Secret Level review: our take on each episode of Amazon’s video game anthology

There are a few standouts among the 15 animated shorts in Amazon’s new video game-themed anthology series – the New World episode is pretty darn good – but overall, Secret Level features all flaws you might expect to find in a group of editor-approved films. odes to the brand’s iconic (and some less iconic) mascots. Some episodes feel like commercials, others like cutscenes that would be nice if we managed to take control once they’re over, but fail to impress as standalone stories.

The episodes are quite short, lasting around 10-12 minutes each. It feels like brevity should be a virtue here – who wants an hour-long Pac-Man joke? – but they actually end up feeling too light in many cases.

We divided up the episodes and watched them all. Below you’ll find our quick reviews along with a rating from 1 to 5 on a scale tailored to each episode. You’ll be able to check out the show for yourself when it starts streaming on Prime Video on December 10.

Episode 1: Dungeons & Dragons

This didn’t really work for me. I think what made last year’s D&D movie work so well was that it understood that D&D is fundamentally a bit silly. Get too serious with it, as this episode does, and you end up with something that feels like an introductory cutscene from a forgotten action-RPG.

There are definitely a lot of cool visuals on display, but I think this episode could always do with more than that. With properties like Warhammer 40k and Spelunky, there’s a novelty just seeing them depicted in a big-budget cinematic way. But when it comes to fantasy adventurers, dragons, and magic, we’ve seen it all a million times before in brilliant CGI. It really needed to lean into what makes D&D unique and interesting to stand out, and a surprise at the end of this episode wasn’t enough to do that.

There are some interesting characters in the group – the stoic dwarf monk is fun, and I would have loved to see more of the episode’s orc druids turn into battle. But what a strange choice to dedicate most of the screen time to a stereotypically dour paladin – I guess the creators didn’t realize that the reason so many players choose this class is purely for the overpowered smite attacks , and not for boring piety. —Robin Valentine, editor-in-chief

Rating: 2/5 saving throws

Episode 2: Sifu

(Image credit: Prime TV)

The best thing I can say about this episode is that it made me want to play the game again. It’s a brief fight scene, complete with a bit of rumination on how which we spend our lives with, essentially an ultra-condensed version of the game itself. The combat is very faithful to Sifu’s action movie style martial arts combat, which is some of the best ever put into a game, but it’s not the kind of thing I really want to see someone else play. If you feel like taking the imaginary controller out of the series’ hands and doing a better job beating up nightclub goons, then go play Sifu. —Tyler Wilde, American editor-in-chief

Rating: 2/5 punches

Episode 3: New World

(Image credit: Prime TV)

I’m tired of animated projects using the biggest movie stars possible instead of hiring truly talented voice acting artists, but it’s hard to argue with the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a boastful, stupid, self-centered moron. king in the New World episode.

There are plenty of well-timed gags, fun references to respawning and NPC trainers, and even a nod to one of Arnold’s memes as he taught important lessons over and over again and stubbornly refuses to learn from any of them. “You’re pretty bad at doing things,” his servant says just before the king runs off again to do more things, badly. –Christopher Livingston, editor-in-chief

Rating: 4/5 choppas

Episode 4: Unreal Tournament

I have very fond memories of staying up all night playing Unreal Tournament, and I mean all night. Until the sun came up and I realized I had to go to work without sleeping. The UT episode of Secret Level doesn’t exactly rekindle those fires for me, but the action sequences (they’re almost entirely action sequences) are good, and the two things I wanted to see most, my favorite weapon and a very special and utterly iconic card. , both appear. No complaints here. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 4/5 telefrags

Episode 5: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

(Image credit: Prime Video)

If this sequel to Space Marine 2 attempts to give us insight into its protagonist, Titus, by looking back at his childhood, it doesn’t really work. He presents himself as another stoic killing machine – just like the other marines – rather than the $40,000 equivalent of a rookie cop who breaks the rules but gets the job done, which is how he appears in games.

But that doesn’t really matter, because it succeeds as a combat showcase full of bloody deaths and gives Chaos all the personality that the Ultramarines lack. The cultists are straight out of Mad Max and look like they’re having a good time until the second they get sent into disarray, and the mutated witch is super unsettling, especially the way her wing-like limbs fold back.

