I LOVE Doom, like I love LOVE Doom and everything about the Hellscape that Doom is set in. I also love the soundtrack and not once did I ever think to myself: What if Doom was more… metal? Well it would appear that the fine folks over at The Outsiders asked themselves this very question. They also asked themselves ‘what if we make Doom more metal but also create a new genre in the meantime and make the worlds first Rhythm FPS’? A question nobody in the world before needed the answer to but now that we have it; dear God do I need more of it.

First thing to state is that I am absolutely terrible at Metal: Hellsinger, having to repeat the levels 3-4 times before I am able to beat them. The main thing that sticks in my brain is that not once have I felt having to repeat any of the games levels multiple times was in any way a hassle. If anything, each subsequent playthrough was a pleasure and even once I had completed the levels I found myself going back to each one to improve my score. Once Metal: Hellsinger had its hooks in me, I just couldn’t stop.

The premise of Metal: Hellsinger is that you are The Unknown, an imprisoned entity from the deepest parts of Hell. You task yourself with fighting through the nine circles of Hell in order to gain your freedom… or something. I’ll be honest, listening to the story came second on my list of priorities for this game very quickly, even with Troy Baker narrating with his best Sam Elliot impression… it just wasn’t something that I cared about compared to the rest of the game.

The gameplay consists of you fighting your way through the circles of Hell, shooting on the beat to increase damage. You can be bad and shoot off beat but the damage you will deal is substantially reduced to the point of almost being pointless. As your score multiplier increases, so too does the music until eventually the lyrics kick in. This is where the real kick ass feeling kicks in as well. Destroying various demons throughout Hell to the incredible lyrical prowess of people such as Matt Heafy and Serj Tankian is such an incredible feeling and no game has come close to making me feel as badass as Metal: Hellsinger does… well… ever.

The game LOOKS smooth as hell as well, whilst the circles can kind of blend together somewhat when I am so focussed on hitting that damn beat. When I did stop and smell the roses I was genuinely impressed by how hellish everything looked and the incredibly detailed world was very impressive, ESPECIALLY coming from such a small studio. The demon designs are disgusting as well, with bulging stomachs and flailing limbs, which just made ripping them apart so much more satisfying.

This was the thing though, because I am so bad at the game I had to intentionally stop to really appreciate these things. Throughout my entire playthrough my mind was just so focused on watching the beat for when I shot at things and watching my multiplier increase that the main impression that the game left upon me was with the stellar soundtrack as opposed to some truly fantastic visuals. Though… I guess this is kinda the point from a game whose entire premise is being metal AF.

I have been having so much fun with Metal: Hellsinger and whilst I am done with it from a review standpoint, I do plan on continuing to play more just to continue to hear more from the incredible soundtrack and attempt to get my points just that little bit higher and climb evermore through the leaderboards. Whilst I didn’t pay much attention to the story, I don’t think that’s necessarily the game’s fault as opposed to mine so I won’t be marking it down for that at all. This is a completely new genre of game that I didn’t know I needed but now that I have it I can think of very little else. Based on how much I am enjoying myself in Metal: Hellsinger I score it

9 / 10

Written by Luke.

Edited by Alexx.