Secret Level’s Alpha Build
Voice Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Arianna Greenblatt, Emily Swallow
Created By: Tim Miller
AI: “Come in. You have a game to play.”
“Honor of Kings: The Way of All Things” (Season 1, Episode 14)
Secret Level is a video game-themed animated anthology series made by the studio behind Love, Death, & Robots. Each episode explores a franchise in its setting and often focuses on characters from the game’s lore instead of its heroes.
Does this gaming grab-bag hit the high score or should Secret Level have stuck to one franchise? Let’s find out.
Scene Select
The Good
World Select
Liz: “All those moments, all the beauty, all the danger, and even all those painful deaths… It’s a new adventure. Just for you.”
“Spelunky: Tally” (Season 1, Episode 12)
Video game settings are some of fiction’s most immersive worlds, and Secret Level fully explores and brings them to life.
Episodes use varying styles to reflect the games, from the vibrant fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons to the war-torn modern world of Crossfire X. Some episodes focus more on the locations while others use them as a backdrop.
Diverse environments keep the stories distinct. Characters may evade the cartoonish traps of Spelunky, fight their way through Sifu’s painted Chinese nightclub, and then wander through an alien universe in Exodus.
While the environments are beautiful, Secret Level demands that new viewers do their homework. Technology, magic, and the rules of each setting are not explained so moments that make gamers cheer could be lost on newcomers.
Multiplayer
[A cleric protects the party from a dragon’s blast]
Dungeons and Dragons: The Queen’s Cradle” (Season 1, Episode 1)
Solon: “Run! I can hold it back on my own!”
Mora: [draws her blade] “But you’re not on your own.”
Secret Level understands that characters are a crucial element of the story. From a nameless courier to gaming icons, each episode showcases many heroes. The characters change as fast as their settings. Viewers can watch an android lab assistant named Rock upgrade into Mega Man, explorer Ana dodge countless traps, and a robot gladiator called Xan spark a revolution.
Many episodes focus on non-playable characters or original heroes. Will you thrill to a war between two military factions in Crossfire X? Root for Amos and Felicity’s tragic romance in The Outer Worlds? Laugh alongside the zany Freegunners of Concord? They’re all here–plus more.
A star-studded cast brings these characters to life, but three stand out from the pack. Keanu Reeves excels as the psychologically broken pilot of an Armored Core. Emily Swallow steals the show as a soft-spoken Pac-Man drone named Puck. Hop over to Next World and you’ll find Arnold Schwarzenegger having the time of his life as self-important Conan the Barbarian parody Aelstrom.
The Bad
Secret Level Speedrun
Dr. Light: “It doesn’t matter what I made you for. This is what you were meant for.”
“Mega Man: Start” (Season 1, Episode 10)
Love, Death, & Robots is famous for adapting flash fiction into varying length episodes, some only a few minutes long. Secret Level followed that formula, but video games are a different beast.
Episodes generally run 10-15 minutes. This gives the writers precious little time to introduce the setting, characters, threats, and other elements that make the games so enticing. Mega Man suffers the most from overcrowding, given a mere five minutes to cram in the setup, a fight scene, a father-son chat, and the android’s transformation into a superhero. That’s a trailer, not an episode.
The writers must have struggled as well, because half of the fifteen episode season features montages to showcase story arcs in minimal time. Other episodes had major plot alterations to fit them into a one-and-done format, even when the edits completely changed the game’s tone.
Some episodes put the shorter length to good use, including New Worlds, Concord, and Unreal Tournament 4, but there aren’t enough of them. The rest struggle to tell their tales in time or are stretched too far.
Memory Leak
Gamemaster: [repeated recording] …So these lowlives can witness the price of rebellion…
“Unreal Tournament: Xan” (Season 1, Episode 4)
Xan: [edits and deepens the broadcast] Witness… rebellion.”
Secret Level poses as a celebration of gaming, but many episodes feel like product placement, and some strike me as outright ads.
There are only three series I would expect non-gamers to recognize, Pac-Man, Mega Man, and Dungeons and Dragons. The rest are a grab bag of Massively Multiplayer Online games, action games that flew under the radar, and three defunct shooters.
A Warhammer 40K episode based on a recently released game? A prequel to Concord, which was released two months prior to this show? Another prequel to Pac-Man spinoff Shadow Labyrinth, which was announced a week after Secret Level came out? These are ads.
Secret Level’s season finale is the smoking gun, an unabashed Playstation commercial with cameos from recent gaming phenomena Helldivers 2, Sony’s biggest IP God of War, and the protagonist piloting Playstation-themed vehicles, ending on a shot of a skyscraper shaped like a PS5.
The Verdict
Secret Level is a solid base in desperate need of patching. The cast and crew clearly love the games they adapt, but struggle to make them appeal in micro-episodes. The series feels like an overlong commercial, but the framework is there for a showcase of the best gaming offers. Secret Level is okay, but could be great. Hopefully, season 2 will live up to that potential.
Video Game Adaptations We Recommend
Fallout: Season 1 Review
Arcane: League of Legends Season 1 Review
Castlevania Nocturne: Season 1 Review
Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.
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