While I wait for the approaching release date for Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, I had a browse through the PlayStation store to see what games were coming out or just dropped that I could play to fill the time. That’s where I came across Metal: Hellsinger, I remember seeing a trailer for this game a while back and got major Duke Nukem vibes. Though after looking into, it a bit more found that it was a First-person shoot/Rhythm game. I instantly thought to myself “what an odd pairing” but after I got hands-on with the game, I could honestly say it was a match made in “hell.”
You play as “The Unknown” half human and a half-demon who is obsessed with vengeance and revenge. You’ll fight your way through hordes of demons and their leaders to gain an audience against The Red Judge herself. The further you progress the more you learn about “The Unknown” and the story of how she is trying to reclaim her voice. Metal: Hellsinger is a fantastic blend of FPS and rhythm gameplay that does take some getting used to. With each weapon you have at your disposal timing is everything as you try and shoot/hit on the beat. The more you can do this the better the gaming experience you receive.
Metal: Hellsinger is a unique blend of first-person shooter madness with a strong sense of timing for the rhythm elements. Each weapon you have as different firing rates, and you will have to time your shooting and reloading to the rhythm of the beat. The more you stay in time the higher your hit streak becomes, and it also helps keep your score multiplier up. The higher the score multiplier the more intense the music track becomes and really gets you in the mood. It goes all the way up to 16x and when you are at this level the full track players but the lower your multiple the less of the track plays and you really lose your momentum.
The different planes (Levels) that you traverse are enjoyable but do feel lacking and repetitive when you have played them a few times. After your first play-through, everything becomes more of a challenge to get the highest score rather than replaying it due to the gameplay. The gameplay is fun but there isn’t much going for it when all the levels seem to recycle the same enemies and bosses up until the big bad at the end. The Torments challenges that unlock Sigils are a nice change but even these can feel frustrating at times. The more Torments you do the more Sigils you unlock which makes it easier to gain higher scores in the main story levels. So, I advise completing these as you go through the campaign rather than completing the story and going back to them.
The weapons selection is good, there is a sword, shotgun, dual pistol, and a few others. I found myself drawn to the dual pistol a lot of the time as it was the easiest way for me to keep the timing and beat. The Shotgun I found to be quite challenging the same with the Hellcrow but once you get your head around them, they can be enjoyable to use. Maintaining the beat is challenging when you have hordes of demons coming at you but it is so stratifying when you are keeping the beat, pulling off crazy combos, and head bagging to the soundtrack. It was a learning curve that you have to put time into to get enjoyment out of it.
Graphically the game is pleasing though I feel like some of the animations that the characters have could do with some touch-ups. The way that “The Unknown” moves in cutscenes seem unfinished and the same for a few of the enemies. Hell on the other hand looks pleasing and the still cutscenes are cool to look at while listening to the story unfold by award-winning voice actor Troy Baker. The star of this game in my opinion is the original metal soundtrack, every track in Metal: Hellsinger was created specifically for the game, and we are graced with some very iconic metal vocalises. There is Serj Takian from System of a Down, Matt Heafy from Trivium and Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Ememy to name a few. I love this soundtrack so much and can see it being something that I stream while in the gym or on long car journeys as it does a fantastic job of getting you hyped and ready to go. I found it difficult the first time around, as you must get a high multiplier like mentioned above to get the full music track. Which at times made me sad as I would be really into a track and will either miss a beat or muck up losing my streak and the music.
Metal: Hellsinger does have some replay value, but that’s only if you want to try your luck at becoming the top of the online leaderboards, the story was on the short side, but that isn’t a big problem. You could probably get through the main campaign in one sitting, if you are a competitive player who wants to go for high scores on the leader boards the Torments that unlock new Sigils are the way forward. You will find yourself replaying levels multiple times as you aim for the highest score but for me, I just enjoyed playing the game and trying to unlock all the weapons and Sigils. The leaderboards are a cool idea because they give you some replay value once you have completed the story but there are only so many times, I can play the same level.
Conclusion
Metal: Hellsinger does a brilliant job of bringing a unique gameplay experience to the player. The soundtrack is amazing and has some true icons lending their vocals to the game which really hypes the game up when you can keep that 16x multiplier. The story is decent, the weapon designs are cool, and I love the rhythm element the game has as it makes this FPS stand out from the rest. It reminds me of Guitar Hero but with killing demons and using guns instead of guitars to gain your score. There are some areas in which I felt Metal: Hellsinger slipped up on these being the generic level design and recycled demons/boss fights, but it made up for it with its addictive gameplay and pure Metal vibes. For these reasons, I’m giving Metal: Hellsinger a score of 8 out of 10.
Developer: The Outsiders
Publisher: Funcom
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft Windows
Enjoy the review? want to read more of our reviews? then click right here to be whisked away to the realm of our opinions.
You must be logged in to post a comment.