Polterguys: Possession Party Review

Polterguys: Possession Party is a supernatural-themed party game where up to eight players can battle against each other to avoid getting caught by an angry monster. You all play as mischievous ghosts who can possess household items to gain special powers and set traps for your rivals, hoping they get caught before you do. Developer Madorium Games has created a title where you can play locally with your friends or online with cross-play, sabotaging your opponents to ensure your victory.

There is no story in Polterguys: your focus is beating your opponents in a race around the track so you don’t get captured by the monster. In the beginning, you can play as a pink ghost named Iggy or a green poltergeist, Oggy. The only difference between the two is their colour, so either choice is fine. Each spirit has the ability to possess inanimate objects they come across, like fans, buckets, or even pool inflatables. Each item has a different ability: for example, the fan can pull you into the air, the robot can use a zapper, and the remote-control car gets a speed boost. You’ll use these to escape the monster or sabotage opponents by sending them into the enemy’s path.

Each match is made up of three rounds, which are essentially races where you try to outrun your opponents. Besides attacking them directly, you can trigger a variety of traps to slow them down or get them caught. The goal is to avoid getting captured at any cost, even if it means sacrificing your friends. Your placement in each round earns you points to level up your main possessed item. My personal favourites were the RC Car and the Robot. There are ten different levels available to play, each with a great name like Riptide Reef, Troubled Water, Suburban Scares, Junkman's Attack, and Mansion of Mischief, along with a poster that looks like it’s from an old cheesy monster movie. The look and setting of each stage are different, but all feature short tracks for you to “race” around.

The look of Polterguys is a lot of fun, with cute ghosts and 22 different, adorable possession forms to unlock. Two forms are available when you start: the Well-Worn Rusty Desk Fan and the RC Car, both of which look super sweet with their big blinking eyes, reminiscent of characters from a Toy Story movie. You’ll unlock other forms as you play, or even by possessing inanimate objects located in your home base, like a toy robot. The rounds take place both inside and outside of a house; racing through a cluttered attic is a lot of fun when it's full of traps to set for your opponents. 

Polterguys is full of fun, haunted house–style music. It's upbeat and catchy, with creepy sound effects like creaking floors, doors closing, bats squeaking and flapping their wings, and wind howling. It adds a tonne of atmosphere to the game, making you feel like you are exploring a cursed residence.

Your home base is called your Haunt: this is the spot where you will begin your game before you start a new round. You can spend the Candy Points you have collected to customise it like changing the style of chair, the painting over the fireplace, or even the aesthetics of your indoor slide. From this area you will also pick the type of round you want to play from: Go Online, for a quick battle with seven other poltergeists with crossplay; Custom Game, where you select the stage you are battling on along with the amount of rounds you will play and the items that you want to include for power-ups, custom is where local opponents can jump in to play; and My Stuff where you can check out all the things you have unlocked during your playtime. 

There’s a lot of fun multiplayer action to be had here. However, if you're trying to play this single-player against a collection of bots, it can get repetitive quickly. That said, Polterguys: Possession Party offers a variety of emotes and costumes to unlock, along with daily and weekly quests you can complete for rewards, so there's plenty to keep you busy. This is a fun party game full of betrayal and chaos when played with friends. Will you sacrifice your friends, or will you be the one left behind to feel the wrath of the angry monster?