Split Fiction Review: Double Booked

Literary Glitch

When It Takes Two won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021, it came as a surprise to many, while others attempted to diminish the accomplishment by claiming it was a weak year. Honestly, I was surprised as well, not because the game wasn’t an excellent experience, but because It Takes Two was a co-op-only title. It seemed, at the time, that I was in the minority as someone who is fortunate to always have a co-op partner at the ready for all types of games. Despite being an unexpected win, it was a positive outcome for the industry.

For those who don’t follow, Hazelight Studios’ founder Josef Fares has become a bit of a meme over the years, mainly for his outburst and passionate speech during The Game Awards 2017. Fares is the mind behind Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a rather innovative game of its time that, while single player, gave the illusion of a co-op experience. A Way Out, which was Hazelight Studios’ first title, started the team’s journey of creating strictly two-player co-op games. A Way Out was followed by the award-winning It Takes Two, which has gone on to sell over 23 million units. This sales figure is even more impressive when you consider that only one of the two players needs to own a copy of the game. You see, Hazelight Studios somehow managed to convince its publisher, Electronic Arts (EA), to offer a Friend’s Pass for its titles. This allows the owner of the game to share access with someone else in order for both of them to enjoy the experience. Split Fiction made the deal even better because it’s available cross-platform, meaning someone who owns the game on PlayStation 5 can play with someone who doesn’t own it on Xbox Series X|S or PC. Oh, and the game is only $49.99.

It’s even more refreshing to know that the team has publicly stated it will never create a game with paid DLCs or microtransactions. Fares has been very outspoken and adamant that a game’s design changes when the team has to accommodate things like microtransactions. So when a game like Split Fiction comes around and we can feel the passion and creativity of its developers while playing, it’s wonderful to know that these games can still exist—and be published by EA, no less.

Tale of Two Authors

Now that I’ve finished excessively praising Josef Fares and the team at Hazelight Studios, it’s time to explain why Split Fiction is such an excellent game and one of the best I’ve ever played. Split Fiction tells the story of two contrasting writers, Mio and Zoe, who are complete strangers to one another at the start. Mio writes sci-fi, while Zoe writes fantasy, and at least initially, their personalities couldn’t be more different. Both authors are paying a visit to Rader Publishing in hopes of getting their works published, but the company has other plans. Rader is actually putting authors into a virtual simulation of their stories, in order to steal all their creative ideas. While Mio doesn’t know this at the start, her gut instinct tells her she shouldn’t participate and after a small altercation, she ends up in the same simulation as Zoe.

This premise sets up Split Fiction’s core gameplay loop, alternating between sci-fi and fantasy worlds throughout the adventure. Each level peels back a layer of Mio or Zoe’s personality, along with hidden Side Stories that can be discovered during the journey. These Side Stories are mostly creative mini-games with a co-op twist, many drawing inspiration from established franchises such as SSX. As expected, some are more memorable than others, but none felt like they were a waste of time or a chore. In fact, the first thing we did after we rolled credits was to go back and find the Side Stories we missed during our playthrough. They are completely optional but we highly recommend doing all of them as they’re a real treat.

While the core of the game is an action platformer, Split Fiction manages to blend in so much different gameplay that, at times, it’s almost overwhelming. There are very brief moments of respite, but the game constantly feels like it’s set piece after set piece with non-stop action. Hazelight Studios brilliantly introduces concepts in simple ways before gradually layering complexity. It’s impressive how the game teaches you the fundamentals without being overbearing—it holds your hands without insulting you. Compared to It Takes Two, there’s a clear step up in difficulty, but Split Fiction is very generous with checkpoints. In most sequences, only one of the two players need to survive and respawns happen in a timely manner. Things can get a bit chaotic in fast-paced platforming sequences as respawning can be unexpected and can often lead to another immediate death. If a player dies during a boss fight, they can respawn by spamming a button press, giving players some form of urgency and control.

Creative Differences

Split Fiction reminded me a lot of last year’s Astro Bot, which won multiple Game of the Year awards. There were many instances throughout our playthrough where we were genuinely surprised and overjoyed by what was unfolding on our screens. Like Astro Bot, Split Fiction was designed from the ground up to be a fun and entertaining game, aiming to put a smile on both players’ faces. It also achieves this by paying homage to the gaming industry, with multiple nods to various genres. Certain levels were obvious in their inspiration, but others were so well done that you could attribute them to any number of popular games throughout gaming history. Some of the games we picked up references from included Final Fantasy XIV, Dune, Metal Gear, Sonic the Hedgehog, Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and of course, Hazelight’s previous two games, A Way Out and It Takes Two. If you love finding easter eggs, Split Fiction has plenty to offer.

