Metal music and video games have had a long standing relationship. Of course you have the likes of Def Jam, or those horrible 50 Cent video games which partner the likes of rap music and gaming, but honestly, it’s metal and gaming that have had the biggest connection.
We’re about to throw down the top 10 most metal video games in history for you. When we’re talking about metal we’re talking full on Slayer METULZ, no synth metal, no metalcore, full on in your face head banging goodness. Now here’s a couple of rules we set ourself.
1. No easy targets, so sorry Guitar Hero Metallica, you’re not allowed in this one.
2. No pre-existing well known franchises, so this means the likes of Shadow of Mordor, although incredibly awesome and orc decapitating madness, isn’t allowed due to already being part of the Lord Of The Rings Franchise.
So let’s begin. If we’ve missed any out, or you would prefer to see anything different, please let us know.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5NazZLoBNw
10. Wolfestein: The New Order
The newest game on our list, and honestly the one that inspired us to make this list. This game is full on old-fashioned first person shooter madness. Duel wielding shotguns? No problem. Dogs with surgically amended metal jaws and limbs? Certainly. To cap it all out, the game is full on no holds bard run and gun goodness. Wolfenstein: The New Order is full on meat head head banging greatness in one tight single player package.
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9. Metro 2033
This may not be the first game you think about when you hear the word metal, but post-apocalyptic Russia, with monsters running around the metro while neo-nazis and neo-communists take over society? That is certainly metal. The entire atmosphere of Metro 2033 is fantastically foreboding and desperate. Something a kin to Opeth would happily make you feel.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAiHfqnbGYo
8. Dead Space
Dead Space has to be one of the best modern horror games in this generation, moving away from the atmospheric horror of Amnesia and Outlast, they go for all out scream in your face jump scares. Taking some visual cues from classic films such as The Thing, this game is all out frightening and with some of the all out gory deaths that you can be part of certainly a heavy hitting game.
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7. Darksiders
Well we’ve already seen what a post-apocalyptic world looks like. Now let’s go full on apocalypse with the Darksiders series. In part one you play as the horseman of war, in part two, the horseman of Death. What can be more metal than essentially playing as the end of the world?
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6. Killing Floor
Possibly not the most well known of video games, but certainly one of the most brutal. You take on waves upon waves of increasingly more difficult hordes of the un-dead as you slash, shoot and explode your way through all of them. All while listening to the metallic and incredibly crushing music.
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5. Splatterhouse
If you want all out brutality you have it in Splatterhouse. This game is twisted, sick and with enough gore and torment that you’ll feel like you’ve jumped straight into a Cradle of Filth album cover. The game is also teeming with some of the biggest metal bands of the modern day such as Mastodon and Lamb of God. This game is crude, un-relenting and all round one of the most metal things we’ve ever played.
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4. Devil May Cry 3
Feeling almost like a tribute to the 80’s metal scene, the Devil May Cry, series is chock full of satanic symbolism, enough gore to make a slaughterhouse blush and over complicated stories and bosses. The third entrance into this saga is probably the best to date, and shows of Dante, the lead character’s mix of charisma and almost showmanship. It’s over the top, gun twirling, hack and slash fun.
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3. Twister Metal
I mean, it’s already got metal in the name, but that isn’t the only reason why this game bleeds metal. The soundtrack is unmistakably metal, and the games mascot it to be quite blunt, and evil sadistic clown who’s hair is in flames. The game play has your roaming around the streets killing other competitors in order to get your one wish from Calypso, who is quite easily the name the devil decided to use that weekend in order to play out his twisted little game.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pxEH-v7E5U
2. Brutal Legend
You must have been waiting for this one. Brutal Legend is essentially a rock and metal tribute to a tee. With such legends as Ozzy Osborne, Lemmy Kilmister and Rob Halford, it has the pedigree to be called a metal video game before you even get to the game play, which has your going against hordes of the undead while saving out and out metal stereotypes, such as one type of NPC who has neck muscles the size of Jonah Lomu’s thighs due to headbanging so much.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARhzBrXVXKg
1. Doom
Who else but Doom? Doom is a classic. Quite honestly Doom is one of the grandfathers of the first person shooter. Without it we probably wouldn’t have the ever popular Call of Duty these days, at least no in the same form. Regardless of that the game play is over the top, and the blood copious. Throw in hordes of demons, and fighting on Mars with ever increasingly ridiculous guns, and you have something that is both unassailably metal and down right awesome at the same time.
