Metal: Hellsinger played: Killing metal and demons is a good combination

Metal and fights against bloodthirsty demons are a good combination. If there was still any doubt, Metal: Hellsinger from developer The Outsiders and publisher Funcom puts it out of the way. The first-person shooter relies on your sense of rhythm, because you have to feel the beats in order to shoot your way through hell as efficiently and, above all, deadly.

A preview version recently allowed me to take apart a bunch of demonic creatures while the background music kept driving me on. Briefly on the story, which provides a reason why you’re shooting your way through hell, but I don’t expect anything profound. You play a creature called The Unknown and you want to defeat Red Judge, ruler of all hells. Why? Because she stole your vote. Very easily. To ask?

Story? Is available

Doesn’t play that big a role either, it’s all about shooting and listening to great music while shredding the opponents. And that is already working well. Metal: Hellsinger is a fast-paced shooter and leans towards Doom. You move quickly through the levels, you can and should do evasive steps, because your character can’t stand very much. But you can compensate for that – more on that later.

The focus of your gaze is the beat display around the crosshairs. Similar to a Guitar Hero – to give an example that has absolutely nothing to do with it – it is important to perform actions at exactly the right moment in order to achieve the perfect result. Whoever hits the beat perfectly with a shot causes the most damage and also collects more “Fury” for the special attack aka Ultimate.

At the same time, the multiplier for damage and high score increases with each correctly hit beat, up to a maximum of 16. The latter should always be your goal in order to enjoy the game to the fullest. Because: Only with a multiplier of 16 do you inflict the most damage, achieve the highest scores and hear the voice of the singer of the respective song.

Shoot in the right rhythm

If you don’t have a sense of rhythm or can’t deal with it, it will be correspondingly more difficult, especially since your multiplier will of course drop again if you miss a beat or take damage. It can be a real challenge when your eyes are on the beat meter while trying to keep an eye on the environment and all the enemies around you. So much the better if you don’t need it at all, you can focus solely on the music in the background and thus anticipate the right moment to pull the trigger and for other actions.

It takes a bit of practice to get there, but the longer a level goes on and you listen to the music long enough, the easier it becomes. At the same time, you also need to be aware of changes in the track’s tempo. That makes Metal: Hellsinger a challenge. But one that’s fun and rewards you for getting it right.

As mentioned, hitting the beat plays a role in many actions. Once you’ve weakened an enemy enough, even if you hit the beat, you can finish it off and regain health. Your unique ultimate attack depends on the weapon you are wielding. On the shotgun, this is a large projectile that fires in the direction you’re aiming, blasting everything in its path. With the two pistols you have a kind of auxiliary demon that you summon for a short time and that attacks enemies independently while it stays in place.

Motivating gameplay

The high score should ultimately serve as a motivating factor to play through the level again and it has what it takes. There are many things that affect your rating, from multiplier to enemies and objects destroyed to headshots, killstreaks and finishers. There is always potential to improve. Conversely, a small factor can decide whether you outperform other players or not. Could be exciting.

The music I’ve heard so far has definitely been engaging and has the potential to push me even further as I play. It’s definitely an incentive to do your best to hear the song in its entirety. Included are songs by and with Matt Heafy (Trivium), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), Randy Blythe (Lamb of God), Tatiana Shmayluk (Jinjer) and Serj Tankian (System of a Down). Metal: Hellsinger is scheduled for release in 2022 for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 at a price of $29.99 (PC) and $39.99 (console)

At first I was skeptical about how well I would get along with Metal: Hellsinger. It wasn’t that long ago that I took a look at the similarly structured BPM: Bullets Per Minute and didn’t have that much fun with it. Could also have been because I was playing it with the controller. I don’t usually have a problem playing these kinds of games with the pad, but I did a little better with the mouse on fast-paced games like Metal: Hellsinger. Once you get the beat right and crank the multiplier up, the banging music pushes you even further and gets you in a kind of frenzy as you blast through hell. If you like shooting from a first-person perspective, chasing high scores and listening to metal music, you should keep an eye on Metal: Hellsinger.