I guess they front-loaded all the good stuff, huh? This series was like a five-course meal that goes from fresh oysters to a turd wrapped in old newspaper.

Gross.

B Tier

The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep

This episode was pretty good. I enjoyed The Outer Worlds when I played it (even if I perpetually get the name mixed up with Outer Wilds, also a very good game), and I appreciated that the episode rolled with the game’s darkly comic take on corporate greed (not the most original target, I’ll admit, but it was still amusing). The art style – specifically, the characters’ faces – threw me off a bit, but it wasn’t anything experience-ruining. I’ve hiked the uncanny valley before.

C Tier

Exodus: Odyssey

I’ve never heard of this franchise, which is saying something. This episode had some pretty (if not super original) depictions of space travel/colonization, and some borderline-obnoxious tugging on the ol’ heartstrings, but neither the characters nor the more sci-fi aspects were real standouts.

Concord: Tale of the Implacable

The animated version of uncooked toast. Snappy action but bland characters and a bland story, and it all takes place under the shadow of, you know, Concord. (The debacle of historical proportions that lost Sony more money than most countries’ GDP.)

Honor of Kings: The Way of All Things

This was eminently forgettable. Seriously, I can’t remember a single thing that happened in this episode, and for this it gets an average (that is, a C) rating. This might be overly generous – but I vaguely recall it looking nice, so there’s that. (It might also be overly stingy, but that’s what you get for being forgettable.)

D Tier

Mega Man: Start

A somewhat-distinct animation style is this episode’s only bright point. Hell, you can barely call it an “episode” with the lack of shit that happens across its 8-minute length. My notes also include the bullet point “lmao they made a robot called Bomb Man and thought that would end well.” I wasn’t wrong.

Spelunky: Tally

This episode had a neat animation style that did a good job of representing (for example) character movement from my (limited) experience with the game. That said, it’s too short to really go much of anywhere, and, yeah, persistence is cool, I get it, but god damn, it didn’t need to be the theme of every other episode in this series.

F Tier

Playtime: Fulfillment

Disgusting corpo slop. I feel like someone from Sony HQ just shit in my mouthwash. Get it out of here.

In conclusion…

…should you watch Secret Level? Some of it, yeah! Definitely not the last episode (the Playtime one). Honestly, you can skip the whole second half of the series and be just fine, unless you’re particularly wedded to one of the franchises covered in those installments. There’s some gems in the first 8 episodes, though.

Season Rating:

6.75/10 (+.75/-1)