Splice – Warning: Lots of Science

You enter a microbial mini universe where exploration and experimentation are key, and structural awareness is crucial. It’s time for you to resequence, mutate, and splice your way through a unique puzzle experience.

Looks Simple Enough!

As soon as you press play, you get inside the world of Splice. The point of the game is simple; to solve the correct pattern to place the cells back together. Even though you get no tutorial, you can sort out for yourself what you have to do. You start with a simple puzzle of 3 pieces, by pressing the parts of the cell you get to see how the cell splits and how it reacts depending on the different sections you touch. In order to move through stages, you need to make sure the cell looks exactly like the outline and the only way to do that is by trial and error. Besides the outline, once you click a segment of the cell particle, an outline of the places where you can move that segment is shown, but the only real way to know if it’s right or wrong is by actually moving it to the spots you think the segment will go.

Splice provides seven sequences and each sequence is compromise of levels, in total you will be solving around 49 uniquely design puzzles. Splice wants you to experiment and try out new ways to solve the puzzle so there’s no penalty for taking more than the required number of splices, keep in mind that the level is not complete until you increase your efficiency. If you run out of tries, you are also given a rewind feature which will undo your work completely letting you try once again. This feature will eventually come in handy when the game starts introducing mutant cells such as splitters, which copy everything following them in sequence; clones, which generate an additional child; and bombs, which terminate themselves and all their children. There are more twists and turns to this game including an additional 28 strand epilogue.

Cipher Prime is mainly known for its game called Auditorium, in which you redirect and manipulate light waves in order to make music but the game had to be so precise that gamers find themselves frustrated. Cipher Prime does it right with Splice, forming bonds in Splice is literally just a point and click option and each strand is small enough to be solved in a single sitting. Even though the game is simple enough for your casual gamers to enjoy, hardcore gamers who love the puzzle genre can be challenged by the complexity and science-y the game truly is.

Spoke too soon….

All of the puzzles are accompanied by a simple color scheme background as well as a beautiful piano music that stays continuous as you progress through the sequences. Whenever I have time to kill before going to work, I find myself enjoying a level in Splice. Even though, Splice provides you with enough puzzles to keep you busy for some time, Splice will eventually have an end once you solve all of the puzzles. Although a level creator might be a nice addition to Splice, I believe that there is a point in the game where cells tend to get under your skin.

Splice can be found on Steam with achievements, cloud saving, and SteamPlay support for $9.99 or you can also grab the Soundtrack Edition for $12.99 which features the game plus the Splice soundtrack. If you don’t like Steam or don’t have an account, Splice is also available through the Cipher Prime Store for both Mac and PC.

Splice is not for everyone, if you are into puzzles and science then you will find Splice to be a great addition to your Steam Library.