So, yeah, it turns out that the new object is a Blackstone Fortress. After yesterday's announcement I did not expect so rapid a turn-around, but here we are. As part of the NOVA announcements, Games Workshop unveiled a large number of new releases from across all their ranges. I strongly advise anyone to read it here, as there is some damn good stuff, and I wouldn't be adding anything by simply repeating that information. Still, if you need a good reason to delve into it: There's not only word of new Sisters of Battle releases, but the continuation of a much believed 40K themed webcomic. Yes, Turn Signals on a Land Raider is back, people! Still, onto the subject at hand. The Blackstone Fortress was fully unveiled in this trailer, where we are given a glimpse of the ominous ancient device:
The re-introduction itself is to be part of a game, a Warhammer Quest style experience in the same vein as Silver Tower. With the successes seen in Age of Sigmar and a Rogue Trader tabletop experience on the horizon, this is a further push to emphasize tabletop mini-games over large ongoing experiences. While we know little of the core rules themselves, the setting isn't dramatically dissimilar to the likes of Shadespire, as it's a vast mysterious object with a history linked to the galaxy's ancient past. The big question surrounding this is if there will be a greater meaning behind this. The Blackstone Fortresses were (supposedly) a key part of Abaddon the Despoiler's plan to break the Cadian Gate and establish his own powerbase. This mostly boiled down to using them as an orbiting gun platform, but until now we thought that the few in the Gothic sector were all those that existed. Finding a new one elsewhere, even a single new station unclaimed by Chaos, opens up a number of new questions. The big one among them is just how many others there might be, and if this might influence future events relating to Chaos, the Necrons and the Imperium at large. After all, a C'tan Shard was concerned enough to manipulate Abaddon into destroying several fortresses and claiming others for himself, just to make sure they are out of the way. This isn't the sort of thing which can just be introduced and then left at that. It might be a push to claim that this is a major story development, given that this is supposed to be a single one-shot game. However, I previously made that mistake of thinking the same thing when it came to Death Masque and that kicked off a major change within the universe. Yes, it was horribly written and the follow-up story was easily the worst part of the Gathering Storm, but the point is that it could be the start of something new. If you do think that this is hyperbole in some way, even ignoring the fact that these are ancient machines which are seemingly beyond even the technologies of the Eldar and Necron races combined, these things are planet killers. Once activated, they can chew through worlds, and blow up suns when working in combination with other ships. Just one like this could change the face of a battlefield faster than a dozen Titan Legions working in coordination with one another.
Games Workshop has been on a roll of late, with no end of new games, rules and models arriving on shelves. Besides the smash hit of Kill Team, the new Titan game has gained no end of attention and the recent campaigns have proven to be supremely popular. The point is, the company has entered a new golden age, and a major part of that can be put down to their vastly improved use of social media. We've seen promos, we've seen trailers (including this glorious creation) and we've seen humourous tutorials, all to help build a sense of community. Well, now we have more hype thanks to posters like this one:
This is a recent development, offering little more than a simple message and some blurry images. However, there are enough general hints here to have gotten more than a few people hyped, especially with the timeline now moving forward. The suggestion of something new and big having been found in the galaxy is enough of a major revelation, but then you have the implication of this being "a" new subject rather than simply new, implying a number of things. The big one, of course, is the idea that this might well be a primarch. Most of the loyalists now have a backdoor to justify their reintroduction into the setting. With El'Jonson taking a nap inside the Rock and Khan possibly lost within the Webway it would be easy to work them into the narrative, while Russ' quest would carry a big impact. The traitors are even easier to work into battles, and people have been wondering when Angron might show up given the bloodshed going on. However, while the general return of the primarchs is a major ongoing event, they seem like the sort of thing Games Workshop would use sparingly. They have a very limited number of them, after all, and there's only so many times you can build hype around the idea of their resurrection into the modern timeline. Others have instead looked to focus on secondary sources for inspiration, or generally the sort of elements which will cause just as big a splash but will come across as a major surprise. This has led to more than a few fans predicting that a Blackstone Fortress might have shown up. Given how seemingly important these ships were, and the fact one was gifted to Huron Blackheart, that is entirely possible. It's also a subject which was given more credence thanks to Janus Draik's name appearing on a to-be-released novel about those fortresses. The idea of the Blackstones being a source of interest is the most likely of several rumours, but that's simply the tip of the iceberg here. The mention of rogue traders - a subject that the main Warhammer 40,000 series rarely uses beyond a few fluff mentions - has led to some wondering if we are about to see trader crews emerge as a new army. Ad hoc groups of marines, xenos, mercenaries and the like have been the subject of multiple fan codices, after all, and the last major nostalgic kick the company used proved to be very profitable. It was the Imperial Knights, so it was going to have an advantage, but the point still stands. Especially as, going by those blurry images, this lot apparently have some big walkers of their own. Even atop of that, however, due to the name of the trader in question. Janus Draik is a newcomer to the setting, and has not been seen before. However, Janus Drake is a very old name associated with a dangling plot thread from a William King novel by the name of Farseer. In it, the aforementioned Rogue Trader operated alongside an Eldar Fareer by the name of Auric Stormcloud in a hunt to claim an eldar relic. By the end, Drake's body had been hijacked by the Farseer due to a spirit stone implanted within his body. Given the hints of a major conflict with the Necrons (both due to a mention during the Gathering Storm about several Craftworld Eldar and Necron battles, and a multitude of other suggestions in their own codex), and the Farseer's own zealous personal crusade, the re-introduction of the character isn't out of the question. This is, as ever, simply speculation, and it will be only a short while until we get a few answers. Whatever the result, however, they should be quite interesting indeed.
