Motte Island is a top down survival horror game that took some inspiration from the classic Resident Evil/Silent Hill. Since there aren't many top-down horror games I can think of (or any at all, really), it's hard to compare it to any specific game. My playtime was about 5 hours, but on average it'd probably take around 3-5 hours to complete.

The story, atmosphere, and music are actually pretty decent for a $5 retail priced game (which you can get even cheaper during a sale). The script has a lot of broken english in it, it can mostly be understood but all of it could have been easily fixed before release if they had anyone with a decent understanding of english on the dev team. The broken english can cause some of the objectives to be a tad bit confusing, because they aren't explained fully.

Most of the enemies have some fairly unique designs to them. If you're terrified of bugs.. then you probably shouldn't play this game as a great deal of the monsters are designed based on them. This actually made the game creepier to me, since I'm not a fan of insects lol.

The combat could use a lot of work. You can only equip one weapon at a time, and there's no option to store them, so if you want a new weapon, you have to drop your old one. This can be frustrating when you want to use a gun. There are 3 guns (pistol, shotgun, rifle), and all 3 have very limited ammo. 2 of the guns aren't that easy to find, and I couldn't find the pistol in my playthrough. I don't think there's more than 30 rounds for each gun in the game, and the guns seemed pretty useless against normal enemies (they're alright for boss fights.. but there aren't many situations you'd use them in). There are 2 FPS sequences that seem really forced, so the game isn't entirely top-down.

Game is very dependent on stealth. If you sneak up on an enemy from behind and melee them, it's a one hit kill. This is the best way to play the game as it takes much longer to kill an enemy if you're spotted. I personally stuck with the machette and samurai sword for most of the game.. There is a decent variety of melee weapons in the game, but I found that quick charge attack + fast normal attack is the best combination (for me at least), so most of the other weapons weren't as useful.

Navigation can be somewhat frustrating, as there's no map of the island in the game. This is silly, because some of the buildings have maps for them, which have a much simpler layout, but the maps that you do find can't be saved to your inventory.. so you basically have to memorize them. At one point in the game, I got stuck for a while because I couldn't find the cemetery. If I had a map, that wouldn't have been an issue. Another feature that wasn't polished is the health bar, it covers the entire bottom of the screen. Surely they could have made it noticeable enough while taking up less screen space.

Overall, if you love survival horror I'd recommend giving the game a shot, just set your expectations low. I probably would have paid a dollar for it if I hadn't gotten it for free.

EDIT: This review is based on the first build of the game, any future updates aren't represented in my review.

Okay, I'm gonna do something I don't normally do, and write a review before playing this game to its conclusion. I just can't help myself, I feel inspired. Or, in Motte-speak: "Help myself I can't, I feel inspire."

The first problem with this game is the apparent lack of anyone on the design team who can speak English. This I don't mind, but surely someone in their broader social circle could have offered to do a quick proof-read of the game before releasing it commercially to the world at large?

Hell, they could've asked the average six year-old on the internet. Pretty sure THEY would've worked out by now that "Maids are fight each other but suddenly stopped and tremble in the presence of Sarah" isn't a proper sentence. You do get used to it, though; we've all seen the Star Wars films, after all. It's just a shame that Yoda-speak isn't exactly conducive to maintaining a mood of spooky unease. But this is hardly the game's biggest impediment to greatness.

The 2D, top-down perspective in a horror game is a brilliant idea. And when this game gets dark, and the flashlight comes out, it's definitely some eerie ♥♥♥♥. But in broad daylight the character animations look, well, about as good as those in Hotline Miami.

The only thing is, Hotline Miami was an incredibly fast-paced, splatter-happy ode to visual crudeness and uber-difficulty which seemed to know precisely what it was trying to achieve. Which WASN'T "scaring" you...which, granted, this game still does surprisingly well at times, mostly on account of the aforementioned flashlight effect and the frankly awesome soundtrack. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the super-disturbing soundtrack pretty much SAVES this game at times.

