Doom rebooted itself and changed how it plays, forcing players to be more aggressive to get rewarded and find balance. Thanks to that type of playstyle, many games like Doom have leaned into the high-risk-high-reward kind of gaming, which in turn has made players better at arena shooters like Doom. The one genre that has taken this type of playstyle is the rhythm shooters like Bullets Per Minute.
Since rhythm shooters are getting more and more popular, one has come out and taken what BPM has done and made it way more intense. Metal: Hellsinger, the newest entry to the genre, has taken the aesthetic and the fluidity of Doom, plus the difficulty of BPM, and mixed them together to make a great game. BPM and Metal: Hellsinger play the same, although the latter is somewhat more over the top. These tips should help players adjust to how Metal: Hellsinger plays.
5 Using The Sword
Much like BPM, Metal: Hellsinger is filled with weapons that players can use, and each is different based on how powerful they are and what they can do. Just like BPM, not all weapons are the same, and some weapons may not be effective in all areas. In Metal: Hellsinger this is still very much the case. However, players will always have a sword on them, which is a good multipurpose weapon, because they can get up close to enemies, throw them off, stagger them, or take them down with ease.
Plus, if players use this and keep on rhythm, they can build the ultimate for the sword quicker; a lot faster than most other weapons in the game. Since players will get overwhelmed quite frequently in Metal: Hellsinger, the sword can serve its purpose in this area as well, by pushing enemies away. And just like BPM, breathing room is a must, and players will realize how important it is once the bigger enemies start to appear. But, all this works if the player stays on the beat, which can be hard on its own. However, the sword can help maintain it.
4 Styx Healing
Games in this area don't offer much for players to heal themselves outside the abilities they get, which can make them play with caution, but if they play that way, Metal: Hellsinger becomes even more difficult. The game needs players to stay on the beat in order for the attacks to have an impact. The good thing about Metal: Hellsinger is that there are a lot of opportunities for players to heal each stage. Like in Doom, players can slaughter stunned enemies, and they will drop a moderate amount of health. In Metal: Hellsinger, it's the same. The big one is Styx Healing, which are large crystals appearing on walls and poles throughout the world.
While there are other ways to heal in the game, this seems to be the best way, mainly because it brings 100% of health. On top of that, they are strategically well-placed, like in areas where players will get overwhelmed, they'll find these crystals scattered on several walls in that area. These crystals are super important for boss battles, while there's a limited supply of them for each boss fight, they can help turn the tide rather quickly for players. Because if they time the re-healing, players can quickly get back in the rhythm, and with that, fight more aggressively.
3 Sigils
BPM and Metal: Hellsinger share a lot of similarities: both are rhythm shooters, and arena shooters as well. But the one area that Metal: Hellsinger differs, is that it does not have multiple different characters the players can use as BPM does. In BPM, each Valkyrie player's pick has an ability unique to them, or they can buy. This can impact gameplay quite a bit, and make things easy or not. In Metal: Hellsinger players can be unique in their own way, and that's by doing the torments, which award players with Sigils.
Torments are challenges players can earn after beating each stage, and they upgrade certain things, from protecting kill streaks to letting the player have more ammo. To earn these Sigils, players would need to complete what the challenge asks, but the twist is that they need to get 100% of the challenge. While this may seem like an uneasy task, it's quite simple to get once players figure out the momentum of Metal: Hellsinger. On top of that, the Torments act as practice for players to get into how the rhythm works, so it's a good idea to try them.
2 Look For Multipliers
Much like Doom, Metal: Hellsinger uses metal music to keep its momentum. However, as mentioned before, Metal: Hellsinger uses music as a mechanic. These multipliers are very useful regardless of which one players pick up. There are 1X and 16X. The 1X multiplier is great because it adds another multiplier to the one players already have, which in turn increases the momentum. The 16X really puts players into overdrive, because once they get it, they'll automatically go to the highest streak, which is the 16X streak.
When this happens, things get faster, the vocals of the song kick in, and players' attacks are more consistent, because they can find the rhythm a lot easier when they are at the 16-streak. Plus, if they just used their ultimate, the 16-streak token brings it back, and they can use it again. This is something players may miss out on doing, but once they realize how important these tokens are, the game gets easier.
1 Stay On Beat
This rule is pretty much the main thing for players if they want to beat Metal: Hellsinger because, as mentioned before, if players stay on beat, the attacks will hit stronger. Just like in BPM, staying with the flow of the beat means players can do more damage. This is the same, and just as important in Metal: Hellsinger. Since each weapon has its own ultimate, and not all share the same bar, meaning if players use one ultimate of a weapon or the sword, they can immediately use another one provided they have it for another weapon.
This can make players a lot more aggressive if they do, and just like Doom, the game rewards players for doing so. Staying on beat is fundamental because reloading, shooting, and everything else that's based around an attack is centered around players staying with the tempo. When they do, many things can happen like multipliers going up, and as mentioned before the ultimates build faster. However, staying on beat can be hard to do, but can be easy if they calibrate the game a few times before going in. At that point, the beat will go based on what the player has set, which can make this a lot more manageable.
Metal: Hellsinger is available now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.