All ‘Secret Level’ episodes ranked worst to best
Whoever came up with the idea for Secret Level deserves a raise.
Borrowing from the foundations laid by horror/sci-fi anthology Love Death and Robots, Secret Level brings the viewer 15 different stories set in the world of 15 different game franchises. Each game is (sometimes unrecognizably) re-imagined to deliver its essence to longtime fans and newcomers alike. While there are no bad episodes of Secret Level, some gems shine brighter than others. Here they are, all Secret Level episodes ranked worst to best.
15. Crossfire: Good Conflict
“Are we the bad guys?” is the essential question of Crossfire: Good Conflict – sadly, it isn’t exactly an interesting one. This hyper-realistically animated story of opposing mercenary squads in a Pulp Fiction-esque battle over a briefcase may take the viewer to the very edge of the uncanny valley, but fails to deliver anything to actually knock them off balance. As far as paramilitary shootouts go the action would pass inspection, but two squads of killers wondering if, in fact, murdering each other for hire is wrong isn’t exactly a penetrating question for the time.
14. Playtime: Fulfillment
Playtime: Fulfillment is one of the few original Secret Level tales, but when your series contains rich franchises like Warhammer 40k and Armored Core, that isn’t exactly a good thing. Playtime: Fulfillment is the story of a young girl named 0, who is tasked by her father bike through a futuristic city and deliver a mysterious package. She meets a bunch of Playstation characters – and the episode ends in a wholesome, if somewhat commercial-y twist. It’s cute, but it feels more like a palette cleanser than a Part One finale.
13. Mega Man: Start
Mega Man: Start is, as the title suggests, a play on the Mega Man origin story. Trouble is, Mega Man story doesn’t actually start until the end of the episode – and there’s not even much episode to begin with. Mega Man: Start clocks in at around five minutes, but we only get to see our hero don the iconic blue suit in the final part. Rather a bite-sized Mega Man tale, Start feels like a glorified trailer for an awesome series that – by design – will never get made. Hopefully the next season of Secret Level (if there is one) will rectify that.
12. Spelunky: Tally
This charming little episode inspired by the rogue-like game Spelunky, which centers around a spelunker who navigates a randomly generated sidescrolling cave system to look for loot. In Tally‘s case, we’re put in the climbing shoes of a young girl doomed to grind through endless caves, respawning every time she dies. The story is anything but macabre however, and the girl maintains an upbeat attitude while reacquainting herself with death in a never-ending loop. Spleunky: Tally is a love letter to the grind, the fundamental truth every gamer knows: keep throwing yourself at the wall, and someday you’ll break through.
11. Concord: Tale of the Implacable
Concord was a flop. Released in August of 2024, the sci-fi first person shooter met with poor sales and poorer reviews, and the game was jettisoned from Sony’s library. You can’t even play it anymore. Thankfully for Concord: Tale of the Implacable, the original game was so quickly canned that most people (myself included) had never even heard of it before its Secret Level episode came out – meaning that Implacable was a first impression for many. And not a bad one! It’s a fun, sci-fi romp about a plucky crew that takes on a nefarious space corporation. Han Solo vs. the Trade Federation, but with more neon colors!
10. Honor of Kings: The Way Of All Things
Honor of Kings: The Way of All Things is confusing, but that’s okay. It’s really more of a mood piece featuring some pseudo philosophical musing that you can let wash over you like the soft light that falls across its greyscale future-fantasy world. It’s a story of a young orphan who challenges a city controlling AI to a game of Go, which is a poignant homage to the real human vs. AI match between Go grandmaster Lee Sedol and AlphaGo. Just ignore the befuddling future-vision stuff and get lost in the machine vs. indomitable human spirit vibe, and it isn’t all that bad.
9. Sifu: It Takes a Life
Building off that glorious animated video game art-style pioneered by Arcane, Sifu: It Takes A Life is inspired by the fighting game Sifu – where you play as a martial arts master duking it out at different periods of your life. Age is a theme the game’s Secret Level adaptation as well, as its protagonist finds mysterious artifact that he uses to rejuvenate himself in order to complete his revenge quest, coming to each beautifully animated fight with a little more combat know-how every time. Like many of Secret Level‘s stories, it’s a metaphor for the gaming experience itself: defeat doesn’t belong to the one who dies, but the one who quits.
