Notice! This article contains spoilers for episode 13 of Secret Level.
Secret level
episode 13 explored the now-defunct world of Concordiawith some incredible insights into a game that no longer has a platform. Secret level is an incredible new series on Prime Video that adapts many beloved video games into short, singular episodes in this anthology-style series. While these episodes primarily explore characters, worlds, and elements within the games, they also delve deeper to provide backstories and expand the games' lore, as seen in the Concordia episode.
While Concordia suffered an abysmal initial launch, with a game that took over $400 million and eight years to create, eventually being scrapped and then revoked within a two-week period, Secret level manages to create a lot of intrigue around the game and its central story. Although the gameplay itself was more akin to a battle royale style format, the episode takes a look at a pivotal moment in the game's universe that helped establish and define the future of your world. Follow the crew of the Relentless as they undertake a critical mission that leads to their heroic death.
The crew went down in a blaze of glory (or did they?)
The Implacable gave one last hurrah to the storm
The crew of the Implacable was in a difficult situation, as they found themselves directly in the Guild's crosshairs. The Guild controls the skies, due to their exclusive ownership of the maps, which allows them to be the sole controllers of the buying, selling and trading routes through space. With the invention of light-speed travel, the entire universe is within reach, but only for those who know how to navigate it. However, the Relentless managed to steal this mapand moments before being captured by the Guild, they chose to broadcast the map over public radio channels for anyone to download.
With this incredible act of defiance, they attempt to escape their captors by flying directly into the terrifying Storm, a massive spatial anomaly that behaves similar to a black hole. It seems like almost certain death for the crew aboard the ship, but the final scene offers a glimmer of hope. In some kind of space thrift store, where goods are bought, sold and traded, a shopkeeper presents a prized piece from his collection, a small trinket that was aboard the Implacable when it flew into the Tempest. However, the fact that this piece is intact seems to confirm that something, or perhaps even someone, could survive.
Intergalactic travel at the speed of light has become free and open trade
Freegunners got free trade thanks to these rebels
For an undisclosed period, the Guild maintained its monopoly on space. This was an incredibly profitable business, due to the fact that it meant anyone connected to the Guild could travel freely, and those who wanted to benefit from ventures in space needed to approach the Guild and likely pay for access. However, the number of the people who benefit from this system will certainly be tiny. What the Implacable crew did by publishing the maps on the equivalent of the World Wide Web was to give everyone the opportunity to travel and work as they pleased.
The Guild no longer held all the power, and suddenly anyone who had a ship with intergalactic light-speed abilities had more opportunities than ever before. Evidently, this leads up to how the world of Concordia operawith groups wandering around looking for rewards and racing to see where they can find their next treasure. Without the Relentless and the incredible sacrifice of the crew, none of this would have been possible, and those who work as Freegunners in Concordia they would be destined for some other destination, probably linked to the same planet on which they were born.
The Relentless paved the way for Freegunners everywhere
The Galactic Guide is for everyone
Freegunners are one of the two main factions of the Concordia games. They are smugglers, mercenaries and scoundrels. In many ways, it's appropriate to imagine them as a kind of space pirate. However, opposing these Freegunners is the Guild. While the Guild has lost its exclusive ability to travel the skiesthey are not willing to give up that control completely. Thus, they establish control points and routes along the main routes of the galaxy. Despite this, the freegunners, with the help of the galactic guide, are able to navigate through space avoiding these Guild checkpoints, allowing them to get to the next big booty with relative ease.
However, Freegunners Everywhere Take Advantage of This Opportunityand there is often a race to the destination that leads to an all-out battle. In Secret level In episode 13, it appears that the Relentless was hoping to use the guide for his own gain, without any notion of making things free and complicating his own efforts to smuggle and make money. However, the Guild's meddling caused Captain Cassidy Taimak to choose to make information free as a way to still win despite being cornered and pushed to almost certain death by the Guild.
Despite being cut after two weeks, there are many crossovers
Secret Level nailed the representation of concord
When Concordia was officially released by Sony, the game suffered incredibly low sales numbers, and Sony made the executive decision to halt the servers and refund everyone who purchased the game just two weeks after the game's release. Therefore, there is much that remains unsaid and unexplored about Concordia this cannot be confirmed. However, the the episode relates a lot to the details that were shared in the games' weekly cutscenes and the overall story behind the Freegunners versus the Guild in Concordia.
There is a lot that remains unsaid and unexplored about Concordia this cannot be confirmed.
The rivalry between these factions, the legend of the Relentless, the reverence that the new Freegunners show for these pioneers, as seen by the crew of the Northstar. All of this is a direct reference from the game to the screen. Another key element that unites them is the small trinket that appears in the final moments of Secret level episode 13. In Concord, this same figurine is brought aboard the Northstar by Lennox, who tells an excerpt from the Relentless story in the game's week 1 cutscene. All things considered, Secret level episode 13 did a great job paying homage to a game that is no longer available, but at least the episode will allow it to live on.