MOTORSLICE Review - Thighs of P

Ole Gamer Joe
14 hours ago
8 min read

MOTORSLICE

PC/PS/XBOX

5/5/26

Regular Studio/Top Hat Studios

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxdUtbkKR6Y

While parkour elements in games aren’t entirely uncommon, seeing them become the central focus of a new indie release is about as rare as spotting a moose here in Western Mass. For many of us, when we think of roof hopping, beam balancing, and “tuck and roll” momentum-based gameplay, images of AAA games come to mind such as 2008’s memorable Mirror’s Edge, Assassin’s Creed, and the Dying Light franchises. But when it comes to indies outside of games such as 2022’s Neon White, it feels like the pickings are a bit slimmer.

As a massive fan of Mirror’s Edge in particular, I was excited when I first set my eyes on MOTORSLICE, a stylish new action romp coming to us from the same team that brought us 2022’s Togges. However, unlike many of the games that I’ve mentioned, MOTORSLICE takes place from the third-person perspective and trades in the guns and fists for a motherfuckin’ chainsaw. Fred Durst would be proud. But did MOTORSLICE feel like a well-oiled machine? Or is it more akin to a rusty pile of bolts? Surely we shall find out in our full review!

In MOTORSLICE, you’ll control P, and no, that is not a reminder to clench; it is, in fact, the name of our mysterious lead character. Now that we’ve established this section of the review is going to sound awkward, P is cute, bubbly, funny, and extremely acrobatic, while also sometimes referred to as a Slicer. She’s sent on a contracted mission to explore a mysterious megastructure where her main objective is to destroy every machine that stands in her path. P loses contact with her fellow Slicers upon arrival and is now left all on her lonesome except for a slightly perverted orb drone unit who, in a cool twist, also acts as the game’s camera. Our oval friend, who P appropriately names Orbie, doesn’t do much outside of that and checking out P’s butt, but I guess it's better than having no company… Maybe.

Alright, in fairness, the duo will have many bizarre conversations throughout this roughly 10-hour campaign, which take place at various rest points throughout your adventures. During these optional events, Orbie will often try to flirt with P and be a little weirdo, with players picking between fun, if slightly awkward, dialogue choices. They don’t seem to affect much beyond getting goofy reactions from P, who herself isn’t exactly fluent in robot language. Maybe my favorite interaction between these two was the ability to take selfies and tickle parts of P’s face, how cute! We get to learn a bit more about our lead character during these interactions, but generally speaking, the story takes a backseat from the intro on, with the developers heavily focused on the game’s parkour-based swinging and platforming that has a bit of combat sprinkled on top.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: MOTORSLICE is a very hard game with no major difficulty options, and for some of you, that might be an instant turn-off. It basically feels like a traditional action game fucked a cinematic platformer and then cheated on both of them with Faith Connors, and this is the baby that popped out. The campaign is broken up across 9 chapters, with each featuring its own set of dangerous traps, machines, and difficult platforming sections. P will OFTEN, and I do mean often, need to clear wide gaps between buildings, sometimes pressing the appropriate action button for a smooth landing depending on how far the fall. This has her entering the fetal position faster than my dog bouncing up from his slumber at the sound of an electric can opener, in order to avoid becoming a disgusting pile of goop, which the game horrifically showcases on-screen.

Buuuut wait, that’s not all, not even close! She’ll climb walls, run across walls, balance on beams, jump between walls Ryu Hayabusa style, and perhaps most importantly of all, use her motor-slicey chainsaw thingy to traverse up and across walls, AND defeat foes. Whew, that’s a lot of stuff. Oh, and she also has a bizarre “Batman Detective” like mode (a dated reference I know) which allows her to see enemy locations and even find a few hidden optional orbs, which are scattered across the game’s different areas and must be delivered to set locations in order to be optionally collected.

Alright, I hit you with a lot there, so let’s start with the combat, by far the most simplistic aspect of MOTORSLICE. There’s not a ton of enemy variety here, with a small smattering of machines ranging from tiny bulldozers to flying robots that spit sawblades towards you. Enemies can be locked onto, though this is rarely needed as the vast majority of these pests go down with a basic attack despite the game offering a more powerful charge attack. The few enemies that do spit blades are toppled with an easily timed parry and strike which will send that sharp object hurtling back towards them, reducing these goons to scrap in an instant. There is a dash roll available as well, but I’d be lying if I said I ever even needed it much.

Honestly, things never get all that much more complex than that as far as basic battles go, with the combat system being about as simple as a paperclip. There are a few other enemies to contend with but for the most part they are easily dispatched, and sometimes necessarily so in order to advance forward. I think there was room for the combat to be a bit more nuanced, perhaps with some interesting upgrades for P, but for the most part it remains vanilla throughout, and seemed to exist as a break from the vast amounts of platforming that is required. Boss encounters, on the other hand, take more of a creative risk, conjuring memories of Shadow of the Colossus. These massive machines await you at the end of most chapters and often require careful climbing as you target specific weak points. I enjoyed most of these battles as they offer a nice mix of platforming and strategy if you want to succeed.

