Main cast: Noah Manzoor (Solon), Madeleine Knight (Mora), Laura Wohlwend (Tally), Delroy Atkinson (Luzum), Umulisa Gahiga (Ahokal), Paul Ridley (Oriel), Rita Estevanovich (Tiamat), and Tracy Wiles (Tiamat)
Directors: Dave Wilson, Dominique Boidin, Léon Bérelle, Rémi Kozyra, and Maxime Luère
Secret Levels is basically Love, Death & Robots, brought to everyone by the same folks, only with a focus on video games. How did they pick the video games to feature? Based on whichever company offers the most money Oh, I’m sure they picked the games based on merit and popularity.
Therefore, it makes sense to start off with Dungeons & Dragons, which we all know is such a massive video game IP and not a fast-decomposing corpse of a once-legendary tabletop RPG system ruined by people obsessed with identity politics. See? It’s all about merit.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen’s Cradle, well, I don’t know what to say because it’s about some kid haunted by visions and what not—in other words, the chosen one archetype, getting rescued by a band of adventurers and eventually they form the usual party to go face a dragon. Ooh, what happens next? Too bad, one would have to come up with their own ending, because this episode ends on a cliffhanger just like that.
What is the point of this episode, then?
Okay, to be fair, this is one major issue with the first season of Love, Death & Robots, which has episodes that feel like just a small part of the longer show. Still, I’d think that these people would have learned that lesson by now, given that the later seasons have far more complete standalone episodes.
So, what indeed is the point of this episode? The visuals are great, so I guess that’s one reason to watch this thing. It’s about 15 minutes, so it’s not exactly a heavy time investment. Still, given that it’s barely a story with no ending, I end up wondering why I even bothered.
As an opening episode, this one doesn’t exactly instill confidence in me for the rest of the series, great visuals aside. It’s the equivalent of the present-day modern AAA studio games slop, where visuals tend to be emphasized over the gameplay and everything else.
However, if my suspicion is correct and this entire series is just an excuse to get money from game studios to advertise their games, hey, more money to these people, I guess. Gotta respect the hustle, after all!