Split Fiction

Originally published on my HLTB profile.

Originally written and published on July 29th, 2025.

Split Fiction is, once again, a great co-op experience, that is worth the play for anyone who's looking to enjoy a polished, fun and unique game with a friend, partner or a sibling.

Every level is well-designed in terms of the co-op experience while also being a sight to behold, with all of its very detailed environments. The gameplay is varied and swift, with the movement itself being fun on its own. A lot of the abilities are unique and creative, and they complement each other really well most of the time. The side stories are also a great idea, further spicing up the variety even more, sadly though, at the cost of replacing the fun minigames from the previous titles. However, they are great anyway, and I understand that there might have been a desire to do something different. Overall, the pacing of the gameplay is quite dynamic, without dwelling on any gimmick or gameplay type for too long. The developers clearly let their creativity run wild when it comes to the mechanics in the gameplay, especially at the start and end of the game. There's also a sizable amount of easter eggs and references to Hazelight's previous works or to other gaming hallmarks that many will find recognizable and fun.

One of the most surprising things to me was not actually the abilities, though. It was the technical state. I found it amazing to see a game, a split-screen game nonetheless, running on Unreal Engine to perform so smoothly. From my experience with other games on Unreal Engine, it was pleasant to see basically no stutters, FPS drops, graphical glitches or artifacts. In fact, it seemed to be using many of its capabilities for even useless details, like sheets of paper reacting to fire and the wind accurately. Perhaps it was easier to spare time and budget for details like these, since it is a linear game, but it's still praiseworthy.

It's not all great, though. I found the writing to be a bit boring and filled with just a bit too many clichés to be taken too seriously. On the other hand, it's not really that silly either, and in fact, wants itself to be taken quite seriously. At least in my impression. This all just results in most of the character interactions feeling kind of superficial and not deeply connecting. As for the humor, the jokes are not that funny either, and in my opinion, they were able to hit the mark with the humor in It Takes Two much better.

To add to this, I feel like it is quite strange, and a wasted opportunity, that in a game based on stories, there really aren't that many characters in the levels at all. There are some antagonists for most of the levels, and some mini-bosses, but other than that, there isn't much. I personally didn't find any of the secondary characters memorable at all. Considering this is supposed to be a game about stories, I found it disappointing that even It Takes Two had many more memorable characters. I suppose there might have been a possible intent to make this story a bit more introspective in-between the two heroines, but it just doesn't really work that much with this writing.

The second issue is about the levels themselves. While they are indeed very well-designed from the gameplay perspective and look magnificent, their variety in terms of their visual repertoire is a bit lacking. When I have seen that the game will combine genres of fantasy and sci-fi, I have thought that this might leave the developers with almost boundless opportunities to create visually distinct environments of almost any kind. Fantasy and sci-fi are such flexible genres. Here, however, it feels as if the creators were leaning too much into the prototypical aspects of these genres. That results in the fantasy levels always having the thematics of forests, with big mushrooms, trees, cliffs and castle ruins. Meanwhile, the sci-fi levels always end up having metallic architecture, industrial-looking machines and lasers. I just feel like these genres can be so much more than that. Where are some other environments like some creative medieval villages, deserts, dwarfs, goblins, demons, paranormal and more. As for sci-fi, some deep-space horrors, time travel, apocalyptic scenarios, aliens and who-knows what else. In fact, you could get even much more by mixing these two genres together. But, alas, what is there, is not bad by any means. I just couldn't help but think about this during my play-through.

Still, in the end, Split Fiction ends up being an incredibly solid co-op experience, which doesn't have any sort of competition other than the previous games from its own creators. If you've liked It Takes Two, you will most definitely have a lot of fun with this one too.

Overall rating: 80%

Playtime: 14h 10m

Played on PC.