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[Synless]

I’m trying to like this. I’m just not sure who the audience is for these. It’s obviously not me and I have played more games in my life then I care to admit.

 

[March Climber]

My ranking of the first half (most liked to least liked):

1. Armored Core
2. Pac-Man
3. Crossfire
4. New World
5. Unreal Tournament
6. W40K
7. Sifu
8. D&D

Overall it was a fun watch. A solid B+ for this first half.

Following this, here is my ranking of the second half:

1. Exodus
2. Outer Worlds
3. Honor or Kings
4. Megaman
5. Concord
6. Playstation
7. Spelunky

Exodus was by far the best episode of the second half, with a great set up to the lore of the upcoming game and the stakes and repercussions from being a traveler. That constant passage of time being almost a 3x multiplier can make for some heavy stories if done right within the game, where you simply can miss out on a character’s entire life due to losing track of time while on missions across space.

Outer Worlds told a touching story of a self-sacrifice on both ends in order to make a difference and potentially change a broken system from the inside.

Honor of Kings also had it’s own cool story about selflessness with incredible animation.

Unfortunately after the top 3, the problems begin to surface…

The Megaman and Spelunky episodes were entirely too short. The Spelunky episode felt like an extended commercial spot during a showcase or sports game. The Megaman episode felt like a really well done fan animation that was trying to stay within youtube’s old 10-minute limit parameter, for who knows what reason.

Concord episode was mediocre. Even taking the context of the game away from it, I felt like it wasn’t enough and it just felt like one of those straight to DVD ripoffs of a more popular concept (that concept being Guardians of the Galaxy of course).

Lastly, I understand that they were trying to make the playstation episode about childhood remembrance/fun, but everything around it made no sense and wasn’t explained at all, nor was it explained using sony products, nor was it explained using context clues except for one tiny moment. The only use I can see out of this episode is cutting up the Sony guest character ‘wow!’ moments into a commercial and putting a PS5 logo on it with a slogan.

Second half I give a C-. All together that brings it down to maybe a B- for me. The second half isn’t bad enough to completely ruin my experience of the first half.

This would be my top 10 overall:

1. Armored Core
2. Pac-Man
3. Exodus
4. Crossfire
5. New World
6. Honor of Kings
7. Unreal Tournament
8. Outer Worlds
9. W40K
10. Sifu

Season 2 was announced, so I’m hoping next time they need to make sure they don’t put almost all of the better episodes in the first half and leave the second half with scraps. I can completely understand why people gave this series the scores they did due to waiting on more and getting what we ended up with.

On a side note I’m hoping more companies use this to springboard a cool, new unique project like Namco did with the Pac-Man episode.

 

[Bert Big Balls]

That pacman episode really fucked them up, huh

Watched that one yesterday, interesting take on it. The best one by an absolute mile is the 40K one though.

 

[Mister Wolf]

The Pacman episode pretty much guaranteed I will buy Shadow Labyrinth.

 

[Party McHardy]

There was maybe 3 IPs i like, and they were pretty average at best. I can’t muster the enthusiasm to watch the others.

 

[Trilobit]

In no way is this a 5/10 show. The animation is amazing and the short stories are very well done mostly. I wouldn't praise it because most episodes feel like the cinematic trailers for The Old Republic due to their length, but this is not mediocre. I hope the studio gets to do a full-length movie some day.

 

[ikbalCO]

This show is a disaster. Ive just finished the first season and its shocking how there is no substance in any of the episodes. So bland. So boring.

I am amazed how amazon manages to eat shit whenever they try their luck on a popular genre.

How do you invest billions on a streaming service and only have three actual hits: fallout, the boys, marvelous mrs. Maisel?

 

[RCX]

Only watched the 40K episode. Enjoyed it as a showcase but it was very shallow overall.

Like something a fan would do to show off their skills in blender or unreal.

 

[March Climber]

This show is a disaster. Ive just finished the first season and its shocking how there is no substance in any of the episodes. So bland. So boring.

I am amazed how amazon manages to eat shit whenever they try their luck on a popular genre.

How do you invest billions on a streaming service and only have three actual hits: fallout, the boys, marvelous mrs. Maisel?

As with anyone who doesn’t list The Expanse when discussing Amazon Prime Video, I’m obligated to recommend The Expanse to you.

It’s arguably better than all 3 shows you’ve just listed.

 

[8bitpill]

The Concord episode was really lame. It doesn't even star the retarded characters from the game either.

I properly skipped that episode right when I saw the title.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Sounds like Disney Star Wars fanfare.

 

[GateofD]

5/10 is actually accurate. like half were good, the other half stinked.