It doesn’t really need to be connected to Space Marine 2, and would have worked just as well without the video game tie-in. I haven’t seen a 40km fight with this much enthusiasm and puppet-like weirdness since animated Astartes. —Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor

Rating: 4/5 skulls

Episode 6: Pac-Man

(Image credit: Prime TV)

Of all the Secret Level episodes I’ve seen, this one is by far the strangest. And it’s no coincidence: according to the creators of the series, Bandai Namco said “We would like the public to wonder what they did with Pac-Man.” I dare say this goal was achieved thanks to an unusual and gruesome version of the iconic dot-gobbling circle. I don’t really understand the episode and it barely seems related to the game, but that’s what I like about it. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 4/5 Clydes

Episode 7: Crossfire

Do you like badass operators who say badass things and all share the same personality: badass? They yell a lot of things like “Lost visual!” and refer to the person they’re escorting as “Parcel”, that sort of thing? I don’t know much about Crossfire other than it’s a Counter-Strike type game, but that doesn’t make me want to play it or even learn more. The episode is one of the longest in the series, but mostly feels like a trailer for a direct-to-streaming action movie starring, I don’t know, Frank Grillo, which you never watch because that you are not a Starz subscriber. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 1/5 Packages

Episode 8: Armored Core

(Image credit: Prime TV)

I realize that the problem with the almost realistic imagery and animation style of some of these episodes is that they are reminiscent of video game cutscenes, and why would I want to spend more time watching game cutscenes video than I already do? Either way, Keanu Reeves is a brutal, hard-drinking, hard-living burnout who growls and growls and talks with a voice in his head, and it’s hard not to feel like he ‘ve seen this done for about 30 years. hours in a game already. Because I did it. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 1/5 Silverhands

Episode 9: The Outer Worlds

This episode works for a while, making me want to dive back into the colorful, satirically corporate-run universe of The Outer Worlds. A love interest only subjects himself to horrific product testing experiments in the hopes of finding a scientist he’s been making fun of, which is grimly entertaining, but then he preys on sentimentality and misses. I blame Pixar for making everyone think they have to aim for the heart when a simply entertaining story is enough. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 3/5 saltunas

Episode 10: Mega Man

This one has this strangely sweet and super cute look that permeates ArtStation. Something weirder would have been welcome. The length of these episodes seems more problematic to me the more I watch them. They’re so light – this one is only seven minutes long – that they can end up feeling like commercials rather than short films. This one seems aimed at introducing kids to the concept of Mega Man rather than appealing to fans of the series, who are probably mostly in their 40s. —Tyler Wilde

Note: 1/5 arm cannons

Episode 11: Exodus

(Image credit: Prime TV)

Look, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this. It’s an episode about a sci-fi game that no one has played and which bounces across so many planets, characters, and factions that it needs near-constant narration to keep up, which is not not great for a 10 minute show. However, one guy has some sort of cyberbog leopard bodyguard. It was cool. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 1/5 great loyal cybercats

Episode 12: Spelunky

I guess Spelunky isn’t a bad place to explore the concept of dying and starting over repeatedly and what that means for a video game character. Why does this happen? How is this happening? After dozens or hundreds of deaths and rebirths, would this have a mental impact? But this segment fails to capture the hilarity and cruelty of Spelunky’s systems, and worse, it attempts to create a heartwarming message that feels completely incongruous with the game. As if I missed a jump in Spelunky, this episode falls flat. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 1/5 angry traders

Episode 13: Concord

(Image credit: Amazon Prime)

I was hoping this episode would blow my mind, just for the dramatic irony, but Concord’s message from beyond the grave was clearly intended for an audience already in love with the universe of Concord, which does not exist because the game was stopped a few days after its launch. —Tyler Wilde

Rating: 2/5 quirky aliens

Episode 14: Honor of Kings

I don’t know much about Honor of Kings other than it’s a mobile MOBA, so I’m not sure how relevant this installment is to the game. I love the idea of a huge living city controlled by an AI that appears to be collapsing, but the episode gets bogged down in exposition almost immediately, which is a bit of a problem since it’s only 15 minutes long. —Christopher Livingston

Rating: 2/5 board games played to decide someone’s fate

Episode 15: PlayStation

A bike courier is chased by Sony characters from another dimension: if you’re trying to create a team of PlayStation mascots, it’s not a bad premise. This still comes off as a long commercial, and I expected to see deeper cuts in a 10-minute parade of references. —Tyler Wilde

Rating: 2/5 PlayStation Exclusives