Daemon reviews Martyrs Part 1

It's no secret by now that I'm not a big fan of Story Mode. For a while I didn't know who to blame for this. At first I thought it was the new host until I saw one of his previous shows, 'Science of the Movies', and was just blown away at how different he seemed. Now I just feel sorry for the guy. He went from doing 'Science of the Movies' to 'Story Mode'? Yeesh. While I'm still not sure who is entirely to blame for the show, one thing is certain: someone needs to pay for not giving Martyrs the slot on Story Mode that was ultimately taken by Two Guys Play Dead Space 2.

Yes, once again I find myself in the unusual position of screaming at you, the reader, to watch something. Just like Grind Rider, The Heretic and Opus Machinima, this will probably become one of my oft-referenced machinimas that I'll frequently use in comparisons when talking about the unimaginative and the mediocre. Which is good, because I was starting to feel a bit conscious that my list of favorites is mostly Halo-filled.

As some of you probably remember, a few weeks back I did a review of 'The Dark: It Gazes Back', a review that put me in hot water with a large community of machinima makers who used engines such as Moviestorm, The Movies, and iClone to make their films. I made the point that, while these are undoubtedly good tools to use, they are not without their flaws and these little niggling flaws do have an effect on immersion. This is nothing against the engines itself, because all engines have flaws and limitations. You just need to know how to work around them, which is something that Cornetto did not do as well as he could have, leading to the infamous 'Kitty Pride' moments of It Gazes Back.

Martyrs is a peerless example of the power of these animation tools. The animation here is amazingly life-like. I honestly don't think in all my years of watching machinima I've seen animation this good. Reprisal ain't got shit on this.

That would be good enough, but the writing is actually above par as well. The interactions between Wheels and Damon were really fun to listen to. Not much else in the way of story so far, but then again it's the first four minutes and it looks like the writers were going for in medias res, so I'll give them some time. That alone should be pretty indicative about how I feel about the story: not only am I interested in seeing where this plot goes, I'm willing to let it take its time to get there. See, I can be generous when I feel like it!

It's not completely flawless, of course. The blood effects were a bit unusual, but I'll let those slide because it's probably due to the engine. What I can't let slide are the oddly synched gun noises and the score. At first the score is great, it helps build the atmosphere and tension, but when the gun fight breaks out it's like the composer went off for a smoke break. What, no awesome fight scene music? I can't stress enough how cooler that fight scene could have been if we'd gotten something Matrix-esque. You know I'm right!

Nagging aside, this is still an amazing piece of work, and I seriously have to wonder about whoever runs Story Mode if they consider the return of Sanity Not Included to be news-worthy while this doesn't get a mention. If I wanted to watch a bunch of obnoxious guys screaming for no reason I'd go to a frat party, but I'm here for machinima, so whoever runs Story Mode, take notice: Martyr is one of the most impressive projects I've seen as of late and if episode two isn't featured like it should be, there will be hell to pay.