I cannot stress how good this game is despite HOW BAD I AM AT RHYTHM GAMES. I've beat it fully in my short playtime and I feel like I've played 20 hours of this game. It's a jam-packed experience despite my absolutely terrible skills. I love how kinetic the soundtrack is and how good this game is at teaching you how to play and how to get better.

Great stuff.

Since the dawn of time (the 2000s), man has striven for the one video game that allowed him to partake in a battle of glory to the drum of triumphant music. Perhaps the most successful of those attempts came from Tango Gameworks' Hi-Fi Rush, but there is another attempt from a year earlier that ought not to be lost to the tides of time. That game is none other than Metal Hellsinger. Truth be told, this is a pretty darn good shot at this concept, if not without its fair share of hiccups.

Metal Hellsinger is pretty straightforward as a concept: it's a retro-style first person shooter with simple mechanics and the one defining feature that is shooting to the beat of the music. You get a double jump that is not tied to the beat, a dash that can be chained together if your timing is perfect, and a mild bit of depth with the ability to utilize them in different combinations or ways for different effects, such as long jumping by jumping and dashing at the same time, or star-falling by aiming towards the ground and dashing. All of your guns shoot with the left mouse button, and your right button is your ultimate that is charged with use. Your weapons may have an infinite pool of reserve ammo, but they do still require reloading which can be significantly shortened by timing the reload button to the beat that is shown on your on-screen cursor. Speaking of, your on-screen cursor will help you keep track of the beat at all times, and there is a score multiplier at the top of the screen at all times to help you keep track of how you're doing, with more elements of the background music kicking in the higher your multiplier goes.

That's pretty much the game, and onto my biggest complaint that I feel is holding it back: how brief it is on content. You have a total of nine levels, the first of which is a very short tutorial level. Most levels will last you about 15-20 minutes for a rough estimate of 4 hours to finish the game. There are some additional challenges in some of the levels and a separate mode from the main game known as Leviathan mode, but they all utilize the same levels and don't alter the game in any significant meaningful way. Even the rewards from doing some of the challenges aren't even necessary at all to completing the game. The enemies are very simple to a large extent, with some later enemies standing out as especially annoying, but nothing too difficult for the player on the normal difficulty. I don't mind the enemies being simpler than usual given how much is being asked of the player to aim, move and match all of that to the beat.

Barring the two default weapons of the game, you have a total of six weapons in the entire game, two of which are locked behind individual DLCs. Even if all but one of those weapons do feel incredible to use, this is the one part of the game that delivers below expectations that I am bothered by, especially with the fact that you're only allowed to take two of them with you. The shotgun, revolvers and rocket launcher are all vastly more well-rounded and better than the other three guns (yes, the DLC weapons are in fact the weakest in the game despite having to spend more real world money to be able to use them) that have far more situational uses. I could see myself resorting to the bow and arrow when having to confront any of the heavier enemies, but to be asked to give up a slot to it for an entire run is obnoxious, and will simply push me to never use it. It makes far more sense to save up the shotgun's ultimate for big enemies and to only use costumes that boost your ultimate bar build-up at the x16 score multiplier. Speaking of which, three of the costumes you get as part of one of the DLC packages have abilities locked to them that I found less fun than simply being able to use the ultimate abilities of my weapons more easily.

Now onto parts of the game I dislike that aren't related to length. First is to do with the Coat of Arms, the only collectible in the game. Not only do I think adding collectibles is a disadvantage to a game as fast-paced as this, but it's also completely inconsequential. Collecting them only unlocks skins, and not only are they hardly any different from the default, but beating the game once and collecting every emblem along the way only unlocks skins for the sword and skull, the two default weapons that are always on you that you barely ever use regularly. There are also some odd collisions here and there with the terrain, and I'd suddenly find my character moving a lot slower than usual or not at all for no reason or even enemies standing on thin air. The technical aspect of this game is also not great, where you have to recalibrate your audio and video input delays at every boot and maybe a second time while in-game once you realize it's still off with how you're missing beats you normally should have hit perfectly.

The story isn't much to write home about, and the aggravating repetition in the design of all the boss fights will get on your nerves, even if they all have different attack patterns. The level design can also get a tad repetitive, and could have benefited from more objects that would help with maneuverability, such as bounce pads. I also wish many of those levels didn't have tall pillars or walls in the middle that made it feel as if I have to run around the arena to locate the new batch of enemies spawning in, or even just the last remaining fodder enemy I need to take out so that I can progress. I also do wish that enemies moved to the beat as well, especially given how some are frustrating to deal with and are made far more difficult if you happen to have a slow song playing that would allow you to react less frequently. I have not yet tried Leviathan mode as of writing, but I am not confident given the sentiments echoed by various people who have.

Now after spending four paragraphs criticizing the game, you would think that I would recommend against this game, but far from it. I do admit that I took a lot of time explaining just one point in one of these paragraphs, but even so, this is still a game with a rock solid concept that also comes with a lot of flaws. The concept itself works amazingly well and is backed by some incredible music and visual feedback that only enhances the experience further. The excellent sound design trickles down to the guns too, and having a game that lets you shoot with the shotgun on one beat then pump with the next is so satisfying, or even using the burst-fire rifle that will shoot additional bullets if the guitar in the song revs up and will throw up its hand attachment in the position of metal devil horns once activating the ultimate ability. I appreciate how much care went into various aspects of the game's design to pay tribute to metal culture.

Metal Hellsinger is a very promising albeit flawed attempt at the concept of "Rhythm FPS." Perhaps the decisions and focus on content around the game rather than just making new content for the core game itself was not exactly the best call, and I understand that the price point of this game isn't the most attractive given its brevity. There's a lot working against this game that would normally have me thinking far less of it, but it has a core concept that is genuinely very fun and unique of which I would love to see improved upon in a potential sequel, if not other franchises tackling this idea with better success. Definitely recommending this game lightly for most folks, but certainly a stronger recommendation for metalheads. With that said, absolutely buy this on sale and try to aim for the deluxe edition with everything included. If there is a chance you might keep playing beyond your initial playthrough, you'd want to have access to all the additional songs you get from those DLC, especially the Essential Hits pack.