Possessor(s) has all the makings of a high-quality and engaging game. Although Steam says the game is complete, it feels like it's still in early access. Many improvements are needed before Possessor(s) is brought to its full potential, and the walkthrough process is not accompanied by a burning sensation below the back.
Forced Cooperation
The game takes place in a fictional city ruled by the powerful Agradyne Corporation. The company is working on creating energy sources, but the production process consumes all of the city's capacity. Almost every resident is somehow connected with the corporation, and therefore must obey countless rules and protocols.
Agradyne failed to mention that its employees managed to open a rift into Hell. People began to kidnap demons and turn them into chroma - that very mysterious source of energy. This continued until the demons escaped from captivity and began to possess people and objects. The city fell, and survivors and demons began to inhabit its ruins.
The game begins at the moment of the city's fall. Teenagers named Luka and Kai were trying to escape when they were attacked by a demon and Kai was killed. Luka herself was mortally wounded. Fortunately, a demon named Rem was nearby and offered to make a deal - Luka allows Rem to possess her, and in return he saves her life.
The game pays considerable attention to the relationship between Luka and Rem, where Luka is hot-tempered and makes rash decisions, and Rem acts as a reasonable adult. Alas, too much attention is paid to the relationship of this couple - by the end I was already sick of Rem's reasoning on the backwardness of people, and his drama regarding the main villain.
The other characters they encounter are not so lucky. I was interested to learn more about the demon hunter, who also made a deal with a demon. But interactions with her end at the beginning, and to continue you will have to complete her task, which you can do closer to the end. Especially sad is the situation with one character, whose sad end you have to watch. In many cases, the game allows you to choose: kill the enemy or not, but not in this case - the character appears, dies because of the player's actions, and it's sad.
War with Furniture
Demons that have possessed interior items have settled throughout the city. Aggressive plants, animals, furniture, and electronics can be found in every corner of it. Each type of enemy has a unique behavior and set of attacks. Standard demons have variations with different colors, whose attacks and health differ slightly from the original. Alas, the color differences are poorly remembered, which can lead to unnecessary damage.
In battle, demons can be hit, tossed into the air, pulled towards you, or pulled up to them. If you activate defense at the moment of approaching ranged attacks, the projectiles will return to the sender and his comrades. When colliding with a surface, enemies take damage, which encourages launching them into a wall, floor, or another enemy. You can plan battles in such a way that the attacks of enemies harm their comrades more than the main character.
The main threat of demons comes down to their love of attacking before you get to them, or from positions closed to view. There is no period of invulnerability when taking damage, and therefore even weak opponents are able to overwhelm Luka in seconds. The small variety of enemies compensates for the difficulty of the enemies - considering the multi-colored variations of demons. By the end, you will adapt to each of them, which leads to a loss of difficulty. But by the twentieth hour of the game, I lowered the difficulty to easy - the enemies began to come across too thick, and the battles with them did not bring pleasure.
In battle, Luka uses knives, a baseball bat, a hockey stick, and a guitar. Each weapon differs in speed and attack range, damage dealt, repelling properties, and attack combination. It's easy to find one to your liking and use it throughout the entire playthrough.
You can have up to three active additional types of weapons that use energy to activate. These include a computer mouse that throws opponents into the air, or gloves that allow you to throw with a bend. Over time, enemies will gain resistance to balance disruption, which makes most additional weapons useless in battle. Because of this, I only used counter-attack glasses, and otherwise used a combination of defense, attack, and evasion.
Talismans can be hung on the main and additional weapons, which give passive bonuses. Talisman slots are bought for chroma from a rat, which is located in an inconvenient place to access. After many hours, another merchant appears who opens slots, who is also located in an inconvenient place. From him you can also buy improvements for health and the maximum number of heals - I did not notice this feature, and learned about it only from the game forum on Steam.
The final test for combat skills is battles with bosses. They boast interesting attacks and an adequate amount of health, without excesses. You will have to die several times before you adapt to them, and you can snatch victory from the cold dead hands of the enemy.
A Journey Full of Pain
The game has a large number of locations. Each one hides a huge number of secrets that are simply interesting to look for. But usually the reward is not worth the effort - overcoming a segment with strong enemies and a lake with acid leads to a room with an ambush, where the reward is a small supply of chroma. But the views are mesmerizing!
Luka is initially very mobile and able to jump on walls. The main tool for overcoming distances is a whip, which does not always manage to catch on rings hanging in the air. The whip is used to attract enemies and break down walls - I spent many hours on useless searches until I learned about this feature from discussions. Sometimes the game cannot implement several actions at the same time - I had to get rid of the demon pounding on the power field, because because of it I could not use the whip.
The location map is not very convenient, since it does not display rooms and obstacles (rooms are depicted as large squares). Each location has a merchant who sells talismans and useful items for chroma. A complete sweep of the location gives enough chroma to buy up goods, and you need to spend it right away - the game does not mark whether you bought from merchants or not. But because of spending all the chroma on talismans and items from merchants, you will not be able to buy slots for weapons for a long time - and this prevents you from trying different combat styles. A vicious circle and a clear oversight by the developers.
Periodically, you have to be resourceful and skillful in order to overcome particularly unpleasant segments. The reward for such an achievement is doors locked with a lock - in most cases, the key will not be at hand. And when you finally find the right one - further passage stumbles upon an obstacle that cannot be overcome without an ability such as a slide or running along walls. The desired ability will also have to be searched for - everything is as it should be in the genre.
The fast travel system is made in the form of a metro, where most stations are located at a distance from merchants and save points. In order to get to an important boss in the story - you will have to overcome a long segment that is inhabited by particularly unpleasant enemies. It is logical that after defeating the boss there should be a metro station nearby so that moving around the world is convenient, but the developers do not think so. Metro stations are located chaotically and this is confusing.
Diagnosis
If you perceive Possessor(s) as a simulator for finding secrets in massive locations, then the game has coped with the task one hundred percent! But as a metroidvania, it has too many shortcomings that discourage any desire to play.
It will take many patches before you can perceive Possessor(s) as a finished game, and not a raw product from early access.
Pro:
- The relationship between the main characters is interestingly shown
- Fun combat system
- С боссами интересно сражаться
- It's interesting to fight bosses
- I want to look for secrets
Contra:
- Слишком много внимания уделено главным героям и слишком мало остальным
- Too much attention is paid to the main characters and too little to the rest
- Battles get boring towards the end
- Additional weapons lose their usefulness as you progress
- Terrible location of many save points and fast travel points
