Splice
Fair · Short indie · 2012
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
NO RUSH.
Fair at $9.99. Buy it if you want it.
- Length
- 2.1h
- Value
- $4.76/hr
- Reviews
- 87% positive
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Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, Shader Model 3 Compatible, 246 MB of storage. Runs on Windows, Linux.
Splice is an experimental and artistic puzzler. Immerse yourself in its microbial world and start splicing! Every level ("strand") consists of a number of cells that you will need to rearrange into a target structure in several moves ("splices").
What drives the score
How to read this
Every input gets a grade, S to D, read from the buyer's side. The score is multiplicative, so an input only counts as raising when it sits near the top of its own scale. Anything with real room left is holding the score back, because that room is the gap to 100. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. The exact weights stay secret.
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $1.99. That was December 2015. 19 discounts in the 14 years on record. They run about 60 percent off, roughly 14 weeks apart. Today it is at full price. The last sale was about 13 weeks ago, and on this game's rhythm the next one tends to arrive within 14 weeks.
On value it sits in the top 10 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 88 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 91 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Hook ($2.99, scores 84) beats it on value, while it beats Crayon Physics Deluxe ($19.99, scores 44).
70 from critics against 87 percent from players, and the player number comes from people who own the game.
Steam's global achievement data says about 8 percent of players ever finish it. On a 2.1-hour game, that is a lot of paid-for hours most people never see.
2.1 hours to finish it, 6 to exhaust it. The completionist tail is 2.8 times the campaign.
Valve rates it Steam Deck Verified, and at 2.1 hours it is short enough to finish on one.
The drop-off
93% start to 8% finishMost players never reach the end. On a 2.1-hour game, that's a lot you pay for and may never use. Steam global achievements
What players say
This game was on my wishlist for over a decade and something caused me to finally pick it up during a sale. Fun abstractish puzzle game about positioning cells, especially once the powered cells come into play. Visual presentation and UI are excellent, just navigating the menu is pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately the soundtrack could use some more time in the oven- gets repetitive and annoying especially if you get...
An excellent puzzle game with a lovely soundtrack that reminds me of the tv series Fringe.
Sometimes less is not more, and what some people might find minimalist and artistic, is in fact, just annoying and obtuse. It is difficult to understand what is going on in this game, from the controls, to actually solving the puzzles. Eventually you find your way to the bare basics control list, but even then there is a severe lack of a tutorial. I suppose the name of this game is trial and error, but to be honest...
Player reviews from Steam: the most helpful all-time, plus the newest that clear the same quality bar, with the hours each player had put in when they wrote it. The mix of Recommended and Not recommended follows the game's Steam ratio. Rotates daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
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Splice scores 55/100 on the BANG Score (fair value). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/209790/spliceThe BANG Score is one number for value, 0 to 100: price against how it reviews and how long it was built to be. It answers the money question and stops there; whether the game is for you is still your call.
Reviews set the ceiling and price moves you inside it, so a cheap game that reviews badly cannot climb. Ratings from few reviewers are shrunk toward the middle, so 100 percent from nine people does not outrank 96 percent from ninety thousand. Length comes from HowLongToBeat where it can be matched, measured against a per-genre floor so a five-hour narrative game is judged against other narrative games rather than against a sixty-hour RPG. Where no verified length exists the score says so and carries a dock, because the biggest input is then a guess. The full method, including where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 6, price as of Sep 24.
A number here look wrong? Tell me what it got wrong and I will look at the inputs behind it.