Is Gearbox engaged in some sort of a Springtime For Hitler gambit? Really, between this and Aliens: Colonial Marines, the company is making a name for itself as a publisher which churns out broken rush-jobs. Sure, Paradox might have committed that sin a few too many times, but they were never this high profile. Those were down to incompetence, you have to try to shunt out a game this utterly broken. If you haven't gotten the point yet, We Happy Few is the Ride to Hell: Retribution of 2018. In fact, in many ways it's worse. Ride to Hell was never going to be a good game, and nothing of value was lost with its bug ridden mess of a release. We Happy Few had genuine talent coding the game, designing the setting and writing the story. It's just that you now have to dig very, very deep to find anything of value within it. Synopsis Set in the town of Wellington Wells, you play as three characters who have become sane. The entire town is being kept addicted to joy through its pills, and lives in a self-enforced system of authoritarian control. As each seeks their own path to freedom, they uncover the dark secret behind the town, and the true horror of the conspiracy to keep it hidden. The Good
The good here can be summed up in the essential screenshots. The game is enthralling in its surreal 60s inspired visuals, from the rainbow streets to the rictus grinning population. With characters, environments and dynamics which seem more at home orbiting a yellow submarine than on a suburban street, it's clear that this entire world has gone insane. Simply stating that would have undermined the very point the game is attempting to make, but by exaggerating and grossly twisting the world beyond recognition, it hits that much harder. It's in the same way that Bioshock's blunt force trauma messages and iconography would have been laughable if presented directly to the player. Yet when it was combined with the art deco designs and body horror, the experience was elevated to a new level. Yes, that's a bit of an obvious comparison to make given who was involved here, but it's the easiest one to cite.
The nature of the enemies and their quirks is surprisingly enthralling, especially when it comes to what they represent. While the delinquents skulking around back alleys and crumbling buildings might seem like basic societal rejects, you only need to look at the society itself for their presence to have a whole new meaning. After all, if Wellington Wells is a saccharine nightmare of joy, what did these people do in order to become outcasts? A few hints are dropped in places, but the answer is satisfyingly disturbing when finally given. The same is true of the police who patrol the streets, keeping watch for anyone who might even fail to keep up with mandated happiness. While it's an old concept - one dealt with by Doctor Who's Happiness Patrol among others - there is no clear villain here. The masks used, the fact that so many people rise up against you once you're outed, and the lack of a definitive end-game villain means that the system itself is your opponent. The way the narrative plays this to its advantage leads to some of its darkest moments. The dialogue and (most of) the voice acting does work in limited doses. It's remarkably humourous and exaggerated in exactly the right way to fit the 60s aesthetic, but it few cross the line into being utterly incomprehensible in their colloquialisms. It's another atmosphere building element, and if further enhances this essential part of the game. Yet, more importantly, it offers a far more "lived-in" sense to the homes and town itself, giving it that right sense of a society undergoing decay from within. The absurd nature of the game is largely told through dialogue, more than a few mechanics help to reflect this. Several are counter intuitive, seemingly intentionally so, and to a point this actually helps the game. The way in which you are forced to harm yourself to overcome certain obstacles and remain hidden can often end up hurting you, especially in the long run. This is especially evident when it comes to the use of Joy - the addictive substances used to maintain the population's searingly sunny disposition - but it does come into effect with a number of secondary elements as well. Giving these away would ruin their impact, but suffice to say, you're forced to work with a system which simply doesn't work at points. This is very much a two-edged sword, however, which leads us right onto the negatives. The Bad
Now, you might have noticed that all the positives cited the visuals and atmosphere above all else. There's a very, very good reason for that: All other bits are unfinished, bug ridden or so poorly designed you'd be forgiven for thinking Compulsion Games hates its audience. Take the aforementioned counter intuitive systems cited above, just for starters. Now, having an intentionally harmful series of mechanics which gradually wear you down? That can be done, and done well. The problem is that it's gone a little too well, and it carries over to everything here.
There's never a moment where you're not hungry, thirsty, exhausted or sort on something, and nine times out of ten this gets in the way of the story. Even without that, the detectors for those not on Joy are so widespread that you have to constantly down the drug over and over again, until you overdose on it. Yes, there's a bar which counts down, but only at a snail's pace. To wait it out, you'll need to hide in a corner of the map, hope no one finds you, and cool your heels for minutes at a time. Really, the bar is so slow to cool down that the only effective way is to just run and hide, then walk away from the game for a while. Without that, you just end up with the entire town trying to chase you down and beat you to death. Now, this might have been more effective if there were good alternatives, but there really aren't. Walk through Wells without Joy and, in checkpoint after checkpoint, if you're not dosed up to your eyeballs on the stuff then you're immediately found out. What was intended to offset this was the skills system, where you can unlock a variety of new abilities and powers to make life easier. Based on tiers, the idea was that you could have means to improve your situation by nullifying certain threats or weighting events in your favour. It's a basic design concept, but the staging reflects Dishonored's system over your typical RPG fare. The problem is, the system itself has been built arse-backwards. The high tier upgrades range from basic options that people wanted from the start (such as removing the need to maintain a thirst and hunger meter) to a minor chance to break an enemy's weapon while blocking. At the same time, lower level ones such as boosting your health by 50%, or doubling the time it takes for an NPC to become suspicious, can be unlocked after just a few basic tasks. Now, the skills layout on its own would be more irksome than a true flaw. After all, most of them are helpful in some way, and you can think out just want you want before picking anything, long in advance. However, a sizable number of these simply don't work. You can spend quest after quest charging up the points needed to buy them, only for the effect they promise never to actually trigger. The most widely reported of these is the skill which switches off thirst, hunger and tiredness, which simply doesn't work. Players who though they were free from the most heavily criticised part of the game soon found their characters keeling over from exhaustion, dehydration or starvation but without any indication that this was still a threat. So, you can waste hours at a time, charge up point after point, and have the game outright lie to you about what it will effect.
