Metal: Hellsinger Review (PS5) – When I first saw Metal: Hellsinger, I looked at it with hopeful eyes, thinking everything about it sounded like a lot of fun.

A rhythm shooter? With cool looking weapons? That links some headbanging music to your high score?

It all sounded intriguing, which led me to the demo pre-release, only to feel disappointed. The music was great, but almost every other aspect of Metal: Hellsinger felt lacking.

Of course, a demo isn’t nearly the whole story, and I was still so intrigued that I wanted to play more.

So after the roll of credits on Metal: Hellsinger, while it certainly had its moments, the whole experience still left me craving something more.

Metal: Hellsinger Review (PS5) – Stick to the Beat

story time

First off, if it wasn’t already obvious from the gameplay, looks and overall tone of Metal: Hellsinger, it takes a lot of inspiration from demise.

Not a bad thing conceptually, but the similarities consistently remind you of that inspiration, leading me to constantly compare the two, one that almost always leaned more in favor of Doom than Hellsinger.

The big exception to that, however, comes with the story, which still feels very much like a Doom-inspired story, but it’s in the execution of it that makes it a lot more fun.

You play as ‘the Unknown’, who you later discover as the prophesied ‘Hellsinger’, an individual capable of destroying all of Hell’s armies. Sounds familiar?

In the main plot, you go on a quest to first re-acquaint yourself with Paz, your companion during each deadly encounter and even one of your base weapons.

While the story isn’t the point, similar to Doom, it at least managed to make me invest somewhat in the characters, and what might happen to them, after the end of Hellsinger’s cliffhanger.

Maybe it was Troy Baker doing his best southern pull that intrigued me, or the art that came with the cutscenes that booked each level.

Anyway it felt like developer The outsiders went far enough with the story that I didn’t get bored at all, in a game where the story is clearly at the bottom of the ‘importance’ hierarchy with your high scores and the core gameplay at the top.

The beat is everything

Everything in Metal: Hellsinger, and I mean absolutely everything, is in time with the beat of the song which is the level you’re playing. Hellsinger consists of a total of eight levels, all of which have their own original song.

The combination of the original music and the way each weapon feels good to fire can keep you playing Metal: Hellsinger with a smile on your face when it all comes together.

Building on the track slowly as your multiplier increases as you watch your beat counter go up can even deliver heart-pounding gameplay as you try to hit your highest streak.

You can even get into a great flow state, similar to that of the ‘Doom Dance’. There’s just something about shooting 50+ consecutive perfect shots that makes clearing a room of demons feel euphoric.

Just as hitting those shots feels euphoric, missing out feels equally awful, especially since you may be able to immediately interrupt the progress you’ve made, and the accumulated number is suddenly stripped back down.

It feels awful and can really interrupt the flow state you’re in. Thankfully, you can get back to the song’s full glory in no time, but the interruptions make any mistake worse than it actually is.

And how bad those interruptions can feel says something about how good each of the songs on the eight levels is. I never wanted to interrupt them because I could barely stop headbanging and toe-tapping.

Even as someone who isn’t the biggest metal fan, there’s no denying good music, and that’s the truth for Metal: Hellsinger’s original songs.

I only miss the nuts

Metal: Hellsinger can feel really great and fun at times, but those moments get longer the closer you get to the credits.

You see, it’s not that Metal: Hellsinger does anything special, it just doesn’t seem to go far enough.

Starting with your weapons, you have two that are always equipped, a sword and Paz shooting fireballs from his eyes.

Plus, you choose two of four unlockable weapons, none of which can be upgraded or customized.

You have these things called Sigils to act as modifiers, although you have to unlock them through additional side challenges.

None of the weapons feel terrible to use, but none of them feel as good as Hellsinger’s inspirations.

The crow boomerangs are the most unique weapon, but they are mainly situational and mainly deal with shielded enemies.

Aside from that, the pistols and shotgun remained my go-to gear throughout my game – as I never felt the need to really use anything other than the introductory level.

How you move when the unknown never feels as fluid as I would like. I often found myself getting stuck on objects in the environment, especially ledges.

It felt counterintuitive to the level design seemingly trying to add some verticality, especially since your jumps don’t really get you very far.

Dashing is the most useful part of your movement arsenal, and while you can still have those clip-value moments strategically run around enemies as you hit each headshot, the movement feels old before reaching the final level.

Speaking of things getting old, the boss fights instantly felt underwhelming by the third ‘skull with wings’ I fought, especially considering the lack of any iteration until the end.

Only the final boss is slightly different, and even that combat lacks any innovation for anyone who’s played a game where you’re fighting something really big.

What ‘hell’ is this again?

Each level in Metal: Hellsinger takes place in a different ‘hell’, the different realms that make up hell, and the eight areas through which you soar.

In all fairness, each area more or less mixed up. None of them looked particularly great, and other than things like torches moving to the beat, nothing really catches the eye.

It’s just another area where Hellsinger struggles to make an argument for itself against the generally better titles that inspired it.

I think the best part of the game is the Unknown’s model in the menu, which is admittedly very striking and terrifying at the same time.

That’s just more to the point where environments feel like many other aspects in Hellsinger – more mediocre than anything else.

Ending on a strong note

Metal: Hellsinger is certainly not a bad game, but the main problem is that it constantly reminds you of the games that inspired it, and the fact that those inspirations do what Hellsinger tries to do, much better.

The best thing about Hellsinger is really the music, and how it can merge with the combat to create some extremely heartbreaking, headbanging moments.

But you really have to love the songs inside to want to keep playing the levels over and over, because once you’ve played them, you have little reason to go back other than to try a higher score.

The side challenges known as Torments are addictively fun to complete as you play through all 21 challenges. They’re just the right length and give the gameplay some much-needed variety, but again, there’s little replay value once you reach the highest rank.

So while I’ve had a lot of fun with Metal: Hellsinger in my time with it, I could never let go of the feeling that the time I spent with it could be spent playing games that do what it does, only much better and on more unique ways, such as Doom or BPM: bullets per minute.

But if you’re a huge metal head and don’t mind blowing demons away for a weekend, then Metal: Hellsinger is an absolute blast.

Metal: Hellsinger is available on PS5.

Review code kindly provided by the publisher.