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How do!

A day of joyousness for 40K fans. Amazon/Cavill/GW deal finalised and going ahead, and a wee glimpse of things to come via Secret Level. No, I don’t think these events occuring on the same day is mere coincidence.

But here we’ll be discussing, if not outright frothing over Secret Level, because it really is that good.

It did its job. As you say the animation and art style was great. Everything appropriately lore accurate, but it was all a bit too cliched for me. Now the Pac Man episode. That was some original nightmare fodder right there!

Ehhhh.... what is Secret Level?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Ehhhh.... what is Secret Level?

Its a collection of animation shorts on Amazon each focused on a different video game world. There's one for Space Marine 2 as well as some older stuff like Pac Man and Mega Man.

That melee sequence was perfect.

 LunarSol wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Ehhhh.... what is Secret Level?

Its a collection of animation shorts on Amazon each focused on a different video game world. There's one for Space Marine 2 as well as some older stuff like Pac Man and Mega Man.

Cool, thanks...

Excellent short animation!

I wouldn't expect to see models - the bikes and trucks with humans angle is well covered by the Genestealer Cults already as a model theme. But we've known that the forces of Chaos use all kinds of whateve they can find to fight with so it really fits their style to have whatever they can as vehicles and weapons.

I must admit, I did chuckle at first when the Ultramarines were just walking through a dusty, foggy landscape. Reminded me of the previous Ultramarines movie.

I liked the way they moved methodically in combat, and were completely unbothered by the mortal cultists though.

There’s a measured nature to their actions, and it reminds me of Dredd in, erm, Dredd. Absolute control, even when unleashing ludicrous violence.

Their movements aren’t slow or languid. They’re just not wasting effort with wild swings. When someone is in range? They make them go squish, and hard, with quick, efficient blows or swings etc. Like, really quick.

On first watch I wasn’t sure they were moving fast enough, but in reflection, you are right in that they were moving just fast enough for the encounter.

I thought the movement speed was very well done and gave us a solid reference point for Transhuman Dread.

Something that big and heavy shouldn't be able to move quickly and fluidly but it does, and that's terrifying.

Just watched that bit of it again, and yeah. It’s definitely unsettling.

Not faster than the eye can see and brain can process. But wicked fast all the same, with the bad guys going squelch with contemptuous ease.

Even when they’re shooting, you get an idea of their lethal accuracy. Every shot carefully placed, not a round going astray.

I’m also noting just how quiet the Astartes are. No grunts of effort, no battle cries. Just a surety of purpose which is even more unsettling.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

I’m also noting just how quiet the Astartes are. No grunts of effort, no battle cries. Just a surety of purpose which is even more unsettling.

that's indeed a good point and something you often don't get. A lot of films/tv/games love to put sound to things. Heck Tyranids are roaring and screaming all over Space Marine 2 even though they are only supposed to scream when charging up to fire bioplasma in your face. Indeed lore wise its often made a point that all you hear is the thundering of hooves and the scrape of blades but no screams; cries or calls

I hope if we get more in this particular vein, we might see a wider range of Astartes.

Just as a stoic Ultramarine being utterly silent apart from the whine of servos, gunfire and Chainsword is unsettling, having say, a Blood Claw going all frothing, howling loony is going to be pants filling - especially with just how loud a Space Marine and his armour can make said howls (they go up to twelve)

But good gravy this short was satisfying.

I guess I'll see it someday.

I watched it just now and I gotta say it blew me away. Finally, after years of silence following the canned Astartes project, we get something that does the amazing scale and epicness of the 40k setting justice. To be honest, I was looking for Syama Pederson's name everywhere in the credits because the style and quality just reminded me so much of his work.

I really loved the way they did the combat and the Space Marines in general. Everything just feels right, you can feel the weight of the suits and the impacts when they are fighting. My jaw dropped at the first sight of the gratuitous gore as I had fully expected this to be a rather PG13 experience to maximise marketability, but no. Apparently, they held nothing back, and I love them for that. Nothing like a good cultist massacre.The sound design is also really good and helps underline the carnage we see on screen.

Another thing I thought was really cool and creative was the fluorescent blood of the Tzaangors (if that is what they are called?). That created such an eerily beautiful scene and looked quite stunning imo.

One thing I would have liked to know was how they got out of that chasm before the orbital strike hit, but I guess for this short episode, we shouldn't expect too much in terms of story.

Anyways, sorry for my long rambling, but I'm just really pumped that this was a lot better than I had expected.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

I’m also noting just how quiet the Astartes are. No grunts of effort, no battle cries. Just a surety of purpose which is even more unsettling.