Most of the long ones should have been short and were among the worst. The shortest (megaman) were among the best and should have been a full length episode

 

[Dacvak]

Made it to the Concord episode, so I have two more to go. This entire show is the definition of mediocre, and you guys know me, I love pretty much everything.

The Pac-Man one was great, and outer worlds was interesting. But almost all of the other ones were just excuses for a lot of samey CG action. The mega man episode easily had the most promise, but it was waaaay too short.

Surprisingly, the Concord episode was not bad. It was nowhere near good, but it had at least 5/10 writing (better than most of the other episodes), and I was digging the world building. It had a decent Saturday morning cartoon kind of vibe.

But yeah, what a disappointment, especially coming from love death and robots. Ain’t no way this is getting a season two.

 

[gatti-man]

This thread is full of people that don’t seem to get the point of cgi shorts and concepts like this. Yes it’s short yes it’s action heavy. It’s supposed to be snippets of the world and you don’t have much time for development especially when the characters have already been developed in said IP.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Made it to the Concord episode, so I have two more to go. This entire show is the definition of mediocre, and you guys know me, I love pretty much everything.

The Pac-Man one was great, and outer worlds was interesting. But almost all of the other ones were just excuses for a lot of samey CG action. The mega man episode easily had the most promise, but it was waaaay too short.

Surprisingly, the Concord episode was not bad. It was nowhere near good, but it had at least 5/10 writing (better than most of the other episodes), and I was digging the world building. It had a decent Saturday morning cartoon kind of vibe.

But yeah, what a disappointment, especially coming from love death and robots. Ain’t no way this is getting a season two.

It already got renewed for a 2nd season, apparently, the show did pretty well, other than that, I agree with what you said.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Holy shit is the PlayStation episode bad. I was listening to Sacred Symbols shit on it and had to watch it, but I was still surprised how bad it is.

Warhammer is still the best episode IMO.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Finally done. Watched it with a friend and I think IGN was kind with the show considering more than half are dogshit trash, my score is 3/10. The armored core one, the warhammer one and maybe the unique take on Pac-Man were decent ones but the rest can fuck off. I hope whoever wrote for their shows get fired and the visual artists get a fucking raise.

 

[Dacvak]

Finally done. Watched it with a friend and I think IGN was kind with the show considering more than half are dogshit trash, my score is 3/10. The armored core one, the warhammer one and maybe the unique take on Pac-Man were decent ones but the rest can fuck off. I hope whoever wrote for their shows get fired and the visual artists get a fucking raise.

Totally agree. For how good the CG was, the show was still mostly dogshit. I wish the Mega Man episode was longer, that one had potential.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Totally agree. For how good the CG was, the show was still mostly dogshit. I wish the Mega Man episode was longer, that one had potential.

I liked that one as well but it was too short which annoyed me more than how good it was. Useless trash got 15-20 mins but this gets 5 minutes lmao.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Watched the WH40K one and thought it looked very cool, but I'm not going to bother with the other ones.

 

[Luc2010]

I recommend you guys give them all a shot. They are short and won't take too much of your time. The New World with King Arnold was funny. Though, I do wish Mega Man was longer. Loved the Warhammer episode. I liked the Outer Worlds episode, but it was depressing at the same time. Really felt sorry for the main character being a useful idiot the whole time. All in the name of friendship/love.

 

[March Climber]

This thread is full of people that don’t seem to get the point of cgi shorts and concepts like this. Yes it’s short yes it’s action heavy. It’s supposed to be snippets of the world and you don’t have much time for development especially when the characters have already been developed in said IP.

The issue is that these shorts are attached to video games, thus part of the factor that goes into these shorts should be appeal-factor, because you would want any random viewer to become curious or interested in the properties themselves. So this has to be more than just like Love-Death-Robots.

Notice the reception to the Pac-Man episode and thus the springboard into the game announcement itself. Same with the New World: Aeternum episode. Those were both great episodes.

Some of the episodes accomplish this task, and others...not quite.

While I liked the W40K episode enough and it was animated beautifully, it left quite a few casual gamer viewers asking 'wtf was that?' which is the last thing W40k needs right now, as Amazon is being very cautious on the TV/movie deal.

The very worst example of this was either the Spelunky episode or Playstation episode. I'd argue that you're better off just watching random gameplay snippets than checking out either of those episodes, as you're going to come away from them asking what the point was.

 

[adamsapple]

Watched the WH40K one and thought it looked very cool, but I'm not going to bother with the other ones.

The armored core one is the only other good one.

 

[Luc2010]

The issue is that these shorts are attached to video games, thus part of the factor that goes into these shorts should be appeal-factor, because you would want any random viewer to become curious or interested in the properties themselves. So this has to be more than just like Love-Death-Robots.

