Audio Review: Eye of Vengeance / Publisher: The Black Library / Release Date: Out Now
Only in a setting as rich and as diverse as the Warhammer 40,000 universe would the idea of bright blue, power armoured warrior-poets be seen as vanilla and mainstream; however, this is how many people see the Ultramarines, who also happen to be the stars of the Black Library’s recent audio drama Eye of Vengeance . It would be a great shame to dismiss this production simply because it features the boys in blue, however.
For a start, it’s been penned by Graham McNeil, who knows his way round the cerulean coloured heroes, and is well known for creating cracking action adventure tales. Because this is an audio drama, rather than reading about the things going boom, we get to hear the explosions instead. Given that this is a play set in space, featuring super humans wielding huge guns, it may come as no surprise that in Eye of Vengeance, things go boom, and they do that an awful lot.
The plot is the sort of thing that fans of future-war stories are made of; a human colony is under attack by insane and corrupt rebels, who use dark and forbidden technologies to constantly churn out horrific death machines. A small band of stealthy scouts, led by a renowned and aloof hero, go on a highly dangerous mission to destroy the source of these mechanical horrors. It’s an action fest, and it’s big, loud and entertaining.
The vocal talents of Sean Barrett, Rupert Degas and Saul Reichlin are all top-notch, and the actors have a real feel for the story; the Black Library audio plays have a distinctive sound and style and this slots right in. Overall, Eye of Vengeance is a nice diversion, but a little short at just over an hour. I expect more from this sort of thing, however, especially when you consider how good other recently released audio dramas have been.
