Angels of Death Review Thread

[StraightSilver]

I must be in the minority but I actually preferred the space combat to the marines vs cultists.

 

My only gripe would be that the promethium hauler looked to be an effective fire-ship, so why didn't the antagonists just use the same trick against the Blood Angels Strike Cruiser? Unless they didn't want to damage the station?

 

I agree that it's not perfect though and although Richard is a good director I'm not sure he's a great animator. Hopefully, one day, we will get a "super team" with Syamar as animation director, Richard as director and the BL audio team doing the sound direction.

But considering this is GW's first foray into this type of thing I actually think it's pretty good, and the story is at least engaging.

[sitnam]

I suspect the cult wants to take over the ship. The have already lured the Astartes to the ground, and have boarders on the ship. A strike cruiser would be a hell of an asset for a cult

[byrd9999]

Imagine if they tied this in to Peter Fehervari's works that feature GSCs stowed away on spaceships...

 

In fact, Peter Fehervari's works are ideal to translate to the animated screen. I'm thinking of the cinematic final battles in Requiem Infernal.

 

He even works in TV! Hire him up, GW!

[b1soul]

Based on the snippets, this looks visually inferior to Ultramarine 2010

[DarkChaplain]

I'd recommend watching the Ultramarines movie again, then. My god, it ain't a good looker by any means. It looked pisspoor even by 2010 standards.

[Noserenda]

Yeah you could argue about the sound and the (excellent) stylistic colour choice but the models are much, much better than Ultramarines, which also took place on a barren featureless plain half the time...

[b1soul]

I haven't seen the Angels of Death end product, so just going off the trailer

 

Aod:

 

UM:

 

I think the lack of full colour is why it struck me as "worse" than UM. Looking more closely, I think AoD has better texture...but most of it is grey.

 

So visually, this is a major let down to me, but perhaps it has great story and voice acting to make up for the IMO rather weak visuals.

Edited September 15, 2021 by b1soul

[StraightSilver]

So, I just watched episode 4, "Awakenings" and it's the best one yet. Sooo good, they managed to actually cram in some very good backstory in a short 17 minutes. All done without too much exposition. Really good.

[Petitioner's City]

Episode 4 was excellent indeed - it feels like the first extended characterisation since episode 1.

 

Plus cult points of view!!!! At last - the 'there is beauty in you' scene (glanced in the trailer) was wonderful, and the two leaders are given good amount of attention each 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Petitioner's City

[rookie40K]

Today’s episode was great! A large focus on the Cult and their perspective. Bonus cameo by a iconic legendary character. Good stuff.

[OutlawSixActual]

I also loved this episode - and now that someone in this thread has made me overly aware of all the bad sound effects, i even enjoy noticing the horrifically bad chainsword effects :)

[Subtleknife]

I liked today's episode...but

 

In the action scenes they need to stop using close up shots. I have no idea what is happening half the time.

 

Secondly I know they had the chat half way through the mission to create backstory, but real soldiers let alone super soldiers wouldnt take their helmet off and have a chin wag in such a situation where the enemy might be in ambush around the corner. It just takes away from the feeling these guys are supposed to special forces on steroids.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Subtleknife

[Noserenda]

He does almost immediately get his face ripped up ;) 

Excellent episode obviously.

[Indefragable]

Just saw episode 4. I agree that this is probably the best episode yet for just how much is crammed into it.

 

That being said it is really starting to grate on me just how…amateurish…the Astartes feel. “Hey we’re moving into a confined space just ripe for an ambush by a foe that specializes in ambushes—as  our Sgt who did a stint in the Rainbow Six-like force that specifically exists to learn about such foes will surely warn us about—and just tore our best veterans in walking tank armor apart…but nah let’s stand in a circle with no perimeter and have a talk about our feelings.” 
 

