Split Fiction

My first question with any co-op game is always the same: will four of us fight over who gets stuck watching? With Split Fiction the answer is simple - only two people play, and those two people are going to have an absolute blast. Hazelight Studios built this entire experience around a locked-in duo, and that focus shows in every single level. You and one friend control Mio and Zoe, two fiction writers who get trapped inside their own stories by a shady publishing company trying to steal their ideas. It is a classic buddy-movie setup, the characters start as total strangers and gradually have to earn each other's trust, and while some critics found the writing a little shallow and Mio a bit more fleshed out than Zoe, the premise is clever enough that it never gets in the way of the actual game. And what a game it is. The headline mechanic is constant, deliberate reinvention. Across eight chapters, each level introduces something entirely new: one moment you are shapeshifting between magical creatures in a fantasy realm, the next you are dual-wielding laser guns or pulling off hoverboard tricks in a sci-fi cityscape. Mio and Zoe always have different abilities within each level, which means genuine co-operation is non-negotiable - you cannot simply run the same path in parallel, you have to actually talk to each other. That communication requirement is what makes it such a good couch-co-op pick even before you factor in the split-screen support. The base movement kit - double jump, dash, grapple points - stays consistent throughout, so new players always have something familiar to fall back on when each chapter drops a fresh mechanic on them. There are also twelve optional side stories, accessed through portals scattered across the main levels, each with their own self-contained gameplay twist. Farmlife, Collapsing Star and Birthday Cake are community favourites and worth tracking down. On the accessibility side, there is genuinely good news for casual duos. Local split-screen works, online works, and cross-platform play is fully supported, so a PC player can pair up with someone on PlayStation or Xbox with no friction. The Friend's Pass system means only one copy of the game needs to be purchased for two people to complete the entire campaign - the second player downloads the pass free of charge, though they do forfeit achievement tracking. The caveat worth flagging is that Solo is simply not an option; there is no single-player mode, full stop. If your usual gaming partner disappears, you are stuck until you find a replacement. The game also sits a notch above It Takes Two in overall difficulty and requires tighter split-second coordination, so a friend who has never touched a platformer might need a few chapters to find their feet. Subtitle font sizes are on the small side too, which is a minor but real accessibility gap. At around 20 hours for the main story plus side content, it runs long enough to feel substantial but not so long that a weekend session will burn anyone out. The Unreal Engine 5 presentation is genuinely impressive for a studio of roughly 80 people, and the cross-platform netcode held up well even for players connecting across continents. Community reception on Steam sits at 97% positive across well over 100,000 reviews, and critical consensus rated it universal acclaim. The story's emotional beats do not hit quite as hard as those in It Takes Two, and a few reviewers found the character dynamic slightly forced in the opening chapters - but those are quibbles, not deal-breakers. Bottom line: if you have one friend and a controller each, this is the co-op session you have been waiting for. If you are a solo player with no reliable partner, come back when you find one.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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