Latest news with #HeartMachine
Digital Trends
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Possessor(s) has all the makings of a strong Metroidvania already
By the time 2025 ends, we may be looking at a major year for the Metroidvania genre. Hollow Knight: Silksong is slated to hit sometime this year, as is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Both could stand to shake a well-trodden genre up in exciting ways. While those are the biggest games on the horizon, there's another Metroidvania that should be on your radar to: Possessor(s), the latest game from Hyper Light Drifter studio Heart Machine. It promises to infuse a familiar action-adventure format with the developer's signature style. Ahead of its release later this year, I played the first 45 minutes of Possessor(s) to get a sense of how Heart Machine is tackling the Metroidvania genre. There aren't any major overhauls here yet, as the slice I played had some familiar ideas that brought me back to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Instead, it more feels like it's collecting as many good ideas as possible, executing them well, and tossing them all in a mysterious world that I'm eager to explore deeper. That may be all it needs to stand out. Possessor(s) opens with an explosion. A bomb goes off in a mega city and Luca, the adventure's hero, is left crawling out of the rubble. I mean that literally, as her legs have been blasted off. I drag her bloody torso across the floor until I meet a demon who offers to fix me if I help them on their own journey. It's a deal with the devil that the legless Luca doesn't have much of a choice. Soon enough, she's back up and running, exploring the ruins of the city and trying to learn about the corporation that may be to blame. Recommended Videos I've only gotten teases into the story so far, which combines technology and demons, but it has a strong pull. The 2D environments are littered with abandoned machinery, corporate advertising, and an occasionally computer terminal filled with emails. It looks as though there's a strong anticapitalist undertone brewing under a supernatural horror story. That tonal pairing gives Possessor(s) a unique darkness that I want to dig into more. That tone hangs over what's an otherwise straightforward side-scroller so far, though that's not a knock against it. Within my first 30 minutes, I accumulate a whole bunch of abilities that build out what Luca can do. First, I get a melee weapon that I can use to perform basic slashing combos. Later, I'm able to add a perk onto those, which gives me a bit of a movement speed increase. Luca can equip up to three secondary special attacks too, which take advantage of the setting. The one I found let me use a discarded computer mouse like a bludgeoning yo-yo. Fights are all a bit basic at first, but the complexity starts to build gradually. I eventually get a grapple that lets me swing off of specified points in the environment. It takes me a few minutes to realize that I can shoot that at enemies too and yank them towards me. I unlock a parry at the end of my demo too, letting me knock projectiles back at enemies. None of this is particularly new, of course, but it all goes to good use in some tough fights. The climax of my demo had me fighting a berserk corporate worker who thoroughly thrashed me. I had to act carefully, dashing and slashing to avoid its sentient briefcase that wanted to take a bite out of me. Combat very much feels like it's cut from Hollow Knight's cape, but the movement feels more in line with Prince of Persia. It's a movement heavy platformer that has me wall jumping up decaying structures, swinging off of abandoned cranes, and air dashing through security walls. That makes for some reliable Metroidvania exploration that has me chaining movements together to find secret keys, weapon perks, and upgrade currency. There's still room to smooth the feel of it out here, as I found myself getting stuck to the side of walls a little too easily. It's a little stiff at present. If all of that sounds a little par for the course, it is. This doesn't so much feel like Heart Machine trying to upend the genre so much as put its stamp on it. The biggest place that it stands out is in art direction, as it all unfolds in a dark and moody 2D world that still somehow feels colorful. There's a minimalistic art style being used here that allows neon color splashes to stand out among a sea of rubble. It's the same kind of style that I loved in Hyper Light Drifter and it adapts to a side-scroller quite well so far. Hopefully that will be enough to help it stand out amongst other genre giants looking to launch later this year. It'll be a fight for attention, but Possessor(s) is making all the right moves. Possessor(s) launches later this year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Engadget
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
How to watch Day of the Devs at Summer Game Fest 2025
The indie-focused Day of the Devs is nearly here. That's the portion of Summer Game Fest where smaller publishers step into the spotlight. It tends to be a worthwhile watch, often eclipsing the main show. Get ready to tune in on June 6. What's on tap this year? Heart Machine's 2D sidescroller Possessor(s) will make an appearance. If you like hand-drawn art, horror and visual novels, this is your game. (Oh, and don't forget "very hot" demons!) We'll also see more of Outersloth's "nightmarish life sim" Neverway . That title has a killer elevator pitch. "After quitting her dead-end job, Fiona starts over on a farm and becomes the immortal herald of a dead god." (As one does!) Untitled Goose Game maker House House is on the schedule. That will presumably mean a closer look at Big Walk . The "cooperative online walker-talker" eschews the hardcore competition common in online gaming. "Our favorite part of playing online coop games is when they give you enough direction for the group to keep up a good momentum," the studio said in 2023. "But it's relaxed enough that you're mostly just able to enjoy spending time with your friends." Expect a chill time with delightfully strange characters. Expect much more beyond that small sampling. Day of the Devs kicks off on June 6 at 7PM ET. You can also stream it on YouTube and Twitch. Engadget will also be on the ground at Summer Games Fest with plenty of first-hand impressions.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Despite a 'teamwide oops, guess we made it too hard moment,' Hyper Light Breaker has 'no regrets' about its mixed-response early access launch, and now it's got a roadmap so everyone can 'git gud'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Although I had an excellent time with Hyper Light Breaker at last year's Summer Game Fest, the game's had a rough go of it since hitting early access a month ago. The game currently sits at a 63% Mixed rating on Steam, with players put off by tech trouble, issues with the controls, and the simple fact the game might just be too dang hard. But the devs at Heart Machine tell PCG they're undaunted, and despite a "teamwide 'oops, guess we made it too hard' moment" when the game first hit Steam, they've got "No regrets" about releasing in early access. "There is no amount of time you can spend in isolation that will make the game great," says lead producer Michael Clark. "You get the best version of a game by maximizing the amount of feedback-and-iteration loops you can go through, and Early Access is the way to do that for a title like this." So, for now, Heart Machine has turned its first barrage of mixed feedback into an early access roadmap, released yesterday. The devs promise a February update consisting of performance fixes, a combat and gear rebalance, bug fixes, and new stuff: enemies, affixes, a new player character, and so on. That'll be followed by another (relatively) small update in March before a bigger, named patch in April: the Buried Below update. That one will feature more tweaks, more new stuff, and an "improved onboarding" experience for new players who find themselves a little baffled by the game at first blush. Which, yeah, I get that. Although I liked my time with HLB, I could easily see a new player getting overwhelmed with how much is going on and bouncing right off. Better hand-holding wouldn't go amiss. I've got high hopes for the game, and Heart Machine sounds very open to change. "We had a lot of balance changes going in right up to launch," says Clark, "and we had been tuning things to be more difficult, as we had found that we were getting pretty good at beating our first Cycle on a fresh save." But they might have overcorrected just a little: "We knew that we were better at the game than a new player would be, but we misjudged the difficulty. "We want the game to be tough, but fair and clear to understand… We aren't looking to make it easy, but it should be fair and you should be able to analyze what you did wrong and git gud." Not a bad philosophy, if you ask me. Here's hoping Heart Machine pulls it off. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together
