Splice

When you start playing Splice, you are presented with a puzzle with no explanation of your aim. After randomly clicking, you will get through the first set of puzzles. As you slowly realise what is going on; it does become a great puzzle game.

In each level, you have a cell structure and must re-arrange it to look like the target outline. Each cell can have two children and one parent, and you use this knowledge to take strands of cells from one area, and attach them to another. As you progress through the game, you are introduced to splitters, which copy everything following them in sequence; clones, which generate an additional child; and bombs, which terminate themselves and all their children. To use these abilities, you right click, but your mouse-click affects the highest special cells in your organism. For example, if you have a destructive cell high up and a clone cell low down. Right clicking will destroy the cell, then right clicking again will activate the clone.

You can't just keep randomly dragging and dropping cells, because you only have a set amount of moves. You can easily undo your moves if you make a mistake, or redo them if you change your mind, or just restart the puzzle at the touch of a button. The downside is that you must complete each level in sequence to proceed, and there are no options to skip.

The game is beautifully presented with sharp, crisp graphics, and wonderful piano music. The game plays very smooth, and it's nice to see your cell structure re-arrange itself on screen once you dissect part of it and attach it to another parent. Although Splice doesn't start well, once you understand the mechanics, it does become a clever and satisfying puzzle game.