Metal: Hellsinger Review – A Hell of a Headbanger (PC)

Metal Hellsinger Update 1.006

Metal: Hellsinger is a heavy metal first-person shooter set in the depths of hell. The comparisons to Doom are hard to ignore – but Metal: Hellsinger distinguishes itself in one key aspect: it’s also a rhythm game. Developed by Swedish studio The Outsiders (led by the Lead Designer of Battlefield: Bad Company 2), it features an original soundtrack with big time metal artists from the likes of System of a Down and more.

Slay to the Rhythm

Throughout the game, a beat meter rolls across your screen. Beat Matching your attacks deals more damage, gives you more points, and increases your Fury meter. Naturally, the goal is to time your shots perfectly with the center of the meter and you’re graded with a “Good” or “Perfect” score depending on how close you get. Perfect timings give you the most points as well as giving the largest increase to your Fury bar.

Fury is the other mechanic related to beat matching. Your Fury meter goes up or down depending on your hit streak, from 1x to 16x. At 16x you deal the most damage, and also get 16 times the score for every action. Hitting off beat or taking damage will decrease your Fury. This bar should be topped up as much as possible if you want to top the global leaderboards.

Of course, a rhythm game has to have a great soundtrack. And boy, does Metal: Hellsinger have an excellent soundtrack. I’m not the biggest fan of metal music, but even I was absolutely in love with these tracks. The original soundtrack features work from metal icons like Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Randy Blythe from Lamb of God, Bjorn Strid from Soilwork, and more.

Each level features a unique track, which sets the stage from the moment you enter. At 16x Fury, the full arrangement including vocals starts to play which is yet another reward for hitting your shots on beat. This soundtrack is just phenomenal. When you really get in the zone and are hitting all your shots on beat it feels incredibly satisfying. Honestly, it is worth playing this game for the soundtrack alone.

Fear the Beat

Combat in Metal: Hellsinger will feel familiar to anyone whose played the likes of DOOM: Eternal. There are five total weapons to choose from, each with a unique ultimate ability. Your character has a double jump and a dash ability which you can use to swiftly evade enemies. Controls feel excellent and there’s a good amount of enemy variety, from slow moving fodder, to challenging mini-bosses that shoot AoE (area of effect) attacks at you. Combined with the beat matching mechanic, combat in Metal: Hellsinger is another highlight.

 

If I had to point out one weak point with the combat, it’s the boss fights. Bosses are re-used, albeit with different movesets which can be difficult to predict and hard to dodge. They shoot waves of projectiles at you which you’ll need to jump and dash to evade. Oftentimes though, they’ll shoot several of these waves at once with little to no telegraphing, so rather than being a predictable pattern it becomes a frantic rush to spam your aerial abilities and avoid taking damage. Dealing damage to them can also be unintuitive. For one boss in particular, it took me several minutes to figure out how to even deal damage to it. The game’s final boss however, is the one exception. It’s the only one that isn’t reused and was overall a very memorable fight.

There are five weapons to choose from, including a shotgun, a crossbow, and dual pistols. You can hold a maximum of two per level which you select at the start. Each features a different ultimate ability that charges up over time. The shotgun unloads a barrage of buckshot at once for a huge amount of damage, while the crossbow shoots a mini gravity bomb that keeps enemies stuck in place for easy headshots. These ultimates are essential for dealing with some of the tougher enemies and will become a crucial part of your kit.

Metal: Hellsinger also features an active reload mechanic which significantly speeds up your reloads. The perfect reload timer seamlessly blends into the rhythm meter, highlighting it in gold. All of this combined makes for a truly excellent first-person shooter experience that blends a traditional shooter with escalating levels of challenge, with the rhythm based gameplay of titles like Guitar Hero and Beat Saber.

A Demonic Tale

Unfortunately, the story in Metal: Hellsinger is somewhat forgettable. You play as The Unknown, a demon who has had her voice stolen from her by the leader of the underworld known as The Red Judge. You must enter the various hells, defeating her minions along the way, in order to dethrone her.

Metal: Hellsinger’s story mostly consists of pre-rendered, animated cutscenes (narrated by Troy Baker) that play before and after each level, setting the stage for the zone you’re about to explore. While the story wasn’t terrible, it takes a backseat to the gameplay and honestly failed to grab my attention. With that said, the excellent gameplay more than makes up for it.

Hellsinger is broken up into eight levels, each consisting of about 15-20 minutes worth of gameplay. All in all, the game can be cleared in about 2-3 hours so it’s certainly on the short side.

Luckily, Hellsinger heavily encourages replayability. Clearing a level unlocks three new challenge arenas, which you can complete to unlock Boons, which are permanent perks you can equip to improve your scores and combat abilities. There’s also a global leaderboard system that compares how well you did to other players at the end of each level. If it weren’t for the review embargo deadline, I, myself, probably would have gone back and replayed each level multiple times just to try and get higher on the leaderboards. There are also multiple difficulty levels to choose from, so you can easily follow up a playthrough on Normal with a Hard playthrough.

The short runtime also sheds light on another problem. The game is so short that it almost feels unfinished. Without spoiling anything, the ending cutscene heavily implies there were supposed to be more levels in the game. I was genuinely confused on if I had just defeated the final boss or not while watching it. As it is though, it looks like those levels will come in a sequel or perhaps in a post-launch DLC.

Final Thoughts

Metal: Hellsinger seamlessly blends tight first-person shooter gameplay with a fantastic soundtrack and rhythm mechanics that will constantly keep you on your toes. The game’s eight levels progressively get more challenging, as you slay your way through hordes of demons and bosses. The original soundtrack is one of the best metal soundtracks I’ve heard ever and it makes the rhythm-based gameplay that much more enjoyable. While the short runtime is disappointing, it’s only because I wanted so much more time to experience it. Combat feels tight and is surprisingly good coming from a small indie studio, although the bosses leave a little to be desired. Despite that, it is absolutely worth checking this out.

Metal: Hellsinger is available September 15 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Steam and is available day one on Xbox Game Pass.

Final score: 8.5/10

Pros:

  • Amazing soundtrack
  • Great feeling shooter
  • Tight controls
  • Rhythm based gameplay enhances the experience and doesn’t feel tacked on
  • High level of replayability

Cons:

  • Short runtime
  • Bosses are re-used

Metal: Hellsinger code was provided by the publisher. Version tested using the PC version. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

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Hentai
1 year ago

Pretty hyped up to play this on gamepass when It releases. Loving the soundtrack so far

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