Metal Hellsinger Torrent is an action shooter game developed by The Outsiders and published by Funcom. Metal: Hellsinger’s skull-crushing musical accompaniments aren’t just there to accentuate your offensives, but rather they function as your conductor in this symphony of devastation. Synchronizing your attacks with the double-kicked drum beats enhances your Fury multiplier, and the longer you can sustain a sequence of impeccably timed hits, the more potent your attacks become – and the more points you accumulate, akin to a weightier version of Pistol Whip, albeit with more freedom of movement.
Furthermore, the soundtrack, which initiates each level stripped to its most fundamental elements, gradually introduces new layers of instrumentation as you persist in your killing spree until the vocals commence when your Fury is maxed, unveiling the full song in all its spine-tingling grandeur. It delivers a thrilling climax to the chaos, and maintaining the performance at an elevated level demands a challenging blend of rhythm and first-person shooter reflexes that had me engrossed throughout each mind-splitting rendition of kill-spree karaoke.
Enemy waves are strategically staggered throughout each level to sustain your homicidal momentum. Substituting for Doom’s Imps are Marionettes, feeble grunts typically clustered together to be dispatched in a rapid succession of finishing moves that replenish your health and sustain your combo chain. In each arena, it’s always wise to retain a few of these malicious weaklings for when you need to promptly return to the rhythm, as there’s a diverse assembly of more formidable monsters hell-bent on disrupting your tempo.
Giant insectoid adversaries expel acid that decelerates your movement, shield-bearing ghouls aim to dull your attacks along with your timing, and blade-wielding behemoths leap from a distance to throw you out of sync like a malfunctioning metronome. Determining which threat to prioritize is crucial, and Metal: Hellsinger adeptly shuffled its lineup to keep me perpetually on my toes. Well, when I wasn’t tapping them in sync with the music.
Triumphing over each of the eight Hells unlocks additional challenges termed Torments. These are voluntary arena clashes that inject some appropriately diabolical twists; in one, your weapon is randomly swapped after each kill, compelling you to rapidly adapt your combat strategy on the fly; another dispenses with health pickups but amplifies the potency of your attacks as your health bar diminishes, leading to some intensely gripping final moments as I’ve inched toward the demanding kill counts they require. There are three of these Torments per level, and I’m enjoying progressing through them, their successful completion earns you sigils that can be equipped in the main levels.
Metal Hellsinger Torrent is a pleasingly rhythmic variation on the metal-fueled chaos of contemporary Doom, but it’s brief duration and limited variety in weapons and boss encounters make it feel more like a lively but incomplete compilation of garage demos than a fully developed album. Enthusiastic high score-chasers will undoubtedly derive the most satisfaction from replaying the eight-story missions, but it falls short of id Software’s heavy metal masterpiece when it comes to delivering a genuinely substantial first-person shooter campaign.
The lack of other significant modes or multiplayer gives it a somewhat lean feel compared to games of similar price. Consequently, Metal Hellsinger Torrent may not be the preeminent demon-slaying shoot-them-up in the world, but it unquestionably stands as a stirring homage.
Metal Hellsinger PC/System Requirements
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-3450
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 12 GB available space
