Secret Level Season One Early Review

When Secret Level was announced, it looked to do in the video game space what Love, Death, and Robots had so perfectly done with the sci-fi genre. With a shared creator of both series in Tim Miller, established video game properties, and a multitude of talented production studios and writers to approach each story uniquely, the series seemed to be an easy success for all parties involved. Over two seasons, the latter delivered incredible narratives covering the entire spectrum of emotional storytelling by making the most of its content through the use of extended and short runtimes across its episodes. This strategy could easily and naturally translate into the video game space as the 15 individual stories, all with built-in lore and fanbases, can tell their story their way.

And for the most part, it worked.

For those familiar with anthology series, there is an unspoken excitement inherent to each episode as both the creator and audience know there is only one opportunity to tell a compelling and entertaining story. In this case, with Secret Level, this agreement is heightened even more as fans who have followed certain video game franchises that are featured within the series thus far expect their universes and the characters within them to be treated with reverence while still offering something to audiences that they haven’t seen before. In short, it’s a high expectation that most of the 15 episodes deliver, while some suffer from stunted runtimes or not enough expansive thought towards a property that might not have a deeply seeded lore to draw from.

A perfect example of when this works harmoniously is the opening episode featuring Warhammer 40,000, “And They Shall Know Fear,” which is not only visually stunning but also captures audiences both unfamiliar and known with a gripping story using minimal dialogue across its 18-minute runtime. While others, such as the episode centering around Mega Man feel unfinished and rushed as it attempts to cram an origin story into 7 minutes, delivering several solid scenes but ends in such an abrupt way, just as the story starts to become fully engaging. Another example is with the Sifu episode, not because it isn’t visually striking, looking like a beautifully animated manifestation of the video game art, but viewers who might not be familiar with the source material could find themselves extremely confused while knowledgeable fans will instantly be familiar. Meanwhile, several episodes feel included as if they are meant to meet a corporate quota or are viewed as low-hanging marketing assets for certain companies that allowed some of their franchise characters to be featured in what can be perceived as a glorified commercial.

Despite these glaring missteps across several episodes, the excitement for the prospects of the episodes that followed was still there. More often than not, many will be faced with well-crafted episodes featuring games that viewers will have grown to love over the course of their lives.  However, the most engaging episodes were arguably those with no prior understanding of going in, leaving a lasting impression well after the final credits rolled. Of course, this experience will vary depending on the viewer, but the episodes set in the worlds of Warhammer 40,000, The Outer Worlds, and New World Aeternum were the easy standouts, offering a wide array of entertainment through incredible fight sequences, gut-punching emotional loss, and sly humor. Mixed among these season’ highs and lows are other episodes that fall will likely fall on either side of the enjoyment spectrum but in the end, the few weaker episodes hold it back from becoming something truly special. While many episodes have a certain rewatch value to them, after reflecting on the season as a whole, even those major bright spots contain a shadow from the other episodes that just did not fully hit the mark.

Ultimately, the aspect of Secret Level that should be most appreciated is that while not every episode completely worked to perfection, the various narrative approaches and risks that were taken with each story should at least be acknowledged and applauded. Overall, the series should be every gamer’s dream as many beloved properties are reimagined or shown in unique ways throughout, with many new converts ready to join post-launch. However, with episodes that, for the most part, leave much more to be desired, viewer will be left wondering what could have been.

still courtesy of Prime Video

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