Season 1 |
|
|
Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 4.5/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 9 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 10 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 11 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 12 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 13 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 14 -| Review Score – 5/5
Episode 15 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
When it comes to the pinnacle of animated anthologies, very few come close to the scope and breadth of visual storytelling seen in Love, Death & Robots. The show became an instant hit when it dropped on Netflix in 2019, with bitesize episodes that managed to tell a complete story, usually with a thought provoking twist or a unique hook that made you think.
One of the better parts of the show though came from its mixture of animated styles. While one would use photorealistic CGI and state of the art motion capture, another would switch things up with cartoony graphics, and others would use hand-drawn animation.
The point is, this anthology capitalized on the wide pool of talent in the animation field, all brought together under the vision of creator Tim Miller.
Fast forward to 2024, and there’s a new anthology series on the horizon, brought by the same team that worked on Love, Death & Robots. Step forward, Secret Level. This new series collects 15 animated stories but throws them in with a unique twist – they’re all set within the videogame world and depict “secret levels” not captured within the games they’re featuring.
On paper, that opens up a world of possibilities and gives animators a chance to breathe new life into old franchises, or tell stories we may not otherwise have seen on-screen. Given the sheer breadth of video games out there, the sky is essentially the limit with this one.
What we get here in this first season is good but far away from the echelons of greatness and unique storytelling we saw with the first season of Love, Death & Robots. Visually, a lot of the episodes are outstanding but they all blur together a bit by using photorealistic CGI.
In fact, out of all 15 episodes, two of them use hand-drawn animation akin to Spider-Verse, one uses cartoony CGI and the rest all adopt the aforementioned photo-realistic style. Whether this is intended to try and make use of motion capture to bring in big names like Keanu Reeves or Arnold Schwarzenegger to try and draw in more eyeballs remains to be seen, but it’s a little disappointing that we don’t get more variety when it comes to the animation styles.
This is certainly worth noting because when the styles are so closely aligned, you’re naturally going to be drawn toward the stories within each IP to see which ones stand out. Your favourites are likely to differ but personally, the Warhammer and Honor of Kings episodes stand out with their narratives.
So what games are featured here? Well, the first half of the show takes us into the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, Sifu, New World, Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40k. From here, we then dive into a surrealist take on Pac-Man (more on that shortly), Crossfire, Armored Core and The Outer Worlds.
One of the hotly anticipated chapters comes in the form of Mega Man, which is disappointingly only 5 minutes long, followed by Exodus, Spelunky, Concord, Honor of Kings and a PlayStation advert called Playtime: Fulfilment.
Out of this collection, the most original interpretation of a videogame stems from Pac-Man. Here, we see our titular character thrown into a surreal labyrinth where a humanoid is forced to try and escape a maze by eating its enemies before they eat him. It’s a nice play on the 80’s game and it’s a shame then that more of the chapters don’t follow suit with this level of creative storytelling.
In fact, the choice of games here are a complete mixed bag. I genuinely have no idea who thought adding Concord was a good idea, because while the story itself riffs on ideas seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, the game itself was a colossal failure when it launched and had its servers shut down after two weeks. Yay?
We also get one for a game called Exodus, which isn’t even out yet until next summer, and a fair chunk of these are based on MMOs. Personally, it would have been nice to see more stories akin to Outer Worlds, which makes use of the quirky aesthetic and tone of the game to craft a unique narrative.
This anthology could so easily have had a humorous story of an exasperated shopkeeper from Skyrim for example, forced to deal with a growing stockpile of cheese wheels that he needs to try and sell. We could also have seen the day to day grind of a disposable villain in Mario, or even seen historical fiction based on lore found in Dark Souls, Dishonored or Monster Hunter, to name a few.
To be fair, copyright may have played a part here in determining which games were able to be adapted or thrown into this anthology, but the stories we do get are a mixed bag, to be honest.
Of course, it’s always going to be difficult to please everyone, but the final episode is likely to please very few people. Not only does it fail to tell a good narrative, it also feels like a complete waste of potential. The entire chapter, from start to finish, plays out like an advertisement for PlayStation. There’s no clever wit, statement or thought provoking moral to go with this, it’s literally just “whimsical chase with mascots”.
With all that being said though, if you’re even the slightest bit curious about this one, Secret Level is definitely worth checking out. The beauty of an anthology like this is that if you’re not vibing with the current episode, you can either skip to the next or, if you stick it out, you don’t have to wait too long for the next one to roll round.
The game choices are a bit questionable (looking at you Concord, what on earth are you doing here?!) and the unrealized potential for creativity is a sticking point, but beyond that there’s lots to like. Some of the episodes are genuinely excellent, and the visuals are definitely impressive.
All in all, Secret Level is a fun ride while it lasts, and while it doesn’t touch the excellence of Love, Death & Robots, has enough about it make for a solid recommendation.
Feel Free To Check Out More Of Our TV Show Reviews Here!
-
Verdict - 7/10
7/10