Split Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
Developer: Hazelight Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: PC, XBS, PS5
Price: Rs 2,499
Hazelight is known for their co-op games with titles like It Takes Two and A Way Out. You know they mean business. So, I was excited to get my hands on Split Fiction. Yes, I know it’s a crappy name, don’t worry the developers also know this, but are too invested to change the name now. The game is available on several platforms for a very nominal price, which, in my books, is always a good thing.
You and your friend play Mio and Zoe, the two protagonists of this story. The story is Mio and Zoe are hired by the Rader group so they can publish their stories. However, the evil company plans to extract the stories from their brain. While the other writers, including Zoe, are excited to be published, Mio feels that something is off and tries to leave, only to be pushed along with Zoe, causing the machine—let’s call it the creativity extractor—to malfunction. This fractures Zoe’s fantasy world stories with Mio’s science fiction world, and the two must navigate their stories and help each other to escape this predicament. The premise is excellent, but the overall storytelling and character dialogues are cringeworthy at times or just plain boring. It also took me a while to take a liking to Zoe’s character, but like Mio, I had to accept my fate if I wanted to finish this game.
The biggest highlight of Split Fiction, however, is the actual gameplay. The game continually throws you off by switching genres and gameplay styles, transitioning from platformer to racing to puzzler and more on the fly. It’s exciting but also a little challenging. Without spoiling the ending, I want to say it has one of the most interesting finales I have seen. It pushes you to the limit, and every minute you’ve spent in the game is utilised in the final moments of the story, and it is spectacular.
Addressing the elephant in the room, yes, as you suspected, this game does not have a single-player mode. You can play it in co-op mode on a single split screen or across platforms regardless of whether you have a PC, Xbox or PS5. The best part is that your friend doesn’t even need the game. Having just one licence between the two of you is sufficient.
However, I found it challenging to coordinate and get a friend to play with me, and due to timing mismatches or workloads, it wasn’t easy to play on days other than the weekend. I ended up playing a lot of this game with my spouse, who is not a gamer, and sometimes found the game somewhat challenging, especially as it progressed. Expect to play 15-16 hours on this game, more if our partner is a noob or if you decide to complete all the side quests.
Split Fiction is proof that gameplay, above everything else, is king. Despite its ho-hum story and cheesy dialogue, developer Hazelight has managed to deliver one of the best games you’ll play this year. It’s a pity that you can only play it if you have a friend. This is, of course, easier said than done. Despite this game supporting cross-platform play and game sharing, finding company is still a bit of a hurdle. If you already have a friend to play this with, Split Fiction will blow your mind; there’s truly nothing like it on the market at the moment. Please buy it.