Secret Level, the animated anthology series set in the world of famous video games by Tim Miller’s Blur Studio of Love Death and Robots fame, is finally (all) out.
There are some gems here, but the overall output is rather unbalanced. Let’s rank all the episodes in a way no one on the Internet will dare disagree with, shall we?
15. PAC-MAN: Circle
Remember Bomberman: Act Zero, the reimagining of the classic for the Xbox 360 that seems to have mistaken one of the most immediately recognizable characters in gaming history with a cyberpunk version of the Unabomber? Everyone loathed the new rendition so much they condemned it to serve only as perfect cautionary tale against unnecessary gritty reboots.
I assume the people behind PAC-MAN circle looked at Bomberman: Act Edgy and thought, “It was so close; it just needed even more edge.” The result is something so mind-bendingly counterintuitive that you’ll need to see to believe. If you’re looking for an inexplicably dark origin story featuring extremely creepy-looking characters and ridiculous amounts of gore — yes, I am talking about that Pac-Man — then this is the one for you. If you’re looking at something that will make you ask important existential questions, such as “Is this real?” And “No, really, is this really real? then this is also the one for you. If you’re looking into trolling old folk by telling them Pac-Man has been secretly one of the vilest entities in gaming this entire time, and that they’re evil for letting you play it as a kid, then this is definitely the one for you.
If you’re not looking for the most ill-advised concept and execution for a short I’ve ever seen, then this is probably not for you.
14. Crossfire: Good Conflict
Crossfire‘s Secret Level and PAC-MAN: Circle sit on opposite ends of the bad spectrum. Whereas one is an absolutely bizarre and quite disrespectful adaptation, Crossfire leans too close to the (highly lackluster) source material.
Good Conflict features little more depth than an actual Crossfire match, and none of the excitement. I remember watching the trailer for Crossfire X — the first Crossfire title to put emphasis on a single player campaign — and feeling pretty hyped about it. That game turned out bad, but it sure did show promise for an adaptation that could capture the fun of a soft Metal Gear Solid rip-off. It doesn’t. Good Conflict just shows a shootout between two different teams by the numbers, which is neither interesting nor fun.
13. Playtime: Fulfillment
If Arcane taught us that the best way to adapt a video game to the big or small screens is to perhaps ignore all semblance of the actual game, then Playtime: Fulfillment is the student desperately trying to rebel and do the exact opposite. Either that, or it’s a straight-up PlayStation ad. The animation is good, but everything gets so bogged down by the visual noise of as many cameos as you can find that you can barely even pay attention to the incredibly thin plot.
At best, Playtime: Fulfillment will go down in history as an unnecessarily extended version of the “Long Live Play” PlayStation 3 ad from a while ago — an excuse to show you a bunch of famous PlayStation characters doing things. At worst, we’ll remember it as a Ready Player One ripoff. Most likely, however, we’ll just forget about it.
12. Mega Man: Start
The PAC-MAN episode had me very scared for Mega Man for a long while as I would only learn his fate upon the release of Secret Level’s second half. The good news is they didn’t massacre our boy by turning him into a grimdark hero via a grotesque origin story. The bad news is that the episode isn’t great, either — albeit its biggest problem is incidental.
Mega Man’s most obvious problem is that it’s a very simple origin story, one featuring zero actual Mega Man action. The most insidious problem — and the one the makers are not to blame for — is that its animation, though good, can’t help but to look like the millions of infinitely cursed clips of AI trying to do real CGI animation currently plaguing every inch of the Internet. Again, I’m pretty sure Studio Blur isn’t using AI, so this is probably just a case of extreme bad luck.
The actor portraying Dr. Light sounds like a good version of the infamously poorly voice-acted Dr. Light from Mega Man X, and I’m always here for a good tale of redemption.
11. Spelunky: Tally
Tally features animation that many are likely to enjoy since it’s highly reminiscent of the one seen on Arcane. The episode is consistent with the tone of the game, and also manages to add a neat little heartwarming plot to it. It’s a rather short episode, one that doesn’t do anything spectacular, but it checks all the boxes and does not overstay its welcome.
10. Unreal Tournament: Xan
If you’ve played the original Unreal Tournament, you’ll know Xan is the hardest NPC to beat, but he’s also a robot, meaning that the only sensible origin story for him to have would be “he’s a bot made to mess everyone up”. I guess I’d be down to see an episode where he gets improved upon further and further as he frags the cast of the original game, but that’s not it.
They made Xan’s story one about a robot uprising, but one that’s, somehow, good. In the end, Xan wins not because he’s the strongest but because he hacks the system. The episode’s action isn’t particularly riveting, nor does it feature any of the game’s beloved maps, but the conclusion is especially bonkers as you probably don’t want an episode about a competitive shooter promoting cheating.
9. Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen’s Cradle
D&D‘s episode features what could’ve been a very abridged look at a D&D campaign told by a very edgy Dungeon Master. The people behind Secret Level either failed to realize or neglected what’s giving people a newfound love for D&D. Shows like Critical Role, the movie Honor Among Thieves, and Baldur’s Gate 3 have caught the hearts of so many because of their fun shenanigans. Queen’s Cradle has decent action, but it’s just so incredibly dark and dour that you should probably ponder a bit before recommending it to a current D&D fan.
8. Exodus: Odyssey
This one tells the story of a father who’d really stop nowhere to rescue his daughter, but there’s a twist — a time twist. You see, we’re not talking about finding a girl in a different country, but rather in the far reaches of space where she’s aging at a faster rate than he is. If that sounds a little too much like Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar it’s because, well, it’s because it is, but there’s a silver lining. Though it’s not original, or particularly riveting, Odyssey is less than 15 minutes long, meaning it also cuts down a lot of the extra stuff making Interstellar one of the most bloated Sci-Fi movies of all time.
7. Sifu: It Takes a Life
Secret Level’s episodes are short and thus better used to tell a small story set in the world of a game rather than explain the entire concept of the game’s universe. Sifu’s It Takes a Life chooses to condense the story of the game into a single 10-minute or so episode, and the result is uneven.
The action is cool, it does a good job of explaining the character’s particular abilities, but it also ends up feeling too close to the game — a problem in a post-Arcane world. You might enjoy it whether or not you care about the game, but this one certainly won’t be world-changing for anyone.
6. Honor of Kings: The Way Of All Things
The plot of this episode is very simple. Possibly taking cues from The Seventh Seal, The Way Of All Things pits a regular person against a seemingly unbeatable opponent in a match of an insultingly simple game where everything is at stake.
If you’re looking for a visual feast, then you’ve come to the right place. Honor Of Kings does an excellent job of showing a simple match of GO really is affecting a whole kingdom. Besides the visual spectacle, though, The Way Of All Things tells an unoriginal — if decent — tale of self-sacrifice.
5. Armored Core: Asset Management
Asset Management‘s greatest asset is Keanu Reeves, who just doesn’t seem like he’ll be slowing down anytime after he began his renaissance with the original John Wick, but that’s not all. This episode features a rather simple plot, but does a great job of capturing the essence of Armored Core’s action, and even has some space to feature a nice little twist in the end.
The only downside here is the unnecessary amount of darkness that so many episodes of Secret Level seem to have been injected with, but it works better here than in the other episodes, which are also suffering from this malaise.
4. Concord: Tale Of The Implacable
When the first Secret Level trailer revealed Concord would be a part of the series even though the game had already been pretty much cancelled by Sony, I thought, “I’d be so funny if this turned out to be the best episode”. It’s not the best one, but it’s pretty damn good.
Tale Of The Implacable is a visually gorgeous tale about space pirates, betrayal, and comradery that masterfully averted feeling like a Guardians Of The Galaxy clone. There’s good action to remind you of Concord’s gameplay, but Implacable is mostly its own — good — thing.
This one will probably leave the few who got to enjoy Concord on a bittersweet note, but at least they’re getting a decent sendoff this time around.
3. Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear
Remember me complaining about the strange darkness polluting some of these episodes? Well, And They Shall Know No Fear doesn’t suffer from that, and not because it’s darkness-free. It’s because the darkness makes sense here. The Warhammer episode is a simple and brutal tale of what I assume everyday life in that universe is, and it works. The action is great, the grit doesn’t feel out of place, and it still manages to provide a perfect introduction to the main character.
The only possible downside here is that the episode feels a bit too much like Astartes, the famous fan-made Warhammer 40,000k short from a few years back. Still, Astartes was good, and this one is better, so I won’t be complaining much about that.
2. The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep
If you’re going into The Company We Keep expecting the fun times you’d naturally get from The Outer Worlds; I must warn you’re about to have a surprise — but not necessarily a bad one. The Company We Keep isn’t grimdark and features no action, but it packs one hell of a gut punch.
It’s a story about unrequited love in a universe swallowed and nearly-digested by greed and boundless ambition. It’s a great episode, one whose darkness stems more from its themes than from its visuals, a problem plaguing many of the episodes in this series.
1. New World: The Once and Future King
I don’t much care for the New World, so I definitely wasn’t expecting to get completely floored by The Once and Future King.
I don’t want to spoil anything about it, so I’m just going to say that New World: The Once and Future King is hilarious, features an elegant and constructive lesson regarding both gamer entitlement and the dredge that is colonialism, and ties it all up with a surprisingly heartwarming ending.
Secret Level’s New World episode is a masterclass in (short)storytelling that I hope the people looking forward to doing similar stuff should take right now.
Published: Dec 18, 2024 01:11 pm