The Concord episode of Secret Level is like a message from a ghost whose unfinished business is creating a global multimedia franchise

pcgamer.com:

Sometime before Sony hero shooter Concord released, before it was even fully revealed to the public, the producers of Amazon TV series Secret Level—a collection of animated videogame shorts premiering on Prime Video on December 10—started working on an episode based on the game. They didn't know that the short sci-fi tale they were animating would become a message from beyond the grave.

The episode, which I've seen in advance of the show's premiere, was supposed to come out in a world where Concord was, if not a Helldivers 2-level hit, a popular and well-liked game. In reality, Concord barely lasted a week. Sony quickly shut the competitive multiplayer game down due to lack of interest, and then shuttered developer Firewalk Studios, which it had acquired partway through Concord's development.

I played Concord and I thought it was fun enough, and it was technically sound, but its Bungie-influenced arena shooter stylings just didn't draw a crowd, and neither did its all-in commitment to building a Guardians of the Galaxy-like sci-fi universe with weekly cutscenes. They were going to follow the exploits of a crew of Freegunners—Concord's name for its roguish space mercenaries—whose realistically-rendered faces were a little uncanny.

The Secret Level episode portrays the most important moment in the history of the Freegunners, when a heroic crew of outlaws stole a map of navigation routes that allow free travel through the galaxy for enemies of The Guild, a powerful policing body.

At the end of the short adventure, we jump to a space pub in the present of Concord's timeline, where the legendary story has just been retold. There, we glimpse the arm of one of Concord's mascots—Lennox, the green guy—and of course we're supposed to think, 'Hey, I know that guy!' But no one does know much about the character, outside of his creators. What we got of Concord's story from the first trailers and cutscenes tell us that he's a daredevil who really loves hot sauce, but there were