Possessor(s) review: "Smart ideas are quickly buried in this demonic Metroidvania that's far too mundane and dull in a sea of sharp competition"

Possessor(s) is a bit of a departure for developer Heart Machine after Hyper Light Drifter and its loot based shooter sequel Hyper Light Breaker, but here we are with a Metroidvania-style platformer. Unfortunately, everyone and their mum have been making Metroidvanias of late, and we’ve had some superb examples just in the past couple of months with Hollow Knight: Silksong and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance to name just two. Possessor(s) needs to be very good to compete, and sadly it falls short in far too many areas.

The premise is great. During a demon invasion, a schoolgirl named Luca loses her legs and witnesses her best friend being killed. She is saved by a demon, Rehm, who possesses her mind, allowing the two to view some of each other’s memories. They make a pact: Rehm will restore Luca’s legs if she helps him get home. The sporadic memory scenes soon begin to explain what’s been going on and the writing is commendable. The game would work really well as a graphic novel. And if you have a thing for ‘hot demons’ (as one of the in-game emails mentions), you’ll probably be quite invested in this one.

The gameplay, however, just doesn't hit the mark. The Metroidvania template is so well-worn, there are some things any new example absolutely has to get right, and Possessor(s) simply doesn’t. The map is a prime example, ostensibly showing you the layout of the city as you explore its various districts, highlighting areas you’ve been in, like Castlevania or Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

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Trouble is, the actual layout of the corridors and stairwells is unusually complex and the oversimplified map doesn't show this no matter how far in you zoom, meaning you frequently can’t work out where you have to go. Couple this with far too many instances where you’re left with no clear progression point and the result is what feels like an endless maze as you wander broken skyscrapers looking for somewhere you haven’t been.

Cheery axe

You can find cool, makeshift weapons like an electric guitar with which you can smash possessed creatures, as well as a yo-yo, mobile phone, hockey stick and more, but combat soon feels like a chore rather than a reason to play. The enemy designs are fun in that they’re all possessed objects (humans make the best hosts but anything will do; pulse optional), but they’re everywhere and respawn whenever you heal at a checkpoint.

Eventually you’ll be looking to run past possessed filing cabinets and traffic cones because they’re just not worth the effort. There is an ‘easy’ difficulty option, but that doesn’t change the frequency of enemies or their attack patterns; it just gives them less health. It’s very difficult on normal, and still challenging on easy, especially early on.

Traversal isn’t as precise as in Shinobi or Shantae, but it’s versatile enough, with a grapple line, air dash, wall run, slide kick, and more – all unlocked as you progress. Until you do, though, getting anywhere is immensely frustrating. It’s not always clear when an objective or collectible requires a new move, and trying to crouch-slide into a small opening before you unlock the real move just gets you stuck forever in the scenery, unable to stand or wiggle free, resulting in a forced reload.

That’s just the tip of a very buggy iceberg. The game frequently has difficulty loading between areas, resulting in you falling forever behind the scenery and having to reload. The sound sometimes glitches out, with a looped scream sample playing behind everything until you realize it’s bugged and, again, have to reload. Rehm is meant to have an exclamation mark over his head at checkpoints when there’s new dialogue to read (no conversations are voiced), but for me it was soon stuck above his head. The frame rate also takes inexplicable, severe dips in particular areas. I’ve seen a lot of games at preview stage over the past 20 years and know when a game isn’t finished. This feels unfinished.

Curl up with a demon

It’s worth noting that the game runs on a Steam Deck, though you’ll likely need to use low graphics settings to get a decent frame rate at native resolution. There’s virtually no discernible difference in visuals regardless of quality settings so there’s no harm in turning them right down. On an Nvidia RTX 2070, the game runs fine on highest settings (and I played about half the game on that), but even then it has some odd frame rate hiccups. The backgrounds are all chunky 3D, reminiscent of a 3DS game, but still appear to need a lot of processing power to render their lighting and fog (likely why there's no Xbox One or Switch version), so a Steam Deck’s battery will be dead in about an hour and a half.

The city is commendably big and there are moments of desolate beauty, but when you’re lost for literal hours at a time, it does get depressing. The final five hours were better as I started to get into a rhythm of progression and story beats, until I was reasonably enjoying the last three hours. It does feel like the game has been made obtuse for the sake of longevity, and becoming aware of that feeling really hurts the experience.

All in all, there’s some entertainment in the story, dialogue, and possessed objects that attack you. The bosses are nicely designed, and the world-building is pretty great – but it all wears thin too quickly when it’s such a slog to play. 10 hours might have tightened it up to a tentative recommendation, but Steam says I’ve played 21.7 hours (the game file says 17) and I didn’t enjoy at least 10 of them. Buggy, stretched, poorly optimized and frustratingly designed, Possessor(s) is simply not fun enough compared to its outstanding peers.

Want to find a better alternative? Try our list of 25 best Metroidvania games.