The Secret Ingredient in Metal: Hellsinger’s New Horde Mode – Roguelite Design – Xbox Wire

We have just launched Metal: Hellsinger’s new Horde Mode, a free update that adds a new way to experience the heavy metal rhythm shooter. Horde Mode is all about distilling the game into its purest, burning essence, while adding a spark of something new into the mix: roguelite design.

We can’t tell you how excited we are to finally launch this update, and to see you all fight tooth and nail, guns roaring to every beat. Fear not as we dive into the belly of the beast, for metal thunders in our very souls.

Escape the Maw of Leviathan

What’s the expression, out of the frying pan and into the gaping maw of Leviathan? After wreaking blistering havoc in the Hells, The Unknown and Paz had their eyes set on the heavens, but fate is a fickle beast, and now they must escape through the teeth of the colossal Leviathan.

Your goal in Horde Mode is to fight through increasingly challenging waves of enemies in new arenas; floating rocks in a cavernous belly. A Hell within Hell. There are three stages on your way out of Leviathan. After the final stage, a new final boss will test you to your limits.

Horde Mode is designed for replayability. Every run is different. The stages’ layout changes between runs, and so do the powers you pick up between waves. After you fall – because fall you will – you can unlock permanent upgrades that you carry in each run.

Music is the infernal engine of Metal: Hellsinger, and it’s always at the core of our game design. That’s why we also added a way to create your own playlist before you enter Leviathan. Choose any number of songs from the game’s multi award-winning original score and the game will pick one randomly for each of the three stages.

Memories of Metal

In the depths of Leviathan, your powers have been sapped. But as you slay, guns bucking to the beat, the essence of fallen demons empower the altar which you’ll find in every arena. Fill the altar sufficiently to complete the wave, then approach it to receive a Memory – a choice between three (to start with) power-ups. Combine these powers to achieve powerful synergies, rising beyond even the highest peaks of power you held in the campaign.

This is where Metal: Hellsinger sings to a new tune. Having to choose between powers, combining them into synergies, and having a different mix each run, is an inherently roguelite mechanism, and we were surprised at just how good it feels in our game.

For example, perhaps you want to become the ultimate bleed demon, in which case you can combine powerups that give improved bleed damage and duration with those that let you apply bleed in new ways (like with headshots or specific weapons, or both). Add the Memory that makes bleeding enemies take more headshot damage, and you have a bloody good time on your hands.

In practice, however, you often have to adapt to the choices you’re given. But sometimes, the stars do align.

Dreams of Death

As demons fall before you, they drop Void Echoes. At the end of your run, you can spend them to unlock a wide variety of permanent upgrades, from more health, to weapon specializations, to faster generation of your ultimate ability.

Sigils are a category of Dreams where you have the most choice from the start, that allows you to cover your potential weaknesses. If you have trouble timing those perfect reloads, pick up Ghost Rounds to make the first two to eight shots (depending on rank) after switching weapons consume no ammo.

Each time you shoot an enemy on the beat, your Fury grows, which directly affects how intense the music is and how much damage you do. Fury caps out at x16, which is where you will hear one of the many legendary vocalists in their full glory. If that sounds like a good time, the Unyielding Fury Sigil is for you. With it, you can never drop below 4x Fury, and you enter Leviathan already at 16x Fury, music blasting on all cylinders right out of the gate.

A particularly interesting Dream unlock is the Extra Memory, which does exactly what it says on the tin. With four Memories to choose from between each wave, your choices and ability to synergize are increased even further.

The Secret Spice

This free update has been a long time in the making. We knew we didn’t want to radically change the core gameplay. Slaying on the beat to absolute banger tracks is the soul of the game, and we know it resonates with players. Yet we wanted to offer something new.

To us, the roguelite progression framework and the pure flow-inducing rhythm gunplay is an epic meeting of genres. When in doubt, look to music: thrash metal, death metal, prog metal, power metal – and we’re still only in the realms of metal! Variety is the spice of life, especially in Hell, and we hope you enjoy it.

Riding shotgun with The Horde Mode Update, our Purgatory DLC is also available now, adding even more content, with a new weapon, three outfits, and three new original tracks performed by Melissa Bonny (Ad Infinitum), Joe Bad (Fit for an Autopsy), and Matt Heafy (Trivium).

Go forth, Hellsingers, and make Hell fear the beat.