Split Fiction (2025): The Review
Overview
If there’s one word that sums up Split Fiction for us, it’s fun. The levels burst with creativity, the story keeps things engaging, and the sheer joy of exploring its virtual playground with friends makes every session a treat. It’s the kind of co-op experience that radiates charm and energy, and I can’t help but hope it follows in It Takes Two’s footsteps, earning the recognition and praise it so clearly deserves.
Score: 9 out of 10
The Positives ✅
Split Fiction is co-op comfort food in the best way, pure, pick-up-and-play joy that keeps the smiles coming. The level-to-level variety is relentless: one minute you’re jetpacking or side-scrolling, the next you’re wall-walking with a gravity katana or snap-swinging a laser whip. Hazelight builds each chapter around a fresh mechanic, then tosses in bite-sized side stories that feel like inventive mini-games, so nothing outstays its welcome. The teamwork design is tight too: complementary abilities, synchronized triggers, little timing puzzles, everything nudges you to actually cooperate instead of playing in parallel. And the Friend’s Pass is clutch: only one copy needed, zero excuses.
Presentation slaps. Worlds are loud with color and detail, from neon sci-fi skylines to storybook fantasy vistas. The set-pieces escalate like a theme park itinerary, bigger, weirder, grander, topping out in a finale that’s pure spectacle. Audio does heavy lifting: adaptive music cues (the “both players died” fade-out is chef’s kiss), playful foley (muffled space suits, gummy-candy bounce), and two lead performances (Kaja Chan and Elsie Bennet) that give Mio and Zoe warmth, bite, and chemistry. It’s all polished and cinematic without getting in the way of the fun.
Narratively, the core works: two writers trapped in a simulation forced to confront creativity, ownership, and a predatory industry. Mio the skeptic and Zoe the optimist are easy to root for, and their banter carries the quieter stretches. The game says something real about undervalued artists and the “replace creatives with machines” nonsense, and it lands those beats without sucking the air out of a breezy co-op adventure.
The Negatives ⚠️
The story leans on familiar genre rails. Sci-fi and fantasy arcs hit predictable beats, and you’ll call a few twists before they happen. The villain’s “innovation over creators” spiel is on-the-nose (accurate, but hardly subtle), and the game sometimes flinches instead of going fully weird or fully sharp with its themes. Mio and Zoe’s hearts sell it, but the plot’s ceiling sits a little lower than It Takes Two’s.
Moment-to-moment play trends simple by design, great for accessibility, but occasionally low on strategic layers. “Red/violet = Mio, blue/green = Zoe” keeps clarity high and friction low, yet seasoned players may wish for a few tougher mechanical knots. Sci-fi zones also blur visually; lots of slick metal and neon can start to same-ify until the fantasy biomes break it up again. And once the credits roll, replay hooks are thin: outside of swapping roles or revisiting favorite set-pieces, there’s not much reason to loop back.
Value check: ~15 hours for $49.99 feels fair given the polish, but it’s very much a one-and-done ride. If you’re hunting long-tail progression, collectibles, or post-game mixups, this isn’t that. It’s a weekend banger, fantastic while it lasts, gone when it’s done.
The Experience 🎮
This is the kind of game that reminds you why couch co-op rules. You’ll laugh at each other’s fails, high-five the tight sync moments, and, when the game lets you, absolutely yeet your partner off a ledge for science. Death is a slap on the wrist, checkpoints are generous, and momentum rarely dies, which invites experimentation instead of punishment. It’s approachable without being brain-off, and it respects your time.
The side stories are the secret sauce. Each is a little portal into Mio and Zoe’s half-finished worlds, game shows, hand-drawn vignettes, deep-space oddities, even a bizarre pig detour, and they’re so charming you’ll wish they lasted longer. They pace the campaign beautifully, fleshing out the leads while showing off Hazelight’s toy-box creativity.
Bottom line: Hazelight did it again. Split Fiction doesn’t hit the same emotional peak as It Takes Two, but as a co-op sandbox of ideas, it’s beautiful, clever, and relentlessly fun. When we wrapped at ~15 hours, we were genuinely bummed it was over—a good problem to have. If you want a polished, memorable weekend with a friend or partner, this is an easy yes.
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