The funny thing is, you aren't wrong. Newer games have better graphics and sound, but none made me feel the weight of a dull-scale 40K experience like this one. SSI was the right developer at the right time. Current games all feel like other games wearing a 40K skin.
@@EyeOnTheTV I never even played this particular game (I was only 3 years old when it was released!). And yet the cutscenes still feel instantly recognisable to the 40K universe which I imagined in my head, reading Black Library novels as a kid, moreso than most of the licensed rubbish GW puts out nowadays.
I'm honestly amazed with how good this is. Probably because they kept to relatively small scale scenes for the most part, but the costumes are generally excellent and the acting is actually pretty brilliant. Commissar Holt has got to be the best Commissar I've ever seen.
I like to imagine that right after the camera faded out, he shot the Governor in the face, pitched his body of the balcony and then proceeded to take the governor's wife to bed in a "Manly Fashion"
If one day I make an astra militarum army, I would find a way to have him in miniature. To the costume, the talent of the actor or even his face, everything was here to have the perfect commissar !
Yarrick 'tore' an ork's head off? So what? He was using a chainsword anyway! Holt made an imperial officer give him leadership over an entire planet wide campaign to liberate volistad with a slap of his hand and a pistol to the head, and he somehow wasn't called a heretic, or a traitor. Try beating that.
It's good for what they had but Captain Agrippa shouldn't even have his head in the shot at the same height as Commissar Holt's. Holt would be looking up to him or talking to Agrippa's chestplate.
The aesthetic of the 90s live action cutscenes in games fits perfectly with 40K. I’m new to the fandom but this has to be the best vids I’ve seen yet. All on a tiny budget. GW needs to take notes.
It was how early 40k really was. Everything was built on the rule of cool. The 00's heaped on the grimdark, the 10's saw everything be rewritten several times, and now... well as long as geedubs doesn't cock things up any further, the rule of cool seems to be making a return~
A lot of 40k was holdover stuff from 2000ad so it had this mad max punk flavour to it, It’s gone a bit overboard with the gothic recently, it was there, but it wasn’t the norm
Oh, I love the lo-fi, desaturated, 90s tv show visuals. It telegraphs "bleak future of 40K" much better than, say, the CGI trailer for the 9th edition of the tabletop game from 2 years ago.
This is my favorite of those live action video game cutscenes ever. I tried finding this game, its really impressive for 97 game(Which is my favorite year of video game releases)
@@AxenfonKlatismrek Definitely. X-Com. Total Annihailation. Homeworld. Dark Reign. Diablo I and II. Deus Ex. Half Life. Doom I and II. Quake I, II and III (I didn't think Quake II was all that bad). Battlezone. Fallout I and II. The Elder Scroll series. Carmageddon. Descent I and II. Klingon Academy. Freespace I and II. Starlancer and Freelancer. Mechwarrior and Earthsiege series. Ground Control. MDK. Max Payne I and II. Nox. Sacrifice. Thief I and II. Warzone 2100. Probably way more than I'm remembering but these games I remember as being some or the best gaming experiences I've ever had.
@@Sujad Fallout 1 is the best game of all time, on the second place is Classic Doom. On the 3rd is Warcraft 3, both ROC and TFT. Fallout 2 could be best but WHERE IS MAH START GUN? Diablo II is my 8th favorite all time game
I played this game mostly for the cutscenes. SSI went all out on this one. Geez, they knew how to make entertaining strategy games. Between this game, Fantasy Empires, and others, I spent a good amount of time playing SSI games as a teenager. Maybe, too much time. 😅
Yes! This is the best sauce! Mr Cavill please be making notes and LOTS of them. It has everything, grimdark, orcs, space marines, old obscure British actors acting their pants off and the soundtrack is outstanding!!!!!
The quality of the sets, costumes and props for this game never ceases to blow my mind. on what would be considered a shoestring budget by the standards of the 90s let alone today's standards.
@@allu3853 I’m aware that Cain died sometime in M42 after participating in the defence of Abaddons 13th Black crusade. I should have made it clearer that I meant Yarrick and Cain were both alive at the same time. Yarricks feats were undeniably incredible, but he spent his entire career basically on Armageddon, where as Cain went from one end of the Galaxy to the other fighting every form of Xenos at one point or another.
Where is my feature length movie but with the suprisingly good acting and costumes like this? GAMES WORKSHOP YOU HAVE SO MUCH MONEY NOW BUT YOU CANT EVEN DO TV RIGHT
I love this also no cadians but talarn, mordian iron guards and valhalllens at the start the other two I forget the names but I love the guard representation.
The endings are wrong from what I remember. The space marines blow up the planet if you fail the first mission. Commissar Holt chews you out if you lose but he survives.
I first played this as a pirated version, and it did not include the cutscenes. I didn't even know they existed until much later. I loved the game even without them. My first 40K experience was the original Epic line, so this game fit right into what I was looking for in a game. I dumped dozens of hours into it. And the overland campaign totally twisted my brain into what I thought should be in a 40K game, and it wasn't satisfied again until Dark Crusade.
Oh wow, i remember playing Final Liberation for a while. (just battles against my cousin, who owned the game, no campaign, no cutscenes, no lore) It was my very first introduction into Warhammer 40k, and i had absolutly no clue about it at that time. I remember beeing amused about the use of close combat cavallery next to giant mechs.
GW were always terrible at anything other than tabletop games and miniatures. Games like this were made wholly by the companies they contracted out, most of the other computer games were pretty crap to be honest, they weren't even very good at paying other people to develop games... Till Dawn of War not much else was worthy after this.
I think what made these so awesome is they were visually gritty [like looking at archival recordings of what happened on Volistad] (they were in reality, encoded in *8bit* format!) But in addition to, they didn't show everything or attempt to show nor explain everything. It was mysterious 40k, in the 90's!
Commissars can do that though, the only ones they could be in trouble if they kill is a lord general of a battle, if so do e shows cowardice or negligence on the battlefield or at command a commissar is given authority to deal with them as seen fit.
Bring back live acting! At least for strategy games! This and the C&C games are elevated to a whole other level thanks to the live acting with costumes and sets!
Holt has always been who I picture everytime I read the Gaunt's Ghosts books. Played this game to death when it came out, sad I can't play it anymore. Got it off gog but it glitches and can't see the units, gutting.
Ok what a cool nostalgia trip this was, remember this from my youth ^^ What got me thinking is where all the cool costumes and props ended up. They look pretty damn high quality tbh.
Also, this is pretty cool and good. I like the costumes and the acting is done with some level of commitment and joy by the actors. I think, with a big enough budget to increase production value, a live action warhammer movie or show could be fucking brilliant and magical on screen. But it would have to get everything right, like the scale, the armours, sounds, lighting, gore, dialogue, effects. Etc.
