Metal: Hellsinger Review

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo >:D

It really couldn’t be a better time to be an inveterate lover of heavy metal and video games.

Every year, thresholds and standards are pushed in unexpected ways, be it narratively, visually, or musically.

We were recently reviewing something known as “A Musical Story”, where I took a position of personal admiration for a simple but entertaining game that seeks to awaken cognitive skills within the mind of the player.

On September 15th, we were pleasantly surprised when we played what was one of the most anticipated independent games of the year, which I was personally unaware of. Which added to the level of happiness and excitement I felt playing it for the first time and seeing what it had to offer.

The favorite video game of all metalhead

With metal being a recent topic of discussion, due to the resurgence of bands like “Metallica” on online playlists thanks to shows like “Stranger Things”… The cadence with which this game was released couldn’t be more convenient.

“Metal: Hellsinger” is an adventure through the different quadrants of hell with a female devil whom the narrator calls “The Unknown”, for its Spanish translation “La Desconocida”.

Alongside her we have “Paz”, a magical skull endowed with the unmistakable and iconic voice of “Troy Baker”, who is a narrator and a weapon in the arsenal at the same time… To add to the list of unpredictable resumes…

And, in short, “La Desconocida” has been imprisoned in hell and has been deprived of her voice under claims of intransigence and insubordination by “La Jueza Roja (The Red Judge)”. Who has been a female version of Satan and the main antagonistic character.

On a journey of revenge to the rhythm of crunchy electric guitars, powerful drums and the demonic voices of international heavy metal superstars, we accompany “Paz” and “La Desconocida” in one of the most entertaining adventures we’ve had in a long time .

A plethora of cognitive stimuli happening at the same time

“Metal: Hellsinger” is a unique blend of the shooter formula established by the most recent “DOOM” games, made extremely popular by “Mick Gordon” compositions; and rhythm action games like “Beat Saber”.

Armed with magic, melee weapons, and various ranged weapons; We go through 8 levels of pure intensity in which we have a clear and simple objective. Shoot anything that moves without missing a beat.

The heart of the matter is definitely music-centric and invites the player to focus first on what is happening musically.

As soon as the levels begin and we are given control of the character, the “ultra violent (yes, I said it…)” background compositions begin along with a visual cue of the tempo or “beats per minute” under which said composition works.

The challenge is that everything we do must go with the rhythm. Be it from the fast movement mechanics, to the rate of execution of our attacks.

In fact, the thing is so musical that if we don’t shoot or attack in time with the composition, the damage we do is almost imperceptible.

The secret of the game is to always keep whatever we’re doing in rhythm with guitar riffs and drum beats which, much like the formula popularized by games like Super Mario 64, and later by Master Mick Gordon in games like “DOOM (2016)”; it evolves and adds layers of sonic spectra that react to player progress and performance.

But mechanically…

The game brings very similar gameplay to other first person shooters with an emphasis on hip shots.

In other words, you don’t need to bring a focus rod to the screen every time you take a shot. On the contrary, it works similar to games like “DOOM”, “Counter Strike”, “Overwatch”, or arguably even “Skyrim”.

Personally, I found the detail of how the game makes the player go through a latency calibration process that compensates accordingly; in anticipation of the extensive range of video game peripherals on the market.

These aren’t necessarily musical instruments or audio production artifacts that keep latency levels ridiculously low, and therefore seek to compensate in a way that makes the experience make our mouse and keyboard, or controller, feel like it.

Such details are what give “Metal: Hellsinger”, with all its “indie game” quality, extremely fluid gameplay and free of errors or setbacks that could be annoying to the player.

When we talk about a great musical experience, we are serious…

It is not new that musicians from the international heavy metal scene have found their place in the world of video games… Personally, I am someone who works daily for it.

On this lap we have “Two Feathers”, a couple of Swedish composers who bring all the beauty, finesse, elegance and peculiarities of Swedish metal to the tray.

For those wondering… Swedish made metal mostly goes through the filters of “groove metal”, “melodic metal”, “death metal”, and “technical metal”.

The point at which fans of the genre can immediately identify the nationality of the band arises when the extremely technical and disciplined drummers come to the fore with their latencies and bounces, harmonically rich distorted guitars that are nevertheless kept at bay. from the frequencial, and super versatile vocalists who demonstrate skills in lyrical singing that sometimes jump to the realm of the soprano or the tenor in combination with extremely aggressive guttural voices that, however, make themselves understood for those who handle the language in the singing.

Characteristics that are brought in their entirety to the compositions and “soundtracks” of “Metal: Hellsinger”.

To spice up its musical appeal to heavy metal enthusiasts, we came across the super pleasant surprise of seeing guest vocalists from bands that any rock and metal enthusiast should know about.

• Mikael Stanne from “Dark Tranquility”
• Alyssa White-Gluz from “Arch Enemy”
• Tatiana Shmayluk, from “Jinjer”
• James Dorton from “Black Crown Initiative”
• Matt Heafy from “Trivium”
• Bjorn Strid from “Soilwork”
• Dennis Lyxen from “Refused & Invsn”
• Randy Blythe, from “Lamb Of God”
• Serj Tankian from “System Of A Down”

All collaborating with the pair of composers in what ends up being a dream musical evening full of extremely memorable, powerful songs and with a clear and balanced level of mixing and mastering that promises to become our new favorite “metal playlist”.

Ockham’s razor of modern gaming…

The fact that a game like “Metal: Hellsinger”, with a certain level of simplicity that prevents it from being sold as a AAA game, achieves such a level of emotional attachment, intensity, interaction, and not least, fun; it is no less than impressive and respectable in an age like the present.

The level of passion and commitment that the creators of such a work put into making the most of a new video game intellectual property built on a game engine like “Unity”, which is mostly revered for its simplicity and ease of use.

To close…

Yes. It’s worth every penny.

Am I being biased because at the end of the day, personally, I’m a video game enthusiast, heavy metal lover?

Probably. But he guesses… It’s precisely the demographic that a game like Metal: Hellsinger plans to woo.

Hellsinger is a love letter to the metal gamer. In every sense of the word.

An arcade game that does not seek much more than to entertain you and raise your adrenaline levels to have a good time.

At the same time… A game that does not need “ray tracing” or next-generation graphics, nor an extremely complex and far-fetched story to want to abide by the “intellectual”.

And finally… A game you can come back to any day of the year, whether it’s listening to music you’ll definitely want to hear again, or practicing your shooting game mechanics in an entertaining way with a very high fidelity level.

This review was made on PC thanks to the copy provided by “The Outsiders”.