Splice is a puzzle game in which you reposition cells in order to line up with an outline and create a biochemical strand. Cells are constrained by various rules and special cells such as those which duplicate or delete themselves, and it's in thinking around these that the puzzles are formed. There is a lot of playing with perspectives and intentionally attempting to overwhelm the player to mask a simple solution, which fluctuates between satisfying challenging and infuriating, with little middle ground and wild inconsistency.

Ultimately Splice's saving grace is also its downfall, and the same as virtually every game by developer Cypher Prime I've yet played, as they opt for a significant amount of style to make up for a lack in substance. The presentation is immensely cinematic, making great use of shifting planes and colors as you move from level to level, all complimented by an absolutely gorgeous piano score. It's a beautifully artistic game, but unfortunately I never found the puzzles remotely as well constructed. On the contrary, by the end I was fuming over some of the more difficult ones, and was more than happy when I was finally finished. Much of Splice's design seems dependent on confusing the player, but after a point this becomes immensely frustrating, almost as if the developers are just seeing how far they can push you without any hints or direction before you finally crack and quit the game.

My feeling on Splice are very...convoluted. The presentation is remarkable, yet the gameplay noticeably lacking. The entire time I spent with it my feelings were a mixture of awe and anger, kept only in line by a few simpler puzzles and a handy guide. I can't fully recommend it, nor can I entirely reject it, so my suggestion would be to check out the demo and see if maybe it clicks for you. If nothing else you'll get to appreciate a bit of the excellent audio and visuals, which rise so far above everything else.

Splice is an unconventional puzzle game that has you rearranging cells (pieces) to form branches in order to recreate the silhouette behind it. Similar to how you look at the box when assembling a picture puzzle. Only instead of pieces, you have long cells. Each end of these cells can have only one or two cells attached. Think of it like -- is one cell attached to another cell, while -< is one cell that has two cells attached to it. This is what makes your puzzle look like a an upside-down tree. The root cell cannot be moved. Every other cell can be clicked and dragged to reconnect onto another cell as long as it doesn't already have two cells attached. Its easy to do, but not as easy to explain.

Each puzzle is limited to how many splices (moves of cells) you can do, but there is no time limit. When you run out of splices, you need to restart or rewind the puzzle... even if you run out of splices as you finish the puzzle. The real downside is no replay value. The puzzles will always be the same.

Once you get a few puzzles in, the game will start throwing in three different types of special cells for you to master. That's where things get complicated. First up is what I'll call a dead cell marked with an X. Like every other cell you can move it, but when you click the root cell, it will remove the dead cell and everything after it. Next up is a pusher cell. When you click on the root cell, the next pusher cell down the line will push out, making a new cell attached to the pusher and turning the pusher cell into a normal cell.

The final special cell is the cloner cell, which will divide itself into two normal cells when you click the root cell. Everything following the cloner cell will be cloned as well. If there are two branches after the cloner, then there will be two exact copies. The cloner cell can be the only cell attached to the previous cell, because it splits in two. So it can only go at the end of the line. If you have multiple special cells and you click the root cell, the next special cell down the line will activate. So if you have a cloner cell 2nd in line on a left branch with a pusher cell on the right branch, that cloner cell will divide on the first click, the pusher will push out on the second.

When things get complicated with the special cells, the game can become trial and error. You'll end up memorizing what you did to get where you are and having to remember everything you did to fail the puzzle. By rolling the mouse wheel you can easily rewind time and try again from there. Its never frustrating because of the music and the atmosphere. There is a soothing, relaxing vibe in the game. You're looking at beautiful vivid colors while trying to solve a black tree of a puzzle. Soothing subtle piano plays to help keep out the real world from interrupting your puzzle. Even the menus fit the rich art style the game has. Nothing was able to break me out of the immersion.

The main game is divided into two halves. The first half is called Origin and its split up into 7 sequences for the main part of the game, each with 7 puzzles. These puzzles are fun, easy, but they do get challenging. Once you complete the Origin main game, the credits roll and the game unlocks 4 more sequences of 7 puzzles for the Epilogue half of the game. These puzzles are far more difficult.

