MOTORSLICE Review

MOTORSLICE – A high-speed descent through steel, oil, and megastructures.

MOTORSLICE is being developed by Regular Studio, led by Luqui and Saiki, with support from Top Hat Studios, a publishing outfit building a name for itself championing smaller, more experimental indies. It was seen at indie shows like EEK3 2025, where it distinguished itself from the fashionable horror and atmospheric games.

Many of the games in that showcase were very much psychological horror or fantasy, but MOTORSLICE stood out right away with its striking visual identity: a lone figure running across a desert wasteland with a chainsaw while being chased by mechanical monsters. That first scene in the trailer became a defining hook.

It wasn't just the visual chaos of a human-sized excavator charging at the main character who was running; it was the motion, intensity, and size that stuck with people. As the game went from a showcase wonder to a full release experience, people grew increasingly excited about it.

It was not a question of whether MOTORSLICE had style—it did—but of whether it could make that style into something real.

In the end, the answer to that question is a sure "mostly yes," though there are some flaws. The story in MOTORSLICE is deliberately limited and almost simple in its telling. You play as P, a "Slicer" sent into a megastructure that is falling apart and being taken over by machines. On paper, her job seems easy: kill every hostile mechanical being inside the building.

Failure is seen as unacceptable by most people, and her manager, G., tells her this in harsh, almost authoritative ways. Brevity sets the tone from the outset. No communication. The targets are clear. Emotions are recommendations.  As a story partner and gaming system, P is assisted at the start of the game by a flying camera drone called Orbie.

Orbie degrades and operates under dangerous autonomous AI settings, discreetly exposing the game's main conflict: observation vs. control. The story has no plan and is made up of several small, broken pieces. During breaks between jobs, P and Orbie will have short discussions that reveal different facets of their personalities and deepen their bond.

Usually, these parts don't drive the tale along in the normal way. They create mood and character, instead. As the megastructure decays, P is practical, exhausted, and selfish. Choice-based speech sometimes influences the plot, but not much. The discussions may seem to go in various directions, yet the story is mostly linear. Instead of branching outcomes, the game relies on tone consistency and environmental storytelling.

Megastructure is the key story device. Big, confusing buildings dominate everything, making everything seem unimportant. Sometimes, quiet spots with minimal lighting, plants, or seats offer a brief emotional difference, a glimpse of life before machines ate it away.

The story is incomplete, but the mood is tremendous.

Corruption events, machine autonomy, and structural "alphas" hint at a deeper past, but they are never completely investigated. This restriction adds realism without making the environment too specific. MOTORSLICE is a third-person parkour action game highly inspired by Mirror’s Edge and classic platformers such as Prince of Persia. The goal of the game is to keep going through perilous, vertically and mechanically difficult levels.

P features many movable tools. She can wall-run, jump, swing, and slide cleanly and chain those maneuvers together. But she is special, with a chainsaw she can use to move and fight. In contrast to parkour systems, it enables her to hold onto glowing machines, grind along metal surfaces, cut through obstructions, and execute momentum-based moves.

One of the most unusual cameras is Orbie. Orbie, unlike most third-person views, lives in the world and watches P do his thing. The camera system is dynamic and partly independent. Sometimes it adds realism by having the player feel watched in the environment, and sometimes it makes them feel disoriented when external interference changes their vision or controls.

MOTORSLICE always does its best to traverse. If this mechanism is working well, movement is fast, smooth, and reactive. Wall runs, swings, and chainsaw moves provide a rhythmic flow that matches the game's explosive flair. Stability is not assured. Sometimes, the recognition of the input fails, especially when the chainsaw is moving across the screen. 

P may not adhere to surfaces or deviate from the course, interfering with its movement. Checkpoints help to avoid frustration, yet these faults could make the experience less smooth. MOTORSLICE battle is simple, and mobility is simpler. Small digger-like adversaries and distant attackers are standard enemies. A simple parry mechanism adds defense, and most fights end in one or two hits.

P blocks hits, even projectiles, using timing-based parries and sometimes returns them to enemies.

