Hellsinger VR Developer on the Complexity of Rhythm Games and Revamping First-Person Gameplay (Exclusive)

Two years ago, fans of rhythm games were taken by surprise when Metal: Hellsinger launched. It was nothing short of an experience that melted their brains and asked them to scream, rip, and tear through hordes of enemies in hell.

A first-person adventure like this feels twice as engaging when you’re syncing the music with your weapon’s attacks. In our full review of the game, we praised the title for its rewarding gameplay loop and its fantastic soundtrack.

Developer The Outsiders has been working on a version of the game that’s going to make this experience feel even more immersive. In an interview with the team behind the game, we managed to find out more about the creative and development process and what fans can expect from the upcoming VR version of the game.

Metal: Hellsinger VR arrives in Fall 2024. The demo is now on Steam.

Metal: Hellsinger’s Original Gameplay Philosophy Stays Strong

FandomWire: Metal: Hellsinger is an absolute treat for Rock/Metal lovers. Can you tell us about the inspiration that led to the game’s choice of soundtrack?

Ilya Salamarov – Publishing Director: Of course, we’re using the same iconic setlist featured in the original game. The inspiration for Metal: Hellsinger’s soundtrack stemmed from a desire to merge metal music’s visceral intensity with the immersive gaming experience.

Drawing on the raw energy and emotional depth that metal provides, The Outsiders, – the developers of the original game, – sought to create a soundtrack that would not only complement but enhance the gameplay.

By collaborating with iconic metal artists and meticulously crafting musical stems that reward skilled players who stay on the beat with the ultimate symphony, they crafted a seamless blend of rhythm and chaos that truly immerses players in the hellish landscapes of Hell.

FW: For many, rhythm games can be challenging to get used to. Do you think VR will add to this complexity?

Ollie Cullen – Producer: Rhythm games can be challenging due to their demand for timing and coordination. However, VR can actually make these games more intuitive and engaging. In VR, players use their whole body, making the connection between music and movement feel natural, like dancing.

The immersive environment provides immediate feedback, helping players improve more quickly. Additionally, the physical activity and immersive experience make VR rhythm games more enjoyable and motivating, potentially broadening their appeal.

So, rather than adding complexity, VR can enhance the overall rhythm game experience.

In Metal: Hellsinger VR we have implemented a bunch of options to help you stay on beat and reduce the complexity for those players who are new to Rhythm games!

FW: Can you tell us about certain game mechanics that would feel much more enjoyable in VR compared to the classic joystick/keyboard feel?

Benjamin Culff – Game Designer: The benefits of playing in VR to help you keep to the beat are best enjoyed on the PSVR2. All of our supported platforms will benefit from the ability to turn on/off controller vibration, beat vignette and in level beat effects to help you stay on beat easier than ever before.

But PSVR2 in particular comes with the ability to have headset vibration. Adding this extra vibration just sucks you deeper into the experience more than any other platform and really aids in keeping to the beat without having to even think about it.

This all ultimately left us with what we have now, a gesture reload system which uses the benefits of VR, is simple and easy to complete in a pinch but also retains the satisfying feeling The Outsiders created in the original.

The joy of syncing weapon moves with the game’s soundtrack is something that makes Metal: Hellsinger super satisfying. How does VR build on this uniqueness?

Benjamin Culff: For me, reloading is now a much more satisfying mechanic than the original game. First off, we could have implemented an in-depth reload system where the player is performing actions like a realistic, military shooter.

We were actually kind of close to this in our original design. The first iteration of the reload system was to have an action on every beat for 4-6 beats. In the original, this is how long it takes to do a fast reload/ slow reload and our thinking was that requiring the user to complete an action on each one would create a satisfying sequence of hand movements.

Reflection/testing on this first iteration revealed to us that it just didn’t feel like Metal: Hellsinger anymore. This first iteration removed the need/feeling of the ‘golden beat’ (the beat which the player needs to press the reload button again to get a fast reload in the original) and having to do complex hand gestures, in a row, whilst all the other action is going on would have been too much.

