As someone who adores the recent DOOM titles and invested thousands of hours into them, I was interested in Metal: Hellsinger for obvious reasons. It’s a fast-paced run-and-gun first-person shooter, it has demons as your primary targets, and it’s trying to be bombastic with its gunplay and core mechanics. What makes Metal: Hellsinger distinctive compared to the DOOM games is its rhythm-based mechanic. The crosshair of your weapons has moving arrows on the left and right sides, which reminds me of Dance Dance Revolution, and it’s an important mechanic for the player to master. If you can use your weapon on the beat, you do more damage, and you build up your “Fury” meter, which is a system designed for you to do more damage and multiply your score. Another interesting thing to note is your “Fury” meter can affect the intensity of the song, so if you want that full metal soundtrack package, make sure you keep your fury up!
The soundtrack was pretty good for what it offered. And this game’s musician lineup should be recognizable among die-hard heavy metal fans It’ll be interesting to hear what the other songs will sound like.
When it comes to the action aspect of the game, Metal: Hellsinger has satisfying weapons to use. All the weapons seemed fairly standard in the demo. You have a sword that actually has range, and it does fairly good damage as long as you’re on beat, there’s this skull that’s a ranged projectile weapon, there’s a shotgun which is nice for beefier enemies, and my personal favorite, the dual magnums which seemed to be the best weapon overall due to how versatile it is. The weapons do have ultimate alternative firing modes, and they can be used for a massive power spike and increasing your fury meter. They work by getting kills of that particular weapon.
There are two levels in the demo. One takes place in a snow-themed landscape, and it’s basically a tutorial for you to get the hang of the game’s unique mechanics. Then the next level is the real level where you take everything you learned from the tutorial and put it through the test. It takes place in a demonic invaded city, and there will be plenty of demons for you to kill. The level is fairly linear in terms of progression. You would enter an arena, and once everything dies, you simply progress to the next arena, and you do this until you reach the boss at the end. You can also replay the demo for a better score if you would like to.
Coming in without many expectations, I had fun with the demo, and I left the demo feeling satisfied. I do see myself wanting to come back and try to improve my rhythm abilities. On my first playthrough, I didn’t realize how important it was to stay on beat, and I was still trying to learn how the game wants me to play, but on the second playthrough, it was interesting to see how much I’ve improved as a player. It felt like I was playing a different game with the knowledge I obtained from my previous playthrough. Metal: Hellsinger is certainly one of the more unique DOOM-inspired titles I’ve played recently, but call me old-fashioned, I’d prefer the game if it weren’t so focused on the rhythm mechanics.
A game like this makes you want to go trigger-happy and cause massive destruction as you get into the combat loop. That’s what makes the recent DOOM titles so addictive for me and why I still haven’t lost interest in them. That feeling where you can just freely express yourself by slaughtering demons at your own pace and quickly switching your favorite weapon combos is just magical and beautiful at the same time.
I also feel like this game is not going to offer anything much outside of the combat because the level progression seemed very straightforward and linear. It doesn’t reward the player for exploration and secret hunting, which is another aspect I enjoyed the DOOM games for. I also believe replay value might not be too strong outside of gamers who are obsessed with grinding out for high scores, but outside of that, this might be a game that’s designed more for a quick thrill.
According to the Playstation Store, the game will be budget-priced at $40, so this game will not be a full-priced product like AAA titles which are $70. It’s a good thing that this game won’t be too hefty on the wallet, so its budget price will certainly attract consumers
Overall, Metal: Hellsinger is a stylish blend of first-person shooter action and rhythm game-based mechanics, which will have its fans who appreciate what it is. It was a blast to play and it gave me a hell of a good time, but it’s going to have to do more to keep me away from id Software’s DOOM series.
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