As the gaming industry continues to push boundaries, developers are constantly looking for innovative ways to engage an audience that thrives on novelty. One such recent development comes in the form of blending seemingly different genres, like rhythm games and first-person shooters, to create a unique and immersive gaming experience.
Rhythm shooter games, pioneered by titles like Metal: Hellsinger, are the latest trend captivating the gaming community with their in-game challenges and opportunities for growth. In this review, we’ll dive deep into the world of rhythm shooters and Metal: Hellsinger, in particular, exploring this compelling game’s features, benefits, and future prospects.
Rhythm Shooter Dynamics: A Harmonious Blend
Rhythm shooter games like Metal: Hellsinger stand out from their peers by incorporating rhythmic elements into their core gameplay mechanics. Players are tasked with taking down enemies and syncing their shots and movements to the beat of the music, resulting in a satisfyingly rhythmic cadence of destruction.
One key advantage of rhythm shooters over traditional FPS titles is the opportunity for gamers to develop an improved sense of timing and precision. Furthermore, navigating these games requires a high level of multitasking and coordination, providing a challenging yet engaging experience for seasoned gamers. Not only that, gamers get to enjoy some amazing soundtracks while they play.
Our Overall Impression of Metal: Hellsinger
Metal: Hellsinger is a fantastic, brutal, and addictive rhythm game that combines the fast-paced gunplay of 90’s arena FPS shooters like DOOM Eternal with an unbelievably fantastic award-winning soundtrack that will certainly find a place in your playlist. Metal: Hellsinger’s heavy metal rampage through the depths of Hell was an unparalleled experience and a must-play for any avid rhythm, FPS, or metal fan.
Sometimes, the best experiences are relatively short, and while we enjoyed every minute of Metal: Hellsinger during our review, the game’s length is a bit on the shorter side. This can be a bit of a negative for those unsure if Metal: Hellsinger is worth it for them.
With the recent release of The Dream of the Beast DLC, there is hope for a longer experience and even more headbanging content in the future. Let us begin with our Metal: Hellsinger review and why it is one of our favorite games released in the last year.
Some Terrific Highlights Include
- A rich, intense soundtrack that keeps you engaged and excited to play.
- No time limit for levels allows new players to play at their own pace and learn the game without having to beat both the enemies and the clock.
- The opportunity to level up your arsenal and unlock new, powerful weapons that help you tackle tougher foes.
- A well-tuned difficulty curve that keeps players engaged as they face increasingly skilled enemy forces.
- Unique boss encounters and other challenging enemies push players to the brink, demanding perfect timing and finesse to emerge victorious.
Metal: Hellsinger is a Metal Head Paradise
The soundtrack is a vital and defining element of rhythm games. No one wants to invest time slaying to the beat unless the soundtrack is unique and powerful, and Metal: Hellsinger goes beyond expectations. If you are a certified metalhead, you might recognize some of the following names or bands featured on the soundtrack.
Artists You Can Listen To In-Game
- Björn Strid (Soilwork)
- Tatiana Shmayluk ( Jinjer)
- Serj Tankian (System of a Down)
- Matt Heafy (Trivium)
- Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity)
- Dennis Lyxzén ( Refused & INVSN)
- Randy Blythe (Lamb of God)
- Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy)
- James Dorton (Black Crown Initiate)
- Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil)
- Will Ramos (Lorna Shore)
This godlike soundtrack is made with the artists mentioned above on different songs, accompanied by the backing rhythms from the Two Feathers studio, who have created dozens of songs for countless games such as Vermintide 2, League of Legends, and Aragami 2. This soundtrack is amazing to listen to in and out of the game, but how does it perform in combat?
The Dance of Death – Reviewing Combat in Metal Hellsinger
Shoot, dodge, and slay to the beat – Metal: Hellsinger’s amazing soundtrack is synchronized with its Fury system, which increases the intensity of the music as your Fury score increases, providing you with more points, better times, and carnage. The captivating way in which each song moves as you play makes you want to improve and stay in tune with its mesmerizing beat.
