From the start, Metal: Hellsinger knows exactly what it is: a love letter to fast-paced first-person shooters, especially Doom, and a tribute to metal music and the culture that surrounds it. It’s a no-frills shooter that asks, “What if you had to blast bodies to pieces to the beat of a metal album by genre greats?” It excels at answering that question. It’s not perfect – the bosses are uninspiring at times and it could use an extra touch of variety in the combat design – but my criticism did little to my overall enjoyment of my 11 hour playthrough. What the game does right far outshines what it can’t, and the developer, The Outsiders, has created what I hope is just the beginning of a new FPS franchise set in hell.
Metal is literally the name of the game here. Music plays throughout your experience, whether it’s in the game’s fantastic campaign that takes you through the realms of hell, or in the trials that unlock sigils that bolster your gear in story mode. If you like Trivium, Lamb of God and other bands like these in the genre and you shoot with a fiery kick, Metal: Hellsinger is already worth the price of admission. I gunned down a massive skeletal boss to the beat of an almost operatic song backed by the iconic vocals of System of a Down’s Serj Tankian. I sped through hordes of enemy mobs and behemoth demons to the rhythm of Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz’s death metal melodies. It was as exciting as it sounds, not least thanks to the precise and powerful shooting mechanics.
You use one of six different weapons to attack hundreds of demons, and the game rewards you with extra damage for firing each bullet in perfect alignment with the on-screen metronome, which doubles as your crosshairs. Streaks increase your damage output and your score modifier. What is unique about this strip counter is that each new level adds a new layer to the music track. At 2x you might hear a rumble of bass and the subtle howl of a guitar rearing up for what’s to come. At 4x the drums could kick in. At 8x the song starts to roar, missing only the vocals that complete the track at 16x.
Climbing from 2x to 16x, facilitated by streak multiplier pickups scattered throughout a certain stage, remained just as exciting the umpteenth time as it was on my first attempt. It feels like bringing a song to life, like a producer, only you’re doing it with guns that the demons of hell are ripping to pieces.
All of this is happening because of The Unknown, the playable character in Metal: Hellsinger, who has been banished to the deepest reaches of Hell, where only ice and lesser demons remain. The Unknown progresses from the iciest to the fieryest domains, accompanied by a talking skull voiced by Troy Baker – he brings a southern move to match the game’s almost western tone – all to find The Judge and to kill, a meandering ruler who loses her control of hell, excellently voiced by Jennifer Hale.
Aside from this campaign, there’s not much else in the game, but that’s okay because what’s there is stellar. There are nine levels and 21 associated torments that will test your mettle with time trials that challenge you to kill enemies in a specific way using specific weapons and methods. There’s also an in-game Codex for additional Hell info and extras that let you listen to the game’s tracks, but that’s about it. Metal: Hellsinger is short and sweet, but it ends at just the right time, reaching the climax of both its story and its built-in Metal album.
I have minor issues with the game, like its torment time trials that either feel cheap and unfair or are almost mysteriously brilliantly designed, and its boss and battle design that could use a little more variety, but these criticisms hardly are worth mentioning. My admittedly minor criticisms played little role in how much I enjoyed playing Metal: Hellsinger.
I probably won’t remember my little frustrations with the game in a few months, but I will remember “Dissolution,” a Two Feathers track with cathartic vocals by Bjorn “Speed” Strid of Soilwork, the realm of hell, known as Nihil, and how my shotgun wiped out waves of enemies there. I’m so glad Metal: Hellsinger ends with the promise of more to come because I already want more from this series.