So, what of the quests? They're bad. Well, mostly bad. It's less the "Dear god, why am I doing this!?!" kind of bad, than it is the "You really had no idea what to include here, did you?" sort of bad. The big ones are where the game clearly starts to run out of steam at specific points, with situations such as carrying someone a few thousand yards across town... and that's it. You move at a snail's pace, you're stopped by everyone it's possible to be stopped by, and quite often you'll need to double back to hide from basic threats. Why? Because carrying someone is seen as suspicious, and the sheer distance you need to lumber across is so vast that something, somewhere, will spawn in your way. This isn't the only one like this, as many devolve into sheer tedium over anything truly engaging. Speaking of spawning, there are countless oddities and strange occurrences which take you out of the experience. The big one is the spawning system, and the specific NPCs which arise from seemingly nowhere. Certain character models are rehashed ad nauseam, to a degree rivaled only by games built on stock Unity assets, and for seemingly no reason. If you're unfortunate enough to get this game - and if you have, seek a refund ASAP, trust me - then try counting the sheer number of old women in the streets. You'll know the one, it's a rather distinct character model. Do it, and you'll soon realise that We Happy Few re-uses voices and visuals more often than even Oblivion. Oh, but now we get onto the festering abscess lurking under the skin of We Happy Few, the bloated decaying mass of refuse which defaces all it comes into contact with: The bugs. The Ride to Hell: Retribution example above might have seemed like hyperbole, but I sincerely assure you that it is well and truly earned. You can encounter NPCs having scene specific conversations but in completely the wrong room, sometimes without the man they are arguing in even showing up. The entire Joy mechanic can suddenly fail without warning, and despite being drugged up to the Nth degree, you can still get called out for somehow breaking the law, or have powers suddenly fail. The only reason you might complete the game despite this is to the complete absence of intelligence in the enemy AI, which often gets caught on scenery, or sometimes even thin air.
It's possible to accidentally phase through buildings over and over again, speed-running missions purely by accident or abruptly fail them because a character will straight-up die simply because you tried to talk to them. You're not in control here, you're beholden to the whims of the cruel god of Murphy's law, and his minions lurk behind every shred of coding in this chaotic mess of a release. Of course, even then, this is assuming that there was an attempt to finish things there. Entire areas of the map completely lack collision defection, causing you to fall through the world and abruptly die. Yes, the average Steam Early Access game has more QA assurance than this allegedly AAA release. There is honestly not enough space in this review to cover all the flaws, and that's because every time I am forced to restart, something new comes up. The worst one of late was where all the dialogue in the game refused to trigger, meaning missions could not be completed, and there was no way to progress forward. Still, even if they fixed that, this is one of the worst optimised games release on PC since Magicka or Minecraft; with all the screen tearing, pop-ins and uneven frame-rate that such a comparison implies. The Verdict This is an utter disaster of an experience. Between bugs, poor implementation of essential systems and a mission system which would be bad even in a polished release, it's not worth it. The writing is great, the voice acting is spot on and the visuals are brilliant, but this is supposed to be a video game. You play these to experience them, not just to watch an art department's mobile monument to their brilliance. This is the sort of thing which really does make you question your sanity for ever trusting a developer again, or something with Gearbox's name stamped on it. While Gearbox itself has to certainly shoulder a substantial amount of the blame for publishing a game in this quality, you have to wonder what just Compulsion Games was doing. Contrast might have been a flawed gem, but it had far more good than bad, and it was at least largely finished. With this one, we had a 2015 Kickstarter, a 2016 Early Access release, and eventually a major publisher backing them. Money shouldn't have been a problem, and three years of development shouldn't have resulted in something so bad as this. A few bugs? Sure, I could see that, but not an entire bloody hive! Folks, avoid this one entirely. Unless a few major patches followed by a No Man's Sky level overhaul follows, there's simply no reason to play this. Go elsewhere for your fix of joy, all you'll find here is non-stop misery.
The sad truth of all things is that they exist to be surpassed. This isn't intended in quite the tall poppy syndrome sense, but in how certain works are a measuring stick to others. Alien remains a standard for sci-fi horror, Band of Brothers for television surrounding a certain wartime conflict, or the Eisenhorn trilogy for Black Library. We always hope that others will learn from them, to take their ideas an improve them, elevating the medium as a whole. Unfortunately, in doing so, it can make returning to those games very difficult. This has hit the Shenmue series especially hard as, while it's clearly a milestone achievement, it has clearly long since been surpassed. Synopsis The Shenmue games follow the story of Ryo Hazuki, a young martial artist living in late 80s Japan. After his father is threatened by a mysterious Chinese man, Hazuki is tasked with uncovering the secrets of his family's history and the mysterious dragon mirror. A subject which only becomes all the stranger in the second game, with the involvement of both another mirror and a woman by the name of Shenhua Ling, who is tied to his fate. The Good
When you look at any game praising the Shenmue series, you will often see points cited in how it pioneered certain ideas and developed them. While the core story was certainly an engaging romp, what many players often remember fondly is how the duology attempted to bring its world to life. While "realism" might be a stretch, you had to deal with real-time schedules, waiting until certain people became available and various dynamic systems. As such, players were often encouraged to make their own fun by visiting a variety of additional minigames, activities or hidden content.
