REVIEW: ‘Motorslice’ Misses Its Parkour Landing

Motorslice, the slice-of-life action-adventure parkour game from developers Regular Studio and published by Top Hat Studios, is a strange mix of ideas. It takes a protagonist who looks ripped from an anime, gives her a chainsaw weapon, and sets her loose to jump and fight her way up a giant tower. All the elements sound like a fantastic experience, but when they come together, it ends up creating a bland, strangely horny experience that just isn’t much fun.

Motorslice focuses on P, an employee of a megacorporation, tasked with climbing a huge tower and taking out the rogue machines inside. Most of the story is told through small moments that showcase P and her relationship with Orbie, a malfunctioning drone. It’s largely fine, but also, strangely sexually charged.

Motorslice has a cool idea where you’re in control of Orbie, even when playing as P. Orbie acts as a watchful eye and, mechanically, as the camera. It’s a clever idea to make the player’s camera a character of its own, but Motorslice is intent on sexualizing P at every turn, from weird camera angles to strange dialogue options. It reads as voyeuristic, especially in moments where P is standing or sitting in strange positions. You can even pretend to sniff her feet at one point, and her reaction isn’t a welcome one.

Motorslice offers clever ideas, but makes choices that can alienate the audience.

It makes the entire experience uncomfortable and odd, as the agency seems to be taken away from P and placed on a floating, inanimate object. It conflicts with the overall gameplay loop, centered on combat and parkour, and makes for an out-of-place inclusion to the overall package. The slice-of-life aspect focuses on letting the player stare at and flirt with P, but it always feels uncomfortable as you watch her through a drone. 

The gameplay loop doesn’t do enough to carry the experience either. Nothing is particularly bad, but it doesn’t feel great to play. The parkour is okay, giving P a number of platforms to jump, wall run, and trick off. The level design doesn’t really support the movement. The pace is smooth, but most of the levels are straightforward and uninteresting. There isn’t much challenge or effort required, especially during long running sessions. 

The parkour is largely fluid, but it does have issues. You get stuck on geometry, leap in directions you didn’t mean to, and trying to maneuver the right jump is at odds with the controls, where you can’t do precisely what you need to. There are definitely some cool moments at points, but they’re largely drowned out by deaths that are cheap and unnecessary.

The movement mechanics are a bit rough, requiring some finesse.

Motorslice’s combat has many of the same issues, even when it includes intriguing ideas. Fighting regular enemies becomes mindless, with most going down to one swing of the chainsaw. Ranged enemies are annoying, usually relying on a parrying mechanic that sends projectiles back at them.

However, the timing isn’t consistent. Some bigger enemies are really fun to take down, where you need to stick your chainsaw into them and run circles around to cut them down. There are only a few enemy types, so even these get old over time.

The best parts of Motorslice are the bosses, which offer the most creative bits of combat and parkour. They’re huge, towering mechs and construction equipment, blending together some creative platforming and spots to cut. As you scale them, you need to attack specific areas to cut them apart. They split entirely once all areas are taken care of. One specific fight against a giant Metal Gear-like mech is a highlight, with a final jump that really pushes you to orient accordingly. 

Boss fights offer some of the best parts for players in Motorslice.

Presentation is another highlight in Motorslice. It looks like a classic PS1 game in the best way, with a low-poly graphical style that looks high-definition. It has an old-school charm to it that still looks good today, bringing me back to gaming as a kid. The sound design is decent overall, with some good tracks throughout. Kira Buckland, most known for 2B in Nier: Automata, voices P, delivering a solid performance. 

Overall, Motorslice has some cool moments, but they’re largely lost in stale and dated gameplay and weirdly sexualized beats. While the bosses and look are the best parts of the package, everything else just lacks much impact.

Motorslice is out on PC on Steam and GOG, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on May 5th.