Split Fiction hands-on review

Everyone has a history in their heads that they’d like to share, but perhaps they don’t feel the same way about how to do it. But that’s about to shift in Hazelight Studios ‘ Split Fiction, which launches March 6 on PS5.

The editor Rader has a brand-new, cutting-edge machine capable of bringing a woman’s stories to life and letting the writers live through their stories in the video game. They’ve invited some aspiring writers to offer their software a try–among them Mio and Zoe, two people with significantly different backgrounds, tastes, and personalities. However, an unforeseen occurrence causes these two of the most complex tales to interweave when the on switch is flipped and the tales emerge. Mio and Zoe need to team up to endure each other’s stories–and find out some of the techniques Rader’s been hiding from its check content. Thus begins Split Fiction: a co-op journey about doubtful companions, thoughts running crazy, and very unusual activities.
Developer Hazelight is a theater that is renowned for producing wonderful collaborative game experiences like A Way Out, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and the award-winning It Takes Two. Their game are known for special themes, strong emotional moments, wonder play twists, and a good dose of off-kilter laughter. We’re happy to report that Split Fiction resurrects the formula for people ‘ favorite characters from their earlier works while raising the stakes.
People who enter Cut Fantasy will assume the reign of one of the two leading people. Mio, a somewhat cold and curt capital girl, is a huge sci-fi guy who loves galactic battles, cyber aesthetics, and modern armaments. Zoe, a talkative girl from the land, enjoys high-fantasy stories of heroic trials, dragons, trolls, and wonder. The couple may be bionic warrior assassins in a novel one moment, but a malfunction in the system has gotten them to travel together while switching between their own stories. They may end up being beautiful shapeshifters on their epic quest through the wilderness the next. The device that creates these history worlds is, all the while, much more deeply into each woman’s memories and story suggestions than either one expected.
You’ll start by playing split-screen co-op, with both people traversing the same path. You’ll quickly learn hurdles that can’t be overcome by only one person, but you’ll have to collaborate to continue. Mio and Zoe’s abilities change as the story worlds they travel in. For example, each character will frequently have a unique skill set that allows one player to use one move or attack while Zoe becomes a small, flexible faerie. You’ll need to work together to figure out how to apply these sequential powers to overcome the challenges and enemies that are holding you back. In Mio’s cyber-ninja story, we were able to play a boss fight against a massive robotic law enforcement system that required some careful coordination: Zoe had to dodge attacks and use a whip-like weapons to grab leftover items and crush them into the army while Mio had to use her weight and s to expose the manager ‘ weak level.
Not every story that Split Fiction players will encounter involves combat. The duo engaged in friendly competition while performing tricks on futuristic hoverboards in one of the classic extreme sports games. The women were transformed into a pair of portly pigs powered by springs and rainbow-colored farts by an additional surreal story area, and things only got weirder after that. Many of these regions offer optional side stories that can be found during the main quest, giving players a reason to explore a little bit and rewarding them with unique encounters and character moments.
The gameplay in each section can change dramatically, too. While third-person split-screen action and exploration was the most common experience during our test run, there were sections with fast-paced vehicle chases, side-scrolling run-and-gun action, and even some tricky puzzles that tested players ‘ skills at pinball. We never knew what kind of theming or gameplay twist to expect, so every new world we saw in Split Fiction felt like a delightful surprise.
We’re eager to see more of this odd duo’s strange adventures, and fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer–Split Fiction will debut on March 6 on PS5. Bring a friend–it’s about to get wild.