3.5/5 ★ – SlashStriker's review of Metal: Hellsinger.

Metal: Hellsinger is a rhythm based FPS (Think DOOM, not COD) by the talented team at The Outsiders. I consider myself to be a rhythm game aficionado, with my current top GOTY contender being HiFi Rush, and a plethora of rhythm titles from various genre under my belt. I’ve tried smaller indie Rhythm FPS options in the past, but have never played one who committed to the concept quite like M:H has. While this is a relatively short game, clocking in at 5-6 hours for my first run through, it is definitely one worth checking out if you enjoy quality metal music and bloodying some demons! Metal: Hellsinger features a fully featured story, following ‘The Unknown’, a lost demon, voiced by Jennifer Hale, as she rips and tears her way towards freedom from an imprisonment and ‘silencing’ she can’t quite remember the reason for. Each level has opening and closing story segments that explain the context of the battles to come, with voice acting led by the ever-busy Troy Baker playing the role of your disembodied skull guide, Paz. The story is solid and easy to follow, but doesn’t quite end with a bang, more like a ‘more to come’. Gameplay is where this game shines the brightest. The controls are rock solid and the levels play near identically to a modern DOOM title. Enter a room, fight what spawns, usually ramping up to a mini-boss, then go to the next room until you reach a boss for the level. The Unknown is outfitted with a reasonably wide array of weapons handed out over the course of the narrative, which each function in unique ways both in regards to style of projectile and method for rhythm matching to either increase power or improve/remove reload time. My favorite was absolutely the explosive crossbow, which only got two deadly payloads per reload, but could have its reload skipped with precise rhythmic timing. There was no weapon in the game I tried and thought was either too weak or too difficult to use, this is a case of less quantity, more quality and I enjoyed it. A single alternate skin for each gun are offered in game for locating collectables found in each level. Of course there are some microtransactiony skins too, but I didn’t touch that in my playthrough. On top of choosing your weapon, you can also bring a wide selection of perks into each level, with new ones being unlocked as you complete optional challenge levels that offer time attack, horde and puzzle style levels. These were fun diversions, but I personally stopped engaging with them about halfway through the game as I felt I was spending more time on them than the story itself and wanted to push forward. The game allows you to move fairly rapidly and you do have a dash which can be chained when done on rhythm, so difficulty is not an issue as long as you maintain situational awareness. The one huge negative to gameplay is the level bosses, the vast majority of level bosses are visually identical, and while their combat abilities differ in various ways, it was definitely lame to know exactly what was waiting for me at the end of each level. Thankfully the final boss bucks this trend in a big way. Visually the game takes enormous inspiration from recent DOOM titles and I was very impressed with the result. For a small studio like The Outsiders this is a really solid showing, and I took the time in each level to engage with the varied hellish environments. You could simplify each level into a gaming ‘world’ (ice world, poison world, etc) if you wanted too, but I likened it more to GoW2018/Ragnarok or Hades myself, thinking each world displayed a extension of hell in creative ways. Sound design is solid here, as it needs to be. Every weapon and every enemy click and crunch like they need to for the player to be able to get into the rhythm and feel like a badass. The soundtrack is a huge standout and worth a listen regardless of whether you play the game, the team at The Outsiders worked with Two Feathers to create and perform an incredible set list with guest vocalists joining to add variety to the stages. I am not a metalhead by any means, but I’ve grown up listening to rock and whatever mainstream heavier stuff came my way was always welcome. I found myself head-banging more than a little throughout this game as I got into the beats and vocals. The vocals themselves are a kind of reward in gameplay, only appearing when you reach a high enough combo of shots, reloads and dashes. It’s impossible not to get pumped up when the music gets better exactly when you are excelling at whatever you are doing. This is a title that is going to have a niche target audience, and that’s okay. I personally am so glad I gave it a shot and really enjoyed the couple days I spent with it. If it wasn’t for the short length and repetitive bosses, this would have easily been a 4-star game from me. If the concept of this game sounds up your alley, I’d absolutely recommend trying it out, I bet you’ll have a great time too! I played this game on Xbox Series S through my GamePass subscription prior to it leaving the service. I would absolutely recommend purchasing this game for the right price.