When I sit back and evaluate my life, I wonder how I can be as unmusical as I am. From growing up and doing various styles of dancing to taking piano lessons and singing opera – it’s only natural to presume that somewhere over the years, a natural sense of rhythm would have developed. However, it did not.
But here’s the thing. I don’t subscribe to the belief that one needs to be skilled at something to enjoy it; if that were the case, gaming wouldn’t be even slightly as popular as it is. So regardless of my seemingly allergic reaction to anything even remotely similar to a rhythm, games like Beatsaber and Crypt of the Necrodancer are among my favourites. Even if no one would want me on their team when playing.
Knowing this, I jumped at the chance to play Metal: Hellsinger when it arrived on Xbox Game Pass, not because I thought I’d be any good at it but because I was confident I would enjoy it. While there are many other rhythm-based games around, the thing that set Metal: Hellsinger apart from its contemporaries is the metal-inspired soundtrack.
For those who aren’t familiar, Metal: Hellsinger is a rhythm-based game best described as the love child of Doom and heavy metal music. However, even though they might sound like the perfect marriage of game systems, the result is much less epic than your imagination will lead you to believe. The reality is more like quickly dipping a tea bag into a cup of lukewarm water and calling it black coffee.
Metal: Hellsinger is, in a word, disappointing. From a distinctive lack of features and content to a shocking short playtime, it’s not a game I can ever see myself returning to or recommending to a friend. It could have been better if the experiences were as a demo or a teaser, but as a full game, it’s incredibly weak. It’s hard to pinpoint precisely where Metal: Hellsinger goes wrong, and that’s because it doesn’t really. However, it also doesn’t do anything particularly right.
The story is… okay? Troy Baker serves as the narrator between levels, but while Troy is undoubtedly a fantastic voice actor, his performance here seems to lack any real humour or depth and instead sets a monotonously harsh tone that is carried through from beginning to end.
One area where Metal: Hellsinger does shine is in its soundtrack. Each level has its own original metal song. While I wasn’t tempted to add any of them to a Deezer playlist, it was easy to enjoy the sounds of Trivium and System of a Down while playing. Also, the music adds more to the game than just the atmosphere. Timing your attacks to synchronise with the drum beats is the only way to increase your Fury multiplier. The longer you can maintain perfectly timed attacks, the more powerful you become and the more points you rack up.
However, while exhilarating in theory, the execution could use improvement. For one thing, the weapon selection in the game is beyond sparse, and the four options you have at the start are the four you will still have at the end. The enemies are also somewhat disappointing. At the end of each level, there is a boss for you to fight and bar for the game’s final boss; each is just a slight variation of the same enemy, with the exact same method used to kill them. This means that while the first boss was fun, each subsequent one was less impressive and entertaining.
Also, if we’re being completely honest, unless you are a gamer who strives for high scores, there isn’t much fun to be had here. Each level is structurally the same as the ones before, your double-jump and dash abilities are as complex as it ever gets, and overall the entire experience is exceptionally linear without anything to discover or anywhere to explore.
