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Since apparently this needs to be said for 40k content nowadays, this is pretty NSFW



My favourite part:


Overall, I loved it. Astartes are brutal, malformed masses of muscle with painful looking ports festooned about their body.

I loved everything, especially, the Marine armor. Between the atmosphere and those semi-present ghost creatures walking around, this had a very strong Dead Space feel to it. And there was the small homage to the original bloodletter design in that statue.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
My favourite part:

Spoiler:

Overall, I loved it. Astartes are brutal, malformed masses of muscle with painful looking ports festooned about their body.

Much as I do love the new stuff (and stuff see it as grimdark and all that jazz), and hearing things like "True Grimdark" always sound a little gatekeep-y to me, having Marines be these hulking abominations of metal and muscle is what I've always seen them as, and I'm glad they went that way. Legion, 40k, or Primaris alike.

Once again, the creator has REALLY knocked it out of the park with this.

The intro text was definitely a little try-hard, and I say that as an old 2nd edition "grognard" myself.

Decent animation, but I do appreciate the proper Blanche style and his ultra dark vision of the HH, etc. Didn't grab me anywhere near as much as Astartes, but that's because it was a wandering/slow/kinda do nothing story thus far.

Off to an excellent start. This is how I've always seen 40k ever since discovering it 30 years ago at the age of 10. Hands down the best representation of the warp I've ever seen. Agree with other posters on the portrayal of the Astartes.

And that dark horror aspect. Gods, imagine what this guy could do with the Eighth.....

The imagery was great, but I found it a little bit boring to be honest.
I assume it’s based on one of the specific books I have not read. As without that text at the start I would have assumed it was 40k with the archaic Armor as an artistic choice :(

Apple fox wrote:
The imagery was great, but I found it a little bit boring to be honest.
I assume it’s based on one of the specific books I have not read. As without that text at the start I would have assumed it was 40k with the archaic Armor as an artistic choice :(

It's an original story set during the Horus Heresy. It's only part 1 and it's worldbuilding.

 BaconCatBug wrote:

Apple fox wrote:
The imagery was great, but I found it a little bit boring to be honest.
I assume it’s based on one of the specific books I have not read. As without that text at the start I would have assumed it was 40k with the archaic Armor as an artistic choice :(

It's an original story set during the Horus Heresy. It's only part 1 and it's worldbuilding.

Ahh, I was looking for the book and finding nothing. So that makes sense.

 Elbows wrote:
The intro text was definitely a little try-hard, and I say that as an old 2nd edition "grognard" myself.

Decent animation, but I do appreciate the proper Blanche style and his ultra dark vision of the HH, etc. Didn't grab me anywhere near as much as Astartes, but that's because it was a wandering/slow/kinda do nothing story thus far.

Must say, I do agree.

I *really* like this, the aesthetic is on point for my liking, and the sound design (barring some of the early dialogue to be a bit overshadowed, and I can't really tell much distinction between character voices, especially between Ultramarines and their traitor brethren - which really shouldn't be the case) is very good. I really like the visual storytelling in the form of , but the main area this dropped the ball (and it's not enough to make me dislike this) was in story/script.

As you say, the exposition at the start didn't really do much for me (I don't think people needed a refresher on the Shadow Crusade, or needed to know that a battle happened regarding a splinter fleet and a disgraced Ultramarine - we're shown that through the excellent visual storytelling about the situation), and I'm left feeling I've been told too much, and not enough of the important stuff (*Who* are the people aboard this ship? Why should I care about them? What's the action/suspense?) So far, the only real attachment I have to anyone in the story is the woman, and the Aspirant, and I feel I should be knowing just a bit more.

Comparing this to Astartes, I think Astartes definitely has a better feeling of pacing, suspense, and action (both narratively, and in kinetic animation). This has a very good aesthetics, and I think the potential for story here is greater. I like them both.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BaconCatBug wrote:

Apple fox wrote:
The imagery was great, but I found it a little bit boring to be honest.
I assume it’s based on one of the specific books I have not read. As without that text at the start I would have assumed it was 40k with the archaic Armor as an artistic choice :(

It's an original story set during the Horus Heresy. It's only part 1 and it's worldbuilding.

Yeah, it's only set during a certain period, but it's not an actual storyline it's following.

Regarding worldbuilding, I feel like I want just a little bit more to hook me in (not in the "leaves you wanting more" way, I mean the "I've not been told enough to be invested yet") - the exposition felt too brief and too much simultaneously.

Second watch through, the Astartes crouching and watching in the arena is Eighth Legion. Hope we get to see more of him. This guy is definitely a chaos player. HIGHLY approve.

@Sgt_Smudge: It's slow because it's only part one. Unlike Astartes this is a primarily narrative driven and dialog driven story so it's following the traditional structure a little more. Astartes is a masterful execution of "show, don't tell" for sure, but the two projects are trying to accomplish very different things.

I like when the gigantic cathapract is walking beside the group and the spiky hair says that the ancients are restless.

Karol wrote:
I like when the gigantic cathapract is walking beside the group and the spiky hair says that the ancients are restless.