Notice the reception to the Pac-Man episode and thus the springboard into the game announcement itself. Same with the New World: Aeternum episode. Those were both great episodes.

Some of the episodes accomplish this task, and others...not quite.

While I liked the W40K episode enough and it was animated beautifully, it left quite a few casual gamer viewers asking 'wtf was that?' which is the last thing W40k needs right now, as Amazon is being very cautious on the TV/movie deal.

The very worst example of this was either the Spelunky episode or Playstation episode. I'd argue that you're better off just watching random gameplay snippets than checking out either of those episodes, as you're going to come away from them asking what the point was.

I guess some of these people don't have kids and haven't watched Disney Shorts.

 

[TintoConCasera]

The armored core one is the only other good one.

I'll put some time aside to watch it, thanks!

 

[Alebrije]

Most of them are crap that do not make "click" with the Game they represent.

Do not know how much this costs but it seems Amazon has tons of money to waste,t hey simple don't care about Quality just wanted something to show this season.

 

[March Climber]

I guess some of these people don't have kids and haven't watched Disney Shorts.

Depending on when you grew up, they were called disney channel shorts in the 90s/2000s. Cartoon Network/Toonami/Adult Swim also had shorts, quite a few of them usually starring Cow and Chicken. Robot Chicken on Adult Swim was good too. Hell, Aqua Teen hunger force would give you two episodes, each one about 12-15 minutes each and it felt like a substantial amount of content for each one.

Most of the above still managed to get a point across or give the viewer a fun laugh, sometimes within as little as 60 seconds, moreso than what millions in budget did with the Spelunky and Playstation episodes.

Unlike others here I don't think Secret Level sucks across the board. I just think it is a bit undercooked and needs better writers for season 2.

 

[Sentenza]

The Warhammer 40K episode was the highlight of the show and even that was too little to be satisfying.
But man, if that didn't make me want to see a (GOOD) WH40K show getting funded.

 

[Luc2010]

Depending on when you grew up, they were called disney channel shorts in the 90s/2000s. Cartoon Network/Toonami/Adult Swim also had shorts, quite a few of them usually starring Cow and Chicken. Robot Chicken on Adult Swim was good too. Hell, Aqua Teen hunger force would give you two episodes, each one about 12-15 minutes each and it felt like a substantial amount of content for each one.

Most of the above still managed to get a point across or give the viewer a fun laugh, sometimes within as little as 60 seconds, moreso than what millions in budget did with the Spelunky and Playstation episodes.

Unlike others here I don't think Secret Level sucks across the board. I just think it is a bit undercooked and needs better writers for season 2.

Yes, I didn't care for the Spelunky, Playstation, or Concord episode. The rest were good. Though, ignoring the fact some of the stories only had an introduction without a simple conclusion. Staring at you Mega Man!

 

[The Cockatrice]

I'll put some time aside to watch it, thanks!

It has keanu reeves in it if it helps. I thought it was cool as well and I never played any armored core games.

 

[rkofan87]

Those were DLC characters.

oh wow lmao.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Warhammer 40K episode was superb and I was so sad when it ended. They need to make a fully fledged CG Warhammer 40K show. It would be fucking epic.

 

[Heaven Angel]

Screw the reviewers, don't sit on this one. Episodes are short but totally worth it.
8.5/10

 

[manfestival]

so I said screw it and watched some of them. Yeah no way this series is a 5/10. The overall quality of everything is pretty good. The hardest part for me is trying to disassociate my personal biases against some of these. Like the New World one was actually pretty good(surpassed my expectations). However, my personal grudge even with 1700 in that game made me wary to even give it a shot. Then there is the exodus one... I feel weird about it since I thought it was okay at best. I liked what they attempted just not so much the execution of it? Hard to articulate this one for myself.

My fav to least fav that I have watched so far.
Warhammer 40k
Armored Core
Outerwilds(this was also surprisingly good and depressing lol)
New World
Dungeons and Dragons

Ones I didn't like or just didn't care to finish.
Exodus(borderline to like but not quite)
Megaman
Unreal Tournament
Spelunky

I think the only one I haven't watched and still want to watch is the Pac Man one based on the praise around here

 

[Shubh_C63]

I am surprised by the negative reaction. Literally every episode was an amazing short story.
I can't see how they could have done a better job.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

The ones I’ve watched were great.

Unreal
Pac-Man
New World
Warhammer

They were all amazing, actually. The others would have to be really really bad for me to give it an average score (or I guess 5 is a bad score on the IGN scale).

 

[MDSLKTR]

 

[Luc2010]

Stupid, they should have let them do it.