…I get the need for characterization and emotion and whatnot, but it just feels amateurish both in and out of setting. Like amateur writing to have that moment happen the way it did instead of flashbacks as this very episode just demonstrated it likes to do. <grumble>
 

I did like how the rest of the squad is starting to get some personality to show through. My fav is the guy with the knife rig and deep cuts in the armor.

 

I agree battlescenes are too chaotic. Hard to tell what’s going on. 
 

Dissonance with the sound effects particularly jarring in this episode. Heavy bolter sounds like a 9mm…seriously it somehow sounds weaker than even the bolt pistols. Just odd. 
 

Cameo was a pleasant surprise….though a major personal gripe:

ok 1. Mephiston should be way bigger than that: S5/T5 and all that. 2. I’m not sure I ever really thought about what Mephiston should sound like, but it should be different from that .  I mean, the dude is so imposing that the Space Marines the,selves, the freakin’ Angels of Death gave him the title Lord of Death. Dude should be just more…..physically imposing. 
 

it wasn’t terrible, it just didn’t give anywhere near the famous Mark Gibbons artwork vibe at all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer/comments/862fam/on_the_subject_of_badass_art_mark_gibbons_iconic/

 

Believe it or not I am actually enjoying his series overall. It’s fun and I give it a lot of credit for the effort. But maybe I’m just too much of a BA fanboy to not help but be annoyed by some aspects. Will certainly withhold final judgement until the series is finished.

 

How many episodes are there supposed to be?

Edited September 16, 2021 by Indefragable

[Kenzaburo]

I really liked that 4th episode. Just as a longtime fanboy, this was riveting. At the end I was close to the edge of my seat and really wanted to know what's up with Rafael.

 

It is not great TV though, if I am being entirely honest. Like Brother Indefragable said, the marines act a bit amateurish. Their professionalism (hypnodcotrination and all that) is sacrificed for dramatic effect. No perimeter, casual glances into tubes and pipes, firing way to late into the oncoming horde and the Deathwatch vet removing his helmet but not redonning it when the enemy shows up. It's a bit inconsistent and a stark contrast to the deadliness of astartes shown in, well, Astartes. There we have way less drama, but see the ruthless efficiency of the marines.

 

Here we get the personalization, the drama, basically more story-telling (which I really enjoy), but the fact, that the marines are marines gets lost. If you combined the visual craft and display of the marines of the Astartes series with the storytelling of Angels of Death, you'd get something incredibly beautiful. And they really need to fix the sound design. As someone said before, the Heavy Bolter has a way less chunky, weighty sound than the standard bolters. And boy, that chainsword sounded way to quiet and dampened. The voice acting on the other hand I like a lot. I always thought, that Black Library's narrators and voice actors were great fits for astartes, with all that authority dripping from their voices. And that GSC magos, that voice sounded almost childlike to me, which made it all the more creepy. Loved it!

 

But seriously: On it's own Angels of Death is fine as it is. Could be more, there's still room for improvement, but it's far better than I expected it to be. And even if the marines are not all what they are supposed to be, seeing 40k in this form of cinematic portrayal is just really cool. Just because of this show alone I'm quite happy to have subscribed. And then there's the batreps and the masterclasses on top of that. Only loremasters needs some improvement, as much as I like Wade.

[Allart01]

Just catched up on episode 4... and it definitely was the best so far!

I'm starting to like Kazarion and his Black Rage storyline. 

His chainsword still sounds like my electric razor, tho...

[Guest]

Some good backstory on this episode.... Damn that Nid ship is bloody HUGE :)

[Petitioner's City]

I can't help but think that the series shouldn't have started in media res; rather the core of this episode should have been the first episode. It just is so very good.

 

Nice to see Orpheus beyond the first scene, and more of Rafeal. I also hope Ancaeus and Kazarion come more to the fore, given the loss of their "elders". It is striking how few reviewers actually use their names

Edited September 22, 2021 by Petitioner's City

[Noserenda]

Another solid episode, though the space combat is far and away its weakest element for me, ships made of more fragile lego and, while i know its a nitpick, the Imperial navy using nonsense tactics that ignore their strengths to fire broadsides even with visible nova cannons... arrrg it hurts my nerd brain :D 

[Grotsmasha]

With a distinct lack of chainsaws to pull me out of this episode, I thoroughly enjoyed it :tu:

[Ldorte]

Really enjoyed this episode.

