Motorslice | PS5 Review

Ever drive past a construction site and see those giant machines doing difficult labor? You know in your heart they’re menacing, and they can’t be trusted. Obviously, we all know it’s a countdown to the inevitable moment when it’s us versus them. Thankfully, Motorslice allows us to prepare for this unavoidable confrontation.

Rev Your Engines

The setup for Motorslice really is that simple, truth be told. You play as Slicer P sent into a megastructure city to hunt down and destroy Elder machines, which are all advanced construction and cargo equipment. Along the way, you’ll even face down against smaller, simpler machinery.

That’s also all you’ll get in the way of story. Despite being a linear action-adventure harkening back to the Xbox 360 era of games, there are no cutscenes or narrative beats here. The most you get are brief one-on-one asides where P has a quick, meaningless conversation with Orbie (who you also technically play as, since he’s the camera) that tells you nearly nothing about the world or P herself. If you asked me to tell you a single personality trait of P, I would come up with nothing.

Obviously, that will affect others less than it affected me. Personally, it was occasionally difficult to progress through the game’s eight hours with no narrative reward. As fun as the gameplay is, and we’ll get to just how fun it is soon, I’m simply a player that needs a storyline in this genre.

Hop Like a Bunny

Primarily, Motorslice is a platforming traversal game. You’ll wallrun, balance on beams, climb pillars, and more. The game is a linear series of levels in which your skills are put to the test, and put to the test they will be. I was surprised, and delighted, with just how tricky these traversal puzzles became over the length of the game. Things start simple, but every chapter introduces new moves for P and new traps to time your traversal around, and it culminates in a thrilling and exhilarating experience.

Key to the traversal puzzles is the titular mechanic of motorslicing. P comes prepared for her conflicts with a chainsaw sword, and it’s not just for cutting up enemies. There are specific wall types that require you to hold down a button and guide P along a path with her chainsaw weapon. It may sound simple, but when interspersed with the more traditional movement options, it won’t take long for your reflexes and intuition to be put to the test. An absolute highlight of the experience.

Saw Like a Lumberjack

The enemies you face most often in Motorslice are rogue construction equipment. Each one is fairly simple and quick to take down, and they die in a single hit. Now the tricky part is, so do you. It turns the simple combat into a fast and frenetic affair, which really makes it feel like a part of the platforming flow. Hell, the enemies absolutely do become a part of the traversal puzzles as the game progresses. Each enemy type requires a slightly different method to kill, so you’ll be kept on your toes throughout.

Levels always end in a grand fashion, with P facing down an Elder machine. These are huge cargo and construction machinery; think a giant dump truck or cargo helicopter. Boss battles are thrilling and clever, requiring you to quickly figure out the first step, which is even getting onto the machines at all. Then you’ll have to platform along the machines as they’re still moving, scrambling to find the appropriate weak spots to deal damage. I can’t think of a better word to describe them other than simply “awesome.” They are both a spectacle and a thrill.

City Runner

The world in which all of this conflict takes place is a giant megastructure city. It’s a haunting, beautiful cityscape full of impossible architecture and depressing remnants of the life that once was. Something about megastructure art really speaks to me, filling me with a melancholy and dread that reaches deep into my core. Motorslice nails this tone and atmosphere in each of its varied chapters.

Which makes one aspect of the game stick out like a sore thumb. Every fifteen minutes or so, P and Orbie can take a brief aside to talk and rest. These offer no interesting insight into P whatsoever, but good god are they horny. In each scene, you, as Orbie, are offered one of two dialogue options: professional or horny as hell. You can even click on her and make her moan for you if you so decide. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, and listeners of our podcast know I’m a happily horny guy myself, but these felt tonally bizarre within that megastructure atmosphere. I couldn’t tell you a single aspect of P’s personality, but I sure do know what she sounds like when she’s…happy.

Mission Accomplished

Motorslice is a game that harkens back to the era of the PS3/Xbox 360, and I mean that as an absolute compliment. Its gameplay is simple, yet precise. You aren’t bogged down in unnecessary menus, because the game wants to keep you in its flow. It knows better than to overstay its welcome. Of course, I would have liked even a hint of story, but I nonetheless had a good time with Motorslice. If you miss the simpler times of video games, rev up your own chainsaw and check it out.

To hear me talk more about Motorslice, be sure to listen to the May 5th episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy of Motorslice provided by Offbeat for coverage purposes. It is also available on Xbox Series X|S and PC.