The new Warhammer series shows what 40k does really well

Warhammer has announced a new, official series set in the 40k universe, but this time without Henry Cavill. Pariah Nexus is slated to launch in 2023 on the Warhammer+ premium service. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus is excited as a fan of the franchise, especially because the trailer highlights factions that otherwise receive little attention.

I have no idea what’s going on. When the Dragon Age series Absolution was announced in November, I was more excited than I was with Arcane. I was already sure: it will only get better if the Warhammer nerd Henry Cavill (Superman, The Witcher) becomes the star of a Warhammer series one day.

Then he suddenly announces exactly that. Henry Cavill is doing a Warhammer series together with Amazon, but so far without more concrete information about the release and content. Nevertheless, this is exactly the right cast.

The only drawback: it will probably be about the Empire and the Space Marines, that’s just written for Cavill. I love the Warhammer franchise even more than Warcraft, but the Space Marine cliché is just hackneyed.

Now Warhammer has announced another series: Pariah Nexus, an animated series. And she also makes the remaining wishes come true that have remained open in the last few weeks.

Here’s the trailer for Pariah Nexus:

Divine warrior nuns and undead robots in the spotlight

Pariah Nexus stars as the protagonists, a ragtag squad of Imperial units, and the Necrons as their opponents. More specifically, the trailer stars an Adepta Sororitas and an Imperial Guardswoman.

Since I can imagine that half of you would be looking at me with a blank expression on your face, I’ll explain briefly what all these foreign words actually mean.

Necrons are basically space zombies. The mechanical species is reminiscent of ancient Egypt in appearance, architecture and fantasy, only with Gauss cannons and bodies made of almost indestructible metal. Necrons play a bigger role in 40k, but that’s a bit beyond the scope here. I therefore refer to the German Warhammer Wiki.

Adepta Sororitas are effectively the fanatical branch of the Church of the Empire, made up (almost) exclusively of women. The warrior nuns may be “only” human, but their belief in the Emperor grants them near-divine powers such as protection from bullets and fanatical zeal in battle.

Typical of Warhammer, however, they are not just good nuns. If you don’t spurt, you will be punished. My favorite Sororitas toy: the Penitent Engine. Heretics are harnessed defenseless and without armor in front of an armed walker, pumped full of drugs and sent to the front lines. This means that the heretic survives even serious injuries, but feels the pain and survives only as long as the Emperor’s will allows.

The Sororitas and the Necrons are my favorite factions in the 40k universe, mostly played in the older strategy games in the series. Seeing them in a series now just makes me happy, even if I don’t know exactly what roles they will play yet.

Warhammer 40k finally without pumped-up supermen

The fact that Sororitas and Necrons are my favorite factions isn’t the only reason I’m excited. Even if Tyranids and Tau or Dark Eldar had played the sole lead roles, I would have been pretty happy.

Because Warhammer 40k is primarily built around the idea of ​​the Space Marines (“Astartes”). These are literally bred men with physiques that would put Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame in his prime and absurd, superhuman abilities.

Some Space Marines can detect poison by taste, have multiple hearts or lungs, bulletproof bones made of some sort of titanium, and easily stand over 2 meters tall. They owe this to the “gene seeds” of their primarchs, the absolute superhumans that the “Big Daddy” Emperor personally bred.

Sure, cool… if you see it once or twice. But the Space Marines are the flagship of Warhammer 40k and there are countless books, games and more about the bad guys.

Space Marines do appear in Pariah Nexus, but not primarily. That the series remembers that there are other creatures in the world is excellent! But it also makes me a little sad at times.

With Darktide, a new co-op shooter in Warhammer 40k was released in November 2022, which also does without Space Marines. You can see the trailer here:

Pariah Nexus gives me a nostalgic pang

Actually, I like Warhammer Fantasy better than the sci-fi world of 40k. Still, Warhammer 40,000 has some of my favorite video games of all time, including Dawn of War, which I think is the best real-time strategy of all time.

Unfortunately, Dawn of War has never been as good since the first part, which was released in 2004. The second part of the series had completely different mechanics, no real base building, more and more restrictions.

Part 3 got better again, but didn’t live long. The game was discontinued only a few months after its release: The game was released in April 2017, a whopping 8 years after part 2. In February 2018, further development was discontinued. You can still play, but no more content and patches are coming. This is particularly bitter because the Necrons were already confirmed as the first DLC, but never came.

At that time I was happy to get at least some progress to the second part with Dawn of War 3. Here’s the announcement trailer that grabbed me:

Dawn of War is a series that deserves more attention and I would like a remaster or a fourth installment. Seeing my two favorite factions in the series is at least a small consolation.

It doesn’t bother me that I have to pay extra for it. Because Pariah Nexus only appears on Warhammer+, a premium service that costs €5.49 per month or €54.99 per year.

Still, if the series comes out with weekly episodes, I’ll probably wait until it’s fully available and then watch it over a weekend. I still don’t know how long each episode will be.

I do hope, however, that there is a little more meat in this than in Dragon Age: Absolution. It only took 3 hours and at least makes me want more:

If you have 3 hours, you should definitely watch Dragon Age: Absolution on Netflix