To the developer's credit, a number of the side activities still hold up, and this isn't just referring to the Space Harrier arcade machine. Racing gangs in quick time events is often amusing, finding new masters to learn moves from means that you are often back-tracking over old territory, and even the repetition of forklift driving is oddly therapeutic. The cities the games are set in have a real sense of life to them because of this, and the fact you will often go over it so many times means that there's a sense of ingrained personality to them. It's akin to the famous Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil, where the mansion itself is identifiable enough to almost become a character in the ongoing events. This is what helps elevate it above other games which did the same - notably the Ultima series - as while it featured similar elements, it made good use of the then-new 3D polygons to enhance the sense of atmosphere. Another definite plus in the games' favour is how they feature so many seemingly innocuous elements with no apparent use. Items in shops, for example, are present and might have seemingly no purpose in the game, only to play a role in possible quests. The fact that there are so many, and that they can be bought at any one time, gives a sense of life to the world and an odd engagement. It might sound pointless, but it manages to somehow work, especially compared with video games where every item has a (usually combat related) purpose for some event or serves purely to buff you. This goes hand in hand with how many objects, items and elements can be interacted with, from desk draws to cupboards or shelving units. It often reached Heavy Rain levels of interactivity, and you could often spend hours at a time wandering around just exploring what could be used. Sometimes you would even be surprised with something useful in them. Lastly, and most pressingly, we have the soundtrack. While the graphics certainly have not held up, the musical score remains as enchanting as ever. Even when held up against modern releases, it often holds its own, and the main theme manages to hold more quiet emotion than almost anything found in the past two gaming generations. When people speak of the detail, atmosphere and dramatic surrounding the game, they speak as much of the core mechanics as the amplifying factor of the soundtrack. Yet, it doesn't take long for you to see where things have gone wrong. For all the praise which can be heaped upon it, for all the benefits, strengths and lessons learned by following its example, time has not been kind to Shenmue. The Bad
The key factor to keep in mind here is that the Shenmue duology are very much games from another age, with elements which cannot be forgiven today. Many of these sadly tie directly into what were seen of strengths at the time, such as the waiting mechanics. Many core elements within the games require you to wait things out between major events, often for hours at a time. These passed during in-game time, so you often had to spend three or four in-game hours wasting your time between key events. So this means that you're left trying to make your own fun, with no way to press on through the story. The concept behind such time delays was seen as one of immersion at the, as it furthered the idea that this was a living, breathing world. Today, it all too easily resembles the sort of time-gates that plague the likes of the iOS store or free-to-play games. Were this a good two or three that might be fine, but the sheer padding that these add to the Shenmue games is utterly ridiculous. You can end up cooling your heels for a solid five hours waiting for someone to come home, visit them, only for them to tell you to go away and come back at another time. This sort of one-conversation-followed-by-further-delays style of pacing plagues much of the games, and it makes for an extremely lethargic experience. While the other activities throughout the city help to somewhat offset the delays within the game, many simply don't feature enough variety to offset this. There are only so many times you can mash buttons on the arcade or use the forklift before you're desperately just wishing that there was a skip time button. Furthermore, if you seek a much more active way to waste time such as training your martial arts stances, you find it lacks any and all feedback. Rather than training against opponents or weighted bags you're left punching the air, and as such this just lacks any sense of satisfaction. There are just too few many tools to keep yourself busy, and this only further exposes this flaw.
Many people will rush to the defense of Shenmue citing how the Yakuza series follows a similar trend, but the key difference lies in how it staggers such content. In Yakuza, the minigames, side stories and additional elements were additional bits to the game. They were extensive to be sure, but you never needed to hunt them down simply to kill time until the next event came about. Furthermore, Sega CS1 simply did a far better job of including more toys and side stories to keep its players busy. These games might have had the benefit of someone else giving them the idea to improve on, or the decades to refine them, but that's the key problem here: Shenmue can't excuse so many of its flaws simply by citing innovation anymore, as so much of what it offered has been surpassed. Another definite issue which cannot be overlooked is the control interface. Both during fights and just wandering around town has a laborious tedium to it, thanks to how they control. While the fights themselves play out like a semi-drunken version of Street Fighter 2, Ryo handles like a tank during his visits throughout town. The camera is so squarely fixed on his back and at such an awkward angle, that it makes navigating the tighter back-alleys or small rooms an exercise in sheer patience. If you're lucky, you can just guess which way to point and get out of there, if not you're stuck looking through the back of Ryo's skull or clipping through the environment itself. It's a product of its era to be sure, but that excuse can only go so far. Finally, and most pressingly, there's the sound quality of the game. The music is great, that cannot be denied, and the hoaky voice acting can be somewhat amusing if approached in the right way. The rest, however, is difficult to justify. So much of this sounds as if it were recorded on a cheap backroom microphone, and needs substantial cleaning up. The constant crackling, distortions and bizarre errors constantly yanks you out of the moment, even when the voice acting doesn't. The game didn't need a re-release, it needed full-fledged remastering to truly make it worthwhile. The Verdict As was stressed at the start, Shenmue has an important place in history. The ground which was broken by it led to many great games, and influenced the mechanics behind so many others. Yet, the games' ideas and innovative twists do not make it enjoyable to play in this day and age. It can be interesting to experience, and to pick out where so many great concepts were spawned from, but that's really it. Perhaps the games are worth buying on a sale, but as they stand, you honestly have no reason not to buy anything from Yakuza 0 to Majora's Mask in its place.