8. Exodus: Odyssey
Exodus: Odyssey is making waves in the gaming community, and its inspo game isn’t even out yet! Slated for a 2025 release, Exodus made one hell of a good commercial for itself with its Secret Level adaption. Odyssey tells the Interstellar-esque story of a father chasing his spacefaring daughter across the stars, and she’s aging faster than he is due to relativity-based reasons beyond my scientific comprehension. Bent laws of physics aside, it’s a poignant story that leaves the viewer with an asteroid-sized hole in the heart, and high hopes for Exodus‘ release.
7. Pac-Man: Circle
Pac-Man: Circle soars above the competition on the wings of sheer audacity. Secret Level could have played it safe with some baby’s-first-game story of father and son visiting a local arcade. But no, the brought Pac-Man to the world of grimdark sci-fi/fantasy, and it’s glorious. After getting his ass kicked by a powerful tech-demon at the end of a labyrinth, a humanoid wanderer mergers with a mysterious machine to become a spheroid eldritch abomination hungry for flesh. It’s nonsensical. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely stupid and brilliant. It’s Pac-Man, and don’t you forget it.
6. Unreal Tournament: Xan
Inspired by the Unreal Tournament fighting game, Unreal Tournament: Xan gives the viewer gladiator battling robots that we didn’t think to ask for, but are glad we got. This episode tells the story of Xan, a rebellious mining robot who enters themself into a fighting tournament in order to escape the monotony and servitude of their former life. Are you not entertained? Cause I sure am.
5. Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen’s Cradle
It’s hard to screw up a Dungeons and Dragons story, considering creativity and imagination is the foundation of the franchise. Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen’s Cradle doesn’t disappoint. A charming party of plucky adventurers take on a five headed dragon. It’s nothing new, more like a classic folktale retold for a modern age. Old stories are handed down for a reason, after all – they just work. And the action? Sublime.
4. Armored Core: Asset Management
It’s Keanu Reeves in a mech. What more do you need? An explanation? Context? I don’t see why, but fine. Inspired by the mecha shooter game series Armored Core – Crisis Management puts Keanu Reeves in the cockpit. Hired by shadowy employers, Reeves’ unnamed pilot has to fight through enemy mechs on a frigid, faraway planet in order to retrieve a valuable asset. As the episode continues, we get a clue into the emotional toll that the pilot’s man/machine connection takes. It’s a story not unlike Neon Genesis Evangelion – the slow unwinding of a person’s sanity due to the grinding pressure of a technologically byzantine and warlike world. Plus, it’s Keanu Reeves in a mech.
3. New World: The Once And Future King
With Conan the Barbarian aplomb, Arnold Schwarzenegger lends his voice to the rugged adventurer Aelstrom in what is easily Secret Level‘s funniest episode. The meat-headed warrior throws himself headlong into jaws of a dangerous island, only to repeatedly die, respawn, and do it over again. What begins as a comic exercise in futility ends as a surprisingly poignant love letter to the warrior in all of us, the gamer that refuses to give in to the odds.
2. The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep
Inspired by the space exploration epic The Outer Worlds, The Company We Keep turns its gaze away from the stars to tell an intimate story of a young orphan boy who refuses to give up on love – no matter how many horrible body-modification experiments he has to go through to find it. In order to ascend the ranks of a megacorp controlled world, young Amos volunteers to undergo company sponsored experiments to bring him closer to his crush Felicity. A romantic blend of shining innocent and dark humor, The Company We Keep is a tongue-in-cheek entry that can’t be missed.
1. Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear
Warhammer 40k is a lot like Berserk – a decades old grimdark story with a rabid fanbase that just can’t seem to get a good animated adaptation no matter how much it deserves to… until now. Centered around a group of titanic Space Marines whose might and resolve could make Master Chief quiver, these indomitable warriors look into the howling face of madness and refuse to blink. The soldiers battle against the demonic forces of Chaos is a goosebumps-inducing testament to the human spirit in the face of utter and overwhelming evil. There’s a reason why grown adults spend thousands of dollars and hours building and battling Warhammer 40k minifigures, because the franchise is just that good – And They Shall Know No Fear proves why.
(Featured Image: Amazon MGM Studios)
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