Split Fiction

Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

When struggling sci-fi author Mio and fantasy writer Zoe attend a meeting at Rader Publishing, they think they're on the cusp of getting a book deal. Instead, they find themselves roped into a tech demo, placed into an immersive VR simulation of their work. Finding it sketchy, Mio tries to escape, only to be knocked into Zoe's experience, trapping them both in worlds that alternate between their respective genres.

The real fantasy is any literary publisher having the budget for resources like that, so it's little surprise that Rader is actually a big tech company trying to literally steal ideas directly from the minds of creators, all to be soullessly churned into #content. In the age of AI slop we're all currently trapped in, the metaphor is unmissable.

Split Fiction absolutely dazzles with its sheer inventiveness at every moment.

Like developer Hazelight Studios' previous outings, A Way Out and It Takes Two, Split Fiction is a mandatory co-op game, with support for local and online team-ups. Each level sees the leads navigating semi-linear environments, utilising individual abilities that will often need to be used in concert to progress. Despite the ever-shifting suite of skills, this mostly works well, although there are a few moments where signposting could be better – for instance, an early section where Zoe has to destroy a glass barrier before Mio can leap to it is frustrating as it's not immediately clear the glass is there to begin with. Those moments are few and far though, and once you and your play partner are past an opening hour that's perhaps too cautious in letting you take full control, the synergy between the protagonists rarely disappoints.

Hazelight's own creative genius is on full display throughout, using Mio and Zoe's quest to escape the simulation and protect their own work to not only explore the numerous permutations of sci-fi and fantasy as narrative genres, but the endless possibilities of video games as a medium. Main chapters stick to a core theme drawing from one of the women's stories but brilliantly twist expectations along the way. For instance, Mio's "Neon Revenge" is a vengeance-fuelled rampage through a cyberpunk dystopia playing as gravity-twisting cyber ninjas, but hack-and-slash combat is interspersed with zero-g bike races, vehicle combat, and scenery-demolishing cinematic set pieces, while Zoe's "Hopes of Spring" starts off as a high fantasy romp through a kingdom threatened by an ice king, where the pair shapeshift into magical creatures, before pulling the rug out via a dance-off battle with a particularly funky monkey king.

It's shorter side stories – representing the authors' scattered ideas and unfinished drafts – that really delight though, allowing for frenetic bursts of wildly imaginative scenarios and rapidly shifting gameplay. Want to wander a bucolic farmland fantasy as superpowered pigs, one farting rainbows to fly through the air while the other springs around like a porcine Plastic Man? You got it – complete with a dark but hilarious commentary on meat production to cap it off. How about a spy-fi heist, glide-suiting down a mountain pass before taking out a boss in R-Type bullet-hell shooter style? Fire away. Sandsurfing the back of desert monsters? Shades of Dune, that's there too. How about playing through a twisted mash-up of Smash TV, Squid Game, and Gladiators, overseen by totally-not-GLaDOS-honest? That's crammed in too. Split Fiction absolutely dazzles with its sheer inventiveness at every moment.

Perhaps ironically for a game centred on writing though, some of Split Fiction's own teeters dangerously close to hokey at certain moments. It leans a little too hard on contrasting its leads, almost to the point of parody – Mio is a cynical city girl, Zoe's a peppy country gal! One is brooding and introverted, the other friendly and outgoing! And of course, they both hate absolutely everything to do with the other's genre! Thankfully, some solid growth from each over the course of their adventures, backed up by strong voice performances by Kaja Chan and Elsie Bennett, saves it from feeling trite. Similarly, while some of the endless stream of references are a bit on the nose — one of the heroes directly compares an area to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at one point, lampshading it before the player can — the sheer love Hazelight displays for their influences is undeniable.

At its best though, Split Fiction is an endlessly entertaining, frequently hilarious adventure — one section has Zoe trying to complete a CAPTCHA in the middle of a chase sequence before everything explodes — that positively bursts with ideas and fizzes with imagination. It's perfectly paced, throwing new experiences at players rapidly enough to keep things constantly fresh and sometimes even leaving you wanting more, but nothing outstaying its welcome. Not only the best game Hazelight has yet made, but a contender for one of the best co-op games ever.