Sunrise Parabellum MotionRec Review

Sooo I finished MotionRec a few days ago, 100% completion with all musical notes, in a bit under 9 hours. Time to review it :) The game made a great first impression on me from the start. I really liked the pixel art style and it was full of sweet small details. From the animations of our character to the environment in general, everything feels carefully put together. The soundtrack and the sound design work are very impressive here and just tell me how much love and care were put into this. I appreciated the little sound effects, the environmental noises and even the way the music shifts between recording/normal play.. which add a lot to the atmosphere. ANd the best part is that it feels really intentional, like, sound isn't just decoration but rather part of the experience as a whole. Now that I'm done talking about the art, let's move to the core gameplay and this is where MotionRec really shines. You only have a few buttons: move left and right, jump, record + play.. aaand that's it. And yet the game gets an impressive amount of depth out of those tools. The core loop is simple to understand and encourages creativity and experimentation. New ideas are introduced at a steady pace so things never feel stale. The level design is another aspect of the game that impressed me a lot and somewhat reminded me of Portal. Each puzzle feels thoughtfully built and the difficulty curve is well handled. I also liked the pacing. The game doesn't rush you and respect your time and mental energy. The short sections between chapters act as a breather. They give you a moment to relax, think back on what you just did, and decide if you want to stop or push on for one more chapter. Around the later chapters, the game becomes more complex and asks for more thinking and testing before things click, but it never felt unfair. I felt genuinely challenged and I was constantly having those "aha" or "that's so smart" kind of moments. I never felt the need to look up solutions online. The only thing I checked was how many keys were in a level, just to be sure I hadn't missed one. Some of the hidden keys are very well concealed and add an extra layer of challenge for completionists (like me). If I had to point out a minor drawback, it's that in a few rare cases, the solution I found felt messy and chaotic and overly complicated. It worked, but it didn't feel like the intended way to solve the puzzle. That said, this happened very rarely and didn't hurt my overall experience. If anything, it shows how flexible the mechanics can be, even if it occasionally feels a bit janky x) In the end, I had a great time with MotionRec. I think it's one of the best puzzle games I have ever played, thanks to its strong game and level design, clear visual identity and excellent sound work. But more than that, it's the small details that stand out and you can feel that the developers and designers cared about this project. There's a kind of warmth to it. It makes me curious about what HANDSUM will do next, and it's also a nice reminder that the puzzle game genre still has plenty of room for fresh ideas built on simple mechanics done right.