What about the gameplay, you ask? Well, it's nice enough, especially if you're a fan of action-adventure orientated "survival horror" games of the Silent Hill / Resident Evil ilk, as I surely am. But there's a LOT of back-tracking, and after a while you get good enough at simply AVOIDING the endlessly-respawning nasties, and the combat is mostly a case of finding one good, accurate spot to stand and mashing the mouse buttons.

I even managed to kill the first Boss with a baseball bat, 'cause I haven't yet managed to pick up a gun despite all the bullets I'm now carrying. I mean, I keep killing bad guys carrying guns which they shoot at me, but for some reason my character seems uninterested in picking any of these pistols up. I assume I haven't missed an all-important gun placement elsewhere, but I'm not even sure it matters if I have, since I can apparently kick Boss butt well enough with a melee weapon.

Just in case it's sounding like I'm not digging this game, let me assure you that I actually am. And I'm assuming it's not gonna be the longest game in history, so I probably WILL see it through to its conclusion.

What am I gonna find there? Well, probably nothing too great story-wise, 'cause despite some early promise the story seems to be getting sillier by the hour. But it's got mood aplenty, despite the aforementioned problems, and the moth-y motifs and mysterious island setting certainly make for good horror fodder.

I think it might be overly generous to say that this gets three-quarters of the way to its potential, but let's be nice and say it gets two-thirds of the way. Hence the number below, slightly rounded up in the interests of encouraging future product from these admittedly promising designers.

Happy bug-swatting.

Verdict: 7.5/10.

Motte Island is a low-fi horror game, with a top-down perspective. Your objective is to go into Motte Island to save your sister from the townsfolk, and uncover whatever secrets they were hiding.

You'll probably be able to finish the game in 3 or 4 hours, and while there are different endings, it does not warrant a replay, since the endings are merely decided by the final section of the game. There are collectible photos spread around, though, each providing a cutscene for you to learn more about the island.


Presentation
As I said, this is a very low fidelity game, especially regarding its artstyle. The goodside is that low-fi actually works great with horror games! While everything is low-res, dark and full of blurry fog, it sets a nice atmosphere, and lets your mind piece in what's missing.
However, it's not a pretty game at all, on the contrary, it's quite ugly. Lone Survivor or even Home, were low-fi, but still weren't as ugly and Motte Island is. But overall, I think it sets the tone, and achieves its purpose!
Animation is very limited as well, which is more noticeable in the cutscenes, but it's not a big deal in the whole scheme of things.

The sound design in general was pretty good, actually! Everything worked towards the same atmosphere, and there was also a more oppressive track whenever you were engaged in battle. Unfortunately, the track was always the same, which got tiresome at times.
There were also a couple of jump-scares thrown in, but were quite repetitive, losing its effect.
The enemies didn't sound very scary, but all of the other ambience sounds were good.
It's not perfect, but taking its scope into account, I think it comes out as a positive, and helps the game!




So far so good! Now comes my reasoning for not recommending this game.
I see what it's trying to do, but similarly to Eleusis, the game itself is not interesting at all. It has a great atmosphere, but lacks purpose and place to use that atmosphere in.
Most of the time, you'll be traveling around the island (which is essentially just a small village), collecting random items. And, very much like Eleusis, they force you to go back and forth several times while you could easily collect several items at once. (These also blend in with the ground, at times, making them very hard to see... this, of course, increases frustration when you're just constantly walking around, not sure what you're looking for)

While you have (supposedly) 3 guns in the game, I only found one, and even that was necessary to the story and not through exploration. What I did find, was a bunch of ammo that I didn't get to use... And some enemies also carried guns that you couldn't pick up, for some unknown reason. Missed chance.
This means that I've only used melee weapons for the whole game. Think of it as Hotline Miami. But instead of the very fast in-and-out, twitch gameplay, each enemy requires several hits to die (you have light/heavy attacks, but the heavy are mostly for stealth), so you'll just hit them and backing off repeatedly. A more reliable way of doing it, is using stealth. You can approach enemies from behind, and kill them in 1 hit.
... or you can just run away from them. Why would you do it? Because they respawn. Yes, every time you enter/exit an area, the enemies respawn. This really does defeat the tension. There's a lot of pointless fighting, and not much fear. While I did kill them at first, I eventually just started running away since fighting was pointless and laborious. While there is a decent number of weapons, they all play similarly, so it's not exactly a positive.