For me, this was about 2 or so hours worth of 49 puzzles. They felt just challenging enough to get stumped on some of the later ones, but still overcome. The 28 after that were just too difficult for me, but that's me and not you. Perhaps if I enjoyed the game more I'd tough out the others. Replaying the game only went by faster. There's just no replay value once you're done. Splice could come out with puzzle packs for the the fans out there, its only 24 more puzzles until 101! I recommend the developer's other game Fractal much more than this.

Rearrange a chain of cells to match a specified pattern in a limited number of moves. Sometimes you'll have to activate special cells like splitters or deleters, but you can only activate them from the center of the chain outward, so you'll have to think ahead.

It's a very short game, but pleasantly frustrating while it lasts. For a puzzle game, it's got wonderful music and graphics, and accomplishes a very memorable atmosphere. Difficulty can get steep; beating all the levels is easy, but to get the last achievement you'll have to find alternate solutions to some of the puzzles which don't use all the available moves. Try doing it without looking up the answers for more of hardcore puzzle experience.

Don't recommend buying at full price, but if you're a puzzle fan and you can get it on sale, or if you're an achievement hunter and you got this in a bundle somewhere along the line, don't pass it up.

Splice is a pretty interesting puzzle game, in which you modify several strains of cells in order to solve the puzzle by forming the target strain. It has a very relaxing soundtrack, and the puzzles themselves are quite challenging; in some cases, they may be a little frustrating even. There were times I found the solution by pure luck, and other times in which I stared at it for minutes without knowing how to solve it.

It's still a good game, in my opinion, so I can recommend it.

Splice is a strange puzzle game. No instructions are given, so you're left to discover the mechanics on your own, and it feels like a great decision. I can't really tell you why I like this game as much as I do. This game presented something that few other games have for me: a few hours of losing myself in a seemingly simple task that is devilishly complex underneath it all, and loving every minute of it

Overall, an enjoyable puzzle game. The graphics and overall visual style make it fun to interact with the puzzles and are just visually pleasing to watch. The way the mechanics are slowly introduced prevent it from being too frustrating.

What makes the puzzles especially engaging is how it plays as they become more complex. In some puzzle games, it just becomes an invitation to "brute force" a solution, which is not very fun and tends to be frustratingly boring. In this game, however, the puzzles each seem to have several "insights" that you can discover as you play around, which you can then use to develop a solution. The rewind mechanic makes this discovery process much easier and more pleasant - for example, if you find all of your splices used up but your result is really close to the end goal, you can rewind and keep trying different things to try to "fix" your splices until you get the answer. You can also take the approach of trying to discover useful properties about each puzzle as you experiment with different splices and exploit those properties to devise a solution.

So, not only are there multiple solutions - there's multiple, challenging and rewarding strategies you can take to discover those solutions without using brute force.

One downside is that the music seems to have only one track and is too short and played too often, however, which gets a bit annoying after awhile.

And despite beating the main game in 4 hours, I'm sure you can get a lot of additional play time out of the bonus levels (the "epilogue").

I think the world needs more biology based games. Sure this game isn't scientifically accurate or educational, but just the aesthetics of the world sucked me in and wouldn't let me go.

Splice is a relatively short game depending on how natural spatial puzzle solving comes to you, but I felt like it was a perfect length for a game with such a narrow focus mechanically. Solving the Angelic Strands (completing a level with an extra move remaining) was fun and rewarding. The soundtrack is very relaxing and puts you into an almost zen state as you splice and manipulate cells.

Overall I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this game and I hope to see some more cellular biology themed games down the road.

Splice is definitely a braintease of a game. It will require you to think hard about how to solve the strands presented, and if you want to really get to the full potential of the angelic strands, you'll have to think even more about it.

The biggest challenge about Splice is the way the strands change appearance by just changing one litte aspect. You'll have to watch out for how you will change the appearance of the strand, and how the special parts of the strand will change with a right click.

This is definitely a puzzle game with quite a bit of a challenge. I recommend getting this game if you're really into trying to find the optimal solution for every single puzzle encountered.

Splice is a puzzle game about manipulating genes; puzzles consist of moving individual cells into a predetermined pattern within a set number of moves. When first launched, the cells seem troublesome, erratic, and difficult to handle, but after a few sequences their patterns become obvious, allowing advanced assumptions and predictions to be made. While the puzzles start easy enough, the introduction of utility cells which can extend, duplicate, or destroy other cells slowly ramp up the difficulty. Later puzzles can be difficult, yet remain fair and can be overcome with enough thought and tenacity; this allows Splice to blissfully incorporate a nice balance of increasing difficulty without moving into the realm of the absurd or impossible.

