Splitter Critters

[u]In short:[/u] This is a lovely puzzle game with a pretty unique and novel mechanic used to great effect. The difficulty varies wildly from calm and simple to frantic and hard, which can get a bit stressful at times. I adore the art style. I don't think this belongs in the highest tier of puzzle games, but it is undoubtedly interesting. It being very light on content (well under 4 hours) makes this a little hard to recommend at full price, but on one of the frequent -90% sales this is a steal. [u]In long:[/u] The [b][u]gameplay[/u][/b] is quite straight-forward. Guide the titular critters safely to their spaceship. To naviagte the various hazards you create up to three straight tears through the level and slide the two parts against each other, thereby changing the layout of the level. Immediately this is a super interesting mechanic that is used very well in conjunction with various and increasingly complicated obstacles (enemies, moving platforms, water, lasers, etc). The downside of being so novel is that it never quite became intuitive for me. Pretty much until the end of the game I had a really hard time predicting the consequences of sliding level parts around. It doesn't help that the action happens in un-pausable real-time, which is far from my preference for puzzle games. Your critters will constantly walk foward and defy danger (almost remeniscent of the classic Lemmings franchise), but if even a single one dies, the level is over. In terms of [b][u]level design and difficulty[/u][/b] Splitter Critters is a bit of a mixed bag. There are 6 themed worlds with a total of 56 levels plus 12 very hard bonus levels at the end. The former took me about 2.5h and the latter added 1h on top. Outside of tutorialisation the difficulty curve is not all that smooth. Some levels are very hard and then the next two might be child's play. Levels are generally open-ended with multiple approaches leading to victory. Each usually revolves around a single obstacle and is a self-contained sub-5-minute challenge. That's probably a good idea, since once you get into larger multi-phase levels - perhaps with a touchy timing component - having to replay the start of the level over and over gets old really fast, especially when you're still trying to figure out a solution. This only matters for maybe a handful of levels, but some kind of checkpointing or rewinding would be a vast improvement in my book. You can mostly box-in your critters with strategic tears so they don't walk to their doom, but since you can only undo tears in reverse sequence, you cannot prepare the future track without releasing your critters first. Having said that, I am probably more allergic to timing-based mechanics than the average player and while a good part of the difficulty stems from the constant flow of time, there are plenty of thoughtful puzzle challenges as well. In terms of [b][u]presentation[/u][/b] I am absolutely in love with the visual style of the game. The flat and clean aesthetic looks really polished and works well with the paper-tear theme. The little creatures are adorable and the animations are fluid. The sound effects are pretty good and the atmospheric music is okay. The [b][u]technical[/u][/b] aspects are adequate. The controls with mouse and keyboard are really good, despite this being a mobile port. It runs perfectly even on my very anemic system. But the settings are woefully inadequate. The only volume control are mute buttons and there is no built-in setting for windowed mode. At least you can use the undocumented Alt+Enter to force the game into a window. In [b][u]conclusion[/u][/b] this feels like somewhat of an overlooked gem. Certainly an impressive game for what appears to be 2 guys and a musician. Everything looks great and charming. The game feels elegant and polished. The levels are bite-sized and mostly fun, providing great variety. But the game can be quite stressful at times and while the main mechanic is very interesting, it is not the most intuitive. With well under 4 hours of content and low replayability I would personally wait on a sale, but then you should definitely check out this breath of fresh air for puzzle lovers.