So yeah. The atmosphere is completely wasted on shores and backtracking, as well as too much "safe" combat.


Aside from this main gameplay, there also 2 other sections: a side-scroller, and a cover-based fps.
In the first, you "drive" a car, while obstacles come down from the top of the screen. This was the most disorienting experience I've had with gaming in a loooong time. Everything happened too fast, with the obstacles sending you flying to the sides... Jesus... I'm not even sure it was possible to fail. I was hitting almost everything (it was unpleasant) but eventually go through with it.
Then, there's the fps sections. One functions as a mini horde mode, and the other as a Boss fight. You can shoot, and you can be in cover, reloading. It wasn't very good either. The hit detections, specially, was not very tight. And there were always enemies spawning in the limits of the screen. In the last boss fight it was especially bad...
These two sections are extremely forced and have no place in the game, to be honest. I understand "variety", but come one!...


One last aspect I want to mention, is the story/writing. It's... bad. And I'm not talking about the number of grammatical errors (quite a lot), but the actual story and characters. The plot is completely senseless. For example, the villagers act like a bunch of maniacs, but suddenly, they're not the bad guys because everything goes to s***. It makes no sense how they're portrayed. It's a very artificial way of making you dislike them. And that would be fine, if they didn't change their minds halfway through. By then, how could I side with the villagers?
My actions from that point onwards made no sense, which threw the story out the window. The dialogue is also pretty cheesy, but hey...


I'm sounding really negative here. To be completely honest, I did enjoy the game during the first 2 hours. It was cool, the atmosphere immersed me more than I was expecting, and everything was well, while I was exploring the village. Unfortunately, it then started just going in circles, and then introduced very rushed mechanics, ruining the overall experience.
I can see what it was trying to do, and it's unfortunate that it simply didn't get there quite yet. But it has a couple of good aspects about it, so I'll look forward to their next game. Hopefuly, they'll learn from mistakes and make much more competent experiences!

It's hard to recommend this game. It has great potential.
5.5/10

Pros:
1. I liked the art style.
2. Cool monster designs.
3. Somewhat interesting story (what little there is)
4. Great atmosphere

Cons:
1. The graphic design could use an update and improvements.
2. Action was tedious and monotenous.
3. Dialogue needs proof-read.
4. The storyline could use some beefing-up
5. Overall length could easily be increased

This game has potential. It needs multiple improvements. With the idea behind the game, art style, and atmosphere it has a great start. It just needs some extra love to push it to excellence.

Awesomeness "Hotline Miami meets Silent Hill" it's beautiful, terrifying, never boring, fun, atmospheric. Motte Island is a title you waited for, trust me this is a game you will never forget.

No, I cannot recommend this game. It has potential, but controlling the character with the keyboard or the steam controller is a pain (he does not face the right direction on his own), the game is repetitive and the soundtrack, which begins well, ends up being annoying (same goes for the sound effects). The game also has grammar errors and a story that is told in a childish way, as the writer's first language is not English.
If it had more polish, this game would be worth my time. As it is, I've had enough.

Motte Island is a game I wish I could recommend without reservations, but unfortunately there are many aspects that end up bringing down what could have been a much more enjoyable experience. Hence this review should be understood as a very guarded recommendation (and yet another borderline case that highlights the need for a "neutral" button for these reviews).

An indie game through and through, the light shining through the cracks in Motte Island's surface reveals a bigger ambition that felt short of realization. The gameplay could be described as a crossbreed of Resident Evil with the top-down perspective and the combat sytem of a simplified Hotline Miami, while the familiar plot rehashes basically every Lovecraftian-esque horror adventure ever made. The story is paper-thin and predictable, stretching itself to allow for a number of fetch quests typical of the genre. Apart from some nice lighting effects, the graphics and animation are crude, and the sight of the main character just sliding through the screen makes for a jarring initial impression.