 

The space battle had some great visuals, especially the appearance of the big tyranid ship. Kinda wish the warp looked a bit more outlandish but it still looked  interesting.

 

The shot when the terminators all opened fire up at the cultists on the walkways simultaneously was fantastic and although they could have done with a little more bass I actually quite liked the sound effect for the stormbolters.

 

Shaky cam is still an annoyance and the show writers seem to be absolutely determined to make everyone seem like complete idiots at points. I'm hoping that if they do a season 2 or these guys simply do another show that they hire someone on that has a better understanding of military tactics and warfare in general (and marine tactics as described in the books) rather than what is being shown here and someone with a better understanding of sound mixing, as the show is so close to being something really great but just falls short slightly in several aspects. Still looking forward to more though!

Edited September 22, 2021 by Ldorte

[SkimaskMohawk]

As a big fan of BFG, that space battle was so weird. Ships driving close to fire when space combat has always been described as more of an exercise in mathematics, shields...not existing, the hive ship zapping stuff instead of chowing. I guess I'll add that the shadow in the early should exist; I thought that was what the red energy was but it was actually the Great Rift manifesting.

 

On the planet I think the marines continued not operating like normal soldiers and especially not super-soldiers. The terminator plate should also feel heavier as they sound incredibly light on their feet while walking. I did like the storm bolter SFX, wish they could have had more cultists drop to match the rate of fire and show that if it wasn't for the insane numbers the terminators would have plausibly blasted them. I also wish the melee had the same meaty weight to it that the chaplains attacks got; chainswords, powers words and powerfists all just don't convey the brutality or the strength behind them.

[Osteoclast]

A couple of personal bugbears:

The melee scenes feel a bit lazily scripted from a CGI standpoint; stationary Space Marine lazily whacks away at a cultist who is charging past them…for reasons? Also you’d think that Blood Angels, of anyone, would be gung-ho for the merits of countercharging an ambush.

 

Sci fi writers have no sense of scale is forgiveable, it’s a thing and somewhat necessary for visual mediums, even if taken to an extreme here. But “We’ve received a vague come home order via the nightmare dream post, we must obviously immediately abandon the pitched battle we are currently in and charge home through the not overly time reliable Warp” annoyed the crud out of me with the Battle of Phall and it annoys me here too. It’s not like the time to finish the battle properly would’ve meaningfully delayed them. It’s like recalling planes actively dive bombing ships at Coral Sea because a messenger boat sailed up and said that the Admiralty wanted them to return to home base.

 

Also the shadow in the warp from the ‘nids should’ve prevented both said message and the escape into the Warp.

[ServoBadger]

At great personal risk I'm going to venture an alternative opinion... :)

 

Now, Blood Angels were my first 40k army, I am a Blood Angels fan, and I've never been in the military, buuuut...

 

What I'm seeing is transhuman arrogance and, to put it bluntly, imperially-mandated ignorance. The space marines don't believe they're in any danger because they're facing mortals - in fact, one of the things that makes one of the marines suspicious is that the humans aren't terrified of them. So they behave accordingly.

 

The ignorance comes in after the real threat is revealed. Kazarion is the only one who really knows what they're dealing with, and the rest of the squad respond to his knowledge with suspicion - like good Space Marines should, you're supposed to hate the alien, not understand them - whereas Kazarion has had to learn a different way in the Deathwatch. It's only reinforced by the way the rest of the squad make assumptions about what they see, but he looks deeper and corrects them, which leads to more suspicion, which finally causes him to lose his cool at the worst possible time.

 

That's just how I interpret what I'm seeing, but I'm loving it.

[Indefragable]

Was there no episode drop this week? How many have there been so far? 5?