Warhammer+ ‘Old Bale Eye’ Spoiler Free First Impressions
Old Bale Eye is the first full episode we’ve gotten to see from Warhammer+ and here’s our initial impressions.
Games Workshop is allowing fans a first look into the Hammer and Bolter anthology series today and we’ve gotten a chance to watch. We’ll talk about the full episode later – once everyone’s gotten a chance to view it. Right now, we’re going to focus on some more general things about the show and our initial thoughts. I’m going to attempt to keep this spoiler free, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you can go to the Warhammer Community site and watch the episode. At the time of publishing, you should have roughly ~23 hours left to watch it free.
My initial first impressions is that it’s enjoyable. The art style is good and while it’s not quite as fluid something you might find in the anime section on Netflix, the animation isn’t that far off either. There were a couple of “Ken Burns” style pans on really cool panels, but it’s done as a style choice and it doesn’t distract from the story or anything.
Speaking of the story, if you didn’t know it basically the story of Commissar Yarrick. But it’s told from the Ork Point-of-view. If you’re familiar with the history of Yarrick then you’ll really get a kick out of how the story goes. And if you’re not, it’s a pretty action packed “origin” of the legendary Commissar. The writing and pacing is pretty solid on the story front. It’s 20 some-odd minutes, but it didn’t feel like it – in a good way.
The voice acting is pretty solid – they nailed the Ork accents. That’s pretty much how I always imagined Orks would sound in my head. Same with the overall sound quality and music. Pretty much what I’d expect things in the Grimdark to sound like as well.
The action scenes are pretty violent. We’re talking limbs getting sliced, big holes getting blasted in folks, and more bloodshed and action. It’s cartoony but we’re not talking Fist of the North Star levels of blood here or anything. Is it a kids show? No…I’d probably not let small children watch this one. I’d probably rate the gore-factor closer to an episode of Metalocalypse than say GI Joe. People and Orks get maimed, there’s blood, but not like fountains of it.
There’s some comedy, there’s action, there’s Orks, there’s the Imperial Guard, and some Beakies even make an appearance. There’s even an anti-bullying message of “you can’t get stronger picking fights with those weaker than you.” If you’re a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe you should definitely give this one a watch while you can. Personally, this left me wanting more and I’m excited to see what else GW has in store for Warhammer+ and all those animated shows they are promising.
It’s a LOT of new stuff coming and I’m VERY curious about them. Hammer and Bolter is of course an anthology series. Some of the other shows are going to be a bit more episodic. And there are tons of different art styles and formats spread among them. I liked the more hand-drawn look and some of the CG wasn’t that bad either. And if this is designed to get folks interested, then it worked on me.
Old Bale Eye has been released to the world for the day – after that you’ll have to wait to watch it again when Warhammer+ launches. The 25th can’t get here fast enough!
Please keep the comments as spoiler free as you can for those folks who still haven’t seen it!
