Metal: Hellsinger review – The road to hell (and Game Pass) is paved with reinventions
If you’re one of the very online malcontents that’s constantly droning on about difficulty in games, eyes up – this one’s for you. Metal: Hellsinger, when played properly, is a tricky game with a steep learning curve, and it has no qualms about throwing you into the mosh pit and knocking you down until you can barely get back up. Even the first level will embarrass you deeply if you’ve got no sense of timing and rhythm. To succeed in Hell, you need to keep time.
This is nothing new, of course: BPM: Bullets Per Minute, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Cadence of Hyrule, and Before the Echo have been popularisiing the genre somewhat over the last few years – giving those of us who like to bob our heads and nod in time to indiscriminate video game murder plenty to chew on. But few games do it all as well as Metal: Hellsinger.
Even if you don’t like metal, there’s value here. As a game, there’s a sense of flow you can easily activate listening to the blast beats of 4/4 and pulling off your slick maneuvers, empowering you and making you really feel like an indestructible master of war. Even better, if you keep your multiplier high by doing everything in time with the beat and going off-time, you ‘earn’ the vocal tracks with some high-profile industry names.
