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So what you're all saying is that we've passed peak GrimDark ....

.... it's all over people.

 Mezmorki wrote:
So what you're all saying is that we've passed peak GrimDark ....

.... it's all over people.

Well, kinda. But some things just can't live up to something you see through rose tinted nostalgia glasses.
The new style is just...different. And while I much more enjoy the artstyle of 3rd ed, I wouldn't call the new art style bad. There is some genuinely good stuff, it's just more crisp "clean".

What I do miss though is the feel of 40k as a setting and not as a story.
The 3rd ed rule book gave off the feel of 40k as a vast and cruel universe, where even the named heroes are just a very small gear in a universe that is a true meat grinder. But interestingly to me the setting back then never just felt like unending hopelessness and cruelty...through its vastness, hidden technology and multitude of races it felt like there was also an infinite amount of opportunity for discovery within that universe. It kinda doesn't feel that way with the modern books, where it is more centered on a story with active main characters.

7th easy - a lot of the art has a more unsettling sort of more gothic painting like look compared to the newer stuff that really captured the mysterious and dreary nature of the setting. All of the modern stuff either looks too clean or like it’s trying way to be hard to be edgy. The art in 7th felt like it had found the right balance.

Tiberias wrote:

What I do miss though is the feel of 40k as a setting and not as a story.
The 3rd ed rule book gave off the feel of 40k as a vast and cruel universe, where even the named heroes are just a very small gear in a universe that is a true meat grinder. But interestingly to me the setting back then never just felt like unending hopelessness and cruelty...through its vastness, hidden technology and multitude of races it felt like there was also an infinite amount of opportunity for discovery within that universe. It kinda doesn't feel that way with the modern books, where it is more centered on a story with active main characters.

Completely agree, however the lesson of cold hard cash is while the settings inspire people, especially those that create stories, its the stories that are the easier and more successful sell to the wider public.

I really like the art in the 9th edition books, it's pretty stellar.