What if we mixed Guitar Hero with Doom (2016) and spiced it up with a witch twist? So we get Metal: Hellsinger. The action title that’s like blasting your way through a heavy death metal concert. The first thing that struck me was how intense it is from the start. Although this is a first person shooter game, you need to have a sense of rhythm if you want to be successful. You have to attack or push to the beat of the music. This was a bit difficult for me at first since I have the rhythmic skills of a potato, but after a bit of fiddling I got better. As you kill to the beat of the music, you increase the content of a meter that gives you more points for each kill. The music also changes as it is made up of different layers, so it is 100% dynamic. When you reach 16x on the meter the instrumental metal music changes to melodic death metal with vocals.
While the story is there, deep down it’s pretty shallow and uninteresting. The short summary is that you play as a demon who wants his voice back and is going to hell to reclaim it from those who cursed him. As a demon, you can make big jumps with your wings and land a little slower by gliding. The pace is pretty fast and the enemies hit hard even on the lower difficulties. I personally thought the design was pretty good despite the fact that the story is very absent. Without a doubt, it’s a first-person shooter reminiscent of those of yesteryear. The environments are a bit mixed in quality, very linear but with different appearances, which brings some variety.
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I mentioned witches first because this game by Raven Software had some interesting magic and weapons. Hellsinger is in the same situation. They have classic weapon forms, but also some stranger variants. A talking skull can launch fire attacks, your sword is good at melee combat, and you also have ultimate attacks. Ultimate Attacks can only be activated when you fill a meter through battles. Shadow Warrior also shows parallels. All the classic elements of this first person shooter are overlaid with music with its sophisticated rhythm. There are a lot of positive things to say about it, but also negative things.
The music is really good, with singers and musicians from really good bands like Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Alissa White-Gluz, Mikael Stanne and many more. A large part of the game’s budget must have been spent on music. It’s probably the best part of the game, but I don’t really like how linear the rest of the experience is. I understand that the developers need to ensure that the player can always have a “flow” in killing enemies throughout the game, but this results in a relatively short action experience depending on whether you want to repeat levels to get higher scores. The title emphasizes that you’re consistently number one on leaderboards and breaking records. As a result, the labyrinthine feel of classic FPS is lost. This is more of a corridor shooter with a 90’s game design.
Unfortunately, I’m not the kind of person who likes to repeat the same card to get more points, which means I get less out of the product. However, I appreciated the time spent on the interesting gameplay, design and music. A Mteal: Hellsinger must be played with keyboard and mouse. I tried it with a controller and it doesn’t work that well. Too much precision is lost and can sabotage the speed multiplier, which in turn means you don’t get caught in the “loop” that the experience creates. The game is at its best when you’re listening to the music and chants and slaughtering enemies to the rhythm. The worst is when you fail and the music is still instrumental. However, it will help you find the right rhythm thanks to the interface that indicates the tempo.
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The settings are good, with enough options and ways to customize the controls. It’s not as impressive as Doom Eternal, but it has enough features. However, the graphics aren’t great, which means you can probably play at a good frame rate per second. It’s necessary in this game as it doesn’t run very well at 30 or even 60fps. And you will need more than 100 to achieve ideal fluency.
In the end, this is a really exciting idea. For me it falls a bit short when I focus on the point system. This makes it too linear and a bit sparse. However, I am impressed with how entertaining and entertaining Metal: Hellsinger is to play. Although the environments are a bit repetitive and the bosses aren’t really interesting, you still feel like there’s always room for improvement. The learning curve is all about maximizing bonuses and getting as many points as possible on each level. It’s by no means the best title I’ve played all year, but it’s certainly something that can be enjoyed. Still, I can’t help but think how linear and short it is as it will take 5-10 hours to beat, just like the games we had in the 2000-2010s. But if you like replaying levels, you can get a lot more out of it than I can.