Again, it’s really hard to talk about Split Fiction’s best moments without spoiling them, so we won’t bother. It says a lot about a game when you don’t want to spoil gameplay rather than story, because a lot of the joy and wonder in playing Split Fiction comes from those magical moments when you and your partner realize what’s unfolding in front of you. These aren’t rare occurrences either, since it kept happening level after level, to the point that I wondered where all this creativity has been in the gaming industry. That’s a bit of hyperbole, of course, because many indie developers are showing where the creativity is, but there’s a bit of irony that EA, of all companies, is publishing Split Fiction. Considering EA has a reputation for churning out the same game each year with its sports franchises, we can only hope someone important in that corporate world is paying attention to what Hazelight has successfully done three times.

As for the game’s story, it’s mostly serviceable. There are some touching moments between Mio and Zoe, but they feel pretty generic and predictable. One praise I can give to the story is that Mio and Zoe’s friendship grows organically, meaning they don’t go from fighting and arguing with each other to becoming best friends in the span of a single mission. With anywhere from 13 to 15 hours of gameplay, the interactions between Mio and Zoe are quite believable, despite the zany events happening on screen. As for the antagonist, Rader is as over-the-top and Saturday Morning Cartoon as they come. If you follow the gaming industry, you’ll likely notice some not-so-subtle messaging in Rader’s storyline. Hazelight is probably one of the few studios that can make such a statement, considering it walks the walk when it comes to releasing a fully polished game with no microtransactions and is even consumer-friendly with the Friend’s Pass system.

Plot Twist

Naturally, where Split Fiction really shines is in the co-op mechanics. The game is mostly played split-screen, even if you’re not engaging in couch co-op, because players will need to glance over to their partner’s screen from time to time. Much of the game requires careful coordination and communication, especially during boss fights, and oftentimes this also results in some hysterical moments. This is one of the very few games where missing a jump or failing a mechanic is more humorous than it is frustrating, and that’s very difficult to achieve. Finding the fun in failure is very rare these days in gaming. Split Fiction allows you and your partner to fail so spectacularly, you can’t help but to laugh. The game’s generous checkpoints ensure you never lose much progress, making those moments even easier to laugh off. Dying will set you back a few seconds at most, and this includes boss encounters.

For a game that should mainly be focused on its gameplay mechanics, Split Fiction is visually stunning and equally as impressive in terms of performance. We both played on PC and never encountered any bugs or issues, though I did have one crash. Other than that though, performance was rock solid and the contrasting environments between sci-fi and fantasy serves as eye candy for the entire experience. There’s no real dull moment throughout the game, and these worlds felt immersive and alive, even if some were short lived. Just as we were impressed by the sheer diversity of gameplay in Split Fiction, the varied environments were equally remarkable.

Audio doesn’t miss a beat either, featuring excellent voice acting, immersive sound effects, and fitting musical tracks. The voices of Mio and Zoe, Kaja Chan and Elsie Bennett, respectively, deliver convincing performances with tonal changes as the two become more familiar and friendlier with one another. Then there are the little things, ranging from the clanging metal in Mio’s sci-fi stories to the roaring dragons in Zoe’s fantasies. While it’s admittedly hard to pay attention to the soundtrack with everything else happening in the game, there were a couple of tracks that made me stop and listen, mainly the fantasy pieces. I would say the music fits the moments well throughout the game, but it’s understandable if most players don’t find anything memorable.

The Bigger Picture

We really wish we could say more about some of the gameplay mechanics in Split Fiction, but it’s best to go in as blind as possible. I’m actually surprised by the amount of gameplay Hazelight was willing to share during the previews earlier this year. It’s really an indicator to just how many pleasant surprises are packed into the game from beginning to end. Speaking of the end, Split Fiction nails the landing like very few games before it. The final sequence of this game will be talked about for years to come, as a true culmination of everything you and your partner learned throughout the playthrough. Just when we thought we’d seen it all, Split Fiction saved the best for last.

With Split Fiction, we found very little to complain about. The game is simply a joy, assuming you have a partner since it’s designed exclusively for co-op play. Four years ago, we felt it was a real shame that some gamers would never get to experience It Takes Two because we know many people just don’t like co-op games in general. This feels even worse with Split Fiction since it’s truly a magical experience. Fortunately, It Takes Two managed to sell over 23 million units, so hopefully everyone out there can find someone else to enjoy Split Fiction with.

Split Fiction is one of those rare games that might actually make the world a better place. The game connects people in ways other forms of media simply can’t. Selfishly, I hope it achieves wild success, setting all sorts of sales records so the team at Hazelight Studios continues to thrive. I want as many games from them as possible, because Hazelight remains one of the few developers consistently improving with each release—and Split Fiction is their best yet. If you’re fortunate enough to have a partner ready to dive in, there’s no reason to hesitate. Well, perhaps one reason: once you start, you won’t want it to end, and games this good don’t come along often.

Split Fiction releases on March 6, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. This review is based on a purchased retail copy of the game on PC. While FullCleared does have affiliate partnerships, they do not influence our editorial content. We may, however, earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.

Split Fiction Review Gallery (possible spoilers!)

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