So far it all sounds pretty dire. Why the positive rating then? What did I find enjoyable about the game? Well, quite a few things, actually. With the right state of mind and expectations in check (and let me stress how important this is when approaching any indie game in general) there's fun to be had here. There is a simple purity to this game that feels refreshing. Yes, the graphics are primitive, but the developer added some neat effects that really add to the horror experience. Watch those creepy corrupted flies invade your screen, or jump at the shadows darting in the corner. The plot may be overly familiar, but the setting is not: instead of the overused Cthulhu stuff we face a strange breed of moth-like demons. Meanwhile, the challenge is set at a very forgivable level and thankfully the bosses are not impossible, so the story can be experienced at a rather leisurely pace. There are also some static first-person sequences that break up the monotony of the top-down perspective (the lockpicking micro-game, however, felt unnecessary).

Charm aside, the game does feel rough around the edges. The poor writing can be excused, but the typos and the bad grammar are unacceptable in this day and age, especially when you're creating a game that conveys its backstory mainly through books and documents. I encountered a couple of bugs that were thankfully solvable by quitting and restarting the game. The combat is barebones and unsatisfying. Disconcertingly, in my playthrough I wasn't able to find a gun (except for the mandatory one) despite bumping into ammunition at every corner, and while there are a variety of melee weapons available, they all felt pretty similar in terms of damage output.

All things considered, my final verdict tilts slightly towards the positive, therefore this review. What we have here is a classic, short horror story which may have little in the way of surprises but that provides a modicum of entertainment. Approach the game with a casual mindset and you might find yourself enjoying it more than you probably should. I did.

wow the suspense, this game is hoinestly one of the best horror games I have played in a long time. The puzzles are fun, the combat is great, and the enemy design is fantastic.

There's a pretty big asterix behind my recommendation for this game. It is fun. It has some memoriable moments. It has a pretty good atmosphere. But I don't think I'm going to finish this game. There are two peevs that I've come across in my hour of playing. 1: Enemies respawn when you leave the screen, but weapons don't. 2: There seem to be some bugs going around. No, not the monsters. I stopped playing because my instruction was to find a phone in the police station and I checked every phone but no further instrunction ever came up. I get it, they don't work. I knew that before I checked them, but what am I supposed to do now? I don't want to wander aimlessely around infinity monsters when my machette was taken away.

Besides that, I'm still recommending this game because it was cheap, indie, and I honestly enjoyed the playtime I had. If I feel like bothering to check the forums for direction, I may even try playing again.

Scale: 1=despised 2=negative 3=could go either way 4=positive 5=loved
Game design: 4/5 I haven't played a top down game in forever, but I like the idea of a top down survival horror. Very interesting and it seems to work well. Too bad there seems to be some potentially game breaking bugs. Maybe? I honestly didn't try very hard to see if it was a bug or if I'm just missing something.

Tone: 3/5 I get scared easily, and I do find the game creepy. The dark scares me, because I'm a pansy, and there are jump scares, but they don't feel cheap. It's like, "ah, there's a monster- oh ♥♥♥♥, they're overe here now!". I saw it coming, and I still was surprised. Unfortunately, the story isn't really giving me any inspiration, and the engrish descriptions aren't helping things.

Personal skew: 3/5 I don't think I can speak for a lot of people about this game. Not really my genre, but I think the game is pretty transparent in it's advertising. You probably knew if you were going to enjoy it or not before you played it.

I don't enjoy giving a thumbs down to what seems like an honest indie effort, and while there is plenty to like here, it ultimately wasn't an enjoyable experience.
The first bit during the day seemed very promising, but as soon as it turns into nighttime and the meat of the game should begin, it turns into a slog. The graphics are simple, which is fine, but everything also looks very flat and hard to tell apart, making it very dull and confusing to navigate in the dark. Exploration is punished way more than it is encouraged let alone rewarded, and you're way more likely to run into several terrible, monotonous fights than find anything useful or interesting to look at. The enemies also respawn every time you leave the screen so what is even the point. Plus if you die you're very likely to completely break the game in unfixable ways, which happened to me twice in one hour.
In the end, even if the story seemed intriguing, you're left with not much to do and not many reasons to keep pushing through.