Visually and audibly, Splice truly shines. Minimal graphics and a haunting soundtrack add a surreal quality to the puzzles. Even on the more difficult levels there is something soothing and beckoning about the looks and sounds being offered to the senses. For a puzzle game, it is difficult to imagine a style more inviting or enticing.

The only deterrents are those common to the genre; if you are not immediately struck by the puzzle type there will not be a sudden change in the gameplay. The puzzles are diverse and interesting, but never leave the general concept presented from the start. Length has also been mentioned as a negative, but with the epilogue, Splice totals just under 100 puzzles which seems more than reasonable. Other puzzle games have offered nearly limitless levels, but often those levels seem to sprout from random generation and not through individually, well thought out puzzles such as those found in Splice.

Splice is a puzzle game that has an extremely high production value. The music and aesthetic of the game provide an almost ethereal feel to the player as they play it, kind of a trippy, mind-effecting theme going on. Playing it reminded me of the Cylon Basestar section of the Battlestar Galactaga series. For that alone Splice is worth playing, but the gameplay is so polished, the graphics are so sharp, and the music is so excellently packaged together with everything else I'd say it would be a shame if you didn't at least give Splice a try. I was extremely impressed with this puzzler and, while not the most head-scratchingly difficult puzzler I've ever played (it has a rewind feature a-la Braid so you can work on puzzles for as long as you want without penalty) the puzzles aren't easy and there are a lot of variables that can make you pause for a moment to think about your next action.

The gameplay of Splice is quite simple, easy to pick up, hard to master, as I always say of good puzzlers. You have a bacterial strain and move the pieces around to try and fill the silouettes provided on each level. There are "special" sections of the strain that do various things, like extend, or split the strain, duplicating the amount of cells you have. You have a lmited amount of moves to complete the puzzle; however, using "special" sections of a strain don't cost a move to use, so that adds an additional layer of strategy to Splice.

Even if the puzzles were bad (which they're not), just playing this game is a nice, chill, experience. The feeling I got while playing it reminded me a lot of playing Flow, the ambiance this game exudes is just otherworldly and really the biggest selling point of this game for me.

Come for the puzzles, stay for the experience. B+

What a great little game. The puzzles in Splice are just hard enough, the controls and visuals are wonderful, and the soundtrack complements it all beautifully.

Cipher Prime continues to quietly make games that blur the line between art and game. No other indie developer uses sound and music so well to evoke emotion and stir curiosity. Splice is a moving experience. I wholeheartedly recommend this thoughtful, compelling game.

I finished the game 100% but in many sittings. Spice is a good puzzle game but it shines in the atmosphere and design which engrosses the player. Each puzzle is solved in a few steps but there are a few challenging puzzles at the end that required thinking and planning, not possible with only trial and error. Beautiful and well produced, the interface is minimal but Spice runs responsively and smoothly. Rules and strategies are introduced in the levels but that is about the first third of the whole game, which means the game is short.

Splice could have been improved by a slower, more punctuated pacing. The game really does need more levels, especially when the high difficulty puzzles showed how complex and cerebral the puzzles can be. It also would be greatly helped with a save feature that remembers your moves in previous attempts across sessions (the game only remembers which puzzles have been solved). For a future game the team should be more ambitious and open the game to user created content.

I recommend this game not only because of the relaxing atmosphere, but also the nature of game play. The limited number of moves allows for starting a puzzle in the middle of the day, relaxing in the atmosphere while easing into a new puzzle, but not being tied down when something comes up or running short on ideas. When I found it challenging, I went back to my day and came back to the game later afresh, and usually a new perspective would be my ticket to solving the puzzle. It is a nice parallel with how some decisions and obstacles can be tackled in the real world.

a nice turn based puzzle in a microbial/cell world.
it has some simple rules that you can experiments yourself to understand them.
on 1st level you will solve the puzzle without fully understand what's going on. :D

once you start to understand how it works, the game gets interesting.
you'll need a good logic and visual skills to solve the puzzles.
and the musics are good.

for extra challenge, some puzzle that has an angelic icon on bottom left
can be solved with less movement.

