Published by CraePlay, MOTE: The Manuscript is the latest walking simulator that follows a similar formula as MOTE: Workshop and MOTE: The Old Office. This time, instead of moving through a carpenter’s workshop or an empty office building, the player moves through a confusing maze that is frustrating and not fun to decipher.
Other than moving/looking with the analog sticks, the only other option is the ability to jump. Point being, there is no way to die, and the goal is to simply move from one narration injection point to the next. The problems that plagued the previous games continue here: the camera is placed about one inch off the ground, there is no option to invert the camera making the game unplayable to inverters like me, and the main menu has unnecessary mouse point controls for some reason. I actually started to get motion sickness after playing for a while thanks to the fast and non-invertable camera.
The worst part is simply navigating the environment. Unlike the open floor plans of the previous games, making it easy to identify key monuments in the distance, Manuscript tasks the player with navigating a very confusing maze. Without any sort of radar or map system, finding where to go is next to impossible, especially with so many tight turns and corridors. Making matters worse, the entire game is outfitted with the same gray, paint-smeared texture. Since every wall, floor, and corner looks the same without any color, traversing this maze is a lesson in frustration.
There is no direction on where to do or what to do. Eventually, a voice will just start talking, mumbling some nonsense that is trying to be deeply philosophical, locking the player in place for these unskippable scenes. Sometimes the player must then complete an arbitrary task, like pushing pieces on a giant chess board, to unlock one of the red optional collectables, but completing these is mostly built around trial and error instead of the game providing any sort of clues or direction.
Like the previous games in the series, this adventure is brief and is the all the better for it. The good news is, the three playable stages are selectable from the main menu so you don’t need to play through the first two stages to replay the third. The final stage does the most interesting things with the simple gameplay, whereas the second is the most difficult and frustrating to navigate, but there isn’t much reason to suffer through this low-cost digital download unless you want to snag a few easy Trophies.
SCORE: 3/10
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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