Split Fiction (2025, Multiplatform)

Developer: Hazelight Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Clear Version: PS5
Clear Platform: PS5
Clear Date: 4/7/25

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Why should I care?
Split Fiction overflows with fun co-op ideas that make it a wonderful experience with any companion.

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Writers blocked

With the release of this third critically acclaimed co-op-only game, Hazelight Studios has positioned itself pretty firmly as the current standard bearer for that product niche. Its previous effort, It Takes Two earned them countless awards and has enjoyed years of continued strong sales — a rarity in offline video games. I didn’t play that one or its predecessor A Way Out because my atomized, single-family-home American life makes it hard for me to find a companion for this sort of thing, or at least harder than playing through single-player games. Nevertheless, their works have interested me, as I think there’s something high-integrity about these dedicated co-op games, especially ones that are played together on a split screen. For that reason, I was thrilled when my partner asked if I wanted to try playing a co-op game sometime shortly after this game was released. I’m equally thrilled to say I find it fully deserving of the praise it has received and am happy to add the Nixon Computer Endorsement to the pile of its accolades.

Split Fiction is, approximately, a co-op, third-person action platformer, but to try to box it into a genre does it a bit of a disservice — more on that in a moment. Its protagonists are a pair of aspiring writers, Zoe Foster and Mio Hudson, both of whom have made the trek to Rader Publishing in search of their first publishing deal. They are quickly introduced to The Machine, a huge device designed to extract ideas from writers’ minds. Although Mio is desperate for a payday, as she sees her fellow writers encased in concept-harvesting bubbles, she has a last-minute change of heart and asks to be allowed to leave. This leads to a tussle with founder and CEO J.D. Rader, and in the struggle, Mio stumbles into Zoe’s bubble, where both become trapped.

As she falls into the fantasy world of Zoe’s mind, this also creates a glitch in the system. When they touch it, it creates a rift out of which the two hypothesize they can escape their containment. When they touch it again, they find themselves in another fictional land. The two start to realize what’s going on: that they are experiencing a hyper-realistic VR version of their stories and that it is Rader’s intent to steal their life’s work for a pittance. They resolve to escape the Machine and put a stop to his plans if at all possible. This enrages him, as the Machine is, after all, his life’s work.

Thus, chasing “the glitch” becomes their mission. This is the device that gets them to navigate the perilous sci-fi and fantasy worlds of Mio and Zoe’s minds, respectively. It is, conveniently, always present after the boss or climax of each story they get through. Great!

The two are not fast friends, though. In addition to favoring different genres, the two are cast as opposites in nearly every other way. Mio is a big-city native who detests nature, Zoe is from the British countryside and adores it. Mio is cynical and hesitant to open up, and Zoe is optimistic and friendly. This leads to considerable bickering in the early going, and it’s frankly pretty tropey and annoying. A bit ironic for a game about writers, no?

But the irony of poor writing doesn’t stop there. The other plot beats are pretty well-trodden ground touching on grief and interpersonal relationships. The two undergo a fairly predictable enemies to besties arc (which at least makes the dialog between the two take a less irritating tone later on). Mio insists at one point that her stories aren’t related to her personal life or psyche at all, which is plainly and obviously ridiculous to anyone who has ever put pen to paper. She is later gobsmacked when Zoe reveals how obviously the themes and struggles of her life have crept into her writing. Like, come on, man!

It’s really quite remarkable how bad the writing is for a game about aspiring writers. It could’ve been such a celebration of the creative process and growth therein. Additionally, the Machine and Rader are set up perfectly as rebukes of things like generative AI and flaws in IP law, but those punches aren’t landed in any but the most surface ways.

The fortunate thing is that the gameplay is an absolute saving grace. What it lacks in meaningful plot beats and ideas it makes up for tenfold in mechanics and gameplay concepts.

Each world that Zoe and Mio travel through is somewhat genre-standard stuff, but they ways they do so are fun and novel. The basic navigational gameplay consists mostly of running and jumping (and double jumping), but it’s never long before a new gameplay idea is introduced that mixes things up.

In one level, Zoe and Mio work their way through a fantasy forest as shapeshifters. Mio can turn into a gorilla or an otter, granting her climbing and swimming abilites respectively, and Zoe can transform into a fairy or a legally-distinct Groot, granting her flight and Nature Powers respectively. In a sci-fi level, one has magnetic manipulation abilities while the other has hacking. This is just a couple of the countless pairs of disciplines you’ll get to play with through the game.

The asymmetry of their abilities is the killer part of it and demands sharp co-operation between players. Although you will not use the other player’s abilities (unless you swap controllers), you must understand them to help them on their way with your own. Because of this, some puzzles and challenges may take a few tries to get in sync, but the feeling of overcoming them is quite rewarding. The feel of using them is always polished, and the ways they synergize often feel quite clever.

Peppered throughout the stages are portals to Side Stories, which are usually five-to-ten-minute focused romps through shorter stories in the pair’s mental oeuvre. These allow us to see, for example, the first stories the two ever wrote. One is a fantastical story about pigs becoming sausages, the other is a story of two teeth bouncing through a wonderland of sweets with a twist horror ending involving a boss whose profession you can perhaps guess. These are usually a bit lighter and more humorous than the primary story segments, and they’re a quite welcome diversion from the main events in terms of art direction and gameplay as well.

Perhaps as important as anything is the accessibility of the game’s myriad mechanics. Whatever form Zoe and Mio happen to be taking at any given time, you’ll seldom have to concern yourself with more than two buttons or so (and the control sticks). Inasmuch as the game is co-op only, this is critical! It makes it easy for players of different skill levels to enjoy the game with little frustration. Meanwhile, the ease of access never makes the game feel boring either. The polish and novelty of each section shines through, and everything controls just right. This is really tough to tackle from a design perspective, but Hazelight nailed it.

All of this makes it an all-time co-op experience and one that I can’t recommend highly enough for anyone who relishes the opportunity to play through an entire game side-by-side with a friend. At the same time, that makes its subpar writing all the more disappointing! With a little more rhetorical punch and/or snappier dialogue, this really could’ve been something exceptional and special. It is absolutely still Very Good, but it would slide into a higher tier of discussion if it didn’t have that unfortunate glaring fault.

Of course, I’ve seldom been one to criticize a game for its story faults. Many, many games have extremely pedestrian stories because the point is the gameplay. It just feels a bit on the nose with the general themes and protagonists of this game.

Still, I do want to stress that my recommendation of this game is firm. The ways it is a letdown are in some ways an endorsement of everything else about it! I expect it to stand strong as one of 2025’s finest as the years wear on, and maybe it’ll fund a stronger writer’s room for the next Hazelight effort!