This all ultimately left us with what we have now, a gesture reload system which uses the benefits of VR, is simple and easy to complete in a pinch but also retains the satisfying feeling The Outsiders created in the original – with a hint of a learning curve for players to master too.

Expanding the Game’s Horizons With Virtual Reality

FW: Can VR possibly change the way players experience first-person combat mixed with rhythm-based movement? How so?

Benjamin Culff: There is no doubt that the two most popular genres in VR are Rhythm based games and Shooters. Due to this popularity, Metal: Hellsinger is the perfect example to answer this question and based on feedback so far; yes.

Naturally, people want to move around when they hear a beat they like and the fine controls needed in flatscreen games don’t mix well with the desire to dance! This is where VR becomes the perfect candidate to offer less restrictions and more freedom to move how you want during the experience.

The amount of world building The Outsiders managed to create was inspiring and left us with many golden nuggets to turn into mechanics.

We see this a lot in other rhythm games like Beat Saber and now in Metal: Hellsinger VR where players are free to express themselves however they need to help them stay on beat. It has been great to see players headbanging and dancing whilst playing and performing better due to this freedom. A truly unmatched experience

FW: Without spoiling much, can we expect some new features that would enhance the existing experience of Metal: Hellsinger?

Benjamin Culff: We think one of the best new features is The Hub. It would have been very easy to slap the 2D menu from the original game into the VR version and call it a day but this felt cheap and not what not what players old and new deserve.

Although Hellsinger is not the most narrative heavy game, the amount of world building The Outsiders managed to create was inspiring and left us with many golden nuggets to turn into mechanics. 

For instance, in the original, The Unknown always enters the level through a portal in the sky. This was a perfect opportunity to do some world building and was the birth of The Hub as a base which The Unknown traverses from.

Opening a portal to the level and being able to see what it looks like before jumping in really connects the player to the character more and hypes you up before going in. Oh and it is also a great place to have what is essentially a big TV to put important information onto after a level playthrough.

The metal and music tones which are heavily present were a perfect way to do the level selection. This is already present in the original so finding a way to adapt this into VR led us to what we have today, vinyl sleeves for the level selection, vinyl discs for the music selection.

This is also what the player will be changing the most so having it in the centre of The Hub makes it easy to get to and is a perfect place to see your actions change what is shown in the Portal.

Finally, there were also core details which could be adapted into the Hub like loadout selection. Having a wall of weapons seemed very fitting for The Unknown and being able to pick up and place weapons and sigils feels as badass as it should before slaying hordes of demons.

FW: For some players, VR can be a scary and intimidating experience rather than an enjoyable one. Do you think there’s a risk for this when it comes to Metal: Hellsinger?

Ollie Cullen: VR can indeed be intimidating for some players, and we recognise that it comes with a significant learning curve. However, with Metal: Hellsinger VR, we’ve tried to reduce the risk wherever possible!

We’ve packed the game with a variety of accessibility options to ensure everyone, whether they’re new to VR or diving into Metal: Hellsinger for the first time, can have a blast.

From customisable controls and adjustable difficulty levels to comfort settings for motion sickness, we’ve got you covered. Our goal is to make your journey into the fiery depths of Metal: Hellsinger VR as smooth and thrilling as possible!

FW: Will certain weapons (such as the dual pistols) feel completely new or different based on the VR input?

Benjamin Culff: The weapons in our game which have benefited the most is our non ‘gun’ type weapons. By this I mean the sword (Terminus), the boomerangs (Hellcrows) and the bow/arrow (Telos). All of these weapons needed the most time put into them to work in VR as they are vastly different to their base game counterparts. 

Reloading a bow and arrow would’ve also been different to most other VR games and ultimately reduces the overall complexity of an already in depth weapon.

Terminus was the most tricky weapon to translate into VR as trying to hit an object (enemy) which is moving in a 3D space whilst you (player) are also moving in a 3D space whilst also trying to time your hit to the beat is a real challenge. Getting this feeling right and outputting the desired outcome took a long time to create and went through several iterations.

