Secret Level Review — Gaming Anthology Is Extremely Uneven

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Secret Levelis, if nothing else, one of the most unique attempts made at adapting video games to other mediums. Instead of adapting the story and characters of one game into a movie or series, it takes multiple different gaming franchises and uses each one to tell several smaller standalone stories within a single work.

Keanu Reeves in the Armored Core episode of Secret Level

Right off the bat, I respected the kind of guts it takes to try something like this, even if I wasn’t sure it was ever going to work. The show they ultimately got out of this experiment is one that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, but it is still admirable in its ambition.

What isSecret Levelabout?

Normally, this is the part of the review where I provide a brief plot summary of the movie or show in question, but that doesn’t really apply toSecret Level. It’s an anthology series, so each episode takes place in an entirely new setting, stars entirely new characters, and often tells that story within an entirely different genre.

There’s no framing device to specify who’s telling the story to whom, nor are there any recurring characters or significant narrative through-lines between episodes. Each of the fifteen stories is completely standalone, so you could theoretically watch them in any order you want and potentially even skip over episodes you aren’t interested in without missing any crucial information.

Mechs in the Armored Core episode of Secret Level

How isSecret Level?

I feel like most critiques ofSecret Levelare likely to label the series as “inconsistent,” but if anything, it feels like the show has the opposite problem. Nearly every episode uses a similar, photorealistic animation style that, while technically impressive, becomes artistically dull fairly quickly. Moreover, most of the stories have a very dark and serious tone that more often than not end on a pessimistic note. For something billed as a diverse celebration of all kinds of games across all different eras of gaming, a lot of it comes off as very same-y.

That’s not to say that the show as a whole is bad or that every episode needed to be a vibrant, bombastic joke-fest. I just feel it could’ve used more variety, especially considering that most of the games adapted are shooters or otherwise predominantly action-focused titles. What does aSecret Levelepisode based onTetrisorStardew Valleylook like? That feels like a fascinating question with a potentially fascinating answer that the show never even comes close to providing.

A still from the Concord episode of Secret Level

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With all that said, the stories that are told here are mostly enjoyable, even if some blend together and often vary wildly in terms of quality. Did we really need two different corporate sci-fi dystopias withThe Outer Worldsand Unreal Tournament? Probably not, but both still managed to tell compelling stories in their own right. Likewise, the show managed to take games I’d never even heard of, likeNew World: AeternumorHonor of Kings,and get me invested in these characters and their world in a fairly short amount of time.

On the other hand, having three different sci-fi military stories withWarhammer 40K,Armored Core, andExodusended up making all three blend together, Keanu Reeves’s presence in the second one notwithstanding. And while theDungeons & Dragonsepisode makes some noble attempts at a larger narrative, it mostly ends up feeling like flashy fan service for those already familiar with the franchise. Ironically, theConcordepisode, which has quickly become a punchline due to the game’s financial failure and subsequent delisting, is actually one of the better ones because it manages to have a fairly large set of relatively fleshed-out characters and some semblance of a sense of humor.

Keanu Reeves in the Armored Core episode of Secret Level

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The show’s biggest issue can perhaps best be illustrated by comparing its best and worst episodes. The best one,Mega Man, is one of the only episodes to utilize more stylized animation and does so very effectively. It uses the mechanics, lore, and even music from the original games to tell a simple but compelling story with a charming main character that struggles through but ultimately overcomes hardship. It only goes for about five minutes.

Meanwhile, the worst episode,Crossfire, is a boring story about interchangeable soldiers fighting in the vague concept of a war in a generic gray city where nobody’s actions improve or even alter anything by the end. This episode goes on for about twenty minutes.Secret Levelas a whole is far too eager to rush through its best ideas while marinating for far too long in its worst ones.

Mechs in the Armored Core episode of Secret Level

IsSecret Levelworth watching?

I wish I likedSecret Levelmore than I did. I love animation, and I will always appreciate anyone willing to experiment with the medium and try new things, especially on as huge a scale as this one. I admire the ambition of creating so many stories based on all these different games in one package. And the end result still managed to produce mostly enjoyable episodes and even some downright great ones.

But for every truly excellent story likeMega Man,Spelunky, orNew World: Aeternum, you get a solid but disappointing one likeDungeons & Dragons, a boring one likeCrossfire, or an ungodly stupid one likePac-Man, which reads like a parody of the show’s arguably overly self-serious tone that becomes funnier once you realize they aren’t joking. It’s phenomenal when it wants to be, but somewhat hard to recommend as a whole.

Secret Levelpremieres on Prime Video December 10. All fifteen episodes reviewed.