But perhaps rightfully so, MOTORSLICE mostly exists to test your platforming chops, and by extension, your patience. Through each new chapter, you’ll encounter a seemingly endless slew of poles to climb and ledges to jump between as you work your way from area to area. The game doesn’t feel entirely linear and offers some room for exploration, such as going off the beaten path to find those hidden orbs I mentioned, but for the most part it does a decent job of offering hints as to where you should be headed next. These can show up as skid marks, the kind that take me right back to my whitey-tighty days, pointing out where you should wall-run next, or as random yellow-colored objects that basically scream “GO THIS WAY.” Progression isn’t always perfect and I did bumble about lost on a few occasions, but overall I think the developers handle things quite well as far as striking a good balance of open exploration without leaving gamers feeling entirely lost. Should things get a bit too dark, P also has a flashlight to help illuminate the path forward, which is also a smart design decision.

The game’s thrills and heart-racing moments, of which there are many, do come at a cost, and for many players, it's going to be a hefty one. You see, the thing is, MOTORSLICE doesn’t actually feel that great to play. It’s a game that requires very deliberate inputs in order for you to be successful, with the slightest twinge or variant sending P plummeting to her doom time and time again. Wall-runs can turn into ill-fated jumps within an instant, swings can be swung in the wrong direction with ease, wall-jumping… Where do I even start with the wall jumping? Perhaps most frustrating of all is the actual Motorslicing, wherein you must jam your blade into a designated wall and glide along. These sections of the game, while stylish, are infuriating, sometimes requiring you to switch directions mid-run which works about as well as trying to swim with a Wiimote in Twilight Princess. For better or worse, MOTORSLICE feels like playing an early 90’s cinematic platformer much of the time. In knowing this, you CAN get a feel for how it works and adapt, but frustration is going to come, and come often. I don’t think I have died more times in a game this year thus far. Maybe switching over to keyboard and mouse will alleviate some frustration with just how clunky the game feels, but as someone who is REALLY bad at that particular configuration, it didn’t help me.

When things are working, however, and everything clicks, it's a thing of beauty. I can’t even put into words how satisfying it can feel to successfully hop between walls and swing from pole to pole in succession, sometimes avoiding hazardous landmines and traps in the process. In those glorious moments, few games offer the level of exhilaration that MOTORSLICE does. I guess what I am trying to say is, the pleasure is sometimes worth the pain.

It helps that the visual design of MOTORSLICE is quite beautiful, despite me sometimes getting the feeling that everything in this world looks a bit the same. The game has a muddy, PS2-era design to it, though I mean this as a compliment, mostly. There’s a dreamy atmosphere to the presentation, with simplistic textures and enemy designs and a limited color palette that sets the tone nicely. The massive bosses are particularly impressive, as I enjoyed the clearly marked weak points which feature a bright orangish-yellow hue. The lo-fi vibe carries over to the game's sparse soundtrack, which in-between breaks of silence builds into electronic hums and beats through more high-octane gameplay sections. Many of these songs were a bop even if I could have used a few more, with impressive sound design overall, particularly the gnarly splatter of P’s body with each death. Overall, I thought the game both looked and sounded lovely, distinctly its own thing while borrowing elements of early 2000’s games.

MOTORSLICE performed nicely on PC, with my 4070 hitting zero snags even at 4K resolution. I didn’t come across any major glitches or crashes, with plentiful checkpoints for players to be able to pick up fairly close to where they had died. There were a few occasions where the game let me bypass sections that I failed on, but it's hard to say if that was a glitch or by design. On Steam Deck, I was able to get into the 60fps range on the lowest Potato setting (quite literally that’s what it is called), which made for a playable, albeit washed-out looking experience. Suitable for those who aren’t too bothered by lower graphical fidelity and enjoy playing on the go.

As far as accessibility and options are concerned, there are a few languages to choose between, the amount of gore can be toggled, checkpoints can be slightly adjusted, and there are a few more light options involving the camera. There’s not a ton of visual options to be concerned with on PC, and just a few sound options available as well. I didn’t see an in-game option to tweak controls, though a chapter select does allow the option of going back for any of the missed collectible orbs.

MOTORSLICE is undeniably a very cool indie release, and I genuinely want to see more games like it. But its flaws can’t be ignored, despite how much of it I adore. The visuals are lovely, the sound is simple but effective, the world and characters are interesting, and at its best, the game delivers some of the most heart‑stopping moments I’ve had in years (definitely not one for anyone afraid of heights). And yet, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to toss my controller across the room more than a few times, or that I wasn’t ready to wrap things up around the six‑to‑seven‑hour mark. If you’re willing to adapt to a janky control scheme, have the patience of a saint, and love a good challenge, MOTORSLICE is absolutely worth a look. If clunky controls and shallow combat sound like a deal‑breaker, best to pass.