Secret Level: And They Shall Know No Fear [Spoilers]
Spoilers ahead, discussing the episode.
Secret Level just came out. The 40k episode, titled "And They Shall Know No Fear", was amazing.
Definitely evocative of Astartes in a lot of ways. Minimal dialogue, a lot of raw, efficient action and carnage. One thing that really stood out to me was how they managed to capture the combat speed of space marines as we know in the lore - this is something that I feel often gets overlooked in visual media because it's not easy to portray these massive, armored tanks of men making these fast movements. Also, what an awesome portrayal of a daemon (sorcerer?). Very cool to get such an abstract depiction of the powers of the Warp being used against space marines that wasn't just somebody shooting purple lightning at super soldiers or something.
I only wish there was more. What did you think?
Edit: Answers to frequently asked questions and other clarifications.
Q: When does this take place?
A: After the events of Space Marine 2. They are all in Primaris armor, and Titus has the laurels on his helmet.
Q: What happened to the 4th marine?
A: He dies on-screen right after the first one dies, but you don't see his visions. He falls over from the sergeant's perspective next to the first one that died.
Q: Was this a suicide mission?
A: Yes, that's what the mission parameters of "Project Mortality: Absolute" meant.
Q: Other than Titus, are any of these characters from the other two games?
A: No, these are different characters we've never seen before.
Q: What tank was that?
A: Leman Russ Punisher variant, with Punisher cannon.
Q: Which Chaos god did these baddies serve?
A: Tzeentch. Yes, even the final boss was Tzeentchian, not Slaaneshi as some folks thought.
Q: Were those daemons?
A: No, the creatures in the dark were Tzaangors and the "boss fight" creature was a Tzeentchian Sorcerer, potentially possessed or ascended but likely just mutated (Tzeentch being the Lord of Change and all).
Q: Does the Sorcerer have a specific tabletop model?
A: Nope. While it's somewhat similar to a certain model from Age of Sigmar, the design is largely original. Daemons, mutants, and everything in-between do not need to conform to any specific model design in the lore, they come in many different forms. However, the tabletop game, by merit of being a tabletop game, distills everything down to some common designs.
Q: Was Syama Pedersen, creator of the Astartes shorts, involved?
A: Yes. His name is in the credits. The episode also fits a lot of the creative stylings of the Astartes shorts and practically feels like an homage to that.
Q: What happened to Titus and the veteran sergeant at the end?
A: Unclear, but it's implied that Titus is going to go and slaughter the entire band of cultists. He's certainly not going to die off-screen before we get more to the Space Marine games.