5/5 ★ – UpwardBoss's review of Split Fiction.

Hazelight Studios has become something of a fan favourite in recent years. Their debut title, A Way Out, was released in 2018, although it became famous even before release for the memorable speech the director Josef Fares gave at The Game Awards while promoting the game the year before, where he famously proclaimed "fuck the Oscars" and said regarding the publisher EA's ongoing controversy regarding loot boxes (which he referred to as "the EA shit going on") that "all publishers fuck up sometimes". This speech immediately became one of the most iconic memes in gaming history, and was certainly effective marketing for A Way Out. The game itself was well received and sold well, but it was their next title, It Takes Two, that solidified the studio's beloved status, releasing to universal critical acclaim and massive sales, eventually winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021 (where Josef Fares celebrated by saying "the Oscars got fucked". Nice full circle moment there). Hazelight announced their next game, Split Fiction, at The Game Awards 2024, with yet another iconic Josef Fares speech, where he proclaimed that "at Hazelight, we have a saying where we say we fuck shit up without fucking up. And this time, it's some next level shit, I'm telling you. I know I sound cocky, but it's really hard not to be cocky when you have a game like this". Ah, Josef. Never change. Of course, Hazelight aren't just beloved because of the director's eccentric speeches (although they certainly don't hurt). No, they're beloved because the games they make are targeting an audience that has been almost entirely ignored by the modern gaming industry. Split-screen, co-op, narrative-driven games with the production value of a marquee single-player AAA game are incredibly rare these days, but Hazelight still make them. And they're, apparently, really good. I, however, had not played either of their previous games, although I had heard near-universal praise for both. Given the pedigree of the studio, I had pretty high expectations for Split Fiction. Their last game won Game of the Year, so surely their new game would be quality, right? And... Split Fiction did not disappoint. Split Fiction has some of the most creative level design I've ever seen in a video game, consistently surprising gameplay mechanics throughout, and absolutely incredible art direction, and although its narrative fails to live up to the quality bar set by the rest of the game, Split Fiction is an instant classic, and one of the best co-op games in years. As with A Way Out and It Takes Two, Split Fiction is an exclusively co-op game. You cannot play this game on your own. You can either play the game via couch co-op or online, and just like Hazelight's previous entries, only one person needs to own the game for two players to play online. There is a "Friend's Pass" version of the game that is free to download, that you can play FOR FREE as long as your friend owns a copy of the game. This is a seriously pro-consumer move, and I have immense respect for it, but they go even further this time around. Split Fiction supports cross-play, AND the Friend's Pass works cross-play. I played through this game with my friend Connor, and I was playing on PS5 Pro, while he was playing on Xbox Series X, and Connor was able to play with me despite having not purchased the game. In an era where game publishers continually try to nickel-and-dime us, to see a game that not only refuses to do that but is actively implementing pro-consumer features that no one else in the industry would even consider is incredibly refreshing. Hazelight Studios and EA deserve credit for this feature, as do the platform holders for enabling cross-play with it enabled. Microsoft didn't get a penny from either of us for this game (except for the online subscription, of course), but we were still able to play together on different platforms. Well done all around. Speaking of EA, I want to take a minute to talk about their EA Originals program. EA get a *lot* of shit, much of it deserved (I could rant about how terribly they've handled Battlefield and their sports games for years), but I do respect that they allocate even a small slice of their insane amounts of profit to fund smaller games, from smaller studios, giving them full creative control, for what is apparently zero profit (EA apparently don't take a cut after the development cost has been recouped). I still absolutely and utterly hate the way EA has handled its marquee franchises, but it does help a bit that a small amount of the massive profit they generate from butchering them is used to fund smaller games. Particularly in a day and age where AAA publishers are becoming more and more risk-averse, I have a lot of respect for the EA Originals program. Even beyond the Originals program, EA have been investing in