Secret Level

The animation is beautiful, that is undeniable. I struggle to get excited about such short episodes though. They seem like apprentice attempts. Can't get fully enthralled as you know it's over before you can even get any sort of connection with the characters. Was nice to see some celebrity involvement. Reeves and Arnie both play enjoyable parts. It's just all a little too experimental and depthless for me. Additionally If I was given the chance to choose the source material. I reckon I would have chosen a completely different set of games to revere. The Pacman episode was o.k. But was a demonstration of taking artistic licence to its absolute limit. It made me laugh at least. Overall I found the whole series to be a little underwhelming. 6 for the visuals.

I don't know how they managed to separate the first season into 2 complete separate quality parts. First was pretty good, I would rate it a solid 8, especially the Warhammer 40k episode, that was a 10.

And now we get to the second part, every episode was bad and mediocre. I had to skip the Concorde one, irritating, the last was so cringe that had to skip again. The only watchable episode was the Exodus one. Meh, what a letdown. Finish a season on the lowest quality episode.

I had to change my initial 8 score to 6, and that is even gracious. Do better for season 2!

I had to change my initial 8 score to 6, and that is even gracious. Do better for season 2!

I've always wanted a series like this. When watching cinematic trailers or cutscenes for video games I've often thought that some would make for peak television.

I knew the creators of love death and robots would nail another animated anthology series and am glad to be proven right. The Warhammer episode was definitely the highlight for me so far I really hope to see more in the future. My only complaint would to be given more time for certain episodes.

There are so many solid video game stories that this show can delve into and adapt into fleshed out episodes, the possibilities are very exciting and I'm glad they've gone for a more gritty and adult tone throughout. I am very pleased with what's been shown so far and am anticipating what's to come.

A lot of wasted potential, that's how I would define what happened with "Secret Level", I could also say that it was "Love, death and Robots" but bad.

This Amazon bet, which although it turned out fantastic (record viewing and confirmed a second season), did not seem to me to have lived up to expectations.

It bets only on one type of animation, it hardly experiments and we are only left with hyperrealism, which although it works for some chapters, it is not the solution to everything. Although the comparison with the Netflix series can be annoying, I think it is a great point of support when we evaluate "Secret Level" in general.

Another thing that was not right was dividing the episodes into two batches, with a first part that is far superior to the second in terms of quality and variety. Ending with a totally malicious Play Station advertisement.

When one thinks about the possibilities, the limits are infinite, however, in practice, only 4-5 chapters are rescued at most. Warhammer 40000 is the best episode without a doubt and I suppose I breathe a sigh of relief thinking about the series that Henry Cavill will star in in the future. It looks great, it's impressive, just a few minutes are enough to be inside the franchise.

Unreal Tournament was another episode that I liked, in that fight of the machines for survival against the corporation that wants to destroy them. It gives a little more in terms of the philosophical concept of the machines and their feeling.

The Pac-Man episode, although predictable, I also liked, it experiments with animation and is extremely dark, one of the few in that sense.

Honor of Kings, which has nothing to do with the LOL plagiarism game but has a very interesting background and concept. At the same time, it is the only episode of the second batch that is very good.

I hope that the next season is much better than this one and that great intellectual properties are included and that classics like Megaman are respected, which was a shame here.

All the episodes except few felt like game trailers, like what's the point of even making them if it's over before the conclusion. They have no plot elements or any kind of character developments. Few had very well laid out foundations and its execution was also well done. Ex: I was looking something in mega man episode. Maybe the next season they try a different approach.

So far the best ones are Warhammer, Unreal tournament and Armoured Core. These episodes have the best overall narrative which can be enjoyed as a story. Others were not bad but they felt like an afterthought or like a game trailer.