After “Love, Death & Robots” comes the new format “Secret Level” from Blur Studio, which refers to some more or less well-chosen gaming franchises. Audio-visually, the series is a feast for the eyes, but is that enough? We took a closer look at the first three episodes.
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This is what happens in the animated anthology series “Secret Level”
Secret Level is the latest venture from the makers of Love, Death & Robots and deals with some popular gaming franchises in fifteen parts in the form of an animated series. In the first three episodes we experience short stories about “Warhammer 40,000”, “Unreal Tournament” and “Concord”).
A dream for gamblers
A 15-part anthology series, each set in one of our favorite gaming franchises – that sounds like a gamer's dream come true, and in a way it is. At least if you approach the whole thing from the purely audiovisual side. Was the design of the current project Blur studio When it comes to this, the first three parts we reviewed really leave nothing to be desired.
There we see character animations that can hardly be distinguished from real people, “Warhammer” marines cut through crowds of enemies in streams of realistically animated blood, the lighting is a proverbial hammer and both spacesuits and spaceships take your breath away. There's banging and shooting at every corner and the first 17 minutes are filled with extreme action.
The same applies to the next two parts, which deal with the “Unreal Tournament” and the “Concord” franchise. In the first moment, mining robots rise up against humanity and in the second, a rebel leader flies from her captors after a spectacular liberation operation – cool wow moments included. In general, the ultimately very short stories are filled with a lot of spectacle, although while watching I often asked myself why these gaming universes were chosen.
In addition to the high-profile shooter games mentioned, the makers also focus on indie games like the pixel platformer “Spelunky,” but I sorely miss others like “Horizon,” “STALKER” or “Guild Wars.” But as we all know, taste is secondary, so forget it and go for the mini-food.
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Lots of looks, little content
The word “mini-food” chosen above is apt, especially if you have the illusion that the individual stories could generate depth in some way. The content of the episodes is so short that you can't quite shake the feeling that the series makers wouldn't expect the intended target audience to have an attention span of more than ten to 15 minutes.
An idea like fewer franchises and more content would have really benefited the format, especially since positive approaches are definitely noticeable. For example, the “Warhammer 40,000” plot is all about the big theme of camaraderie, the “Unreal Tournament” part is about freedom and so on. At the end of the day, it's all far too thin to be able to draw a conclusion as to whether you really want to tell us something here or are just relying on strong images.
Overall, the suspicion that the latter is the case is quite reasonable, otherwise one would have either decided on longer stories with fewer episodes or simply on double episodes in order to be able to offer the audience something on a narrative level.
Not suitable for every person
This shows “Secret Level” from a side that perhaps not everyone who watches it will like, especially since some episodes are also exceptionally brutal. Certainly: The streaming service Amazon Prime Video has clearly announced that we are dealing with an animated series for adults. But on the other hand, why the austerity measures? This could undoubtedly have been handled better…
Anyone who is just looking for a cinematic homage to this or that game without any further conditions will do well thanks to the cinematic staging, the banging sound and the impressive visualization, but anyone hoping to see a new story within their favorite franchise will be bitterly disappointed will be.
In other words, the question of who needs this series is absolutely justified. Gamers usually play through their favorite virtual world for at least ten, but often hundreds of hours (“Dungeons & Dragons”, “New World: Aeternum”), so one can express the suspicion that not everyone watching is happy with ten to 15 minutes watch it and let it be fobbed off. In addition, a game like “New World: Aeternum”, which is deliberately mentioned in brackets, is more due to Amazon’s choice than to the favor of the gaming community, since it is an in-house product.
Otherwise, the much more popular “Final Fantasy XIV” or “The Elder Scrolls Online” might have been chosen to cater to MMORPG fans. But that may also be a question of taste and should therefore not be included in the final grading of the animation anthology.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that assessing “Secret Level” fairly is not that easy. Because of the visual power, I feel really entertained and will watch the series from every case to the last episode. My gamer heart also performs one or two happy dances in the first three parts, with the “Warhammer 40,000” episode appealing to me the most so far. On the one hand, this is due to the nerd in me, who especially loves the dark fantasy spin-off with “Mark of Chaos” and the MMORPG “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning”, which has unfortunately long since been shut down.
On the other hand, the shooter fan also jumps into the excitement of the action and enjoys the hectoliters of pixel blood that pours onto the Space Marines' armor. Unfortunately, from then on, the enthusiasm decreases with each part and I have to answer the question of whether that's enough for a place at the top of the evaluation podium because of the content of the lectures… But the success of the series dies out anyway Almost certainly no termination.
We distribute three and a half pixels out of five.