single-player games with no microtransactions in an era where live-service multiplayer games make infinitely more revenue. Sometimes the games aren't always great (*cough* Immortals of Aveum), but sometimes they are, and EA's commitment to funding risky bets is an admirable one. And that is the last time you will ever hear me say something nice about Electronic Arts. Stay tuned for what will almost certainly be a scathing review of the new Battlefield later this year (I hope not, but let's be real, they're going to screw it up again). Now, let's talk about the game itself, and let's start with the technical state. Graphically, Split Fiction is one hell of a good-looking game. It's not the most realistic-looking game, nor is it really pushing any technological boundaries, but it doesn't have to, as the art direction here is *exceptional*. The worlds you visit look absolutely incredible, and the art style changes so frequently that you often wonder how they managed to make each world look so damn good. This excellence is consistent throughout the entire game, as well. Every single world in the game is a joy to look at. Hazelight's artists absolutely cooked. It runs at native 4K on the PS5 Pro (this was the first game I played on the Pro) and at a near-locked 60 FPS (I had exactly one noticeable frame drop that lasted about one second. The rest of the game, it was flawless). No crashes either, but the one downside of the technical state is that I did have a few bugs throughout my playthrough. None of these bugs were too serious, although one did require a checkpoint reload, and another one required a checkpoint reload for an optional trophy. These bugs were fixed upon reloading the checkpoint, but it's still a bit disappointing that those reloads were necessary. Split Fiction is certainly a much more polished release than your average AAA game, albeit that is an incredibly low bar at this point. You may have noticed that I have carefully avoided describing what Split Fiction actually is as a video game, and that is because... it's really hard to describe what Split Fiction actually is as a video game. For most of the time, it's a linear action platformer, but Split Fiction changes genres so rapidly and so frequently that it becomes one of the most genre-bending games I've ever played. You'll go from using gravity-defying laser swords so you can traverse a cyberpunk cityscape to transforming into a monkey so you can climb across vines to racing on sci-fi hover snowboards to escaping a planet dying from a supernova to fleeing a space station with limited oxygen to a 2D side-scroller to... playing as pigs? Split Fiction has so, so many different gameplay styles and mechanics that it's a small miracle that almost every mechanic is well-utilized, but they are! I don't want to talk about every one, because a big part of the fun of this game is the surprise at what crazy idea Hazelight throws at you next, but trust me, almost every mechanic is well-implemented, and every single level changes up the gameplay formula drastically (often with different mechanics for either player, providing some replay value). The one section I thought the mechanics were relatively weak for was a Halo-inspired section where you shoot dual pistols, as the gunplay felt a bit floaty, but even that level also had a fun mechanic where you co-ordinate to take out different shields as each type of shield could only be destroyed by one of us (I could only destroy red shields, and Connor could only destroy blue shields). A lot of the mechanics in this game are heavily focused on co-op, and you really need to work with the other player to advance. There isn't too much in terms of optional content, but there are 12 "side stories" which are much shorter diversions (often 10 minutes at most) during main missions (which can be much longer, up to 2 hours) and these are almost universally fantastic, and well worth doing. Only one of them I thought was a bit meh, but the rest were great, and an 11 for 12 success rate for side missions is excellent. They're also often quite funny, and are much lighter in tone than the main missions, which is a nice change of pace. Beyond that, there's some benches to sit on and some miscellaneous trophies to get, but it's a very easy platinum overall, and if you know what you're doing you can easily get the platinum in one run (I did, in about 13 hours). Also, I want to mention the boss battles. These are, with the one exception of, weirdly, the final boss, FANTASTIC. Some of the best-designed boss fights in any video game, ever. Consistently inventive, always fun, and occasionally a bit challenging (although checkpoints are very forgiving). I don't want to spoil any of them, because they are fantastic, and you should experience them for yourself. When it comes to gameplay, Split Fiction is consistently excellent the entire way through, but the final chapter