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.

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.