I like the aesthetic of the game and its music. It takes some time to understand all the mechanics but it's a very good puzzle game.

8/10 "I'd say this puzzle game is one of my favs."

Usually I don't have the patience to go through everylevel of a puzzle game, but this one was different for me.

Your goal is to manipulate genes to get a desired shape. You can move em, dupe em, grow em... Actually you cannot always do all those things, every molecule have its own attribute and you must use em all and have the desired gene shape in the end to complete the level. All of this under a certain maximum of moves per level. Some levels have ellusive patterns : shortcut to completing levels in a faster way, but remember the special attributes of ur genes must be used.

Maybe it's the good music? Maybe its the ellusive patterns you can get? I don't know why it's fun, best thing you can do is download the free demo and try it yourself, it is small to download and if you love the demo and think you will love it for a few hours, you will love the game.

Totally worth it's money and time.

Another great game by Cipher Prime.

It is obvious by now that Cipher Prime (makers of auditorium, intake and fractal) really know how to make puzzle games with amazing visuals, and I was pleasantly surprised with Splice. This was a game I got in a bundle and was pretty much 100% that I would never even play, let alone finish.

There’s many great things about this game and I guess I’ll start with the visuals.
Splice is lovely‘n’bright and full of colour. It’s just great to look at, plus there’s a really nice feeling to this game which the music also contributes a lot to. It’s calm and casual to play but not short of a challenge, that’s for sure. The mechanics are great, and the whole concept works well with them. You use different little cells with different ability’s to solve the puzzles, and it really makes you think about what you are doing. Towards the end of the play through my head really did start to hurt, but the game is so pretty and interesting I would always be coming back to it. I was motivated enough to want to complete this game, and that is a LOT coming from someone that usually hates puzzle games and gives up after the first few levels.

It is a fairly lengthy game for an indie, seven levels in each sequence (I think) and seven sequences for the main game, plus an extra 4 sequences in the epilogue series. It may take a little bit, depending on how good you are with the puzzles of course, it personally took me just under 6 hours play time over the course of a few weeks or so, so it isn’t a game you can whizz through in an hour or two (unless you are insanely good at the puzzles), but in all fairness I think it’s worth the time and experience. It’s a great game and I would recommend it to anyone that wanted to try something a bit different.
I would also recommend Cipher Primes other games to.

All in all, awesome game. Try it out.

Splice is a puzzle game in which you attempt to use different commands (clone, grow, etc) and "splicing" different sections of the biological entity in order to match a pre-made target. It's pretty simple - most of the early levels are a breeze, and even the more difficult ones don't take too long. The replayability of the game comes from "angelic" levels, where it's possible to do it in fewer moves than it allows you - getting these levels in the minimum number of moves proves to be much more difficult.

It's fun, the music is relaxing, but you shouldn't expect it to take more than 2 or 3 hours. You should determine your appropriate price based off that.

Smooth, beautiful puzzle game. You learn the mechanics as you play, very intuitive, cool puzzles, soothing music. Even the tiny addition of rewind sound effects are nice when taking back a move. Quite an enjoyable puzzle game all around, tough to master some of the Angelic Puzzles, making fully conquering the game a sweet thinker.

Splice is an amazing puzzle game. You have to create a given binary tree by splicing, splitting, destroying or removing elements of your actual tree.
The game handling is very intuitive; the music and visual style is relaxing. The puzzle gets harder in the epiloge - the origin levels are good for learning how everything works.
I really love the game. It is appealing. Too bad that the game misses a puzzle editor to generate your own level. So the game leaves you after a quite short time without new challenges.

There should be more puzzle games out there like this beautiful, relaxing & very enjoyable one.

In a few words: Great puzzle game for casual players.

It is easy to understand game's objective and mechanics, Game progresses and you discover new ways of completing puzzles. Well, sometimes you will get it after a while, sometimes maybe never... At that time, I had to search internet to advance. Splice won't drag you around until the end. In fact it doesn't have even proper tutorial, just a few help screens.

It is very good game constructed around simple idea. Only one bad thing - this game is addictive and can be completed in one evening, 2 - 4 hours. I like having it in my library.