Metal: Hellsinger review: this headbanging shooter is a bit one-note

digitaltrends.com:

When it comes to subtlety, Metal: Hellsinger says, “Hell no.” Drawing inspiration from 2016’s excellent Doom reboot, the rhythm-shooter takes every design hook that made id Software’s game so memorable and blares them through a stack of amplifiers cranked well past 11. If you could never put your finger on why Doom is such an oddly satisfying play, prepare to have it moshed into your skull.

Developer The Outsiders accomplishes that by adding a beat-matching component on top of fast-paced first-person shooting, similar to Gun Jam. Players have to slay demons in time with fierce metal music to maximize their score and damage output. It deliberately gamifies the experience of subconsciously playing along to a game’s music, though in a way that can feel more restrictive when laid bare.

Metal: Hellsinger delivers on its genre-blending action premise thanks to a killer metal soundtrack that’ll be a hit with its audience. However, in deconstructing the rhythmic secrets of games like Doom, the shooter exposes the bones of its genre perhaps a bit more than players really need to see.

At a passing glance, it’s easy to confuse Metal: Hellsinger with Doom Eternal. The Outsiders isn’t trying to hide its inspirations, recreating Doom’s arena-like battles filled with powerups to grab and demons to slay. Over the course of eight levels, players shoot and slash their way through different realms of Hell in linear fashion, each one culminating in a classic “red bar” boss fight against an “Aspect.” To make the Doom connection even more explicit, health can be earned by melee killing a weakened enemy while it’s flashing. As a pure shooter, Metal: Hellsinger doesn’t do much to out-Doom Doom itself.

Every action is part of one ongoing metal