I assume they were trying to emulate what the combat is like from an outside perspective, similar to what was done in Astartes. We only see the gestures and movements of the Marines, but we don't get to listen in on their vox frequency. They might well be grunting or giving orders to eachother in the heat of combat, but their sealed armor prevents their enemies (and us, as outside viewers) from hearing any of it. Just my assumption though...

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I guess I'll see it someday.

Hush now. Create a Burner email, get a Prime trial, and get this in your face holes.

 FeistyRips wrote:
To be honest, I was looking for Syama Pederson's name everywhere in the credits because the style and quality just reminded me so much of his work.

17:05 - Layout Artist

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I guess I'll see it someday.

Hush now. Create a Burner email, get a Prime trial, and get this in your face holes.

I mean it's probably not that hard to find it on the high seas, especially since it's an Amazon show, couchtuner is likely to have it soon, I know it'll be uploaded soon to the discord server I follow where they upload the WH+ stuff.

beast_gts wrote:

 FeistyRips wrote:
To be honest, I was looking for Syama Pederson's name everywhere in the credits because the style and quality just reminded me so much of his work.

17:05 - Layout Artist

Nice! I did think it reminded me a lot of Astartes in some aspects as well. Great to know the original creator was involved in this project!

beast_gts wrote:

 FeistyRips wrote:
To be honest, I was looking for Syama Pederson's name everywhere in the credits because the style and quality just reminded me so much of his work.

17:05 - Layout Artist

That doesn't surprise me. It has the same feel of stitched episodes, with an end to each encounter and then a flow into the next. I think they must have trawled Astartes for inspiration for their sound direction too.

If Pederson's style for animation/ movement of space marines and sound direction bleeds into other 40k projects I'll be very happy.

How does it compare to Astartes? Will be a while before I have access to a prime account.

If you liked Astartes you'll like this.

Very similar style of storytelling

Improved production value indeed. I cannot help but to think how close this already was to something live action based. If hollywood fancies this aesthetic, we might see a lot more of it

It’s also set an important benchmark and precedent for the forthcoming shows.

As I think we might very well all agree, the level of violence was about nice. Not quite a gory as it could’ve been, but a good bit more visceral than I thought they could get away with. Though it probably helps there’s nothing especially lingering, or thanks to the nature of it particularly really real.

So, that’s the upside of the precedent now set.

The downside? Now we, The Audience, have a benchmark, and one I think we’re unanimous in being pleased with. Which means what follows must now be at least as good.

 tauist wrote:
Improved production value indeed. I cannot help but to think how close this already was to something live action based. If hollywood fancies this aesthetic, we might see a lot more of it

Honestly I don't think we'll get Hollywood for a long time if never. One BIG difference between GW and a lot of other IP owners is that GW aren't going to just give a Hollywood director their IP to play with. GW wants to be full hands-on in the creative process and I can see a lot of bid studios not wanting that extra layer. Esp from a practiced company as opposed to a single author going through it for the first time.

I think the only way we'd get it is a LotR type deal where the director REALLY wants to do it and where they get a more hands-off approach from the suits to follow their creative vision and GW's.


Which is basically how you see a lot of the AAA style video game licences go. The teams behind Dawn of War/TW Warhammer and Space Marine didn't just want an IP to use; they specifically wanted the GW IP both from a "this is a good IP to use" and from a "we want to make this a GW game and work with GW through the creative process". Ergo they are willing for that extra layer of micro management from the IP holder when they don't have to have it (both firms had major IPs of their own and didn't "need" GW and their customers to be successful)

Though if the Amazon series land well, that’s going to attract interest, and provide justification to GW’s hands-on requirement.

Though I do note this is Amazon/MGM Studios, so the prospect of a cinematic release is already closer than we might think.

Still a long way off, like. But that is a major studio already working with the IP, even if it might need to cough up more for a cinematic release.

Of course that may already be an option included in the existing licensing agreement. We’ll never know.

Indeed GW have been smart - Warhammer+ helped justify that quality animations were a popular concept for them; it helped them lean into twisting the arm for Amazon and if the Amazon series do well then yep that could well lead onto bigger things!

Of course these things are going to take time - quite a lot of time so it might be 20 years before we see a major motion picture developed and released; but its still something that could be an actual reality

The_Real_Chris wrote:
How does it compare to Astartes? Will be a while before I have access to a prime account.

It's Astartes with a higher budget against different enemies - with some shots and sounds almost explicitly calling back to that series. But rather than Traitor Guard imagine the poor mooks had come in from Mad Max: Fury Road and the boss from something scribbled in the corner of Guillermo del Toro's army list.

 Tastyfish wrote:
It's Astartes with a higher budget against different enemies - with some shots and sounds almost explicitly calling back to that series. But rather than Traitor Guard imagine the poor mooks had come in from Mad Max: Fury Road and the boss from something scribbled in the corner of Guillermo del Toro's army list.

This is an incredibly apt description.