of this game is one of the craziest endings I have ever seen. Truly, as Josef Fares put it "next level shit". I REALLY wish I could say more about it, but just trust me, the final chapter of Split Fiction is incredible. It's a shame that the boss fight at the end of it is a bit underwhelming, because the 30-ish minutes it took to get to that point are absolutely fantastic. Now, Split Fiction is a very narrative-driven game, and this... is where I have a major criticism. The narrative of Split Fiction is... terrible. It's really bad. The core premise is that Mio and Zoe (the two main characters) are unpublished writers who've never met before, who both go to an event by Rader Publishing thinking they'd get their books published. Instead, they're forced into what is essentially an Animus from Assassin's Creed, where they'll relive their ideas so Rader can steal them. Mio refuses to go into her pod, and in an ensuing scuffle, the CEO of Rader accidentally pushes her into Zoe's, meaning they're now stuck in the machine together while the machine is malfunctioning and merging the two into the same world (worlds which are based on either Mio or Zoe's stories depending on the level). Therefore, they need to find glitches to destroy the machine and escape, while the CEO of Rader tries to stop them. Now... I know what you're thinking. This is an incredibly unsubtle allegory for generative AI, and the threat that poses to the future of video games (and basically every other form of media) as an art form. That would be a bit too on-the-nose, but as a narrative concept, fine. But... it's apparently not. According to Josef Fares, the whole "idea stealing machine" thing was just a plot device to facilitate the concept of having both sci-fi and fantasy worlds in the game. In the absence of any core message, Split Fiction's narrative quickly becomes generic, cliched and, ultimately, unsatisfying. When streaming this game with Connor, he made two predictions very early on in the game. One of them was spot on, and the other was... about 50% right. The core plot beats of the game are easy to spot coming a mile away, and the writing isn't nuanced enough to mask that. It doesn't help that Mio and Zoe are very one-dimensional characters. They have backstories, sure, and those backstories are the narrative's strongest element. Mio is trying to fund cancer treatment for her father and is going broke in the process, while Zoe's sister passed away when they were kids and she's still traumatized about it. When the game is focusing on these subplots, the narrative is fine. But beyond that, Mio and Zoe don't have much character development. They go through the typical buddy cop plot of "reluctant partners become best friends", but that's about it, and it's very generic. The voice acting is also... really flat, although I suspect a big chunk of the blame for that goes to the writing, which often relies on very cringeworthy dialogue, which doesn't help when the plot itself is already so generic. Worst of all, however, is the villain, who is simultaneously the most generic "evil CEO" of all time and a complete dumbass who could very easily just kill Mio and Zoe at any point and cover it up but doesn't even realize this until hours later. I have two other major criticisms. Firstly, the narrative excuse for the side stories is that Mio and Zoe explore these worlds by choice to "prevent Rader from stealing those ideas". Except... they're in a machine that records their every thought. They didn't think that one through particularly well. Secondly, the core plot point around Rader stealing their ideas doesn't work because Split Fiction's level design often takes influence from other games, from Assassin's Creed to Metroid to Halo to Diablo to Monster Hunter. Now, in a gameplay context, I'm fine with this. It's Hazelight paying homage to classic games that inspired them, and I have no issue with it. But it COMPLETELY tanks the narrative since Mio and Zoe's stories... are not particularly original in the first place. No wonder they never got published, their stories are blatant plagiarism! In conclusion, Split Fiction's narrative is a complete mess, and it's so bad that it did detract from my enjoyment of what is otherwise an excellent video game... a bit. Emphasis on "a bit". Because while Split Fiction's narrative is very disappointing, its gameplay, level design, and fantastic art direction do more than enough to make up for it. Having a compelling narrative would have made this game slightly better, yes. But it's a testament to the quality of every other aspect of the game that one major weakness doesn't ultimately have much impact. This is an excellent video game, and it's one of the best co-op games in years. I had high expectations going in, and they were not only met, but exceeded. Split Fiction is unmissable, and it's a must-play. I recommend it immensely. 9.5/10.