The fact that there aren’t more ambitious traversal-focused games like Mirror’s Edge has always baffled me. It seems like everyone agrees that satisfying movement mechanics are great—it’s a big reason why Insomniac’s Spider-Man games are so popular. Even in those games, the traversal is quite shallow and only about half of the equation. Few titles truly let locomotion take center stage. Enter Motorslice, an upcoming, buttery-smooth parkour game releasing on Steam and console on May 5, 2026.
Motorslice follows P, a post-apocalyptic “Slicer” tasked with destroying a group of hostile construction machines in a giant, brutalist megastructure. P doesn’t appear to have been fully briefed about this mission, though she quickly realizes that she’s gotten more than she bargained for in the massive, sprawling, deadly construction zone. Set against this narrative backdrop, Motorslice sees P wielding a hulking, futuristic chainsaw sword as she leaps, climbs, rolls, and slashes her way through various obstacles on the way to the top of the mysterious structure. While it still has a bit to prove, Motorslice certainly looks promising, and it could turn out to be one of the hottest Steam indies of the season.
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Motorslice Is a Weighty, Satisfying Action-Traversal Game
One of the most hotly contested aspects of the Mirror’s Edge series is its first-person perspective. Supporters argue that it lends the games a certain sense of momentum, precision, and intensity that would be absent with a third-person parkour camera. On the other hand, detractors make the case that Mirror’s Edge is less thrilling and rewarding for its first-person view, not to mention its tendency to induce motion sickness. Ultimately, Mirror’s Edge wouldn’t be Mirror’s Edge if it were third-person, but I’d be lying if I said I prefer first-person traversal games over third-person ones, generally speaking.
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Motorslice isn’t quite Mirror’s Edge (it’s not set in a plausible urban environment, for one thing), but it’s definitely pulling some of the same moves. Everything in the game is physics-based rather than animation-based; in contrast, parkour in games like Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted is mostly animation-based, which results in that “on-rails” feeling. Games like Super Meat Boy and Super Mario Odyssey are physics-based, allowing for more freedom, but also more consequence, as it’s far easier to fail. But it’s also easier to improvise, experiment, and pull off genuinely cool maneuvers without hand-holding.
Like Mirror’s Edge, Motorslice’s movement is carried by a few basic moves, like a wall run, slide, vault, and climb. These abilities are simple and relatively grounded, setting them apart from the fantastical or physically impossible abilities of 3D platforming mascots like Mario, Donkey Kong, and Crash Bandicoot. Well, Motorslice’s traversal kit isn’t completely grounded: P does have some more outlandish moves, including the ability to zip up or across certain flat surfaces by using the aforementioned chainsaw sword. This goes hand-in-hand with the game’s other core design pillar: epic-scale boss battles.
There’s More to Motorslice Than Movement Mechanics
Something especially interesting about Motorslice is its version of Shadow of the Colossus-style boss fights. As part of P’s Slicer contract, she has to fell a total of eight enormous, hostile construction machines a la The Surge. However, these machines are so mammoth in proportion to P that she has to climb them as she would any other part of the massive structure, occasionally even using her chainsaw-wallride to damage large components–thus the Shadow of the Colossus comparisons. Other parallels include Solar Ash, which blends smooth movement with Colossus-inspired battles, and Breath of the Wild, whose hulking Divine Beasts are more than a little similar to Motorslice’s mechanized monsters. These showdowns are exciting and promising, if difficult to design, so fingers crossed that Motorslice developer Regular Studio can pull it off.
Less exhilarating are the game’s standard enemy encounters. There’s a certain novelty to these battles (enemies are semi-adorable, vicious, autonomous construction machines), but they also come off as slightly pedestrian, mechanically speaking. P only has some basic attacks and parries, but if Motorslice can include some strong enemy variety or creative battle setpieces, then this shouldn’t matter as much.
Motorslice also features a very slick, brain-massage-inducing drum-and-bass soundtrack courtesy of gaming-influenced electronic artist Pizza Hotline, which helps support the game’s “immaculate vibes,” to borrow a phrase from Motorslice’s own Steam page.
At the end of the day, though, traversal is probably what will make Motorslice sink or soar. According to Regular Studio, the game will provide a campaign of around ten hours, which is arguably the perfect length for this sort of game: here’s hoping that those ten hours are filled with consistently strong and evolving movement, and at least a few impressive, colossal boss battles. An honest crack at a deep combat system would be a nice surprise too, even if that’s not what I would generally expect from this sort of release.
