Hammer and Bolter

It is unfortunate that such a good story telling, and all the charachter development goes to waste. We 40k fans are basically thirsty for any sort of content and we apreciate it. This was grim dark indeed, but the lack of good animation and cheap production which is outcome of the terrible GWs ways resulted in having an average show which would have been much more. Frankly GW is one of the worst companies (if not the worst) when it comes to fan support. That being said I apreciate GW being so strict on the lore, not making it woke or soft or just chaning it toward's nowadays media test; but this is not enough. GW... I say this in the most humble of manners, I have never seen an IP in which the fans and the copy-right owner are so separated, People love the IP which great passion, yet most of the fans utterly hate GW. I know you like money and all, but making 40k fans hate you is not the way to go. In the past you have done shocking blow to the fandom and content creators, that cant be forgotton. But there is still hope, you can make money and make peace with the fans if only you change your ways a bit. In any case, I am looking forward to see any 40k content, hope it gets better in the future.

Hammer and Bolter does a great job in rendering the grim, hopeless universe of Warhammer 40,000, but can't hide some of its biggest flaws.

The episodes range from self-contained adventures of unnamed characters to events that intersect major plot points and figures already established in the books, and I think Farside Features completely nails the atmosphere in each episode, mixing the over-the-top essence of each situation with a subtle hint of dark humour.

When it comes to visual quality, Hammer and Bolter mixes static background paintings with moving characters, much akin to the "saturday morning cartoons" many of us grew up watching - a choice that not everyone will like, but isn't a flaw per se.

However, it is easy to see how some episodes rely too much on the story and too little on the actual animation, resulting in something that looks more like TV comics than actual "cartoons", and might be underwhelming for some viewers.

However, every episode, even the most flawed, has some redeeming quality. I would say Hammer and Bolter is worth a watch.

Some of the stories that are covered are interesting but it's more of an audiobook than a TV show. Hammer and Bolter has the quality of a animation without any animators.

Yes, the animation is weak (getting better in newer episodes). Everything else is great. This is exactly the kind of stuff I have always wanted to see for WH40K.

Let me clarify: Astartes 2 is exactly what I want to see, Hammer and Bolter (and everything else on WHTV) is what I want to see in the meantime.

A lot of this stuff has never appeared on screen before. It's a massive universe, and really difficult to put on screen. Not everything has to be Astartes level to be acceptable.

GW hired talent from the community and hit the ground running. Covering as much ground, as fast as possible. A 2D anthology series is the perfect vehicle for that.

I'm not sure if any community talent was involved in H&B, but there's Sayama of course, and Richard Boylan of Helsreach fame made Angels of Death. I'm not sure who else, but some of the other shows feel reminiscent of fan work I've seen.

I'm just excited to finally see 40k making a big push to the screen. But that's not why I'm giving H&B a 9. I'm giving it a 9 because I docked 1 star for animation. Voice acting, art, writing, world building, lore, variety, grimdark brutality - everything else is great.

Because GW is so dominant in their space, I think people forget that it's still kind of a niche thing. Even dominating that space as they do doesn't mean they have the funds to snap their fingers and produce nothing but top tier CGI shows right out of the gate.

For what it's trying to be, Hammer and Bolter is a 9/10. It's really unfortunate how so many people just dismiss it due to the animation. Tell me you never cared about WH40K until Astartes without telling me.

As another review said, and I think it's valid, is this it at times feels more like a slideshow than actual animation.

Each episode is a different story sometimes they are fun other times they are very serious so the tonal shifts are all over the place. Apart from the fact that they are all in the 40K universe, there just isn't enough of a through line of character to explain it as an anthology. Angels of Death is better and shows how bargain basement this is but that's hardly perfect either.

Most fan films for Warhammer are better than this.