Each level is accompanied by an original metal song that shifts in genre and range depending on the artist, giving each level a unique combat pace. The song also shifts between sections of every level, looping beautifully if you get stuck in a specific combat section.
Unlike other rhythm games, there is no time limit; thus, you don’t have to beat the level in under five minutes before the song runs out. This was great for us during our review of Metal: Hellsinger; it allowed us to become more familiar with the game and try out more things without having to worry about the time limit.
At the end of each level, you are faced with a boss fight against one of the Judges. The boss themes are beautiful and draw upon similar elements from the level’s previous track, but then turn the melody on its head when the boss fight progresses to their enrage phase. Overall, the music is a primary element of Metal: Hellsinger, and they have crafted an outstanding OST.
Hell’s Arsenal – How Fun Are the Weapons?
Hellsinger’s weapon arsenal is relatively limited for a first-time playthrough, but progressing through the campaign will slowly unlock all kinds of weapons. Ultimately, the player may only have four weapons equipped, while two are mandatory.
Each weapon’s different firing speeds, playstyles, and Ultimate abilities make each level play and feel drastically different, depending on your loadout.
For a more detailed explanation of all weapons in Metal: Hellsinger, check out our companion article. For the purposes of this review, we’ll highlight a few interesting and novel weapon choices made by the game’s developers.
Paz
Paz is a great addition to this game and the genre in general. He doesn’t deal tremendous damage, but he can help you sustain and grow your combo meter outside combat. For players looking to maximize their points and combos, this adds a unique element to the game worth mastering.
The Hounds
The Hounds are a pair of impressive revolvers that the Unknown can use in Metal: Hellsinger. They are a lot of fun due to their high rate of fire, which allows you to hit every beat of the soundtrack.
Every weapon in Metal: Hellsinger has a unique Ultimate ability, and the Hounds’ Ultimate ability is one of the best. It spawns a copy of the unknown that blasts away all enemies in sight.
One of the best things about Metal Hellsinger is that it’s action-packed, exciting, and a bit over the top. These weapons, and especially their ultimate ability, help keep that great feeling when playing Metal: Hellsinger.
Reviewing Metal: Hellsinger’s Rhythmic Gameplay
How does the gameplay feel now that we have passed the weapons and the songs? Every jump, dodge, shot, and reload is elevated by staying in sync with the music. While you can perform any action out of sync, there is an almost indescribable feeling of satisfaction when playing with the game’s rhythm. Overall, we found the gameplay of Metal: Hellsinger to be amazing in our review.
The Terminus and Paz accompany you on every mission, but your weapon selection can alter your gameplay and arsenal. Every weapon can match a specific BPM, and if you want the fastest gunplay possible, use a high-fire-rate weapon like the Red Right Hand and the Vulcan. Alternatively, you can use Persephone and the Terminus for a slower game-play experience.
Both visually and audibly, Metal: Hellsinger is a dopamine-filled rush. Each shot that is synced puts you on a hit streak, which increases your Fury—the higher your Fury meter is, the more points you gain and the farther along the song progresses. Ultimately, when you need to reload, you can perform a quick reload if timed correctly, skipping half of the animation by doing a different animation.
Your dashes aren’t limited, but if performed in sync, you will be launched further and can obtain more points if you complete a multi-dash combo. You can also double jump and dash mid-air, giving you impressive movement and control over combat encounters. Combining these rhythm elements with DOOM Eternal-like FPS gunplay, Metal: Hellsinger achieves new heights.
Execution Moves in Metal: Hellsinger Add to the Game’s Fun
Metal: Hellsinger has taken inspiration from DOOM Eternal’s Glory Kills, wherein if an enemy is left with low HP, they will flash white, prompting you to perform an action on the beat in order to execute them and grant yourself invulnerability frames, points, and health.
