Split Fiction Review – Masterful Co-Op Adventure

Split Fiction on PlayStation 5

Co-op games are few and far between, and good ones are even more rare. Following It Takes Two’s Game of the Year win in 2021, and now the release of Split Fiction, Hazelight Games has become the master, making by far and away the best co-op games you can hope to play in 2025.

Another Genre Switch

Split Fiction is another genre switch. The studio has tried its hand at prison break drama and emotional kids’ story come to life, but this time you can jump into two worlds: high fantasy and sci-fi action.

You and your playing partner step into the shoes of Mio and Zoe, two young authors who visit Rader to get their first-ever publishing deal. After a couple of mishaps, they’re sucked into the stories they’ve written and need to escape.

That sees you travel through various stories written by the two protagonists. You jump between silly tales written when they were kids and more fleshed-out worlds they plan to publish, taking on different forms in most of them.

It’s a brilliant basis for a co-op story, throwing countless situations and gameplay mechanics at you across 10 or so different mainline levels. That variety is leagues beyond what you might imagine, though. The sheer number of different things Split Fiction throws at you is staggering, each one fun in its own right.

Depending on which character you choose to play, you might be a giant Groot character who can manipulate a forest, a gun-wielding future soldier, or even a pig that farts rainbow to fly. Yes, really.

Genius Gameplay Variety

That is not the limit to the ingenuity or variety, either. Every level, and sometimes just parts of levels, features a unique gameplay mechanic. You’ll stumble across side-scrolling shooting, motorbike riding, grapples, and much, much more we don’t want to spoil. 

Each of the larger levels also ends in a boss fight, all excellently designed. They’re unique and exciting, and I can’t believe Hazelight has been able to come up with so many ideas.

The incredible level of invention is in everything you see and do, with it only heightened as the story goes on. Some of the coolest, most interesting, and honestly wacky things you’ll encounter come at the end of the game or during the often genius side stories.

It’s a game that’s absolutely worth sticking with, even if a gameplay mechanic here or there doesn’t wow you. Even for myself, there was a side-scrolling platforming section about halfway through the game that I found a little frustrating due to a lack of precision in the jumping mechanic, but no frustration lasts more than a short section of a level.

There’s a lot of potential for the gameplay elements to be expanded or focused on further in future games, too. The variety in gameplay is reminiscent of Astro Bot, and I could play a full gameplay-focused, even single-player, experience from Hazelight that didn’t have the storytelling aspect. Little would be lost when it comes to the fun factor.

Potentially Tricky For New Gamers

The only potential stumbling block is how manageable the gameplay is for players who aren’t well-versed gamers. I played the first hour of Split Fiction with my girlfriend, whose gaming experience is Pokemon and Sims, and she found it all relatively simple. However, I played the remainder with my younger brother and I have no doubts that the game gets trickier as it progresses. 

You need a good understanding of button placement, as well as a good sense of timing to get through the platformer puzzle section, and that may be a little too much for some. Split Fiction isn’t a hard game, by any means, but it isn’t a cakewalk, either.

The variety and gameplay ingenuity also means Split Fiction has a lot of replayability. Mio and Zoe move in the same ways for the most part, with identical jumps and dashes, but the abilities they’re given as part of each story usually differ dramatically. The tale you’re being told doesn’t change, but playing the game will feel very different if you jump into the other protagonist’s shoes for a second playthrough.

The Story Takes A Back Seat

Repeating the story is less of an issue because it’s not Split Fiction’s strongest point. Mio and Zoe are endearing, but the dialog is pretty generic stuff. Conversations between the two aren’t always natural and believable, which I’d put down to writing rather than the performances.?

The central story also takes a back seat for the majority of the game. Rader, the main antagonist, stays away from the action for most of the runtime, with the main plot only really progressing at the end of levels. 

Most of the other storytelling elements are interludes to expand the backgrounds of the two leads and the two girls screaming about what they’ve just done or are about to do. 

Neither the story nor the writing are downright bad, they’re just not up to the quality of the rest of Split Fiction. The focus is on the gameplay throughout, so don’t go into the game hoping for an epic fantasy story or a sprawling science-fiction epic.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Friend Pass feature, which lets you play with a friend even if only one of you owns the game, is phenomenal. Of course, it’s somewhat needed to ensure players have partners to play with, but it works seamlessly no matter the platform you’re playing on. When it makes sense, it’s something other games could take advantage of in smart ways.

No matter who you’re playing with, Split Fiction is another wonderful co-op adventure from Hazelight Games. While the story is forgettable, the level and gameplay design is more ingenious than I could ever have imagined. The variety and quality only improve as you progress, seeing the game throw things at you that you’ll never have seen before. It’s a joy from start to finish.