Split Fiction

Listen to this post:

It’s not easy to make it as a writer! You’ve got to play video games all the time, write what you think about them, eat delicious snacks while you do it…truly, it’s the worst. Not like I’m speaking from experience here or anything, nope, no sir. Split Fiction, the latest adventure from Hazelight, stars sci-fi author Mio and fantasy author Zoe as they’re offered the chance of a lifetime: a publishing deal! Turns out that the deal isn’t quite what they expected, though, as the corporation offering to publish them actually wants to convert their stories into full-body VR experiences.

Suffice to say, there’s something a little more sinister going on, and it doesn’t take long for the sci-fi and fantasy worlds to collide in chaotic fashion. Mio and Zoe will have to work together if they’re going to have any chance to escape.

via YouTube

Split Fiction is a mandatory co-op game in the same vein as Hazelight’s previous titles A Way Out and It Takes Two. You’ll team up with a friend – sorry, no AI companions here – and work together to make it through the wild worlds emerging from Mio and Zoe’s minds. Gameplay-wise, the experience is a little bit action-adventure and a little bit WarioWare, with new (but easily understood) gameplay concepts showing up in quick succession. Sometimes you’re sneaking around as a cyber-ninja, sometimes you’re annelid-wrangling in a sandworm rodeo, and sometimes…well, you get the idea.

Cooperation is, of course, a central theme, as the two characters typically have different capabilities or roles in any given scene. Flying a starship is important, but so is blasting away at the baddies trying to shoot your duo down, after all.

The scattershot array of gameplay styles does mean that any particular segment isn’t going to be especially deep. That’s both a blessing and curse. On the one hand, you’re not going to go into the aforementioned cyber-ninja bit and discover that it’s the new God of War, full of involving combat and an intricate combo system. On the other, your buddy who only plays Madden or your significant other that you managed to rope into gaming isn’t going to be overwhelmed either. Split Fiction is nothing if not accessible. If you and your partner find yourselves really getting into the experience, you can delve a little further and find Side Stories that tend to be even more bizarre than the norm, so keep your eyes open.

Character drama has been the heart and soul of Hazelight’s games, and Split Fiction is no exception. Rather than the buddy-picture feel of A Way Out or the couple-focused It Takes Two, Split Fiction feels more like a study in personality types. Zoe’s energetic type-A and Mio’s more reserved type-B clash in hilarious ways, and you really might have the best experience with this one if your co-op buddy is your polar opposite. This even applies to some extent to the gameplay, as the characters are tossed into wholly unsuitable scenarios and struggle through as best they can. Farting pigs are a thing. Please look forward to it.

Split Fiction’s presentation takes fantastic advantage of the concept of two divergent fictional worlds colliding. Watching the heroines flop from a dystopian sci-fi city right into a Disney-esque fantasy realm is hilarious the first time around, but it’s particularly interesting that swapping back and forth and all around never really gets old. The constant variety in settings and gameplay ensure that neither member of your co-op team is bound to get bored anytime soon, and if there’s a segment someone doesn’t like, well, chances are it’s not going to last too long.

Combine all that with the fact that you only have to buy one copy of the game for two players and it’s hard to argue with the value Split Fiction offers. There’s plenty to do and see, not to mention that you’re going to do and see it all in such a frantic rush that there’s no time for anything to get old. On top of that, there’s a surprisingly endearing story behind it all about two very different people learning to get along. It’s heartwarming. Plus there’s farting pigs, which I might have mentioned earlier. Grab a pal and check it out.