I’ll admit when it comes to Hazelight Studios’ co-op-focused adventures, they’ve often left me feeling rather cold. A Way Out disappointed, its interesting premise of a prison escape was hurt by an inconsistent tone and level of quality. It Takes Two then fared better, though, while I enjoyed actually playing the game, its frustrating messaging and irksome characters did all they could to push me away. Now we find ourselves with another co-op journey, this one taking us into the minds and ideas of a pair of writers.
You and a friend will play as Mio and Zoe, two aspiring writers invited to Radar Publishing, a fishy tech company, with the promise of book deals. They and a number of other writers are ushered into floating bubbles, but Mio’s hesitance winds up seeing her fall into Zoe’s and the pair awaken inside a digital reality fusing their ideas and imagination together. Panic ensues from both parties as Mio and Zoe must now survive their very own worlds they’ve created, while Radar Publishing try to get them out and prevent their ulterior motive of stealing their ideas a secret.
Split Fiction’s premise feels like a rather timely one, then, the rise of AI threatening the very creativity of humans with the promise of a cheaper and more efficient alternative. Yet despite what may feel like a cautionary tale of potential things to come, the actual plot and its characters do little to venture much outside the clichéd and, at times, cringey. Take Zoe and Mio, for instance, the upbeat and positive attitude of the former initially clashing with the latter’s more critical outlook on things. In a typical and predictable fashion, the adventure they’ve been forced on gradually makes them realise they’re not so different after all. We’ve seen this many times over, and unfortunately, done much better elsewhere. We are offered glimpses into the backstories of these characters along the way, too, but again, these check all the trope boxes you could imagine. It probably didn’t help that I found Mio and Zoe (and, come to think of it, any major character) to be either pretty unmemorable or kind of grating.
Story aside, though, the rest of Split Fiction is an absolute delight. As the game’s numerous chapters take the players back and forth between Zoe’s fantastical, magic-filled environments and Mio’s edgy sci-fi settings, it makes sure to squeeze every ounce of fun out of its countless scenarios you’ll face. One moment you’ll be piloting a spacecraft, the next riding on a futuristic bike, whilst the person in back tackles numerous security prompts to access a device, whilst later on you may be whisked away in an obvious SSX-inspired minigame. Chapters make sure to take ideas and evolve them into new ones. Take the dragon-focused chapter, for instance, Zoe and Mio initially carry dragon eggs on their back where they then hatch and perch on their backs. One player will then have the ability to glide while the other springs up walls using their dragon’s sharp tail. By the final third of the chapter, the dragons will be fully grown, offering more unique abilities, including spitting acid and rolling in a powerful ball.
With both players often having a unique ability, there will be plenty of times when you’ll need to work together to advance. Where other ‘co-op’ games have you simply existing in the same world, Split Fiction has created one where you MUST communicate and team up or else failure will be your only outcome. I love these types of experiences as it creates truly unique scenarios that reward with satisfying moments at cracking a puzzle together or laughing when you mistime your actions, resulting in a quick death. Thankfully, save points are regular enough that you won’t ever get annoyed with the game.
I will say that not every idea is a winner. I found – particularly in the early goings – the fantasy sections to drag on a little too long. Thankfully, though these moments are the exception to the rule, a majority of Split Fiction is an absolute treat.
The game even sprinkles in one-off scenarios, taking you anywhere from a Squid Game-style game show to farms where you’ll get turned into pigs and later… well, that would be spoiling things too much. Put it this way, Split Fiction offers the sort of level of variety we’ve come to expect from a Nintendo title these days, let alone a third party.
Visually, the game does an admirable job bringing Split Fiction to Nintendo Switch 2, retaining not only the eye-catching detail but also a smooth frame rate – even in split screen. Chalk this one up as a major win alongside the likes of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Resident Evil Requiem.
Despite another clichéd story and an uninteresting cast of characters, Split Fiction is easily my favourite Hazelight adventure to date. With so many ideas crammed into its roughly twelve-hour runtime, there’s barely a moment to breathe, bouncing from one world to the next. Sure, not every segment is a home run, but with the next thing rarely more than ten or so minutes away, you won’t mind these occasional lull moments.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review Copy Provided by Electronic Arts
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