Metal: Hellsinger is a FPS rhythm game from developer The Outsiders that blasts hell's demons away with heavy metal music. While that may simply sound like a new DOOM game, Hellsinger streamlines that series' best moments to the point they happen almost every few minutes. Some players will be able to blast through Metal: Hellsinger's campaign in a short amount of time, but it's a fun FPS that will make any fan of metal music feel like an unstoppable monster once they hit their rhythm.
The developers of Metal: Hellsinger first revealed the game that tasks fans to "Slay To The Beat" during the 2020 Summer of Gaming event. While it is the first game released by this developer, the group consists of veteran game makers from studios that released games like Payday 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. It's difficult not to be compared to the DOOM reboot when making a fast-paced single-player FPS where players must battle hordes of ever-increasingly brutal demons. However, Metal: Hellsinger triumphs by not only achieving the adrenaline-pumping moments similarly found in 2016's DOOM when Mick Gordon's score kicks in, but streamlining the process.
In Metal: Hellsinger, players successfully shoot, dash, and reload to the music's beat as a multiplier will begin to grow. As it grows, more layers of the game's metal soundtrack will begin to play until a 16x multiplayer is achieved. Only then will the full song's fury be unleashed as the vocals kick in, provided by an impressive list of metal singers. A cast of talent that would quickly sell out almost any music festival.
Hellsinger's impressive list of featured singers works together with the band Two Feathers to deliver a soundtrack that will get stuck in players' heads. This makes replaying levels and working towards beating the level's previous high score a lot more fun, especially on Metal: Hellsinger's challenging Beast difficulty. Players who successfully play on the game's tempo will find that their weapons do more damage and sound more bombastic. This elevates the Hellsinger experience by achieving a high level of synergy between the gameplay and sound design.
Players start the game off with a sword and a Troy Baker-voiced skull named Paz. Four more weapons are unlocked throughout the game, but besides Paz and the sword, only two others can be equipped at a time. Like anyone who tried Hellsinger's free demo experienced, each weapon feels unique to wield and shoots differently when trying to match the game's stimulating beats. Before starting each level, weapons and unlockable perks are equipped and organized with a simple yet effective loadout screen. Finishing moves and ultimate attacks add variety and strategy options that will prove helpful, especially in the game's later challenging sections.
Besides the campaign, Metal: Hellsinger also provides players with twenty-one Torment challenges that unlock special gameplay perks. These challenges range from taking out a specific number of enemies while playing to the game's beat to defeating some of the game's most challenging enemies with different weapons, all in an arena setting. The game also offers three levels of difficulty. While the Goat difficulty (Normal) provides a balanced challenge, the game's hardest Beast difficulty kicks Metal: Hellsinger's intense rhythm-based gameplay up an extra level. A strategic combination of perks and weapons may be needed to complete the game's later challenges. Still, even on the game's hardest difficulty, Metal: Hellsinger could potentially be fully completed in around twenty hours. However, players will likely enjoy the game longer than that since the replayability for each level is high.
The plot of Metal: Hellsinger revolves around a rebel entity known as "The Unknown," fighting through hell to reclaim her powerful voice from the ruler of Hell, The Judge. Each level ends with a boss encounter with one of The Judge's Aspects. While each of these Aspects wields different magical abilities, each of the bosses feels very similar. Bosses start to feel repetitive until the game's epic final boss encounter ends Hellsinger strong and teases what could be next for The Unknown and her musically talented skull Paz.
Like 2009's Brütal Legend, Metal: Hellsinger is a love letter to heavy metal gamers rather than a game being made to pander to a demographic. Hellsinger is a lot of fun for any casual FPS player with even a vague interest in metal music. Even though the game feels on the short side, The Outsiders have achieved a beautiful hybrid of sound design and fun FPS gameplay that will hopefully inspire more combat rhythm games in the future. The music will get stuck in the player's head, and the levels are more than fun enough to warrant replaying.
Metal: Hellsinger will be available September 15th on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purpose of this review.