Game Info
GAME NAME: Splice
DEVELOPER(S): Cipher Prime
PUBLISHER(S): Cipher Prime
PLATFORM(S): PlayStation 4
GENRE(S): Puzzle
RELEASE DATE(S): January 20th, 2015
Splice is a puzzle game developed by indie developer Cipher Prime. The original puzzle title first came out for PC, Ipad and Andriod back in 2012. Cipher Prime has now optimized the experienced and released their successful game on the PlayStation 3 and Playstation 4 platforms.
First I would like to say about this game is that it doesn’t hold your hand when being first introduced to it, which is something that I loved and makes it a real puzzle to play. In the game, you will progress through 77 levels by rearranging groups of cells into target structures. You have limited moves to make the structure and if you use the fewest amount of moves there are some cool achievements to unlock. Later in the game as you progress you will encounter power up cells with different abilities. For example, one will multiply cells and another will destroy some of the cells.
The levels progress to get harder of course and at times you will spend up to 10 minutes on just one puzzle. Unfortunately, the one draw back I had from the game was that all the structures I spent so much time on building didn’t come together to make one big structure. There is no multiplayer modes to the game which isn’t really a drawback because the single player is enthralling. The only idea I can see of a multiplayer mode would be to see who could create the structure faster.
The controls are pretty basic when moving each of the cells around. It feels similar to a drag and drop kind of motion and if you’ve decided that you put the cell in the wrong spot or want to check over your work you can rewind your moves with L1 or L2. You can also go back to where you were by hitting the R1 or R2 buttons. There is also a pretty cool effect that happens when you reverse your time or go forward and also effects the music as to going slower or faster.
The soundtrack is pretty smoothing and relaxing which helped me to focus while playing. Nothing stands out for graphics and it really shouldn’t for this game because there isn’t much to do besides build a structure at a time with circles.
The Recommendation
If you are big on puzzle games and you want something that is a challenge and will keep your interest on solving every puzzle in the less amount of moves as possible, I would highly recommend this game. There is really nothing to it besides puzzles and soft music to move you along. It is very challenging and at first when you may look at it be like “damn how can I solve this?” but give it time and be patient and you will be able to solve all 77 puzzles.
