Games That Would Be Perfect For Secret Level

Summary

• Mass Effect’s rich lore and diverse settings would be a perfect fit for Secret Level’s potential storytelling.
• Hotline Miami’s unique style and violent gameplay could make for a compelling and visually stunning episode.
• Team Fortress 2’s iconic characters and distinct humor would be a natural fit for an episode in the Secret Level series.

Secret Level released earlier this month to great fanfare. An anthology series from the same people behind Love, Death, And Robots, this one focuses on video games. The series has already been renewed for a second season and, according to Amazon, had the largest debut the streaming service has ever seen for an animated series.

The first series featured such gaming titans as Warhammer 40,000, Helldivers, and Armored Core. But what about Secret Level’s second season? What games could audiences potentially see, and how might they be adapted? Here are a few games that deserve to be included, and why they would work for the show.

10 Mass Effect

A Vast Universe To Explore

Mass Effect is a gaming icon, and would make for an excellent addition to Secret Level. This RPG series primarily focuses on the escapades of the Normandy crew and Commander Shepard. The series is full of deep and complex lore, weird alien species, and dozens of potential settings and time periods.

The franchise would give a potential screenwriter endless choice of where to start. The wastelands of Tuchanka, gleaming cities of Thessia, or even the space city hub, the Citadel, would all be excellent visual set-pieces. Characters such as Liara, Tali, and Garrus are beloved by the fanbase, and would be welcomed as a cameo or even protagonist of any prospective story. And with a new game coming up, the series could use a little booster.

9 Hotline Miami

Do You Like Watching Other People?

Bloody and soaked in neon, Hotline Miami is arguably one of the best indie games of the 2010s, with an incredible soundtrack and frantic gameplay. While fans willlikely never see another game in the franchise, a Secret Level episode would be a perfect fit.

The trippy visual style and constant brutal violence would be no stranger to the people who worked on Love, Death, And Robots. All the blackmailed, professional killers running around Miami could make for an interesting mix of spy-thriller and crime drama. Throw in an eerie omni-present chicken, known as Richard and implied to be death himself, and the result would be some wild TV.

8 Team Fortress 2

Wacky Characters Would Shine Onscreen

It has been over a decade and a half since Team Fortress 2‘s release, and it’s still featured in the top one hundred most played games on Steam, at number thirty. This is quite a departure from the top ten spot it held until a group of bot hosters made the game virtually unplayable outside of community servers for years, only being fixed in summer 2024.

TF2 would be a perfect fit for Secret Level. It has its own distinct art style and a great sense of humor. Npt to mention, it features a host of distinct and popular characters, like the permanently inebriated Demoman, the insufferable Scout, and the minigun-obsessed Heavy, to name a few. Fans have come to love these characters, and they would make for an excellent addition to the series.

7 Half Life

A Silent Picture

Half Life is one of the most influential games ever made. If it weren’t for this game, there would be no Counter Strike, Left For Dead, Team Fortress, or even Steam. If that was all, then Half Life would qualify for Secret Level by default.

But Half Life is more than that. Depending on which game in the franchise is being discussed, it’s an interdimensional apocalypse movie with strange, esoteric aliens and a mute dude with a gun, or it’s a dystopian nightmare where aliens have enslaved all humankind. Either way, the games offer a lot of storytelling potential for Secret Level to expand upon.

Do You Get To The Streaming Service Very Often?

With Fallout’s success and the lack of any major new games in the series for over ten years, The Elder Scrolls can feel somewhat forgotten. It’s a shame, as the series offers an incredible high fantasy world. Mortals often battle gods for the fate of creation, and magic is a part of everyday life.

The world of The Elder Scrolls is ripe for adaptation. Characters such as Pelinal Whitestrake and Ysgramor are only shown after their death. Secret Level could examine mysteries such as the disappearance of the Dwemer, or the areas of Tamriel that have yet to be explored in the games. It might just be enough to tide players over until Elder Scrolls VI.

5 S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Not Yet Lost To The Zone

S.T.A.L.K.E.R’s unique style and creepy, eldritch atmosphere would be perfect for its own series someday. In lieu of that, Secret Level would be the perfect place to show off the bleak, strange world of post-emission Chernobyl.

There’s a little of all things horror within S.T.A.L.K.E.R., ranging from zombies to eldritch horrors to a plethora of reality bending anomalies. The crew could make an episode with no deeper plot than someone just trying to survive The Zone, before even considering making anything revolving around the various factions or wider story.

4 Final Fantasy 14

An Incredible World To Bring To The Screen

Final Fantasy as a franchise is no stranger to adaptations. Final Fantasy 7 has seen two film adaptations alone. And it’s about time FF 14got some love as well. The biggest MMO in the franchise’s history, FF 14 has a massive fanbase, a weird and wacky world full of monsters and magic, and a smorgasbord of visuals that would be a feast for the eyes on the small screen.

The game’s setting is as diverse, fun, and sometimes downright crazy as they come. Sci-fi civilizations with robots and lasers? Check. An entire floating gothic city populated by elven knights? Check. The entire world is full of so many fun “rule of cool” ideas and concepts that rarely get the limelight on TV. And with a mobile version on the way, the game is likely to only get more popular as time goes on.

3 Vermintide 2

Streaming Series Yes-Yes

Warhammer 40,000 has already featured in Secret Level as an adaptation of Space Marine 2, the massively successful third-person shooter that skyrocketed the franchise’s already significant popularity in September 2024. But there is another Games Workshop franchise that has an iconic game series, one still going strong years after release. This, of course, is Warhammer Fantasy and Vermintide 2.

The adventures of the Ubersreik Five would be Secret Level gold. Each of the five are fun, likable characters in their own right, with conflicting personalities and worldviews that make for great comedic dialogue. Coupled with Game Workshop’s typical epic, grimdark, tone and over-the-top action, Secret Level is looking at the perfect spectacle for an unforgettable episode.

2 Baldur’s Gate 3

Inserted Directly Into The Eyes

The characters and world of Baldurs Gate 3 would make for an incredible piece of television. While making sense of it within the game’s story would be difficult, the show’s creators could arguably take any of the game’s companions and adapt part of their story to the small screen.

A dramatic and dark retelling of Astarion’s life as a vampire’s thrall? Karlach’s time as a conflicted pseudo-Doomguy in Avernus? Shadowheart’s life as a servant of Shar? Any of these would be perfect for a single episode format. The short could even end with the character encountering the nautiloid and kicking off the game’s story. It might not come to pass, but it would make for an excellent tale.

1 Elden Ring

Join The Streaming King As Family

Elden Ring exploded onto the scene in 2022. A successor to the Dark Souls series, the game is set in a post-apocalyptic realm known only as “The Lands Between,” with lore written by Dark Souls veteran Hidetaka Miyazaki and A Song Of Ice And Fire author George R.R. Martin. The game offers breathtaking visuals and epic scenery that would look fantastic in an animation.

Given the civilization of Elden Ring fell long before the events of the game, it might not seem like a good choice for Secret Level. But the show would be a perfect opportunity to show the world the collapse. Radahn and Malenia’s duel, The Night Of Black Knives, or even The Shattering itself, are perfect storylines for an episode.