MOTORSLICE

Overall, I enjoyed this game but it's not without flaws. The atmosphere is great and I love the level design. It never gets old climbing out of a level and being able to look down and see everywhere you've been and the bosses you've killed. The story is barebones; you'll be left with a lot of questions at the end but I prefer that to the storytelling that hits you over the head with plot points. The music is chill and the vibes are right. Let's talk about the problems. The controls are just not there especially for a platformer. Motorslicing (the game's namesake) is flashy but atrocious to actually use. It's finicky and more often than not I fell to my death because the game decided I wasn't angled exactly right. The game has very few controls and I feel like they could have used more buttons. Something like making X motorslice horizontally and Y motorslice vertically (Xbox) would go a long way to making it more consistent to execute. Do we really need dedicated camera zoom button? Or a camera switch button? (or blink button?) At least put those on joystick click and leave the triggers for more important functions. Also there's no in-game button re-mapping. Next the game camera. It generally does a good job but there are bits (like Motorslicing) where it tries to help you out by locking to a specific point. This would be nice... if it was where I wanted the camera. I can't count the number of times I died because a Motorslice section ended just around a corner and I didn't know it was coming because I couldn't see it. Here again is where having important actions on triggers matters since I can't control the camera while I'm busy pressing/holding face buttons. Backtracking/save points. I understand the usefulness in guiding the player by limiting their ability to backtrack, but with collectables off the beaten path I found it really frustrating not knowing which path was the "correct" path forward and which was for optional for collectibles. I was trying to collect them all but on more than one occasion I chose incorrectly and got locked out of going back. In one instance, I managed to abuse some parkour to backtrack anyway. I feel like having some way to go backwards even outside of game like re-loading to a specific checkpoint would make this less painful. On the topic of save points, I really appreciated the mostly generous save point system. But again with collectibles, the off path locations are often far from the last save. The collectibles are also generally harder to reach than the main path, so you fail more often. This leads to a lot of repeated running that serves no purpose. I would honestly prefer if every time I fell to my death, I just respawned right on that same ledge. It saves me time and doesn't really take away from the challenge of some sections where you don't touch the ground for long stretches. I have a few more minor gripes but I won't list them. It may sound like I'm being harsh on the game but I want to close this out by saying I really did enjoy this game and I do like it. I just think that with a bit of polish it could be truly excellent and I would love to see that happen! Here's hoping to future updates!