The combat, when it comes, is brief and brutal. Automated defenses (drones, turrets, a single, sadistic enemy AC piloted by a long-dead merc’s backup AI) are dispatched not with flashy combos, but with efficient, crushing violence. A missile volley here. A point-blank shotgun blast there. The choreography feels heavy, costly, and exhausting. Each kill leaves the Runner’s AC more damaged, more scarred. There is no repair kit. There is only forward.
Physical and mental decay is shown in graphic detail, with the Pilot's augmented physiology causing him to literally "leave something behind when he comes back out".
When Prime Video’s video game anthology series Secret Level debuted on December 10, 2024, immediately stood out as one of its most complex, visually spectacular, and grim chapters. Directed by Dave Wilson and co-written by acclaimed sci-fi author Peter Watts and JT Petty, this 14-minute short film delivers a masterclass in atmospheric storytelling. It features Hollywood icon Keanu Reeves as a broken, augmented mercenary pilot stranded on a frostbitten frontier world. secret level s01e08 armored core asset manageme
Showing the gritty, behind-the-scenes maintenance, scavenging, and political maneuvering that happens between explosive battles.
A hologram flickers on: —no face, just a waveform. The combat, when it comes, is brief and brutal
the eighth episode of Prime Video’s adult animated anthology series Secret Level , stands as one of the most visually stunning and philosophically grim adaptations of FromSoftware’s mech universe ever created. Directed by Dave Wilson, written by Peter Watts and JT Petty, and starring Keanu Reeves , the 14-minute short film captures the mechanical friction and soul-crushing corporate dystopia that has defined the Armored Core franchise for nearly thirty years. The Narrative Hook: Corporate Property vs. Human Decay
A story centered around corporate handlers managing their "assets" (the mechs and their human pilots) during a high-stakes corporate raid. A point-blank shotgun blast there
JAX (screaming) MANAGE THIS.
: After a tense confrontation at a local bar, Jon accepts a mysterious bounty mission relayed by a voice in his head (referred to by some fans as a "ghost" or AI entity similar to Ayre from Armored Core VI ).