Playtime: Fulfillment

Beautifully executed episode with flawless animation and outstanding voice acting-there's truly nothing to criticize in those areas. The visuals are breathtaking, showcasing an incredible amount of detail and artistry, while the performances bring genuine depth and emotion to the characters. It's a masterpiece in terms of production quality. Unfortunately, the story falls flat, feeling more like a PlayStation ad than a meaningful narrative. It's disappointing to see such effort overshadowed by product placement. Hopefully, future episodes focus on storytelling instead, as the concept of Secret Level is amazing and has immense potential.

Undoubtedly the worst episode of the entire series, this episode fails to deliver the engaging storytelling and immersive experience I've come to expect, especially from the first half of the season. Instead of presenting a compelling narrative, it felt like a glorified commercial for SONY and PlayStation, blatantly prioritizing product placement over substance.

What made the earlier episodes so captivating was their ability to pay genuine homage to the original material, like the captivating story of Unreal Tournament, the rich lore of Warhammer, or the imaginative depth of Dungeons & Dragons. These episodes celebrated the essence of their inspirations, weaving stories that respected and elevated their source material.

In stark contrast, this episode felt like an insult. Rather than celebrating gaming culture, it delivered a thinly veiled statement: 'Come to PlayStation. Our walled garden is far superior to the grind you're used to.' Not only did this approach alienate me, it made me genuinely annoyed at seeing all the corporate propaganda.

This feels like the only purpose it serves is as an advertisement for PlayStation. The underlying story of this is the 'innovation' and creativity of PlayStation compared to their competitors, but it's ultimately flawed. One of the recurring jokes is putting in effort to unlock a slightly different coloured cosmetic, but PlayStation games are also guilty of this. The only redeeming parts were the cameos, but aside from 'oh I liked that game' they serve no real purpose to the story, which itself is generic and uninspired. It's a real shame that such good games were reduced to gratuitous cameos in a less than mediocre story.

What was that?

Honestly this was the lamest use of Sony's characters and IP that they could have done. It felt so generic and uninspired. Even the animation looked clunky at times and the visuals were nothing special either. Maybe the story/message could have saved it at least, but no luck there. And to make it all even worse the trailers for this episode were a straight up lie, with a complete absence of Ghost of Tsushima. I'm guessing they changed their minds for what the episode was supposed to be and in the end rushed this out.

Overall this truly felt like a really bad tv commercial that doesn't get gamers at all.

So, you are a bike courier in a classic "ten hours in the future" scenario. She has augmented reality glasses and one of those spheroid floating robots with funny faces. One day she receives a package to deliver from a stranger. Of course there are FOURTEEN MILLION reasons why couriers just don't just deliver unchecked packages from stragers. Also, the Helldivers show up asking for it, and, while looking a bit Nazi, they must have their reasons. If armed people ask for you to do something that is already the thing to do in the first place, you...

...Jump on your bike, unarmed and unarmored, and try to run away from ARMED FUTURE WARRIORS. Plus Kratos.

Not to worry, because this girl can storm around on motorcycles that put Tron's lightcycles to shame and super jet flyers that would intimidate a F-22 pilot. Because she just can (and does) to DELIVER AN UNCHECKED PACKAGE SHE GOT FROM A STRANGER. All while surrounded by a surpassing aura of superiority. Yup, even to trained F-22 pilots.

I was rooting for the package to be a bomb, but, no. Actually, I don't know what it was. True, we see the contents and what they can do. I still have no idea.

There is nothing wrong for an episode to be a skit that parades games...

...OK, games by Sony...

...In a funny way. To do so, you need a funny character. Here, I was rooting for her to splat against a skyscraper (or to splat into the ground when they re-enact Fortnite). But, no.

The only good thing I can say about the plot of this episode is that the ending is even more stupid. Or maybe not, because I didn't understand it either. Next time, just splat.