Secret Level is an interesting project to me. Created by Tim Miller with Dave Wilson, it is an anthology animated series of original short films based on video game properties. Similar in a way to Miller and his Blur Studios’ earlier anthology series Love, Death, and Robots, it’s a series made to push what is acceptable in animation that’s more than general audience fare. Yet it also has to compete with what the films are based on, which is also animation – video games.
It’s this dynamic I struggled with why I should care when it was first announced. There’s the nature of passive entertainment and active entertainment. Watching something is different than controlling it. You can still be outstanding at the craft of it all, and it is amazingly crafted, but I want to play.
Unlike a regular series or film, there’s no overview or setup to explain. The anthology series starts with a film based on Dungeon & Dragons for its 50th anniversary and ends with a short celebrating the 30th of the Sony PlayStation. The shorts go from classics like Pac-Man and Mega Man (Rock Man) to new franchises like Sifu and Spelunky. So it’s a great swath of gaming covered and interpreted in very eye-catching stories and some very unexpected takes on games.
The animation in each short for Secret Level is very well-realized and highly detailed. They tend to be more realistic in look and dramatic in tone. While there’s some humor in some, it is primarily a serious affair in all of these. There’s a lot of science fiction and fantasy in each of these stories. The shorts are all so varied, and along with the games picked, there is something for everyone and some surprises as well. I say that as I’m into particular games, and most of the ones picked, I’m not into them in the slightest, yet the Honor of Kings short is one of my favorites. While I won’t play the game or even look it up, I might watch that short repeatedly. Some of the celebrity voices in the shorts are very good, especially in the Armored Core one.
I have a feeling, though, that it can feel like advertising cinematics for some when watching these instead of their own thing. I think that with the Level of animated cinematics in the games and for the adverts already, some might feel that this is no different. I can’t dissuade a person from that take, as the PlayStation one at the end with the timing of release does feel a bit more like a commercial than the others, and it’s hard to counter that feeling.
For me, the highlights are Sifu, a martial arts game with an interesting death and aging dynamic. It perfectly encapsulates the game in the short, with good fight direction, choreography, and a good ending. Unreal Tournament stood out as something I’d enjoy seeing as a show, honestly. Crossfire felt like it could be a live-action film with the tense action of one team trying to protect a VIP from another team. Dungeons & Dragons felt like it captured the spirit of the tabletop game and was a great way to start the series.
Then there’s Concord, the PlayStation game that launched earlier in the fall and was shut down within two weeks of release. This short film made me more interested in what this game was about than anything else. I have more critiques about how this game was handled and how the press and players received it, but I think this short story could’ve helped the game not die the sad, quick death it did. Hey, maybe someone will want to make it into a show or something.
Overall, I liked Secret Level and had a good time with it. It would be cool if they got to do another season with another selection of games to interpret.