SECRET LEVEL: Unreal Tournament: XAN Episode Review.

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 Pre-Opinion


As someone who has never played Unreal Tournament (I was always a Quake guy.) This was still the coolest looking episode. Out of all the games in Secret Level I've only ever played Mega Man and DnD. But I went with UT first and I was not disappointed.


Plot

The episode begins with a Liandri corporation mining group booting up a Mech team. One green robot fails its startup process and must reboot. A nearby miner starts whacking the green robot with a wrench. This damages the robot and sort of unlocks his free will. Over time we see the green robot (Xan) Witness the Liandri corporation miners kill and damage the other robots. And Xan survives each workday. Until one day he decides to take action. Xan attacks the miner holding the controls for all the other robots and they fight back.

The Arena of the Unreal Tournament.
Xan and his mechanical allies destroy the mining outpost but are captured shortly after. We then see that Xan copied the robot control code and is able to see what is necessary to win by controlling a robot who is killed by a group of humans in the first match. Xan then enters the arena immediately after. He shoves his way to the front of the line and is selected. he then does this:

Xan emerges victorious. But sparks a question among the gamemaster: Who is this robot and why do the others sacrifice themselves for him? The next scene is a montage of Xan's victories and the gamemaster trying to figure out how to kill him. Liandri begins to research the robots code but cannot find anything as to why Xan is so powerful. Eventually the gamemaster has enough and puts Xan against the Liandri Elite Guard.
The guard enters the arena.
Xan and his team appear to be outmatched. But Xan and the other robots find a way using their robotic strength and brains to kill all but one. And at that moment, under the arena. Where they were checking the robots code, the researcher removes the firewall chip from the robot head they were using to check the code. Giving Xan full access to the entire arena. Meaning he quickly kills the remaining member of the guard and takes full control. Then spurring shouts of rebellion from the crowd. All while standing on a tall pillar, Victorious.


The plot has a LOT of Hunger Games in it and the middle of the episode felt sort of rushed. I've seen this plot done better before. But it gets the job done. This episode obviously did not focus on the plot.


Execution

The episode is actually executed very well. The animation fits the story and aesthetic perfectly, the soundtrack is great for the fast-paced arena battles and overall, it's hard to imagine this episode as anything else. There are a lot of easter eggs for UT fans in here as well. Here are just a few examples: The journey of getting killed in the first seconds of a match to winning the tournament is one shared between Xan and You, the player. The inclusion of "Bots" AI players who you can command to do certain things in a match and just the usage of UT maps and guns. The animation of the episode is one of the best things about it. The Robot design looks incredible in the episode. The episode looks like a brand-new UT game enhanced with RTX. The renders of humans are lifelike and when you see the episode you wonder why Unreal Engine isn't used for animation more often. 


Post-Opinion

Game Case Art.
From someone who loves FPS games but has never played UT I can say that this is an awesome adaptation of an iconic shooter game. This quenched my thirst for an FPS game adaptation, and I cannot wait to see what shooter game episodes Secret Level cooks up next!

Here are the scores.

Plot: 57

Not the best plot. But it gets the job done. I've seen this done better before.

Soundtrack: 86

Great soundtrack that fits the episode well.

Looks: 100

This is some of the best animation I've ever seen period. I can't say much other than WOW.

Execution: 90

Almost perfectly executed. The middle section has a few places that could be improved.

Overall: 81🌠

Unreal Tournament: XAN is not only a gift to UT fans but also a great short film for any FPS fan.



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