I have a soft spot for Heart Machine. This is the studio that birthed Hyper Light Drifter—one hell of an indie game that heavily influenced my gaming tastes. I see Heart Machine, I play it. After HLD came Solar Ash, which was clearly the studio’s stepping stone into 3D environments. While the game feels good to play, it’s pretty thin on content. It comes across more as a bridge between Hyper Light Drifter and the studio’s most recent early access title, Hyper Light Breaker. Despite its stylized presentation, Breaker landed poorly, with players criticizing its exploration, combat, lack of content, and roguelike mechanics.
These three games share a lot of DNA. And then there’s Possessor(s).
Gone are the neon purples and stylized cartoon characters. From the jump, Possessor(s) makes it clear it doesn’t want to be compared to Heart Machine’s past work—and so, I won’t. But I did play the demo, and these are my first impressions.
Presentation
Possessor(s) opens with a sequence of semi-static images that serve as a prologue to the game’s starting scene: a massive explosion tears through a city, demons run rampant and feed on humans, and we see our protagonist, Luca, screaming for her brother to wait. Another explosion strikes—Luca is gravely injured, left helpless as her brother is attacked by a demon.
The game’s visual style mirrors this dark turn. Black, red, and white dominate the palette, establishing a constant sense of danger and underscoring the emergency gripping the city. We soon take control of Luca—now legless and crawling through wreckage, leaving a trail of blood. Before she passes out, she meets Rhem, an injured demon. Though she despises him for being “one of them,” she agrees to carry him home in exchange for new legs—the only other option being death for both of them.
We learn that demons can’t exist in the human dimension without a host, and they possess humans to anchor themselves here. This also explains the “monsters” we face throughout the city: in the absence of humans, demons possess objects—like flower pots—which become unstable and hostile. It’s a neat bit of lore that ties into the gameplay nicely.
All of this is delivered through stylish but static vignette-style conversations between Luca and Rhem. What’s particularly noticeable—maybe even jarring—is the complete absence of music or sound effects during these scenes. Aside from a faint “woosh” as a new vignette appears, the silence is deafening—and honestly, kind of annoying. This extends into the broader demo: exploration is backed only by industrial ambient sounds. There’s one exception—a boss fight near the end of the demo—but if you’re expecting an audio spectacle, you’ll be disappointed. A subdued industrial track plays, but it doesn’t leave much of an impression. The sound effects themselves are solid, but the overall audio design is, surprisingly, one of the game’s weakest aspects.
Visually, though? Possessor(s) nails it. The atmosphere is moody, with sharp foreground elements contrasted against scrolling dark backgrounds that give a strong sense of depth. Colors are used sparingly and deliberately, always reinforcing the tone. The demo takes place entirely within Luca’s devastated city—mostly through ruined buildings—so environment variety isn’t something we can really assess yet. It does get a bit visually repetitive during this first hour, but the demo ends with a scene near a park or forest, suggesting that other environments will be explored in the full game.
Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, Possessor(s) plays like a standard 2D action platformer. Movement feels good overall, and sprinting is available early on—which is great for quick traversal. A ground dash becomes a stationary dodge when airborne, which I personally found frustrating; I’m really hoping an air-dash unlocks in the full release. Still, the basic movement and platforming feel solid.
Luca also gets access to a whip, which plays a role in both combat and traversal via grapple points. And oh man—this mechanic needs work.
When grappling, you can climb the whip up or down, then swing left and right to build momentum and jump to the next point. The problem is, simply grappling point-to-point without stopping often doesn’t give you enough momentum, and the whip’s length can make the next grab fail. You end up having to stop at every swing point, adjust the whip, build momentum, and then jump. This completely breaks the flow, and I genuinely hated every section that required this mechanic. As it stands, the grappling could single-handedly ruin the platforming experience.
Combat-wise, Luca can equip both a primary and secondary weapon. The latter consumes a charge per use, so it’s not spammable. Weapons can also be modded with affixes that grant positive effects. I found one in the demo that enhanced Luca’s sprint, letting her move faster and knock enemies over on contact. While this hints at longer-term character customization, nothing else was available in the demo—no skill tree, no levels, no attribute upgrades.
Combat is pretty basic right now, but there are some promising elements. Most encounters take the form of arena-style gauntlets rather than random wandering enemies. You start with a basic three-hit combo, can dash behind enemies (though some have shields to block this), and even break their poise to yank them in with the whip. Near the end of the demo, a parry ability unlocks, which can negate damage and reflect projectiles. That kind of progression—unlocking even basic abilities gradually—gives me hope that the combat system could gain depth as the game goes on. And frankly, it needs to, because right now there’s not much to set it apart from similar titles.
The one boss fight in the demo isn’t anything special visually, but it’s a good test of the mechanics you’ve learned. Its projectiles and aerial attacks give the parry some time to shine, and its poise can be broken easily, letting you land solid secondary attacks. It’s not difficult, but it serves its purpose.
Conclusion
Forming an opinion about Possessor(s) is tricky without taking expectations into account. Fortunately, the game diverges enough from Heart Machine’s previous work that comparisons aren’t necessary. The one-hour demo offers a solid introduction to the setting and lore, with some enjoyable platforming and combat.
While the environment variety is limited so far, what’s there is beautifully crafted—visuals are Possessor(s)’ strongest asset right now. Unfortunately, the audio design is surprisingly weak, and some traversal mechanics—particularly grappling—are genuinely frustrating and need reworking.
As it stands, Possessor(s) doesn’t do enough in its opening hour to distinguish itself from the flood of other 2D action platformers. But if the unlockable abilities and weapon customization system evolve into something more robust, there’s potential here for a deep, engaging combat system that could become the game’s defining feature.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Possessor(s) becomes a sleeper hit—or just another indie lost in the crowd.