So it's come to our attention that the Horus Heresy saga is ending. Well, sort of. It's to come to a close with a novel focusing on the Death Guard, The Buried Dagger, which will show their fall to Nurgle. After that, the actual end will play out with a new series focusing on the war in the Solar System and the siege itself. This is old news, several days old in fact, and due to my situation, I was unable to comment on it at the time. As such, this is just me throwing in my two cents and considering just what this could lead to, or whether this is truly a good thing. The Horus Heresy series itself was celebrated on its announcement as a look into an era. We knew of the key events behind it, we knew of the major battles and the big players (well, the primarchs and a few other people, anyway) while the ending was the very thing which made M41 such a hellhole. We knew the skeleton, it was a chance to see it fleshed out. It's difficult to believe now, but the names Garviel Loken, Barabas Dantioch, Euphrati Keeler and Maloghurst were all unknown. They didn't exist, and many now infamous twists such as Magnus the Red's Faustian pact, the true history of the Black Rage or the Alpha Legion's fall were unknown. The benefit of these novels was to fully flesh this out, to explore the era and offer such points in greater detail. The reason I bring this fact up is simple - The Siege of Terra is huge. Even ignoring the rest of the conflicts which might play out across the Solar System, the battle was one of the single greatest conflicts seen in thousands of years. It wouldn't be matched again for centuries to come, and even then people still contest its importance. While William King wrote an excellent short story depicting the core events (one which still stands up well today, I might add) it would be difficult to fully explore this in a single tome. Slaves to Darkness tried to balance out just the traitors alone, and even then it had to write several out of the story just to give the others time in the spotlight. As such, having one novel to focus on the siege? That was unbearable. Even at the time of Unremembered Empire, I was personally thinking it needed a trilogy of sorts. Perhaps two full novels, and an anthology of short stories to examine all that took place in the smaller tales across the world. So, the benefit of having a new series is to break up the two. We have the journey, all its tales, battles and twists have played out. Now we have the finale, with its own segment to fully cap off what came before it. It gives it focus but also a degree of freedom in this sense, to allow each major player involved to have some time to explore their actions in this historic event. After all, wouldn't you want Sanginuius' thoughts, actions and efforts to be a major part of a book, rather than being crammed into a single chapter or mentioned in passing? With this being said, however, there is a definite problem which could easily stem from this. Specifically, that of bloating.
Now, let's be honest here: Having the Horus Heresy expand upon past events? That was a mixed blessing. The story developments we were given were certainly welcome, but there were times when it felt as if the narrative was tying itself into a knot. The subject of the Shattered Legions and Imperium Secundus were a particular sticking point in this regard, as the series seemed to orbit them for quite some time. Both were potentially interesting ideas, but there were narrative threads which either didn't go anywhere, or failed to make full use of their potential. The idea behind the Alpha Legion civil war was a good one, but beyond a single novella and short story, little was actually done with it. The same was true of Meduson, and when that was actually addressed it was done simply to piss on the Iron Hands yet again. Yes, that's the only time I will harp on their treatment here, don't worry. The point is simply that, this is a new series. It's meant to carry on the Horus Heresy, and from a financial standing, I could see them trying to treat it as such. One where you have frequent yearly, or even bi-yearly, novels released to keep a large audience interested in events. Dragging out this is desirable in terms of simple monetary numbers, as it's their big literary centerpiece. As the editors are unwilling to go back - and we have yet to hear anything about a Great Crusade or Scouring series - that means it could be easy for them to justify stretching things out for another ten or twenty novels. Even without that, there is also the subject of the formatting here. Now, this website very rarely covers short stories. It's mostly for a financial reason, and the fact I only have so much time I can devote to any work. However, I'll be the first to argue that I quite enjoy the shorter tales within the Horus Heresy. Many allowed opportunities to have snapshot events which were too short for a full novel, but wouldn't work when fitted into a bigger tale. Stories like The Last Rememberancer, or The Value of Fear, and Distant Echoes of Old Night are all great examples of this. With that being said, they did need the larger and longer stories to make things work. You can't simply make things meet in the middle and expect them to work. While I have avoided talking about the War of the Beast series - mostly because I only delved into part of it - a big problem was its structure. The stories it told never seemed complete and their novella length never suited such a large tale. To repeat that again here would be a mistake, and it wouldn't be able to convey the same sense of immensity the saga needs. Now, this is just purely some (relatively pessimistic) thoughts on how it can play out. There is always the chance that something great could be made from expanding upon the known events. Yet there's a big difference between expanding on something and stretching it out. As a whole, a new series is potentially a good idea, but it depends on which direction Black Library wishes to take this.