This gives the bouts rhythm, although the method is shallow. Combat feels functional rather than expressive and is more of a mode of transport than a highlight. When fighting is combined with movement, it gets more interesting. The way encounters are set up encourages players to use parkour not only for positioning but also to stay alive.

Moving quickly from one stage to another, chaining attacks in the air, and keeping your momentum while fighting enemies all create a unique flow that takes otherwise simple mechanics to a higher level. When MOTORSLICE fights bosses, it really feels like Shadow of the Colossus. These battles typically involve tall machinery that needs to be scaled, shut down, or disassembled.

Typically, the machines involved are enormous. These sequences are not like regular combat; rather, they function more like puzzles in the world we live in. Players are required to locate vulnerable areas, maneuver around moving parts, and become accustomed to the behavior of large equipment. On occasion, you will come across absolutely outstanding bosses, providing you with a powerful sense of inventiveness and size.

Some people, on the other hand, struggle with the fact that once the answer is obvious, things become much simpler. Some of them also include uncomfortable movement changes or tricky timing for navigation, which can make certain parts feel less like puzzles and more like experimenting with different options to determine what works and what doesn't.

The overall quality of the puzzles and combat is decent, but not exceptional. Despite their contribution to the game's momentum-based design, they rarely transcend it. The traditional means of gaining experience and advancing one's character are rarely used in MOTORSLICE. It is not necessary to level up your statistics or unlock complex skill trees; rather, the majority of your progress is determined by the environment and the skills you possess.

In the level design process, new features are gradually incorporated rather than adding new levels.s.

In the form of orb-guiding jobs, some collectibles can be obtained as an optional collectible all across the megastructure. Exploration and mastery of the game's movement controls are encouraged through completing these side tasks. Accurate movement and the ability to solve puzzles are frequently required for them. Even though they aren't required, they give players who want to fully use the moving system an extra reason to do so.

The game's theory is that mastery comes from player skill, not character upgrades, so this simple progression design makes sense. But it also means that there isn't much long-term growth or replay value beyond getting better.

MOTORSLICE's look is a low-poly style that leans toward retro-inspired design while still using current rendering methods. The world that emerges from this feels both polished and empty. The megastructure, composed of intimidating geometric shapes that rise and extend forever, dominates the game's visual identity.

The game looks better because it is simple. It keeps things from getting too crowded, so it's easy to read the movement even when moving quickly. In a world that is mostly empty, environmental contrast, like small patches of greenery or resting areas, feels more important.

That being said, there are some problems with the graphics. Some parts feel like they've been done before, and there isn't much difference in the environments. Running on Unreal Engine 5 also causes performance issues from time to time, based on the settings, but nothing that really ruins the experience.

Sound creation is a big part of what makes MOTORSLICE what it is.

Most of the time, the world is quiet, but there are sounds of machines humming, wind, and light movement. P's breathing and movements become part of the rhythm of traversal, which makes the experience even more real.

The employment of music is uncommon but effective. Particularly during battles and boss fights, tracks with electronic and drum-and-bass influences make things more exciting without being too much for the player to handle. The music, featuring songs from Pizza Hotline and other bands, contributes to the game's energetic atmosphere even amid tense situations. 

It is the actor who plays P who handles the voice acting, and his delivery adds emotional depth to a story that is otherwise placid. The fact that Orbie's replies are mechanical but strangely expressive contributes to the fact that the bond between character and machine is given even more strength.

In MOTORSLICE, mobility is the most important aspect of the game, both in terms of how you move and how you attempt to beat the other players. The game does an excellent job of blending elements from Mirror's Edge, NieR: Automata, and Shadow of the Colossus into a well-rounded experience, despite some flaws. Exciting movement, a profound atmosphere, and moments when the gameplay is truly innovative are all features that are there when everything is functioning well.

Having said that, it does have a few issues. It cannot reach its full potential because the controls for movement are inconsistent, the fighting is easy, the story is not particularly deep, and there are occasional performance issues. Despite this, the game's primary character is compelling enough to carry it through its less noteworthy aspects.

In the end, MOTORSLICE seems like a brave and novel step forward for the people who made it. While it may not be perfect, it is striking, which is often enough to make an independent film worth seeing.