Executions can be chained together, and furthermore, these executions can be prompted from a range, unlike in DOOM Eternal where you need to stay close to an enemy to finish them off. The range of executions allows you to zip and dash around arenas and through enemies, giving you new ways of maneuvering around the arena.
Taking on Metal: Hellsinger’s Unholy Hordes
In Metal: Hellsinger, players must adapt and strategize to defeat a diverse and challenging array of enemies that populate the game’s nightmarish worlds. Each enemy type requires the player to utilize different approaches and tactics, ensuring that no two encounters play out similarly.
During our time with Metal: Hellsinger, we found that the game’s variation in enemies and their respective difficulty levels made for an exhilarating and challenging experience.
For a more detailed overview and tips on defeating all the different enemies in Metal: Hellsinger, check out our companion guide. For this review of Metal: Hellsinger, we’ll highlight a few of the more interesting enemies that new or aspiring players may want to know about.
Stalker Enemies
In the game, Stalkers are fast, lethal, and green, which is unique compared to the predominantly black and red colors of other enemies. They are dangerous up close and can deal significant damage. They have the ability to shoot green lasers from a distance or use their long claws to attack.
The Stalkers can also become invisible and teleport, so keeping an eye on them is essential to avoid surprise attacks.
Lesser Seraphs
You will come across the Lesser Seraph, which is the final basic enemy. These holy creatures fly and attack from above using either deadly beams of light or energy balls to knock you back. They are speedy, so you must use different strategies depending on your weapons.
Elite Siege Behemoths
Siege Behemoths are a more dangerous and larger version of regular Behemoth enemies. They add excitement to combat encounters because of their ability to deal more damage, use ranged attacks, and send out waves of fire that require players to jump to avoid them. As always, there is always a bigger fish to fry.
How Combat Feels in this Rhythm Shooter Game
Now, after briefly explaining the game’s enemies, how do they affect combat? Like in arena FPS games, these enemies have a goal or position they fill, making every fight more difficult if ignored.
Stalkers and Behemoths come at you with close-range attacks while Cambions and Eyeless fire at you using ranged weapons. While there is not much variety in their abilities, Metal: Hellsinger has plenty of enemies to provide versatility in each arena encounter.
Each enemy does not fight over another role or position, making their contributions to combat feel unique. It would not feel the same if four different ranged units fired similar projectiles, but one does not feel overwhelmed even with all these enemies.
The AI in Metal: Hellsinger is simplistic, with each enemy type filling a specific role. However, that’s fairly common for games like this. We don’t expect something extremely tactical when we play a boomer shooter game. That being said, we would’ve been happier during our review of Metal: Hellsinger with a bit more variability in AI to help improve the game’s replayability.
Each level’s difficulty curve feels balanced, and enemies have counters against specific weapons—for example, Persephone shreds through Behemoths, and The Hounds are the better choice for flying enemies.
On top of the satisfying reloads, the excellent movement tools that the player has access to, and enemies that feel simple to understand yet hectic enough to fight, make Metal: Hellsinger’s combat and enemy variety a wonderful blend of fast rhythmic action.
How Replayable is Metal: Hellsinger?
On release Metal: Hellsinger may have been limited in its replayability, because songs were locked to their respective levels, and there was little variety outside of mastering one song on one map.
Yet, post-launch, Metal: Hellsinger has received mod support, giving modders the power to put different songs into every level. This opens up tons of replayability and endless hours of beating every level with your favorite songs. Have you ever wanted to slay demons to the Deep Rock Galactic soundtrack? Well, now you can!
Additionally, after The Dream of the Beast was released, a follow-up update was released, allowing players to select whatever song they want for whatever stage, like hearing the tutorial song (Through You) on the final level or anywhere else.
Combining these free updates with Metal: Hellsinger’s leaderboard for speedrun times and high scores gives this jam-packed single-player game a more competitive side. Lastly, if you need more than that to convince you there’s tons of replayability in Metal: Hellsinger, there are multiple difficulty modes to blast through if you wish to test your rhythm and aim.