For the last three books (ignoring the anthologies, of course) the Heresy has been closing off plot lines. The fate of several legions has been dealt with, a few long-standing questions resolved and side stories closed off. We've had the end of the Imperium Secundus, seen what becomes of the Space Wolves and both the White Scars and Blood Angels are at Terra. So, Slaves to Darkness does the next thing the story needed: Unity. While the subtitle might be "Chaos undivided" a more accurate one would be "Let's get the band back together". Synopsis Horus has fallen. At the moment of his legion's triumph in breaking the Imperial blockade to Terra, the wound inflicted by Leman Russ has torn open once more. It is more than merely a mortal blow, and his very spirit has seemingly been splintered by it. As the Sons of Horus fight to disguise this truth from his brothers and hold the battle line together, other primarchs are dispatched to find their wayward brothers. With the Siege of Terra upon them, it is time to gather every remaining astartes within the traitor legions and march on the Emperor's palace. The Good Surprisingly, one of the big highlights of the book proves to be Perturabo. John French's depiction of the character has not been a popular one in the past, often reducing the Lord of Iron to a screaming maniac. Along with the Forge World rulebooks, it seems to have approached him with the impression that he's more interested in finding excuses to kill his own troops than effectively leading his forces into battle. This was most obvious when compared with the (if somewhat problematic) more detailed look at the character Angel Exterminatus offered, which gave him some much-needed depth. More than a few people might have expected the return of the hammer-wielding madman, but the Perturabo we get here is far more tempered in his nature. The Iron Warriors primarch is blunt, expects total obedience and will bump off officers at a rate a Commissar would baulk at, but it's not without reason. The way he's written doesn't make it seem as if he's looking for an excuse to kill everyone around him, or simply has rage as his only emotion. It's far closer in nature to the original Index Astartes source material than with many past works, and what we have here more than makes up for a few past mistakes. Equally, Fulgrim has undergone a smooth transition to his daemonic self, shedding the last few humane qualities which clung to the character. He's undeniably Slaaneshi, and the way in which he revels in his excesses is certainly something we have seen before. However, the use of call-backs to his past self and grim reflections of prior books. While this is true of Angron as well, Fulgrim's nature allows him to converse, explore and respond in more ways than simple violence. Combined with the openly flippant and unconcerned nature, it makes him an amusing contrast to the more dedicated primarchs. As a quick example, when he's found in this book and asked to take control of his legion again, he's living it up on a daemon world created by his patron god, and openly tells his brothers to bugger off. The reason I highlight these two, in particular, is that the book needed a solid basis for the others to work from and build the rest of the narrative around. Without that, the story would have been utterly overburdened in trying to divide its focus between so many different primarchs, their subordinates, and other characters besides. While the likes of Lorgar and Malgohurst also serve as a means to drive the narrative forward - and it's always nice to see the Twisted take a front row seat again - it needed a bolder and more brazenly examine the inherent problem the traitors suffer: Chaos is chaos. That comment might sound like an obvious one, but all too often Chaos itself is treated as an ordered and regimented thing. It's more a way to show someone go a bit mad, glue some spikes onto their armour and then fly about with all these new daemon powers from one of the four gods. Despite all the various novels which directly contradict this, the general fandom view of this does tend to categorize and label Chaos in this easily defined manner. It's something which is admittedly not helped by the use of daemons emulating their tabletop models, but that's an unfortunately unavoidable issue when it comes to this sort of thing. Chaos, as it's shown in this book, is self-destructive, completely corroding and far from this path to easy power than you might expect. many points serve as a slap in the face if you're wholly aware of its self-destructive properties, as it finds ways to constantly remind you of just how this effects anything on a large scale. The traitor legions as they are will not exactly be bringing their A-game to Terra. Many have lost more than they have inherently gained with their alignment to Chaos, as they have suffered a severe breakdown in discipline, supplies and control since the start. While The Path of Heaven had briefly cited this with Horus' conversation to Mortarion, Slaves to Darkness truly shows it. It explores it, it details it, it takes a massive great spotlight and shines it on the legions saying that "This is Chaos", with the larger forces working almost in spite of themselves. Because of their disorganised nature and lack of true investment in the wider war, Horus' strike on Terra has become as much a decapitation effort as a hail mary pass. His legion's way was to claim the heads of the enemy leadership before dividing and destroying the body. Yet, this has turned into an effort to execute the strike while he still has forces who will effectively coordinate such an attack. What should be praised with French's efforts is that, while this is an exploration of Chaos' weaknesses, it never tries to make the legions themselves truly weak. It avoids the Iron Hands syndrome of taking the message of weakness and emphasising it or exaggerating it until any strength is wiped away. For example, it's made clear that Angron is a loose cannon and a monster who will butcher everything in his path without pause or remorse. Yet, even as it details this, it never downplays the fact he can murder everything in his path, and Khorne's blessing will allow him to solo whole armies at a time. The powers of Chaos can teleport entire legions across light-years of space, bend the fabric of reality and bring a man back from the brink of death. So, while it might show how the empire Horus dreamed of was destined to fail, it never downplays the individual benefits of the Ruinous Powers. The last point of praise - the last one I can praise without spoiling some of the best bits of the book, such as the saga of a certain Iron Warrior - is its use of scale. We all know that the Siege of Terra is going to be huge. Really, it's the big battle of the setting, with a vast engagement so huge that it is a war unto itself. As such, a few writers might have made the mistake of trying to directly compete with the Siege on that front, but instead, it opts to use scale in a very different manner. By having the viewpoint characters be so diversely scattered throughout the galaxy, by having each repeatedly call-back to past events and story arcs, there's a true sense of immensity to it. It feels as if this is building toward a storm, and serves as a reminder of just how huge all that has come before it truly was. Even when the book does delve into bolter porn, it's well-timed and extremely well planned. Much of this surrounds the Iron Warriors, but it's used to comment on the state they are in. It draws attention to how the world has changed and ultimately what has become of the well-supplied supplied forces which once made up the legions. This is most evident during the rearguard actions against the Ultramarines and their allied battlegroups, but it even shows up on a very ground level view. Away from the primarchs, the gods and the prophecies, you can see how this has reshaped the soldiers fighting in them even when they are just astartes fighting other astartes bereft of Chaos' direct influence. Plus it even tries to deal with one