Everything we know about brutal rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger

If you’re anything like me, then you know there’s no better combination than gaming and heavy metal music. Fortunately for us, the metal gods blessed us once again. In June 2020, development studio The Outsiders first unveiled its brutal metal-themed rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger.

After receiving a delay last year to further enhance the experience, it’s finally almost time to hop on the crazy train and take a holy dive into the mayhem. With its impending September launch on next-gen consoles and PC, here’s everything we know about rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger!

Walk with Me in Hell

Metal: Hellsinger places you into the role of The Unknown. Part human, part demon, you’ll journey through Hell on a quest for revenge against its evil ruler The Red Judge. Along the way, you’ll encounter hordes of fierce demons to blast through in beautifully violent fashion.

Although the common association with Hell is fire and brimstone, this game’s version of the underworld features far more variety. Known as The Infernal Planes, you’ll traverse various planes of torment, each unique in its own way. From the freezing icy world of Voke to Stygia, a land marked by madness, each plane of Hell you traverse will offer its own diabolical course of mayhem.

Fortunately, as you shoot your way to The Red Judge’s throne, you won’t be alone. That’s because the game’s epic story features narration by none other than Troy Baker himself. To get a tease of what the game has in store, you can also watch the first announcement trailer from 2020 below!

Down From the Sky

As cool as the story about The Unknown’s quest for vengeance against The Red Judge is, however, Metal: Hellsinger’s largest appeal comes from its gameplay. Although the game draws some heavy inspiration from Doom, it sets itself apart by encouraging players to blast enemies along to the music.

Combining brutal melodic death metal with equally brutal gunplay, Metal: Hellsinger will make you want to shred through guitar solos while shredding through demons! Better yet, as you keep up with the game’s rhythm, the game rewards you with intensified chaos. However, words can only do this game so much justice. Therefore, to get a true sense of the game’s rhythm-based gunplay, watch the raw gameplay video below.

One way Metal: Hellsinger aims to reward players by staying on beat is by performing more fluid and powerful attacks. When you perform an action off-beat, you’ll be met with a rather dull animation. However, strike or shoot on beat, and your screen will flash orange, you’ll deal greater damage and moreover, you’ll just look cooler.

In addition, the game features a combo meter called a Hit Streak. As you continuously perform attacks on beat, the number on your Hit Streak will rise. Alongside the Hit Streak is another combo measurement tool called Fury. As your Fury increases, the music becomes more intense and your attacks become more powerful.

B.Y.O.B.

Although the early raw gameplay video does a good job at teasing what we can expect from Metal: Hellsinger’s visceral rhythm-based mayhem, the latest Demo Dev Stream digs even deeper. In the latest gameplay showcase from June, Funcom’s Senior PR Manager Natascha Röösli and The Outsiders’ Combat Designer Adam Wrange get right into the bloody meat of what the game has in store. But before we break it down, you can also watch the video for yourself first.

Right off the bat, we get a good look at how the game will ensure settings match player needs. As slaying to the beat is the core gameplay element, the audio and video calibration system provides both automatic and manual calibration settings, so that you can tailor the gameplay to your liking. In addition, Röösli and Wrange discuss the inclusion of three difficulty settings to provide further control to a player’s experience.

The key difference between each of the difficulty settings is the number of enemies that can swarm you at a given time. In addition, “Beast”, being the hardest difficulty, will increase the amount of damage enemies can both give and receive.

Another cool gameplay detail explained in the latest demo is the ability to create custom loadouts. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock a large arsenal of unique weaponry from a powerful shotgun to undisclosed “special” weapons. Once you unlock a new weapon, you can freely add it to a custom loadout, so you enter each new level with whatever your favorite unlocked weapons are to that point.

You can also perform special attacks called “slaughter attacks” which allow you to restore health mid-battle when you perform it on beat. Each weapon in the game also has its own unique finisher. In addition, you can stack finishers across different weapons, meaning using a slaughter attack on one gun doesn’t affect the status of a different weapon. Although performing slaughter attacks are one of the best ways to restore health, another way you can restore health is by finding green health or Styx crystals around the map.

We Will Rise

However, even with the addictive gameplay, it wouldn’t be a rhythm game without some good music. Well, don’t worry because this title more than delivers there as well. Apart from its addictive rhythm-based gameplay, one of the coolest features in Metal: Hellsinger is its stellar soundtrack.

The new game brings together some of the biggest and best vocalists in metal music to accompany the title’s original score by composer duo Two Feathers. In total, the game boasts nine featuring vocalists that metalheads around the world will recognize and celebrate. Better yet, as you complete each level, you can unlock new songs to listen to in their full form outside of gameplay. Just as the game developers state, “while headbanging isn’t mandatory, we do recommend it.”

Sun of War

Although this game alone looks amazing already, understanding the developers’ credentials just makes it that much more promising. The team of developers that comprise The Outsiders bring with them over a decade of experience in designing AAA first-person shooters. In fact, Metal: Hellsinger’s lead developer is David Goldfarb. Previously, Goldfarb worked as Game Director for Payday 2 and Lead Designer for Battlefield 3 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Metal: Hellsinger blasts into your house this September!

Metal: Hellsinger is now available for pre-order on Xbox and PlayStation. You can also wishlist it now on Steam. In addition, anyone who pre-orders the game will receive 48-hour Early Access. And for those itching to dive right into The Infernal Planes early, you can download the Public Demo right now!

Metal: Hellsinger is developed by The Outsiders and published by Funcom. It launches on September 15, 2022 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Are you excited to stare through the Hells and blast through demons to some brutal metal music? As always, share your thoughts with us down in the comments!