Dr. Acid Avatar
Member
The Warhammer fight scene made me instantly recognize the animator. It's the same guy who made the Astartes series. Go check it out on YouTube. Games Workshop hired the guy after he created that mini series.
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Secret Level IGN Review: 5/10
- Thread starter LectureMaster
- Start date
- Review
LordOfChaos
Member
Disappointing. The trailer went as far as making me hope this would be a love letter to gaming, sounds like it doesn't hit the mark.
MiguelItUp
Member
I've only watched the ones I was interested in, which were Unreal Tournament, Warhammer 40K, Sifu, and Pacman. They were fun watches. Won't bother with the others this season.
hououinkyouma00
Member
I only watched the Sifu, and Warhammer episodes.
Sifu was cool, Warhammer was awesome IMO. Animation was awesome and that was all I was really looking for out of this anyways.
I’ll watch AC later but I really don’t care about anything else.
Sifu was cool, Warhammer was awesome IMO. Animation was awesome and that was all I was really looking for out of this anyways.
I’ll watch AC later but I really don’t care about anything else.
FunkMiller
Member
Seeing Astartes move at the speed they should - instead of lumbering around like they do in Space Marine 2 - was great, and long overdue in an official adaptation.
It was a good 20 minutes of Space Marine bolter porn... but I hope that's not going to reflect the contents of the live action stuff too much. Astartes are fucking dull as actual characters.
Loved seeing a Tzeentch daemon human hybrid though. And the psyker in a coffin thing was brilliantly done.
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Newuserdontflame
Neo Member
Sounds like? Based off of IGN?
LordOfChaos
Member
No, all the reviews seem as mixed, lots of 5-6. But I see the user review is a bit higher on meta. I'll still check it out.
Secret Level Reviews
The animated anthology series features short stories set in a variety of video game worlds seen in Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Spelunky, and Warhammer 40,000.
www.metacritic.com
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Giallo Corsa
Member
Just watched the Armored core one and : Yeah, this is not good.
Almost no reference to the source material, no cool soundtrack (which AC is known for), no characters to speak of no...nothing, it's just a jumbled mess of "pew pew robots go boom" for 8-10 minutes and...Keanu - 'cause you always have to have some Keanu, amirite ?
If I were to describe it in one word that'd be "soulless".
5/10, the only positives were the nice-ish CG and that's pretty much it.
Almost no reference to the source material, no cool soundtrack (which AC is known for), no characters to speak of no...nothing, it's just a jumbled mess of "pew pew robots go boom" for 8-10 minutes and...Keanu - 'cause you always have to have some Keanu, amirite ?
If I were to describe it in one word that'd be "soulless".
5/10, the only positives were the nice-ish CG and that's pretty much it.
Superkewl
Member
I wanna see the EXODUS episode. That is my most anticipated game ATM. Reading the book at the moment as well, and the worldbuilding is great!
EDIT: Just checked and there is no Exodus episode apparently. Dunno why I thought there was.
EDIT2: Apparently there are more episodes coming on the 17th, and there is an EXODUS episode, so I wasn't losing my mind.
EDIT: Just checked and there is no Exodus episode apparently. Dunno why I thought there was.
EDIT2: Apparently there are more episodes coming on the 17th, and there is an EXODUS episode, so I wasn't losing my mind.
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I liked all of them except for the Pac-Man one, which was a weird dark interpretation of the game. I’m not sure why there’d be any negative sentiment for the series overall, these were all cg shorts based on their various games and I thought they were enjoyable.
The Space Marine 2/40K one was probably the best one but I thought Arnold Schwarzenegger and Keanu Reeves did a good job respectively for their IPs.
The Space Marine 2/40K one was probably the best one but I thought Arnold Schwarzenegger and Keanu Reeves did a good job respectively for their IPs.
midnightAI
Banned
And after watching a few episodes, it really is exactly what I expected from a Love, Death + Robots series based on games.
If you like LDR then there is no reason to not like this even if you dont know some of the games they interpret, so no complaints at all from me.
(but 5/10, they are having a laugh)
If you like LDR then there is no reason to not like this even if you dont know some of the games they interpret, so no complaints at all from me.
(but 5/10, they are having a laugh)
CompleteGlobalSaturation
Member
They run painfully slow in Space Marine 2.