long-standing issue of casualties, but that does, unfortunately, open up one possible plot hole as it is. So, with that final note, it's onto the bad parts, as you might imagine. The Bad The book doesn't know how to use all of the primarchs. That's all that needs to be said at the start here: It doesn't know how to fully explore and examine each in the right way. This results in several having little more than cameo appearances in the final chapters, mentions or even existing in the background. This could easily be forgiven to a point, but even those which are given the spotlight fail to fully stand out. The reason Perturabo and Fulgrim's roles in the book were so openly praised is that without them this entire novel would have failed. While Lorgar does play an essential role within the story, his presence seems to be there as a mere vehicle. He exists to show off a few interesting scenes while punting the story along to a new location, and his own personal developments only emerge very late into the story. Angron suffers from a very similar issue, in that he exists largely as an obstacle for Perturabo rather than offering more insight into his new daemonic state. While you might have thought that Horus would be at the forefront of this, even that isn't true. The few moments he gets to highlight his character almost purely emphasise the past and serve either as flashbacks or minor conversations. He's sidelined throughout much of the tale due to the after-effects of his duel in Wolfsbane, and this only hurts the book. Despite the fact his very name is in the series headline, we have seen very little of him overall in this saga. The last time he took any role of true prominence was all the way back in Vengeful Spirit (a deeply flawed book to say the least) and given how his final moment will soon be upon him, he needed more time devoted to his character. By sidelining and limiting his presence here, it didn't hurt the book but it seems like a move which will hurt the series. What was definitely a much more negative move on the part of John French was how important the Sons of Horus truly are within the story. Compare the opening trilogy with this book and you'll note a number of major differences, the least of all is how it fails to give Aximand and Abaddon anything of relevance to do. While the Mournival is supposed to be a reflection of Horus himself, and a vital part of the legion, it's all but forgotten here. Remember how Aximand was traumatised by his need to kill his brothers? Forgotten and discarded. Remember how Abaddon effectively ceases to exist for whole eras of the series? That comes back in full force here. Multiple C-list characters take their place, and this only further undermines the legion as a whole as it robs them of an opportunity to explore their identity. Now, as great as the initial trilogy was there's no denying that the Luna Wolves lacked something in comparison to the other legions. They were not nearly so solidly defined in terms of internal culture, style and visual characteristics. That was because this was Horus' story at the time, and that of Loken. Yet as time moved on, more and more novels began to better utilise the internal cultures of their legions, from the Thousand Sons to the World Eaters. Slaves to Darkness could have corrected this - it certainly had space, but it, unfortunately, failed to use it effectively. Instead, it uses the time to try and flesh out characters who will never be seen again beyond this book, or restore a status quo in time for the Siege itself. This is to say nothing of a major twist involving Maloghurst which was likely intended to be tragic and impactful, but it comes across as infuriating due to its timing and delivery. The final issue is perhaps the greatest problem which has plagued the Horus Heresy series since the day Fulgrim was published. While some books veered away from this and some actively tried to correct it, time and time again the stories of characters would push too far forward. The state of the galaxy, the state of the legions, the situation with the primarchs themselves, everything doesn't seem like it's from M31 anymore. It's all too close to M41, and in the space of fifteen years the galaxy has more or less reached the state it's supposed to reach in ten thousand. While the Horus Heresy is definitely an integral part of the setting - arguably the most important chapter of its history - it should have been the start of the decay which set into the Imperium. Instead, it's already reached a point where we're now supposed to believe it will remain at, without any change, for the next ten millennia. The Verdict At the end of the day, Slaves to Darkness is still a John French book. It benefits from his descriptions, still and punchy if poetic descriptions, but it stumbles at a few too many points to truly stand out. As result, it's a serviceable tale with some decent moments and interesting concepts, but that's it. Those fully invested in the series will want to get this one due to how it sets up the final arc of this long-running story, and for its more engaging chapters. At the same time though, you will need to stomach as many disappointing moments as great ones to get through this novel.
I seem to be in a minority of people who enjoyed Van Helsing. It wasn't a good film by any means, it was silly beyond belief and verged on being an outright parody at times. Those criticisms hold true even among those who enjoyed it, but perhaps the greatest problem was how it played everything as a joke. Where am I going with this? Well, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust offers a glimpse into that film if it were done well. The two share more than a few general story elements. Each hero is a damned if noble figure who is clearly a part of a bigger story, vampires are the main enemies and there is a frequently hostile relationship between two of the main hunters. Some monsters show signs of nobility, and there's enough blood on display to rival Sleepy Hollow. The main difference is that whereas Van Helsing was steam/gear/spindle/stuffpunk, Bloodlust is post-apocalyptic cyberpunk. Synopsis
Set in a world where a fragmented human civilization has been forced to content with supernatural and mutated creatures, D serves as a bounty hunter. A half-breed, the dhampir is oathbound to hunt and destroy all vampires in his path, and one new case has taken his interest. A young human woman by the name of Charlotte has been kidnapped by Baron Meier Link, but seemingly without any intention of turning or feeding upon her. D takes the job at a high price, and is forced to contend with both a group of rival hunters and ghosts of the old world in pursuit of his quarry. The Good
Perhaps the most interesting part of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is how it's treated as just another job for the hero. The events are certainly exceptional, the outcome for many characters is tragic and many wonders show up on screen. Yet, D himself treats this as if it's nothing out of the ordinary, and with a dispassionate expectation at every turn. While in the hands of a lesser screenwriter this would make the world seem boring, it instead accomplishes the exact opposite. D's mild surprise at finding certain relics, his familiarity with lost elements and easy readiness to brave all sorts of dangers makes it clear that this is just another day at the job for him. The world is one of technologically advanced bunkers, parasitic sentient lifeforms and scattered settlements relying on fragments of bygone ages. His treatment of them makes you often wonder just what could show up next at any point. If this sounds odd, just think of Dredd for a moment. The film sees two highly trained police officers take out a massive drugs ring, combat internal corruption and rack up a massive body count across several firefights in the line of duty. Yet nothing about this suggests this is out of the ordinary for Judge Dredd himself. This helps to better implicate what sort of world he's in without specifically highlighting it, and the life he leads.
