Motorslice was provided by Top Hat Studios for review. Thank you!
There are so many games right now that I want to play, and one of the ones that has been on my list for quite some time is Motorslice. Ever since I first saw it, I’ve been interested in what it was exactly. The premise is a weird one, since you’re going around, slicing up construction equipment. Still, I couldn’t help it being intrigued, and while it is rough around the edges, there is some fun to be had here.
As soon as I started playing, I noticed similarities to Shadow of the Colossus. The whole concept is one small person going against giant machinery, and it reminded me of us killing Colossus that felt larger than life. For the most part, Motorslice embodies this well, relying on parkour platforming mixed with simple combat, but it still feels rough around the edges.
The majority of the game has us running around a giant megastructure and jumping, sliding, rolling, climbing, wall-running, and, of course, our way to the top. They can feed into each other nicely, making transitions between each move feel fluid. Going from climbing and cracks, to jumping onto poles, to wall jumping to get up to a platform we can walk on, all felt great. The controls are also simple, which makes utilizing all these moves much easier to do.
However, they can sometimes feel very clumsy, and it’s easy for other moves to accidentally be used instead of the ones we want. For example, if my joystick was a little too far to the side, I would all run instead of jumping upwards, and this led to my death multiple times. Jumping also felt a little off because after a little bit of time moving forward, all momentum would be lost, and I would just fall straight down. On top of just feeling a little sluggish, these issues happened more frequently than I would’ve liked, and they can bring down the experience.
I would say, for the most part, Motorslice's level design is quite great, with some creative layouts that push the parkour to its limits. It felt like I was making use of the skill set that we have, and I very much enjoyed it. Even the cons couldn’t stop me from motorslicing my way up buildings and jumping from pole to pole.
That clunkiness can get in the way of fighting, too. There were multiple times I meant to jump upwards and wall jump behind me to grab onto the second boss and slice it, but because my joystick was slightly ajar, I did a wall run instead, and it completely messed up my plan. It took me double the time to actually beat this boss than it should have, purely because of the controls. The slow running with no faster way to get across was also a pain, but that’s not a general issue and only popped up in specific scenarios. When it works, the platforming feels great, and I enjoyed it a lot. However, there are more times when it doesn’t work than I would like, and it borders on frustrating.
The combat can give the same impression as well. It’s very simple, with only one attack button that can either do a regular or charged attack, and we are able to dodge roll to avoid enemies. On one hand, the simplicity is nice and easy to understand. We can attack and take down most enemies with one strike, and I’ve always liked that. Plus, it’s so satisfying to cut up machines and watch their parts hit the ground.
On the other hand, we have that clunkiness. The lock-on mechanic just feels awkward at times, and we need to hold down the right trigger to stay locked on instead of just pushing a button. Fighting multiple enemies is also a chore. There’s one encounter I remember where I had to fight 3 machines that shoot sawblades, and I died consistently because managing multiple sawblades coming at me while fighting was difficult. And of course, getting killed in one hit just made it more difficult.
The story itself is alright, but we do have some great moments woven in. We play as Slicer P, who has to climb this mega structure and destroy the machines in the way. They are accompanied by Orbie, a drone that gets the damage and can only communicate in beeps. While the overall story is pretty straightforward, there are a lot of moments where we can rest and play small cut scenes that show P and Orbie interact, and there are some really great moments here. I look forward to those way more than how the story would actually progress.
As for performance on the Steam Deck, Motorslice runs pretty decently at the default settings. It starts us off at the medium quality preset, which I would say runs pretty well if you’re willing to compromise on framerate. Honestly, I had a good time playing this at a 40 FPS lock with these settings, and I enjoyed it for this kind of game.
Now we could lower the settings and push the framerate to 45 or 50 locked, but it does end up draining the battery a bit more. At the low settings, we can get 60 FPS, a good chunk of the time, but there are still moments where it will drop below to the 50s or stutter a little bit, so I preferred the extra smoothness of 40 FPS and the better-looking visuals.
Motorslice is a fun game that feels great when it works, but the odd controls keep it from realizing that potential. The simple combat can be fun, while the parkour moves that we have flow nicely with each other and are accentuated by the good level design. However, there were too many times when I would want to do a specific move and ended up doing a completely different one. This would’ve benefited from a little more polish, but there is still something to enjoy here.
It's decently playable on the Steam Deck as well, with the default settings providing a balanced experience that works well on the go. So, I would say this is a solid experience to take wherever you go.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Motorslice is a fun experience with solid parkour and level design, but the clunkiness keeps it from greatness. Luckily, it's great to play on the Steam Deck.
