Motorslice is a parkour hack-and-slash game developed by Regular Studio and published by Top Hat Studios on May 5. The game focuses on P, an employee with a chainsaw tasked with destroying robots in large ethereal megastructures and her companion Orby, a drone trying to protect her.

The game is focused on exploring environments through fast-paced gameplay consisting of parkour and destroying enemies and features bossfights and a basic central narrative. 

Deceptively simple Graphics

Loading up the game it may look deceivingly simple, the graphics are simplistic and have many low poly structures that are not typical to see in games today, however the game uses this simplistic style to reinforce the game’s themes of brutalism and destruction of environments.

 The article Motorslice review: a liminal Shadow of the Colossus-inspired must-play says that “The world P navigates is vast, simply designed but graceful in its complexity, as pillars and towers emerge from the mists, archways lead from darkness to bright blue-skied vistas, and sprawling pathways stretch into the distance.” 

Quick and clunky movement

Another standout of the game was the gameplay and mechanics. The parkour and fighting mechanics are easy and intuitive to pick up but as the game progresses you can feel yourself getting better at a rapid rate. It feels so good to be able to move quickly and not struggle on the game’s enemies and parkour. However some players struggle with the difficulty of the game and movement issues they may experience. 

“This is very much a trial-and-error platforming game where you’ll probably die hundreds of times during your playthrough” the article Review-“MOTORSLICE” has a lot of unique ideas but cuts up its controls too much states. 

A lack of narrative

My biggest gripe with the game was the lack of story. When first picking it up I was excited to figure out more about the characters and their journey but the game is largely dismissive of any kind of deep central narrative. Instead what could have been a great story is replaced with cutscenes at the end of every level showing P and her companion making weak attempts at a conversation that never seems to go anywhere. The reason the lack of story annoys me so much is because all the right aspects were in place to tell one. A mysterious protagonist, a vast and unknown world with themes of isolation and destruction. All of the setup is there but Top Hat studios fails majorly. 

“On paper, it’s a blend that should work really well. Yet Motorslice veers between moments of excellence and many, many moments of frustration,” The article Motorslice Review says.

Overall I would give this a 6/10. It has cool ideas and the base of a great game but fails so abysmally at a narrative and some aspects of gameplay that it was a weak experience to say the least.

Due to the newness of the game there were no quotes I could find on this topic. However if you have played this game please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.