Splice (PlayStation 3) Review

By David Lovato 11.03.2015

Cipher Prime may only be a small studio, but it has a fantastic track record of producing simplistic games that manage to appeal to the masses, whilst also offering up enough addictive qualities to ensnare hardcore gamers, keeping them coming back for more - as seen with Auditorium. Cubed3 recently took a closer look at Splice, a puzzle game unlike any other, on the PlayStation 4, and even enjoyed its soundtrack - Flight of the Angels - so much that it received a review as part of the MusiCube line. With this being a cross-platform release, it is time to take another look, now on PlayStation 3. Is the originality of Splice enough?

Splice is a minimalistic puzzle game. It doesn't have much in the way of tutorials or explanations - instead, it simply drops gamers right into the fray. Cells, represented by rounded oblongs, can be picked up and "spliced" into a new area, with the goal being to rearrange them into pre-designed, tidy-looking shapes. Some of these cells feature different abilities, like duplicating or deleting the ones attached to them.

Screenshot for Splice on PlayStation 3

Splice might be a little too minimalistic, though. Most of the puzzle is in figuring out what cells will do once they are placed, and while the game's design and flow are unique and original, in the end they boil down mostly to a system of increasingly difficult trial-and-error episodes. It's rarely clear what's going to happen until it happens, and with no tutorial, help, or heads-up display, what could have been a chess-like game of precision and forethought more often ends up as a frustrating series of stabs in the dark.

Screenshot for Splice on PlayStation 3

Cubed3 Rating

6/10

Good

There's a clear vision and art to Splice, but as a game it falls short of greatness. Themes of gene splicing and angels could have formed an underlying narrative, but instead don't make it past the song titles or vague imagery of the puzzles themselves. Gameplay is charming and intriguing for the first few strands of each sequence, but then wears itself down to tedium. Those who love wracking their brains on puzzles will probably love it, but otherwise, Splice is an average game with great ideas it by and large doesn't quite live up to.