One of the crucial intriguing tasks featured at gamescom 2024 isn’t a recreation in any respect, however an animated sequence. Prime Video’s Secret Degree is an anthology sequence by the creators of Love, Dying + Robots. Every episode is mainly a brief movie impressed by the characters and worlds of iconic video video games like God of Battle, Mega Man, Unreal Match, and Pac-Man.
The first trailer for the sequence provides us a quick glimpse of those gorgeously animated shorts and the usually shocking methods wherein they reinvent acquainted gaming icons. However which video games are featured within the sequence, and is that basically Keanu Reeves piloting a mecha swimsuit? Let’s break down precisely what we see within the trailer.
Armored Core
Maybe the largest shock within the Secret Degree trailer is the reveal that Keanu Reeves himself is outwardly concerned. Reeves (or somebody who seems an terrible lot just like the John Wick star) may be seen in footage for the Armored Core episode. Reeves’ character is proven coming into an Armored Core mecha and suiting up for battle. Between this and his outstanding position in Cyberpunk 2077, Reeves’ gaming pedigree may be very robust today.
Harmony
Harmony is just simply now making its approach to the PC and PS5, however it’s already getting an animated spinoff due to Secret Degree. We are able to see a shot of the steep, vertically-oriented metropolis that was beforehand seen within the Harmony cinematic trailer.
Crossfire
The tactical shooter sequence Crossfire is without doubt one of the video games featured in Secret Degree, which is attention-grabbing, contemplating that these video games aren’t usually identified for his or her intricate tales. We see a number of fast photographs of SWAT group characters in motion, promising a tense and gritty addition to the sequence’ lineup.
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons followers have been already handled to an entertaining live-action adaptation in 2023, and now they’ll get to get pleasure from a lavish CG-animated D&D brief due to Secret Degree. We briefly see an enormous dragon rising from the shadows, in addition to a shot of a sword-shaped bridge over a waterfall that results in a fortress. Based mostly on these photographs, it seems like Secret Degree is choosing a extra conventional and critical tackle the franchise than the 2023 movie.
EXODUS
The upcoming science fiction recreation EXODUS seems to be a pure match for Secret Degree, because it offers with the emotional fallout of time dilation and the best way that point can cross within the blink of an eye fixed for the human heroes combating towards the Celestials. We see that emotion on full show in a scene involving two aged characters tenderly reunited within the trailer.
Honor of Kings
We by no means would have predicted {that a} MOBA recreation like Honor of Kings can be one of many ones featured in Secret Degree, however that doesn’t imply we’re not to see how the sequence reinterprets this common title. Based mostly on the handful of fast photographs seen within the trailer, it seems like Secret Degree is choosing a comparatively extra life like and detailed method in comparison with the anime aesthetic of the sport.
Mega Man
Capcom’s long-running Mega Man sequence is represented in Secret Degree, although this isn’t fairly the Mega Man followers know from the traditional 8-bit video games. The sequence is clearly taking a way more life like method to the character. Effectively, as life like as a narrative a couple of cyborg boy with an enormous cannon for a hand may be, anyway. We see the character suiting as much as tackle Dr. Wily’s Robotic Masters.
New World: Aeternum
It ought to most likely come as no shock that Amazon’s personal MMORPG New World can be among the many video games featured on this sequence. Like within the recreation, this brief seems to be set on the fabled island of Aeternum, as a lone hero prepares to show his mettle and make his fortune. The fast glimpse seen within the trailer suggests this might be one of many extra detailed and realistically rendered episodes of the sequence.
The Outer Worlds 2
Secret Degree might be exploring the world of Halcyon from Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds sequence. This brief seems to have one of the crucial visually distinctive types of the sequence, because it blends live-action characters with CG-rendered environments. As you’d anticipate, the hanging coloration palette of the video games is on full show right here.
Pac-Man
There’s possibly no higher instance of how dramatically Secret Degree will reinvent some iconic gaming properties than Pac-Man. You might be forgiven for not even realizing Pac-Man is included within the trailer. Far faraway from the simplistic supply materials, the trailer reveals us a hooded, seemingly alien determine making their means by means of an unlimited wasteland. The trailer additionally ends with a fast glimpse of a robotic Pac-Man with razor-sharp tooth coming on-line. We have now to marvel if Pac-Man is the villain on this peculiar however intriguing tackle the franchise.
PlayStation Studios: God of Battle & Ghost of Tsushima
It seems that we’re getting an episode framed across the Ps Studios lineup, as we see each God of Battle’s Kratos and Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin Sakai within the trailer.
The Kratos shot confirms that the sequence is taking its cues from the newer God of Battle video games, the place Kratos is an axe-wielding slayer of Norse gods, slightly than the unique, Greek mythology-focused video games. We have now to imagine meaning his son Atreus might be tagging alongside for the experience.
What’s actually shocking, although, is that Kratos seems to be strolling by means of a contemporary metropolis. Is that this brief going to be coping with time journey? What occurs while you flip cold-blooded killers like Kratos and Jin-Sakai unfastened within the twenty first Century? And simply what number of PlayStation Studios characters are showing on this episode? We are able to’t wait to search out out.
Sifu
Sloclap’s common 2022 beat-em-up Sifu is featured within the trailer. We see a blood-soaked character coming into a dojo and gearing up for an additional bloody combat. Later, we see a few fast photographs of a violent brawl in a neon-drenched nightclub. It seems that Secret Degree is choosing a barely extra life like animation fashion in comparison with the comparatively stylized, angular fashion of the sport. We’re to see simply how, if in any respect, the brief tackles the resurrection-based fight of the sport.
Spelunky
The trailer features a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of a Spelunky-themed episode. We briefly glimpse treasure hunter Ana Spelunky stumbling inside a lava-filled cavern. It’s fairly a deal with seeing the quirky indie sequence being given such an formidable visible makeover.
Unreal Match
Additionally very briefly seen within the trailer is a fast shot from an Unreal Match episode. We are able to see an enviornment brandished with the brand for Riordan Dynamics, the corporate on the coronary heart of the storyline within the Unreal Match video games. The enviornment is clearly arrange for a bloody deathmatch, with two opposing towers that remind us of an indoor model of the enduring Dealing with Worlds map.
Warhammer 40,000
It stays to be seen if Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40,000 sequence will ever see the sunshine of day, however not less than Secret Degree has us lined with a Warhammer-themed brief. The trailer opens with a scene of House Marines chopping a bloody swath of destruction, and later we see a marine being ambushed by a a lot bigger monster. We additionally see a shot of a marine barreling straight into an oncoming car. Mainly, this brief seems to be probably the most action-packed and visceral chapter of the Secret Degree sequence.
The Thriller Game
One of the crucial intriguing scenes within the trailer can also be one of the crucial mysterious. At one level we see photographs of a person being enveloped in flowing pink and blue power, as if he’s bonding with a machine or one other lifeform. We’re actually undecided which recreation that is meant to symbolize, however we do know we positively need to see this episode.
Tell us within the feedback what recreation you assume is being depicted in that scene, and tell us if we missed the rest within the trailer.
For extra on gamescom, study extra in regards to the resolution to launch Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle on Ps, and meet up with all the pieces introduced at Opening Night time Reside.
Jesse is a mild-mannered employees author for IGN. Enable him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.