Hammer and Bolter

It's a different animation style and one which allows GW to produce much more content as it's far cheaper than the styles in Astartes or Angels of Death. It's the kind of thing I've dreamed of since I got into 40k in the mid 90s so I'm loving it.

If you dont know any of the lore or haven't read the books etc you probably wont understand a thing that is going on. The animation is nothing to shout about. It is just random stories that have nothing to do with any other episodes in the series.

If you know nothing about Warhammer 40k then dont waste your time with this.

Let's get this out of the way.

The animation is substandard, which is a shame, as everything else about this series is great!

Anyone not familiar with 40K will probably struggle to understand all of the episodes, as some of them are deep rooted in lore.

The writing, sound design, voice acting and art stye are all really good.

I'm a big 40K fan and really enjoyed it, just a shame about the animation.

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.