Review: Split Fiction

Josef Fares' games have held a firm spot in my heart for years. I haven't finished my Brothers playthrough, but I thoroughly enjoyed A Way Out and watched some friends play It Takes Two. Those games are already stellar, but Split Fiction is an absolute masterpiece.

I went into Split Fiction with high expectations, knowing I had enjoyed Fares' and Hazelight's previous games. I wasn't expecting a game that raises the bar for what a cooperative multiplayer game can look like. What started as curiosity and mild excitement turned into some of the most memorable and enjoyable gaming nights I've ever had with my long-time best friend, who shared similar sentiments.

Split Fiction (PC [reviewed], PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Hazelight Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: March 6, 2025
MSRP: $49.99

Split Fiction follows the story of two aspiring writers, Mio and Zoe. One is a sci-fi author who's reserved and practical, while the other is a bubbly, outgoing girl who's all about mystical fantasy stories. As the two pursue their passions of getting their first publishing deal, they're instead roped into a seemingly inescapable simulation that steals their ideas. When the two of them accidentally end up in the same simulation, it's up to them to traverse their own ideas, use their similarities and differences to their advantage, and break free from this trap.

Split Fiction is also a purely cooperative game. Much like A Way Out and It Takes Two, you play alongside another person, with each player's point-of-view shown through a split-screen display. It's a formula that, although not new, is expertly implemented by the team at Hazelight. Their previous titles already used this presentation to their advantage in a satisfying way, with Split Fiction making it even more captivating, especially as you enter the game's latter half.

Each level in Split Fiction feels like its own game. In one level, you play as a cyber-ninja wielding cool swords and whips. The next, you're a puzzle-solving shapeshifter thrown into the middle of a magical forest. While each level fits into sci-fi and fantasy themes, they all have unique traits to distinguish themselves. Both the main and side stories never felt dry or repetitive, even as we approached the end and experienced most of what Split Fiction offered. If anything, things only got better the further we progressed, and there were multiple times when we got a chuckle out of some of these story ideas.

Speaking of story ideas, Split Fiction introduces an interesting dynamic to its plot. Every level comes directly from Mio and Zoe's own ideas. They themselves wrote each of these stories through various periods of their life, and you gradually learn more about their personalities and personal traumas as you progress. These make for some peculiar and, at times, hilarious encounters, as one character is familiar with the plot and its conflict while the other is completely clueless. Beyond that, you see some genuine friendship-building and connection that, given their circumstances, felt natural.

This isn't even mentioning the Side Stories, which were equally as impressive as the main levels. Side Stories are completely optional objectives you can pursue to experience, well, more of what Split Fiction is. These were easily some of my favorite levels in the whole game, both because they introduced some familiar gameplay elements and, more importantly, I had some laughs with almost every story.

Although the amount of Side Stories present made sense, I still felt myself wanting more. Even if you're the type of person who speedruns the main story and doesn't care about side content, these are levels you don't want to miss if you enjoy Split Fiction's story and gameplay. Even if you don't love the story but just want a quick chuckle, there's a good chance you'll find something that makes you laugh considering how goofy a few of these are.

And then there was the ending. I'll avoid spoiling exactly what happens, but oh boy, it left my friend and I in awe. We kept asking each other how Hazelight even managed to pull it off and, to this day, feel it's among the most impressive endings we've ever seen. I've seen many great (and awful) story conclusions in my life, and very few have felt more rewarding than this. I already loved Split Fiction well before reaching this point, but this solidified its spot in my heart as both a pleasant and memorable experience that's difficult to surpass and a game that completely reshapes the cooperative action-adventure genre for the better.

Even now, as I'm writing this review, I have no idea how Fares and the team at Hazelight came up with some of these level ideas. Some are your standard mix of medieval adventures and epic intergalactic robot battles, while others are very out of the ordinary. On several occasions, I wondered who had the creativity to design these ideas and was more than slightly impressed that they managed to tie them into sci-fi and fantasy themes. They're almost dream-like, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Split Fiction is also a beautiful game. While it's challenging to compete with the breathtaking displays of realism and adorably cutesy art styles in modern games, it still has tons of screenshot-worthy moments that had my friend and I starting at the scenery in admiration. While Split Fiction has a core style it sticks to, it isn't afraid to step outside the box and experiment. These moments are much more prevalent in its Side Stories, but even the main storyline has some art style changes that were both surprising and entertaining.

That said, I had some gripes with a few finicky gameplay mechanics. Although most of the game played great and fairly smoothly, others were a little challenging to control, even while playing with a controller. I mostly noticed these tricky mechanics in a few sci-fi levels that, at times, caused a bit of frustration with both my friend and I. Thankfully, we didn't notice any game-breaking bugs or problems that significantly hindered our playthrough; at most, it was brief annoyances that we were able to get past with some trial and error.

Split Fiction feels like the culmination of what Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios' team have learned since making Brothers and A Way Out. Both were solid games, and It Takes Two's success was our first glimpse at what the studio was truly capable of. Split Fiction is everything I could ever ask from a cooperative game and more, easily making it another solid game of the year contender. I wish I could go on about each level and its intricacies since I could easily ramble on numerous incredible moments for a while. This is one of those games that thrives on surprising you at every corner, and hearing my friend's reactions was just as fulfilling as experiencing my own.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Split Fiction appeared first on Destructoid.