Our biggest concern was not allowing players to use the sword like a ‘toothpick’. To us, this meant putting the sword inside of an enemy and moving it by just shaking your hand in any direction, totally defeating the purpose of the beat system. This meant we needed to detect a point where we deemed the sword was traveling fast enough and only then allow an attack to occur.

We also connected the speed at which the sword is traveling to the damage output meaning there is more reason to think about your swing and complete a full swing to get the best result.

The Hellcrows (personal favourite of mine) were another weapon which needed to behave differently to any other weapon. Throwing objects in VR has been done in a plethora of games but throwing objects to a rhythmic beat is a unique challenge.

Ultimately, we ended up with the solution we have today: the player enters a ‘throwing’ state when they hold down the trigger, reaches the ‘throwable’ threshold when their hand is moving fast enough and releases the trigger to throw. From there, the original game’s code for the weapons takes over and the hellcrow travels as far/as fast as they do in the base game.

We didn’t want the player to have to be always aware of the Hellcrows location so it returns to the player’s hand with no inputs required.

It is a perfect crescendo which has been building the whole game and now you’re almost there but boy have you got one last hell of a fight to get through first.

Finally, another one of our unique weapons is Telos. Bow and arrows are another weapon which has been done countless times in VR but not many have paired using one with a rhythmic beat. Our first adjustment was to remove the need to reload Telos.

The animation used to show reloading in the base game didn’t work with our new reload system as it was hard to create an animation which would match the players actions. Reloading a bow and arrow would’ve also been different to most other VR games and ultimately reduces the overall complexity of an already in depth weapon.

Then there is the problem of attaching one object to another. This was something new and unique for Hellsinger so getting this feeling right and easy to do took some time.

FW: Are there certain parts of Metal: Hellsinger that can be explored better thanks to VR? Something that players couldn’t experience before.

Benjamin Culff: VR makes the worlds/levels so much more enjoyable to explore in VR. In any flat screen game it is harder to get a sense of scale of what is in front of you.

Hellsinger uses mighty backdrops filled with more details than the player would usually expect and VR is now the perfect way to experience those details.

Take the level Sheol for example, there is this moment where the player walks onto the bridge connecting the two main islands and looks up at this humongous mountain in front of them with an imposing archway at the top.

It is a perfect crescendo which has been building the whole game and now you’re almost there but boy have you got one last hell of a fight to get through first.

This feeling is only amplified in VR and you take in the scale of this 3D world whilst on the bridge and truly feel immersed in the world with an epic soundtrack thumping in your ear. 

Did we mention how much more imposing Behemoths are too? At 10ft something, Behemoths are now the most terrifying enemy in the game (when playing VR) and having one of them jumping towards you from across the room will never not be intense, again something which can only be felt in VR.

FW: Undoubtedly, VR is going to make Metal: Hellsinger feel even more… metal! Building on that, what’s next for the game/franchise?

Ilya Salamatov: First and foremost, we’re eagerly anticipating how the game performs in terms of sales and player reception. We’re confident that the VR community will appreciate the immersive experience we’ve created. Assuming it gains strong traction, we see plenty of opportunities for expansion.

We already have 3 DLCs planned and who knows, maybe there could be more including new content updates, further VR enhancements etc. The future is full of possibilities, and we’re excited to explore them based on the feedback and success of our first VR title.

Metal: Hellsinger’s unique gameplay is a niche crafted by the studio. From the interview, it’s quite evident that the studio’s gameplay design philosophies are intact and fresh, building tremendous anticipation for the game’s VR journey into the underworld.

For returning Metal: Hellsinger players, there are certainly a lot of new things to look forward to. Revamped weapon mechanics and how players experienced different regions in the game are few of the many novel aspects being introduced by The Outsiders.

If Metal: Hellsinger VR is going to be your first time experiencing the game, be ready to experience what a rhythm game can feel like when its potential is maximized.