To continue the Dredd comparison for a moment, D himself is something of a static character but that plays to his strengths. He's professional, quiet and distant, often having his actions speak for him. Yet he is not simply a blank slate, and much of his impact on the story stems from how his decisions have changed the lives of others. Whether it's a quiet scene conversing with a rival hunter about fate and eventually fulfilling a promise decades in the making, or the stories stemming from past missions in rural towns, these moments are used to give him some much-needed substance. As such, while his persona and behaviour does not change, he manages to escape the boredom which so often comes with such heroes, and instead has a legendary quality to his actions. What is most surprising is how streamlined and briskly paced the story behind Bloodlust truly is. Every ounce of fat in any scene, any moment which seems unnecessary to the story has been repeatedly trimmed away, until you're left with a film which never drags. The closest it comes to this is in a few quieter moments, but these serve as both a break between several intense fights and for some much-needed development among its side characters. This could have so easily backfired in so many ways, from the film's focus never staying on a single location to rarely pausing to fully expand upon characters or scenes. Yet it manages to overcome this hurdle by having small but quite meaningful moments peppered throughout the film, hinting at greater stories we never fully see. It's something that Yoshiaki Kawajiri's best films often benefit from, and it means that you have the relentless rush of a popcorn film but an experience which always stays with you. It works, as even the disposable cannon fodder characters stay in your mind until the film's end.
Still, you might be wondering about the actual fighting in this vampire hunting OVA. My answer - Do you really need to ask? The fact Yoshiaki Kawajiri's name is attached (the same guy behind both Ninja Scroll and Highlander: The Search for Vengeance) should tell you all you need to know. The animation is almost unnervingly fluid, and the fights never make the mistake of repeating themselves. When a fight turns into a sword duel atop of a carriage moving at full speed, it pulls out all the stops. You will have the scene go through every possible stunt, attack and engagement possible without upstaging later fights, so the film can move onto something new. Each is visually distinct, and the film constantly changes gears to offer you something new at every turn. It even tries to find new ways to keep having older characters use their abilities in entirely new ways, preventing fights from becoming repetative. Most prominently though, the film is ultimately extremely beautiful. Even in its bleakest moments, there's a sense of real wonder to the world. The sheer attention to detail with character designs and locations gives it a sense of truly being lived-in, with patch-jobs or personal modifications. You can honestly pause the film at any point in any number of scenes, and suddenly spot a dozen new details you otherwise would have missed. This only further supports the visual storytelling and strengths of Bloodlust, and gives you more of an incentive to pay close attention to the environments. The Bad
The difficulty in citing Bloodlust's problems is that you can all too easily criticise it for things it was never trying to accomplish. Only touching on certain historical details over fully explaining them is certainly one point, but as is D's relatively static development, or the high body count. You can certainly level criticisms against them, but usually such "flaws" exist in service to another cause. However, the true failing of the film above all others lies in its villains. It's not that Meier Link lacks pathos or a personality, or that his mysterious patron doesn't have a story behind them. It's just that the film never allows them a chance to properly take advantage of them. Much of the story uses them as a vehicle to drive the story forward or, in the later stages, as a direct threat over full characters. Link certainly gets a few moments where these shine through, but while they are well executed these are just that, moments within the story. Another character does comment on the world's history and offers a few interesting bits of information, but by the end they simply become something for D to fight as the proverbial final boss of the work. What's more, the age of Bloodlust's source material has a frustrating habit of shining through at the worst times. The repetition of D's nature as a half-breed (and its irksome mistranslation as "dunpeal") comes up too many times by far within the script, and certain character moments have a dynamic which veers close to cliche at key points. Some of this can certainly be put down to the original story but, given the liberties Bloodlust was allowed to take, several of these seem like they should have been easy to fix. As a result, the story can appear ill conceived during the first act, which can definitely put off audiences. The Verdict
On the whole, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a damn good outing. It's not nearly so substantial as other outings, but Kawajiri has always excelled at giving something enough substance to keep you engaged, while maintaining everything else on style. Even if you're an adamantly opposed to the bloodsuckers in all fiction, this is one of the few exceptions where it keeps their more cliched qualities just out of focus enough to keep offering fun new things to offset them. Even at the few points where Bloodlust has slower moments, the atmosphere, animation and implications usually win out. As frustrating as it can be for it to not better expand on certain world-building details, the glimpses are enough to still make it quite engaging. Especially when it comes to the hints of what sort of society the vampire's once ruled. So, if you have the time and a few quid to spare, definitely give this one a watch.
There’s no denying that the Cthulhu Mythos has suffered from oversaturation over the last ten years, as there seems to be no end to games which can be listed under ‘Lovecraft lite’ with a tentacle-faced dragon man involved. Those which stand out tend to be the ones which parody the source material, such as Cthulhu Saves the World, Fhtagn! - Tales of the Creeping Madness!, or The Miskatonic.
