Luca is having a pretty bad time. Her city has been invaded by demons, her family and boyfriend are dead, and she’s lost her legs in an horrific attack. So when charismatic demon Rhem offers her a new pair of legs for the low-low price of wilful possession, she doesn’t have much choice but to agree. This is the premise at the heart of Possessor(s), a new Metroidvania from Heart Machine and Devolver Digital.
What follows is unarguably par for the course, but what Possessor(s) lacks in originality it makes up for in execution. It’s a by-the-numbers 2D explore-em-up with combat-locked arenas, a ground-pound, grappling hook, and I-frame dashes, but the way it feels to play makes you forget it’s not all that new or fresh.
Charged with finding four scattered items to open a locked vault door in the heart of the Agradyne headquarters, Luca and Rhem head into the ruined city, their uneasy partnership forming the emotional core of the story. In typical evil corporation style, Agradyne had fooled the world into thinking they just made batteries, when in reality they were pulling demons through eldritch portals to harness their otherworldly energy. To no one’s great surprise, this backfired, leading to a massive breach between worlds.
Demons can’t just exist though, and must possess something in order to survive. The lucky ones get into people and the possession takes; if it doesn’t, they end up as twisted monsters. The unlucky ones end up possessing anything they can find, from pot plants and vending machines, to books, or even animals. This leads to a vast array of different enemies, all with unique attacks and attack patterns that you’ll need to learn to survive the fast-paced combat.
While the exploration is great and includes climbing, swimming, swinging, and smashing through floors, it’s the combat that makes Possessor(s) feel really good. Luca is initially armed with a pair of kitchen knives, a weapon you’ll use for the first few hours at least. But she’s also able to weaponise normal mundane items like a computer mouse or a cell phone, equipping them in her second slot and using them to execute special moves. The mouse can launch enemies for a juggle combo, for example, while the cell phone creates a field that stuns monsters near you.
Luca also had the ability to leap and swing from grapple points, or pull small flying enemies to her. Conversely, she can also latch onto large enemies and turrets, pulling herself towards them for a few quick attacks. Early on you’ll unlock a parry, which is essential for stunning enemies and reflecting projectiles back to source.
As you explore you’ll find various modifications that you can equip to alter Luca’s attacks. For example, you can equip an enhancement that refills health when you parry, which is incredibly useful when you have limited heals. Enemies will drop a currency called Chroma when they die, and you will lose what you’ve collected on death. To combat this, you can find portals that act like bonfires, where you can enter the demon world and store your Chroma for withdrawal when you find a merchant. The only real downside to this is that you’ll often find a merchant a fair distance from a portal, and entering and exiting them respawns all enemies in the area.
Possessor(s) is a fairly straightforward example of its genre, but that’s not a bad thing. It doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel, instead focusing on delivering a slick, enjoyable experience. A simple map and limited fast travel system enable easy back-tracking, and the steady drip of new skills and tools help to maintain and exciting pace.
It also looks lovely, with pretty hand-drawn environments, some deliciously weird enemy design, and smooth combat and movement animations. There is a lot of dialogue, though, and none of it is voiced, so you’ll be reading a lot if you want to keep up with the story. Other characters such as a demon-hunter who travels alongside her own huge demonic wolf, and a possessed teddy bear help flesh out the world and deliver exposition and context where the standoffish Rhem refuses to elaborate. The story isn’t spectacular, but the Earth-like alternate world setting is interesting.
There hasn’t been the usual glut of new Metroidvanias this year, and so Possessor(s) is really landing at the right time. It lacks the unique pizazz of something like Ultros or Cookie Cutter, but delivers a solid adventure in its own right.
