Split Pool is a casual low strategy game based on the game of pool, but in this variation we are only interested in potting all the balls in any order. If any ball is hit but not potted, it will duplicate and become two. The cue is controlled by a power meter and there is a shot indicator which shows you where the object ball is heading and where the cue ball will go, but there is no spin allowed on the cue ball. To make things easier, you have a freeze button and an ice pick button. For each level, you are allowed to freeze three balls and remove three balls from the table. By freezing balls they will not be able to split into two balls for the whole level, and it is these powers that ruin the experience.

The first level of tables are a tutorial and introduce you to the mechanics, but at the start of level two you are given three freezes and three ice picks to use on each table. In most levels there are only six to eight balls on the table, so if you apply the three ball freeze and remove three balls, then you literally only have to pot two balls without missing and the level is effectively won. You can hit the frozen balls as many times as you like and they won't duplicate so there is no challenge there at all. The only feature that can stop you completing the level is your energy level. You start off with 100% energy and each shot removes 5% of your energy. If you run out of energy then the game is over and you will need to start the level again.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368137458

Energy only becomes a factor when balls start to duplicate and you have more balls to pot. When the ball does duplicate it annoyingly duplicates right next to its parent ball so it then becomes almost impossible to hit that ball without hitting the other, and before you know it you are inundated with balls on the table. The tables are quite small and the balls are quite big, and in later levels a lot of the pockets are removed so it can pose a small challenge then, but as long as you use your powers before you start then you should be able to complete any level easily. Once I had realised that this was the case, I completed the whole game in twenty minutes without any bother.

So, there are clearly some design faults here that render the game mute, if you choose to exploit them. I guess you could refrain from using the powers, but there is not enough control on the cue ball to strategically play like you could on a real table, so I don't think that would work. I think the powers need to be curbed a little, or introduced later perhaps and you have to take some shots first before they are useable. All I know is that it doesn't work in its current state unfortunately.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368138613

The mechanics are okay though. The cue is easy to operate and the balls seem to behave in a natural state, so nothing there needs changing unless you want to add spin to the cue ball. The sound and graphics are perfectly acceptable for a small arcade game but there are only twenty levels which seemed quite low to me.

I was excited to play Split Pool because there aren't a lot of arcade pool games on Steam and it is a charming game that has a lot of potential.

Unfortunately, there are serious design flaws that need addressing immediately because the game is just ridiculously easy when using the provided powers and for this reason I cannot recommend it.

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Having developed an appreciation for pool when I was younger, being able to afford the space or money for an actual table isn't that viable. Unfortunately, Steam doesn't really have a great pool game available, or at least not one that I've found. Even though it was simple, seeing SplitPool (SP) gave me hope it might satisfy the desire I've had for pool lately, but that wasn't really the case.


This pool game has a simple enough premise. Each time your cue ball makes contact with one of the normal pool balls, without sinking the shot, it'll make a duplicate of itself. The cue ball has a limited amount of health, which drops each time you take a shot, effectively acting as a counter for how many turns you have left. Your objective is to clear the table of every object ball. Unless you scratch and have the cue ball reset, it'll always remain where it was after you took your shot, so this is something you'll have to take into consideration when trying to clear the table.

Before long, you're provided with two power-ups, which will mitigate the potential problems that missing a shot would create. One allows you to remove three object balls from the table, so you'll obviously pick the ones that aren't lined up for an easy shot. The second power-up freezes the ball, which remains in effect permanently. What this means is that if you hit this ball and miss, it won't make a duplicate. Since some balls may not be put into ideal positions, this allows you to redirect it into better position without penalty. There's a total of 20 levels, spread across 4 different pool table designs.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368107884
If you've played the Yahoo games version of pool before, this will feel familiar. After lining up your shot, with visual indicators as to the general direction both the cue and target ball will go, click the mouse key, pull back to adjust the power, and release the click to fire. Activating power-ups is as easy as selecting which balls you want affected, and as long as you have enough uses left, it'll be applied. It's a simple system, but works well enough.


There's no explanation for what's going on, or why it'd be an issue anyways. What's so bad about having spare pool balls? You just play through the stages.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368085848
Instead of using numbers to identify the balls, all of them have an eyeball on it, which I suppose serves to make it more of an enemy. In addition, with atypical pool table designs, SP doesn't quite have the standard look you'd expect out of any generic pool game. Unfortunately, the various table shapes and pocket placements don't make a larger change to how the game plays or feels. Aside from these differences, with the overhead view, it reminds me of other free games that I've played on different websites before. Whenever a duplicate ball is made, it creates a splatter of paint on the table, but since that's associated with a negative occurrence, the splash of color isn't something you want to see. Overall, SP looks fine, although it's nothing I haven't seen before.


Unless I'm mistaken, there's only a single song in the entire game, which is composed of a five second loop. It's only made up of a few simple boop style sound effects, so if this had been a longer game, it definitely would have gotten old fast. However, with how short this experience is, you likely won't notice it all that much. Aside from that, there's a handful of sound effects for sinking object balls, and when you scratch the cue ball. The noise for accidentally making the cue ball is a bit annoying, but shouldn't come up that often, as I had to go out of my way to earn the achievement for making it into a pocket 100 times.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368085042
🌟 If you ignore the point of the game entirely, and just fire max-powered shots, the chaos can be kind of fun.
🌟 It's easy.


❌ SP is far too short. By the time I finished all the stages, I hadn't even sunk 100 object balls yet. Even clearing all achievements, including 1,000 object balls, won't take you 2 hours.
❌ The game's premise doesn't function well in practice, with the duplicate balls being so close together when they spawn.
❌ Despite the different table layouts, the approach for clearing each one is almost identical. It's very mindless.


🔍 The optimal strategy for each stage is simple. Delete balls that are furthest away from pockets, or aren't set up for easy shots. Freeze the remaining ones that might pose any issues. What's left should be easily made shots near the pockets, allowing you to clear up without any fuss.
🔍 2-4 is a good stage to grind achievements. The small table with pockets in each corner allows you to spam full-powered shots and pocket 30+ balls per round.
🔍 With how short each stage is, if you hit a ball and make a duplicate, just restart the stage. It'll likely be easier that way.


My main reason for giving SP such a low review score isn't because it's either so unpleasant to play that the experience is painful, or that a combination of visual/audio effects makes you flinch away from the screen. However, there's so little content, and the obvious solution is so blatant for each stage, there's almost no reason for getting the game in the first place. I legitimately finished every stage within 20 minutes, and wonder if someone could speedrun it within the time it takes to make a cup of black tea. Ultimately, the game's premise, and how the mechanics function, created a problem that spirals in on itself.

Since creating a duplicate ball from a missed shot significantly screws up the table layout, and worsens your chance at success, each stage has to be designed so that you wouldn't run into that problem in the first place. The developers didn't want each stage only to be made up of mindless shots with the object ball right next to the pocket, so they threw in extra object balls to get in the way. Again though, if you miss any of those shots, you're shooting yourself in the foot, which is where the power-ups come in. These defuse the mechanics, which created the problem in the first place, and allow you to miss a few shots without penalty, but also undermines the entire concept they came up with. Although the physics engine functions properly, this idea doesn't work in practice, so they should have returned to the drawing board and reconsidered the premise. There's no reason for playing this title, so I'd just recommend avoiding it.

I like the relaxing vibe of this game and the duplication mechanic is definitely interesting. It's satisfying to clear a table with zero duplication happening, but also annoying if the duplication spiral out of control. lol

My biggest issue with the game is that I can't really tell if my highscores are good or bad. I would much prefer a simple 3-star rating system over some score numbers.