Games Workshop has kindly sent Tale of Painters some Warhammer+ digital assets for their new Hammer and Bolter series to share with you before the free episode is made available for all to watch. We have some screenshots and a couple of audio clips to share with you.
For 24 hours from 12noon on Saturday 21st August, Games Workshop are sharing a complete episode for free from their Hammer and Bolter Series. After this period you will have to subscribe to the new Warhammer+ platform to see this episode and all the other subscription based content they have planned.
Stahly and I (and other notable hobby influencers) got to see the episode Old Bale Eye early on Thursday night as part of a webinar premiere. I wasn’t going to tune in if I’m honest because I’m not really into animation but I gave it a go. I have some spoiler free thoughts below.
I was glad I did because I really enjoyed what I saw. The sound track is proper metal and gets you pumped for Warhammer 40,000. The animation style is heavily shadowed and grim but I’m really pleased with how they’ve managed to keep it colourful. The orky humour is there and they nail all the character tropes. Voice acting is great, as we all know in the war torn distant far future, the Orks are cockney Londoners and this is spot on. Yarrick, doesn’t say much but when he does there is a Scottish twang to his accent. The lore is accurate and they don’t try to reinvent anything or be something it’s not.
There is a lot to like about this animation, but it’s so short. It’s a one shot episode with a 20 minute duration. The next episode of Hammer and Bolter will be a different unrelated story. It doesn’t feel like there is any filler, no long monologues to drag scenes out or anything like that. It’s snappy with quick edits. It doesn’t hang around and delivers the action.
It’s short on frames and feels jerky at times. It uses a lot of still images with motion and overlayed effects to appear like animation. These cost saving measures don’t affect the story or the overall experience. It delivers 40K in a way you’ve always imagined it, unrelentingly brutal and gory.
After the episode, the webinar continued and relayed some more information, some I’ve already talked about in this post. One thing of note was the Warhammer+ platform will have new content added to it EVERY Wednesday (known as Warhammer Wednesday). This content won’t always be animations or short films. They’re planning lots of content like Masterclass painting, battle reports, lore videos and more.
They also mentioned the pricing for Warhammer+. UK is £4.99. USA is $5.99 and Australia is $9.99.
Another thing they mentioned was the content at launch will only be in English and they’re looking at translating it. I also think they said that some territories like Asia won’t have video content on launch initially but don’t quote me on that, my recollection is a bit vague. It could be why there aren’t prices for everywhere yet.
What do you think of Warhammer+, what did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments below.
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