I think it was Saturnine pattern, not Cataphractii. Could be wrong though. Was fast.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
@Sgt_Smudge: It's slow because it's only part one. Unlike Astartes this is a primarily narrative driven and dialog driven story so it's following the traditional structure a little more. Astartes is a masterful execution of "show, don't tell" for sure, but the two projects are trying to accomplish very different things.

It’s a fan project, so it’s harder to criticise. But I would say it feels more like a promotional, or trailer footage before it’s gone though editing.
I am used to short show narratives and i just feel like as a show, this would have just wasted most of there first episode.

BaconCatBug wrote:@Sgt_Smudge: It's slow because it's only part one. Unlike Astartes this is a primarily narrative driven and dialog driven story so it's following the traditional structure a little more. Astartes is a masterful execution of "show, don't tell" for sure, but the two projects are trying to accomplish very different things.

Even as part one, it still doesn't quite hit that "hooked" factor, for me at least. If it weren't as visually stunning and I wans't invested in the project, I don't think I'd be keeping tabs on it after this. Astartes hits it quite well in the same amount of time, and while they do both go for different approaches (one action, the other visual/thriller - I wouldn't really call DoH dialogue driven as of yet), I can't help but feel the pacing is a little off in this.

I don't want to sound like I'm only criticising this, I really do like it, but it does have it's issues. Hopefully, and most likely, these will be remedied in later parts. It's just that, for now, it's a little slow/unengaging beyond the amazing visuals.

Gadzilla666 wrote:

Karol wrote:
I like when the gigantic cathapract is walking beside the group and the spiky hair says that the ancients are restless.

I think it was Saturnine pattern, not Cataphractii. Could be wrong though. Was fast.

Yeah, it's Saturnine. We do see Cataphractii in some of the flashback scenes though, on the Ultramarine side.

Visually amazing, especially with the flickering demons and chaos vibes.
Narratively I can't say I was such a big fan, hopefully it was kept in the background but will step up to the fore in future parts.
I'm certainly keen to watch further instalments.

Yea the animation was great and the vibe it gave off was very grimdark. I didn't really have a clue what the feth was going on though.

phillv85 wrote:
Yea the animation was great and the vibe it gave off was very grimdark. I didn't really have a clue what the feth was going on though.

I thought it was reasonably clear. A dishonoured Ultramarine captain takes him and his bros to try and board a ship to redeem their honour and get captured. The Ultramarines all get imprisoned/killed/tortured and the World Eaters then take their armour to conduct a false flag operation.

The guy with the face mask who was sent to the pits is obviously just a civilian (or from his armour perhaps a PDF member?) of the planet they had attacked (which was an Ultramarines homeworld), as was the burned woman, both taken prisoner.

The Techpriest is clearly setting up a plot point later on (who/what is 7863) .

Fantastic vibe and artistic style.

This is what 40k looks like.

BaconCatBug wrote:

phillv85 wrote:
Yea the animation was great and the vibe it gave off was very grimdark. I didn't really have a clue what the feth was going on though.

I thought it was reasonably clear. A dishonoured Ultramarine captain takes him and his bros to try and board a ship to redeem their honour and get captured. The Ultramarines all get imprisoned/killed/tortured and the World Eaters then take their armour to conduct a false flag operation.

The guy with the face mask who was sent to the pits is obviously just a civilian (or from his armour perhaps a PDF member?) of the planet they had attacked (which was an Ultramarines homeworld), as was the burned woman, both taken prisoner.

The Techpriest is clearly setting up a plot point later on (who/what is 7863) .

That's what's happened really before we see anything, not actually what we see, though.

It's like the story just got told, and we see the aftermath, but we aren't really given a strong narrative afterwards. We don't really get a good insight into many characters to hook us (barring the aformentioned Ultramarine aspirant, woman, and the censured Ultramarine), and while we do get the beginnings of plot hooks (what's 7863, the impending false flag, and generally 'what next'), it lacks a lot of impetus and drive. Compared to Astartes, even in the first video release, not a great deal happens, but the energy is kept and keep ramping up.

Basically, I watch it, and I get the feeling that it would be more interesting to show us the closing stages of the boarding action (perhaps where we get a first person-esque scene from the UM perspective, we see some kind of devastating sorcerous attack or something suitably horrific and daemonic, then cut to black, and *then* show us the same scene) than picking up the pieces straight away, and telling us the battle through exposition.

Think of it like Star Wars EpIV - we start with the boarding of Leia's ship, and the escape of the droids. They *could* have just mentioned in the opening crawl how the droids escaped the ship boarding, and the Princess was captured by the dastardly Darth Vader, but by showing us that scene, even briefly, it engages us more strongly. Ideally, I'd like to combine a bit of the actual combat with the excellent visual storytelling of the aftermath.

You also have to keep in mind everything other than the voice acting is being made by a single guy on an underpowered PC. That's the reason it's even split into parts, his PC simply cannot render it all in one chunk.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You also have to keep in mind everything other than the voice acting is being made by a single guy on an underpowered PC. That's the reason it's even split into parts, his PC simply cannot render it all in one chunk.

Oh yeah, I'm aware - they've done an exceptional job with the setpieces and visuals. Can't fault that.
But that doesn't change story faults, which a whole team of animators and top range PCs wouldn't have an effect on.

Again, it's first part. It probably will pick up pacing better later on, but right now, it's not quite hooking me like other similar projects have.