Graphics in Metal: Hellsinger
Metal: Hellsinger boasts impressive visuals that feature vibrant, lush environments and detailed character models. The animations are smooth and lifelike, bringing the game’s world to life. The music is an interesting mix of metal tunes that perfectly fits the intense action on-screen.
However, while the graphics are good, they are not quite up to the level of other AAA titles in terms of realism and detail – some characters can look a bit jagged at times, while environments seem slightly underwhelming close up.
Despite this, Metal: Hellsinger still provides a visually captivating experience overall. Moreover, the real compelling reason to play this game is the integration of the soundtrack and audio into the game, as opposed to the visuals.
Review of the Dream of the Beast DLC for Metal Hellsinger
The Dream of the Beast is Metal: Hellsinger’s first paid DLC includes one new weapon, two new songs, and three outfits that give you new passive abilities. For a low price of $4.00 on Steam, this DLC is completely worth its price. Even without the extra skins or weapons, the songs alone are worth the price.
However, it is necessary to mention that the extra songs added to the DLC must be selected through the song selector menu, as this DLC does not add any additional new levels. Nevertheless, these songs are absolute bangers and well worth the price.
Outside of the songs, the new weapon shreds through enemies, giving The Unknown a machine gun that follows its own beat. The outfits are also fun and give you extra passives that can influence your gameplay, but nothing game-breaking. Ultimately, this DLC is cheap, fun, and adds more to an otherwise wonderful experience.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Rhythm Shooter Games
The growing success of titles like Metal: Hellsinger suggests that rhythm shooters are here to stay. In addition to drawing in dedicated fans of rhythm games and FPS titles, these unique games are starting to generate excitement in the broader gaming community.
As more developers begin to experiment with this hybrid genre, we can look forward to a wider range of exciting gameplay experiences that push the boundaries of what we know about gaming.
Quick Tips for an Aspiring Rhythm Slayer
For those looking to explore the fascinating world of rhythm shooters, we’d recommend starting with Metal: Hellsinger, as it strikes the perfect balance between challenge and enjoyment. To excel in this genre, remain open to new tactics and practice your timing and coordination skills. As always, the most important thing is to have fun and embrace the opportunity to experience something new.
Final Thoughts for our Metal: Hellsinger Review
By blending the worlds of rhythm games and first-person shooters, this rhythm shooter offers gamers a unique and exhilarating gameplay experience. With Metal: Hellsinger leading the charge, there’s no better time to embrace the rhythm of destruction and dive into the fast-paced, heart-throbbing gameplay.
If you like metal music, this game will likely be perfect for you because it has a lot of famous metal songs. Even if you don’t like metal music, the game is still fun and challenging. It costs only $30 on Steam plus a $4 DLC. This game and its expansion are worth your time and money!
With tons of post-launch support and a multi-nominated, award-winning, rhythmic demon-killing FPS game, it’s an unforgettable package of headbanging love, support, and overall fun. If you are looking for a game to really sink your teeth into or want to kick back for a weekend and enjoy some astounding headbanging carnage, Metal: Hellsinger is the game for you.
This writer absolutely loves this game, and no matter your gaming level or music taste, you should try it. This game is fantastic, and I hope you’ll give it a shot when you can. If you want to get started and learn more about Metal: Hellsinger, we have a beginner guide to get you started.
Happy slaying for now!
If you like metal music, this game will likely be a great fit for you. It has a lot of famous metal songs, and the action works very well synced to the beat. Even if you don't particularly love metal music, the game is still fun and challenging and can be a great departure from most traditional FPS games. The biggest drawback at the moment is the game is relatively short, though it has decent replayability.
-
Gameplay
-
Game Length / Replayability
-
Graphics
-
AI
-
Soundtrack
-
Combat
