Crawl and Conquer in Splix.io

Overtaking the world is sheer fun. The idea of assembling an army, training troops, and defending a nation has been played out in countless war games. In fact, there are simply too many variations of isometric RTS titles to mention. Today, we’re looking at a Command & Conquer of sorts, and it’s called Splix.io.

Freely available on Poki, Splix.io is an intensely competitive version of Snake. Instead of gathering apples, your snake is tasked with chomping on territory. The premise is that one snake can rule the entire world. All you have to do is encircle parts of the grid, and they will become yours. This action is known as capturing blocks, and it’s the only way to win.

Truthfully, there is actually no “winner” in Splix.io. Instead, the best player is awarded with the top spot on the leaderboard. During each game, the Top 10 are listed in the upper-right section of the screen. The in-game leaderboard updates every few seconds, always showing who’s the best. After an intense bout of capturing land, you can view the rest of the daily leaderboards. These include long lists of the top players in the following categories: Blocks Captured, Time in First Place, Trail Length, Time Alive, and Total Kills. So, even if you’re not keen enough to reach the top spot in your current game, you could earn a position on one of the other daily leaderboards.

The gameplay in Splix.io is perhaps best described as “steady.” The speed of each game is unquestionably consistent. There is no way to move faster or slower, and the game doesn’t lag due to high traffic. The graphics are colorful but basic, allowing you to see nearby enemies without being distracted by shadows or textures. These are all welcome aspects, affecting gameplay in a positive way. Conversely, extended playtime doesn’t feel as exciting as it may in other games. For instance, the neon graphics and dangerous speed boosts in peer Slither.io keep things very interesting.

Speaking of Slither.io, that can be played on Poki.com; its title screen is nearly identical to the one in Splix.io. The latter obviously copied its predecessor, opting for a simple and effective welcome page. In Splix.io, you are asked for a username before joining a game. If you don’t enter one, you don’t get one. This seems to be a slight oversight by the developers—why not generate a random username, like practically every other game? That way, when scoring on the leaderboard, you won’t show up as a blank space.

The title screen also includes a couple of blinking text fields, which teach you how to play, and provide stats regarding the most recent game. Again, this is nearly the same as Slither.io, and there’s nothing wrong with that. After playing, it’s nice to see how you performed and learn who bested you.

Overall, Splix.io is a solid multiplayer game. It doesn’t have any special features, which is part of the reason it plays so well. If you want competitive, fun multiplayer action without any flash, join the other snakes in Splix.io.