Doom collided with Guitar Hero in 2022’s Metal: Hellsinger, a rhythm FPS about bursting demons in time to tunes with singers from metal bands including System Of A Down and Arch Enemy. While you don’t need to like metal to enjoy the game, it does add something. So now Hellsinger offers a poppier experience with a new DLC letting you perform violence to the sounds of Gorillaz, Depeche Mode, Icona Pop, and more. Oh, and Down With The Sickness is in there too because hell, why not?
Out now on Steam and the Microsoft Store for £8, the Essential Hits Pack offers eight new songs that are mmmostly pop:
- Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus
- Disturbed – Down With the Sickness
- DVBBS & Borgeous – Tsunami
- Galantis – Runaway (U & I)
- Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.
- Icona Pop – I Love It (feat. Charli XCX)
- Muse – Uprising
- Paramore – Misery Business
The devs note, mind, that these licensed DLC songs don’t include the Song Layering feature, which add more and more layers of a song as your murder intensifies. That is a shame but I suppose on balance—to quote Icona Pop—I don’t care! I love it! I will also—as Depeche Mode almost said—reach out and shoot face. But it will take a lot for me to hear Down With The Sickness as anything other than the unofficial theme song for J.Blo’s Puzzle Island (“You mother, get up, come on, get down with The Witness”).
Hellsinger does have mod tools letting players add whichever music they please, but there’s a lot to say for the convenience of buying DLC (not to mention supporting ongoing development, if you wanna).
In our Metal: Hellsinger review, our Graham said “[its] mix of rhythm game and Doom 2016-style shooter kept me tapping my foot as I battled through hell – even as I failed regularly, and even as someone who doesn’t care for metal music.”
I really should try this. I listened to Arch Enemy, Soilwork, and Dark Tranquility way back when and they all have singers on the soundtrack, and I love a bit of Charli XCX and the Mode now, so I’m covered on all bases. I see Hellsinger is still available through Game Pass (not including paid DLC, obvs) as well as sold on Steam, so that’s my weekend playtime sorted.
I am now daydreaming of an easy difficulty mode which slows the violence with a load of downtempo doom metal. Please somebody tell me the game already thought of this.