I enjoyed the game - completed the campaign twice and spent a lot of time in co-op, but alas, time for me to retire the game as their max run speed seems to be capped at 5 mph.
fran.fernandez
Member
Sifu and the guy who want to be king were good, the others episodes not so much.
midasmulligan
Member
The animations alone from these creators are too good to pass up, will definitely watch.
midnightAI
Banned
I think I'm the only one who really enjoyed the Pac-Man episode. It's a really interesting take on the Pac-Man eating idea, its messed up and I like it (also awesome atmosphere, art and animation)
DonF
Member
I watched some episodes, my reviews:
pacman: 3/10 plain bad and dumb
warhammer: 7/10 cool visuals, very straightforward
armored core: 6/10 bland
i wanted to watch the concord one but it seems like they split the season and all the good ones are in part 2. (megaman, god of war, concord)
pacman: 3/10 plain bad and dumb
warhammer: 7/10 cool visuals, very straightforward
armored core: 6/10 bland
i wanted to watch the concord one but it seems like they split the season and all the good ones are in part 2. (megaman, god of war, concord)
SJRB
Gold Member
I loved it. It was so out there. Great animation and visual style, too. And a crazy ending. A very nightmarish take on a goofy premise.
I've watched all episodes and wouldn't rate any of them lower than a 6. They're all ranging from decent to great. Armored Core, unfortunately, is the outlier because it's a catastrophic misunderstanding of the IP. It should've been melancholic, nihilistic, dreary and not Johnny Silverhand getting in a bar fight and controlling a mech while synthwave beats pump the speakers. Amazing that Fromsoftware okayed this. But even with all that it looked absolutely insane.
Even the Crossfire episode (which is a game I know literally nothing about) and the episode is basically "edgy dudebro girlboss FUCK YEAH MILITARY" was still fun to watch because it has superfast pacing and looked phenomenal. It has several moments where it legit seems like I was watching IRL footage instead of CGI. Incredible stuff.
This show is an easy 8/10.
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Heimdall_Xtreme
Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
Kill Concord with fire!!!!
Schmendrick
Member
I liked most of the episodes. They don`t really reach the heights of "Love, Death and Robots" but they are solid. 7/10 I´d say. The visual quality in some of the episode is bonkers.
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midnightAI
Banned
The Concord episode isn't out until next week (I thought the trailer was pretty cool actually)
Heimdall_Xtreme
Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
It doesn't matter, when it comes out... Destroy it to dust
hinch7
Member
Only saw one episode in its entirety which was the Warhammer and that was damn amazing. Tried getting through the first episode with D&D, and that was bad. The Unreal Tournament one was also meh and a little cringe - do like the easter eggs though. I'll try the rest at some point but I have a feeling that this is one of the rarer instances where I'm (kinda) of siding with an IGN review score.
ManaByte
Gold Member
They did.
Heimdall_Xtreme
Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
manfestival
Member
I watched the Armored Core one and the Warhammer ones so far and they were great. Are there any other recommendations? Thinking of watching the dungeons and dragons one but not sure if I should bother with the others. Especially the New World one since the lore for that game is meh despite me sinking way too much time into it.
SJRB
Gold Member
Just watch them? They're all like 12 minutes so it's not exactly an insane time investment either way.
manfestival
Member
I get the sentiment but disagree(not about it being some insane time investment but the rest).
Meowtor
Gold Member
god fuck IGN, lmao
poodaddy
Member
Lets see here, the D and D, New World, and Pac Man episodes are just hilariously awful, but the Warhammer and Unreal episodes are simply incredible, 10/10, while the Sifu episode was fine. Bit uneven so far, but the highs are really high. Can't wait to see that MegaMan episode, it's honestly all I really care about, but I think that Warhammer episode just made me wanna check out the series.
March Climber
Member
I enjoyed the Crossfire episode quite a bit because of the intrigue of both sides considering themselves as 'the good guys' and both teams also character designed like a team of protagonists. There is something deeper there that could be explored in a similar way that Spec Ops: The Line explored the horrors of war.
This episode made me interested in the game...now imagine if we actually had access to a Remedy-developed first person shooter campaign based on Crossfire. That sure would be grand.
This episode made me interested in the game...now imagine if we actually had access to a Remedy-developed first person shooter campaign based on Crossfire. That sure would be grand.
March Climber
Member
My ranking of the first half (most liked to least liked):
To preface, I didn’t dislike any of these but I did have some criticisms, and I am also rating them on more than just fandom-level. I rated them on Presentation, Art, Direction, Storytelling, and Lastly Enticement.
I agree with the many reviews that state the episodes are simply too short. They should have at least been as long as Star Wars Visions, and maybe in future seasons they can be. 10 to 17 minutes is simply too short for some of what was shown here. I also disagree with reviews about the tone. The serious tone fits to me, and some of these shorts were even good enough to leave the viewer learning and/or thinking.
The length my major gripe with the W40K episode for example, as someone who isn’t knowledgeable enough of W40K lore but knowledgeable enough of the Space Marine video games, it left me feeling confused and wanting. The episode should have had a bit more for the casual audience, especially if they’re about to greenlight and shoot Henry Cavill’s whole planned project. This episode in particular should have been best foot forward on all fronts, not just animation and cool factor.
