Amazon’s Secret Stage is a hole anthology of online game cutscenes

Ever because it was introduced, there was some confusion over simply what Secret Stage truly is. The video game-themed anthology streaming on Prime Video — helmed by Love, Demise & Robots creator Tim Miller — is a group of animated shorts, every primarily based on a distinct gaming property. So there’s a Mega Man episode that explores the character’s origin and a Spelunky episode that makes an attempt to create a metanarrative across the idea of a roguelike. 

It’s an attention-grabbing concept let down by an absence of attention-grabbing concepts. The 15 shorts are virtually universally boring and handle to neither make their supply materials appear compelling nor present new insights for current followers. The true confusion is who that is truly for.

The primary downside is how homogenous Secret Stage is. Working instantly with sport publishers, the present pulls from an oddball but additionally impressively world checklist, with titles like Chinese language megahit Honor of Kings and Korean shooter Crossfire. However regardless of that includes a big number of video video games, its episodes all really feel very samey. It’s type of the alternative of Love, Demise & Robots, which featured plenty of totally different kinds and tones because it explored horror and sci-fi. That’s how we bought lovely episodes just like the trippy “The Very Pulse of the Machine.”

Secret Stage, however, principally makes use of a gritty, hyperrealistic fashion that makes virtually all of its episodes look equivalent. It’s type of like watching a nonstop barrage of cutscenes at E3 and never with the ability to inform the video games aside.

This works for some tales. The Warhammer 40,000 episode is appropriately grimdark. However I can’t say I actually wanted a hyperviolent tackle Pac-Man. I’m not kidding: the Pac-Man episode might be the goriest in the complete collection, turning a basic arcade sport right into a brutal survivor story with copious blood and loss of life. (The episode’s large twist can be the stupidest factor I’ve seen all yr, and I sat via all of Megalopolis.) There are a handful of deviations that try so as to add some colour and vibrancy, however all of them find yourself wanting like Arcane. The worst offender is the Mega Man episode, which tries to merge a practical fashion with an anime aesthetic and simply comes off as a clumsy, ugly mixture of the 2.

It’s extra than simply how Secret Stage seems to be, although. The collection can be dreadfully boring. The vast majority of episodes really feel just like the opening scene of a a lot greater story, ending proper when issues appear to be getting attention-grabbing. Concepts repeat themselves rather a lot. There are at least three episodes — primarily based on Spelunky, New World, and Sifu — that each one attempt to inform a metastory concerning the idea of dying in a online game. And when the present does try some artistic liberties, like with Pac-Man, it devolves right into a bland try at edgy violence.

Two of the strangest episodes are primarily based on video games you’ll be able to’t truly play proper now. One is ready on this planet of the now-infamous multiplayer shooter Harmony, which was probably the most disastrous launch in PlayStation historical past, ensuing within the abrupt closure of each the sport and its improvement studio. The opposite episode is predicated on Exodus, an upcoming roleplaying sport printed by Magic: the Gathering firm Wizards of the Coast. In one other timeline, these Secret Stage episodes could be the best alternative to point out what makes these futuristic worlds distinctive and value exploring additional in a sport. In actuality, they make each Harmony and Exodus look like probably the most generic science fiction tales conceivable. I’m struggling to give you a single distinct factor to say about both.

Actually, Secret Stage is finest summed up by its last episode. Known as “Playtime,” it follows a motorbike courier in a close to future world that appears like an AR-infested hellscape. In a short time, she’s handed a mysterious package deal that pulls her into what can solely be described as a PlayStation industrial. She’s chased by Helldivers troopers, avoids assaults from Kratos, and has a candy second with Sackboy. There’s no story. It’s a group of Easter eggs tied to a model, an opportunity to identify stuff you acknowledge from taking part in the video games.

Throughout its 15 episodes, Secret Stage fails to clarify why any of those worlds are price exploring, whereas on the identical time failing to supply something new for these already within the know. It sits in a clumsy, empty center floor. After watching all of it, I’m by some means extra confused than earlier than I began.

Secret Stage begins streaming on Prime Video on December tenth.