop visits.

More toys, more caps

Buyers may need to be "Prepared For The Future" in another way — Fallout is also Stern's most expensive cornerstone release to date. The Pro is $7,299, the Premium $10,699 and the Limited Edition $13,999. Stern's George Gomez said Wednesday that no other games' price point will be raised "this year."

While the indication was that permanent price point increases could be on the horizon, Fallout shows that more great things might get put under the glass in the same timeframe.

More and better pinball is a future for which we can all happily prepare. It's better than the prospect of living in a giant steel ant farm underground, eating tapioca pudding and Insta-Mash, and being an unwitting experiment subject.

For readers unfamiliar with the Fallout series, the latter is pretty much the foundation of its storyline.