Crossfire and New World not only pleasantly surprised me, but also left me wanting to check out their games. Whatever the hell that Pac-Man episode was, was so amazingly twisted that I wanted a game based on that concept too. That’s what these episodes should do, entice a viewer to check out the game or give them a new and creative twist (Pac-Man episode).
Direction is why Sifu is on the lower end for me. Compare the camerawork of Sifu to W40k’s episode for example and it’s night and day. Whoever thought multiple swooping circular camera angles with Sifu was a good idea, especially in a hallway fight, made a very big mistake in my opinion. It’s even more odd because the game itself does these camera angles way better. I don’t know what happened here but I’m at least glad people out there liked it.
Armored Core is the best episode slightly edging out the Pac-Man episode, and it upset me a little because I know that FROM will never hire an S-tier cutscene director for their stories. I can easily imagine Kojima-level directed scenes for some of their games. Oh well.
Overall it was a fun watch. A solid B+ for this first half.
- Armored Core
- Pac-Man
- Crossfire
- New World
- Unreal Tournament
- W40K
- Sifu
- D&D
To preface, I didn’t dislike any of these but I did have some criticisms, and I am also rating them on more than just fandom-level. I rated them on Presentation, Art, Direction, Storytelling, and Lastly Enticement.
I agree with the many reviews that state the episodes are simply too short. They should have at least been as long as Star Wars Visions, and maybe in future seasons they can be. 10 to 17 minutes is simply too short for some of what was shown here. I also disagree with reviews about the tone. The serious tone fits to me, and some of these shorts were even good enough to leave the viewer learning and/or thinking.
The length my major gripe with the W40K episode for example, as someone who isn’t knowledgeable enough of W40K lore but knowledgeable enough of the Space Marine video games, it left me feeling confused and wanting. The episode should have had a bit more for the casual audience, especially if they’re about to greenlight and shoot Henry Cavill’s whole planned project. This episode in particular should have been best foot forward on all fronts, not just animation and cool factor.
Crossfire and New World not only pleasantly surprised me, but also left me wanting to check out their games. Whatever the hell that Pac-Man episode was, was so amazingly twisted that I wanted a game based on that concept too. That’s what these episodes should do, entice a viewer to check out the game or give them a new and creative twist (Pac-Man episode).
Direction is why Sifu is on the lower end for me. Compare the camerawork of Sifu to W40k’s episode for example and it’s night and day. Whoever thought multiple swooping circular camera angles with Sifu was a good idea, especially in a hallway fight, made a very big mistake in my opinion. It’s even more odd because the game itself does these camera angles way better. I don’t know what happened here but I’m at least glad people out there liked it.
Armored Core is the best episode slightly edging out the Pac-Man episode, and it upset me a little because I know that FROM will never hire an S-tier cutscene director for their stories. I can easily imagine Kojima-level directed scenes for some of their games. Oh well.
Overall it was a fun watch. A solid B+ for this first half.
FunkMiller
Member
Have to agree on this to a certain extent. This short feels very much like a spiritual successor to this (superior) short film:
...which is great, but Astartes was a fan film and didn't need to be straightforward or clear.
And They Shall Know No Fear is a large budget production, and they should have done more to ease people with little knowledge of the setting into it.
Having said that, the clip of the squad absolutely ripping the cultists to shreds has gone viral, and is a great example of how space marines should move and fight.
It all felt like a proof of concept, rather than a cohesive narrative.
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Little Mac
Member
IGN rating this a 5/10 is fucking lunacy. I binged all the available episodes yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed myself. So far I’d give it 8.5/10. I’d probably rate if higher if I was more familiar with the source material.
DonF
Member
8bitpill
Member
The Warhammer and SiFu are the best out of all of them.
This just feels like Black Mirror meets Video Games. Pushed 21st century story telling, along with characters and demographics feeling show horned.
On a positive note, the animation is very good. Anthologies are always fun.
Can I just get a animation of Gordon Freeman smashing Aliens with a crow bar.
This just feels like Black Mirror meets Video Games. Pushed 21st century story telling, along with characters and demographics feeling show horned.
On a positive note, the animation is very good. Anthologies are always fun.
Can I just get a animation of Gordon Freeman smashing Aliens with a crow bar.
Little Mac
Member
Watched the remaining 7 or 8 episodes. I definitely liked the first half more. The final episode has
which was cool. The two episodes that I was most excited for in this batch was Megaman and Spelunky and they were kinda meh. Overall I give the series a 7.75/10. The animation was excellent. My favorite episodes were Sifu, Warhammer, and the one with King Arnold.
Shadow of the Colossus, Kratos, and Helldivers
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Those were DLC characters.