The first week of May on Steam has been a surprisingly fertile ground for fresh, inventive concepts. While 'Everything is Crab' launched to immediate acclaim, and musical ventures like 'Dead as a Disco' and the narrative-driven 'Mixtape' found their audience, one title with a particularly distinct aesthetic caught our eye: 'Motorslice'.

Motorslice is a quirky action title that marries high-octane parkour with the visceral joy of chainsaw combat. You step into the boots of a girl named 'P', navigating treacherous obstacles and carving through foes. She is a member of an exclusive guild known as the 'Slicers', tasked with, quite literally, slicing through every mechanical behemoth she encounters—everyone, that is, except for her trusty spherical drone companion, 'Orby'.

To be fair, the world-building is a bit threadbare. We are dropped into a world inexplicably overrun by colossal construction machinery. Think of it as a post-apocalyptic construction site; the enemies and the environments are entirely themed around this industrial decay, with cities constructed of cold steel girders and raw concrete. You'll be fending off excavators, loaders, and cranes—the usual heavy-duty suspects.

In this bleak urban landscape, P—clad in an orange jumpsuit reminiscent of a construction worker—wields her oversized chainsaw sword with gusto. The core gameplay loop leans heavily into parkour. It’s a bit like 'Mirror's Edge' in that you’ll be wall-running, vaulting, and swinging from steel bars with a surprising amount of fluidity.

Combat is a trifecta of evasion, light attacks, and heavy strikes. You can make short work of smaller enemies by rapidly swinging your saw-blade, and if you time your strikes against incoming projectiles, you’ll trigger a satisfying parry animation. The heavy attack, meanwhile, requires a bit of a charge, but it’s powerful enough to shatter enemies even while they are in the middle of their own offensive manoeuvres.

Then there’s the mechanic that gives the game its name: the 'Motorslice'. This allows you to plunge your chainsaw sword into metallic surfaces and zip across them at breakneck speeds. It feels strikingly similar to the way Denji uses his chains in 'Chainsaw Man' to traverse walls and floors. Essentially, it’s your primary tool for defying gravity and covering vast distances.

The Motorslice mechanics take on a different flavour during boss encounters. You’ll face colossal mechanical bosses that evoke memories of 'Shadow of the Colossus'. They may have health bars, but don't be fooled; you’ll need to utilise platforming to reach their weak points. You’ll use the Motorslice to latch onto them, shaving off their health as you grind along their plating. It’s a clever way to blend traversal and combat into a single, cohesive act.

Beyond the action, the game adds flavour through 'idling' and collecting 'Orby' drones. The latter is your standard hidden-object challenge; collect these floating spheres and deposit them at a save point. The catch? If you die before reaching a checkpoint, you lose them all. They act as a secondary health bar, though they don't grant extra perks or items upon completion.

The 'idling' feature is essentially an interactive downtime where P chats with Orby. Let’s just say there’s a distinct ‘fan service’ vibe here—the camera lingers in specific places, P reacts with embarrassment if you stare too long, and Orby’s dialogue feels a bit too forward. They’ve even hired a professional female voice actor to ensure the characterisation is, shall we say, quite deliberate.

Motorslice is currently sitting at 'Very Positive' on Steam with an 88% approval rating. Players are saying things like, "The art and atmosphere turn a construction site into a brilliant post-apocalyptic arena," "A 'Chainsaw Girl' who shreds enemies with style," and "The protagonist's reactions are cute, though the developer's specific tastes are quite apparent."