Slice of P
In the world of MOTORSLICE, much like in NieR: Automata, humanity waged war against machines. The world was destroyed, and special individuals called Slicers continue to fight. The game begins with Slicer P's arrival at a megastructure.
Great attention is paid to the heroine. The developers animated her reaching out before obstacles, standing at a ledge, stretching, shielding her eyes from the light. In tense moments, she breathes heavily, and in cold rooms, she exhales steam. P can take selfies, get embarrassed if you point the camera at her. If you bother her in the main menu, she will close the game.
P is accompanied by an orb-drone, whom she affectionately named Orby. Orby is supposed to illuminate the surroundings, target enemies, and hack platforms. The drone is physically present in the game: sand gets into its lens, which is removed by "blinking," and P can destroy it in the heat of battle. P often takes breaks, during which Orby is free to aggressively flirt with her. But the choice of dialogue isn't particularly important, as P only hears "beep-boop."
Movement takes place within a megastructure that lives up to its name. It's a monumental accumulation of floors, where moving to the next level makes you gasp at the sheer scale of the environment. The megastructure's design resembles the environments from Mirror's Edge, with the caveat of being dilapidated and covered in tons of sand.
The magnificent sound design enhances the experience. The sound differs indoors and outdoors. Different surfaces produce distinct and rich sounds during movement and combat. Powerful gusts of wind can be heard at high altitudes. However, the music in the game is not abundant and quickly becomes repetitive.
The megastructure is inhabited by a meager set of hostile construction equipment:
- Excavators fight on the principle of "if I don't know what I'm doing, then neither do you";
- Flying octopuses shoot saws;
- Rollers are practically harmless.
Except for the excavators, all enemies kill with one hit. If the gods of randomness smile upon you, the skirmish will end quickly. To advance, you need to destroy all enemies, who may be hiding in the nooks and crannies of the local levels.
Bosses await at the top of each level. The battles resemble Shadow of the Colossus, where the hero (in this case, the heroine) must climb onto bosses and destroy them piece by piece.
To destroy bosses, P must climb onto the monsters and cut all vulnerable spots. After being cut, the bosses do not become less dangerous. But once you climb on them, most will be defenseless — just stand and see where to go next. And the trusty binoculars will show the spots that haven't been cut yet.
Before cutting, you'll have to be cunning to get closer, avoid attacks, and put the enemy at a disadvantage. Some boss attacks can be parried, but story-wise, this is bad for P's health.
Chainsaw Girl
P has almost the entire set of movements of the Prince from Prince of Persia: she runs and jumps on walls, slides and rolls, climbs poles and cracks, swings on crossbars. Alas, she doesn't control time. Her skills help her climb and avoid traps: saws, mines, blades, swinging pipes. You'll have to ascend using air currents, which is clunky and inconvenient.
It's easy to get lost in the megastructure. Orange objects and marks on the walls help with direction, but periodically they lead to dead ends. Orb-drones are hidden in the levels, which can be collected. Some are collected in bundles and within a limited time. They are supposed to protect, but most enemies, all traps, and gravity kill P with or without them. At such moments, you get angry because you strayed from the main route for useless junk.
The girl runs and jumps not "where you clicked," but where she's looking — you have to watch both the environment and where she's facing. P is light, and she takes a long time to stop after landing. She can't hang from a ledge (like the Prince does). And the main enemy of parkour is the camera. Because of it, you won't see the whole path and obstacles in time — you have to memorize the route. Along with the camera angle, the direction also changes, making it easy to jump in the wrong direction.
P wields a chainsaw vigorously. It's mainly needed for parkour: moving up and sideways on orange walls (slicing) and interspersing this with running on ordinary walls. You'll have to change direction, and P slices where she's looking. It's quite a task to make her turn around in the air in time. The chainsaw is also needed to push objects to climb higher and disarm mines.
Diagnosis
In MOTORSLICE, you never cease to be amazed at how gigantic everything in the game is. Completing each level feels like a great achievement, and running and jumping on heights rewards you with adrenaline. It's very satisfying to cut bosses and make your way into their insides. And the plot is so strange that you start waiting for a sequel — hoping that it will answer the accumulated questions.
But for enjoyment, you'll have to get used to the local controls. This is a slow and nerve-wracking process that will take several hours. Before that, unsuccessful jumps will result in dozens (or even hundreds) of deaths. And after each one, you just want to say: "But I pressed it!"