Review: Split Fiction Is a Creative and Heartfelt Co-Op Adventure

Split Fiction has a lot to live up to. Hazelight is riding high as the go-to studio for co-op adventures with strong stories, even winning Game of the Year in 2021 for It Takes Two. Split Fiction sees the studio attempt to replicate their formula for a third time, this time blending the worlds of sci-fi and fantasy with some critiques about the state of the creative industries.

Split Fiction stars two young women named Mio and Zoe. They’re both writers who have received an offer from a company known as Rader Publishing. Come to their office and sign a published deal, they say. Sounds great. The problem is, Rader wants to hook all the invited authors up to a simulation designed to steal their ideas. Realizing this, Mio attempts to resist and ends up inside Zoe’s simulation. This isn’t supposed to happen, causing their simulations to merge and causing serious damage to The Machine. If they can work together and push through each other’s stories, they just might be able to shut down The Machine and stop Rader’s plans.

It’s not hard to spot the analogy here. Director Josef Fares is well known as an outspoken figure, screaming obscenities about the Oscars during The Game Awards and saying he’d rather get shot in the knee than get involved with NFTs. With Split Fiction, it seems he’s also making his opinion on generative AI known. A big corporation is trying to get writers to feed their work into The Machine which will steal and regurgitate all their ideas? And the head of that corporation is an irredeemable villain we should hate? It’s not subtle.

Of course, if you’re making a statement about the importance of human creativity, you need to back it up. Fortunately, Split Fiction nails it by being one of the most aggressively creative games I have ever played.

Much like Hazelight’s previous games, this is a co-op title, so it requires two players. Mio and Zoe are each controlled by a separate player, viewed in a split-screen. Chapters alternate between the protagonists’ stories, jumping from sci-fi to fantasy and back again. But what’s impressive is how Split Fiction plays with each of these genres.

Mio is the sci-fi writer. She likes to write big brash stories full of explosions and violence in grim dystopias. Her stories can range from cyberpunk action to space marines fighting mechs, with occasional space exploration and snowboarding through a collapsing ice planet. Zoe, meanwhile, loves fantasy. Her stories tend to be the more colorful ones, ranging from tales of fey shapeshifters to grand epics about dragonriders, with occasional whimsical side stories about magical witchy villages and riding sandsharks through a giant hourglass.

If this sounds like there’s a lot crammed in here, you are correct, and Split Fiction is determined to constantly surprise you. One moment you could be caught in a bike chase through a Blade Runner style city while one player has to frantically attempt to get through a login verification. The next it’s a Contra homage. Then it’s a gentle artsy indie game where words are woven through the environment. Any segment of Split Fiction could be its own game, but Hazelight decided to throw it all together as one experience.

Of course, a lot of ideas would be nothing if they weren’t able to make it all feel cohesive. It helps that most of the game is built on a singular control scheme. At its core, this is a 3D puzzle platformer, where both characters have a double jump, wall run, grappling hook and air dash. These core controls always feel great too, as the parkour it leads you to perform is immensely satisfying. I love a good movement system, and this is top tier.

This gets modified as the level requires it, usually through each of the girls gaining a unique ability. For instance, in Mio’s cyber-ninja story, she gains a sword that allows her to shift onto walls in appropriate places while Zoe gains an electric whip. In Zoe’s dragon story, their individual dragons have their own abilities, with her dragon being able to roll into a ball and climb walls while Mio’s can glide and spit acid breath. In all these situations, these abilities must be combined to progress, requiring both players to work together to get through. This might require Zoe using her whip to open a panel that allows Mio to shift to the ceiling, or Mio’s dragon melting a chain that drops a wall Zoe’s can climb.

Once again, the level of creativity on show is excellent, as the way these powers combined was varied and interesting. It encouraged a lot of experimentation, as me and my friend just kept testing stuff together to see what worked, and it was always a delight to see some new unexpected effect. This also made puzzles occasionally tricky, although ultimately satisfying. Only one puzzle really got particularly frustrating for us as we attempted to roll an explosive ball to a door via disappearing ramps.

What connects all of Split Fiction’s crazy mixture of ideas together is a story focused on the protagonists’ attempts to escape The Machine while steadily revealing the reasons they both write stories as they get to know each other. It’s a genuinely funny story too, with Mio and Zoe being the ultimate odd couple right out the gate. These two are exact opposites on everything, with Mio being a tomboyish cynic from the big city while Zoe is the most whimsical cottagecore girly in existence. This is played for laughs, as they start out bickering over almost everything due to their constantly opposite perspectives.

There’s also comedy to be found in some unexpected places. One of Zoe’s unfinished ideas is a story about pigs happily frolicking on a farm, which involves them turning into a coiled spring or farting rainbows. This segment also has an absurd ending that had both me and my co-op partner losing it with laughter. There’s also a lot of goofy stuff in the main stories, particularly in major reveals within the first couple of stories, but I don’t want to spoil any of it because it needs to be experienced first-hand.

As well as all this fun, silly creativity on show, the story also emphasizes its anti-AI stance through some heartfelt moments. As we venture through their stories, we learn more about Zoe and Mio through their inspirations. There are even a few moments that hit surprisingly hard emotionally. The game is a constant affirmation of why we tell stories – to share our experiences, to present our worldview, to tackle the issues within our lives. This desire to tell stories is what allows these two drastically opposing people to find common ground and develop genuine friendship.

This is contrasted with the deeply inhuman CEO attempting to steal their ideas. As stated, he’s a wholly unsubtle stand-in for the entire generative AI industry, and exactly the kind of person you desperately want to punch in the face. Fares and his team are making a clear statement here – art cannot be outsourced to a machine because it’s inherently about human connections. Not just in why we create it, but in how we experience it too. The fact that Split Fiction must be played with another human being feels like the cherry on top for this message. It might be a little cheesy, but the execution is excellent.

There is one minor criticism I have of Split Fiction, though. Some of its areas were large but felt empty. An ice palace area featured a staircase to nowhere, which felt like a strange inclusion. A jungle gambling den had a roulette table and a slot machine to interact with but they didn’t really do much. I was expecting them to sneak an entire card game in for us to play, much like how you could sit down and play Connect Four in A Way Out. While there are certainly some fun little Easter eggs to find, it did feel a little disappointing that it wasn’t more frequent. Especially in a game that’s so abundantly full of creativity such as this one. However, this was a blip on an otherwise brilliant experience.

Hazelight has knocked it out of the park once again. Split Fiction is a delightfully imaginative adventure with a message about creativity and human connection. Anyone looking for a great 12-14 hour experience to share with a loved one needs to play this game.

Split Fiction will release on March 6, 2025 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.