User reviews

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.

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.

Half the series was my cup of tea , one episode i gave up in 3 min.

I like it gave me an idea what the warhammer world is about. I knew nothing about it and i like the craziness .

Recommended.

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.

In my opinion this animated show is the best movie/tv-serie adaptation of Warhammer 40k I have ever seen.

Even though it's budget animation it's really well written, awesome sound design and good voice acting. I like it all a lot, it's better made then a lot of other animated shows out there.

It captures the Warhammer 40k universe perfectly and the lore is just spot on.

I highly recommend this tv-show to anyone who is interested in the 40k universe and want to know more. And this i want to see a lot more off! Because the 40k universe is big, and got a lot of lore, so there is a lot to make around it.

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.

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.

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.

It's surprisingly good.

Animation definitly isn't the strength of this Series - but the Storys and Atmosphere. Damn!

Perfect hit the important goals. With a little more budget this would have been a 10/10 :) this is a must watch for Fans.

It's an anthology Series - what does that mean?

Every episode got its own story - thats awesome. Even if you're like "UGH I dont like Race XYZ" - no worries there! Next episode will be about something complete different!

The english Voice actors are mostly a solid 9/10 I really hope this will continue. The animations could be better by A LOT - but hey. Its still a great time for fans.

This show is the perfect example of you get what you paid for because this show clearly didn't pay any animators. It's basically a powerpoint presentation with pretty solid voice acting. It's a real shame, because the universe deserves more and the stories are overall decent to amazing depending on which episode you're watching. We fans deserves better and the IP deserves and NEEDS BETTER FROM GW!

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.

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.