Movie and television adaptions of video or computer game franchises are getting better and better, where the best examples are probably the Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Fallout series from the recent years. Both show a lot of love for the source material, while being fun to watch for everyone, whether you are a fan of the games or not.
Therefore, we can look forward to the Legend of Zelda film with cautious optimism, while in the meantime there are some other good adaptions to watch. One of them is Secret Level, another anthology series from the creative minds behind Love, Death + Robots, where this time the stories are all based on different video and computer games. The first eight episodes were released this Tuesday, on December 10th, offering a wild and violent mix.
Especially the Pac-Man episode is something else, which makes you question how Bandai Namco could have agreed to that... (Update: as announced on the Game Awards, they have been actually working on a new Pac-Man spin-off in this style, called Shadow Labyrinth, so that explains it.)
However, I'm not here to review the series as a whole, instead I want to focus on Unreal Tournament, because the Unreal franchise has been close to my heart for about as long as Zelda. This franchise is pretty much dead, however, so it's bittersweet to get this special episode for around the 25th anniversary of Unreal Tournament. And I really enjoyed it overall.
It essentially serves a prequel, where it depicts the rise of Xan in the tournament, after causing an insurrection of mining robots. They really make you sympathize with the robots, despite the fact that their designs were made less human than they are in the games. The change does make sense, however, and feels reminiscent of the E.M.M.I. from Metroid Dread or similar robot designs, where the added agility of fully rotatable limbs and body parts come into play.
The focus is on the action, of course, but for an 16-minute-long episode it was a fantastic choice for the narrative. They have also done their homework, throwing out a ton of references, which will be recognized by fans and intrigue everyone else. They don't waste time with explaining anything and there is no direct narration, but nevertheless you get a very good understanding of how the 23rd century in the Unreal universe looks like and how much there is to all of it.
That being said, since the story is a prequel and meant to display a public execution of the robots, it lacks certain aspects of the games. There are no respawners, for example, so it's really a "Deathmatch" to the death. And instead of teleporting the combatants into arenas all over the galaxy, they have borrowed the Pokémon Stadium from Super Smash Bros. Melee, where a giant metallic construction transforms into whatever they want. In the episode we can see maps like Koos Barge, Morpheus and Facing Worlds, but it's all in the same dark grey aesthetic. I also got some Tron: Legacy vibes from it all, especially during the final match.
It's also never too violent, actually, where it's one of the few episodes from Secret Level with an age rating of 12, which is a bit ironic considering the source material and its over-the-top gore. But I don't personally mind, I never played Unreal Tournament for the splatter effects and it feels more tasteful that way. They focus on the cool weaponry instead of shocking the audience with overly brutal scenes.
However, another disappointment stems from the weapon usage. Well, there is plenty of it, as there should be, and the overall gunplay in the episode was thrilling. The Impact Hammer leaves an impact in the narrative, which was well done. The Ripper was used very cleverly as well, which was great to see, since it had been absent in most of the later Unreal games. There is some Enforcer and Minigun "pew pew" action for the masses. And if you like loud bangs, then the Flak Cannon, Rocket Launcher and Redeemer will have you covered. It was all very impressive.
However, while they get mentioned in Xan's scans, we never see any secondary fire modes, which always was one of the key aspects of the Unreal games, setting them apart from Doom, Quake, and many other shooters at the time. It was a novelty. But they never show the Shock Rifle and its infamous Shock Combo, which is a sin. The Bio Rifle is absent as well. And while there is an "elite squad" of fighters all equipped with the Link Gun in the episode, they don't ever use its beam link feature that would come with the secondary fire... even though it would have been the perfect opportunity to do so.
Maybe they didn't want to overwhelm the audience with too many aspects all at once, making it a bit more grounded and easier to follow the fast-paced action. Let's face it, the majority of people who will watch this series have probably never played Unreal Tournament before, maybe never even heard of it before, especially the younger audiences who grew up playing Fortnite. But that's not the best excuse, since all it would have taken is showing a second trigger on a gun to make it understandable.
It makes me personally hope for a second season of Secret Level, where they dive a little deeper into all this with an "Unreal Tournament: Malcolm" episode. This could give us proper arenas, respawners, and secondary fire modes, so that things would get more interesting when coming from the first episode.
By the way, the weapon and character designs mostly were taken out of the cancelled Unreal Tournament alpha from 2014. The exceptions are Xan, as already mentioned, but also the Ripper and the Minigun, because these weapons didn't have official new models. The Skaarj and Necris characters also were added to Fortnite recently by Epic Games, while Digital Extremes brought back their Unreal Tournament weapon skins in Warframe, which are all based on the cancelled alpha models as well. So, while it's a shame that the last Unreal game never became fully realized, it's bittersweet that parts of it live on in different forms...
And I will take joy in rewatching this episode again and again. It's a blast.
