Split Fiction

I'll be straight with you: I came into Split Fiction skeptical. Shooters are my lane, and a story-driven co-op platformer with zero competitive hook is about as far from my usual diet as you can get. But I finished it, and I came out the other side respecting what Hazelight has pulled off here more than I expected. The core setup is this: two writers, Mio and Zoe, get plugged into a corporate simulation device designed to steal their creative work. Mio's world is hard sci-fi, Zoe's is high fantasy, and the game ping-pongs you between both across eight chapters. What makes it work mechanically is that each character carries different abilities per world, so the two players are never doing the exact same thing. One minute you're running gravity-bending platforming sequences in a collapsing space station, the next you're doing synchronized combat on the back of a dragon in a fantasy realm. The genre of the moment shifts constantly. Crucially, each of those one-off mechanics was reportedly given months of polish by the team of 80 working on it in Unreal Engine 5, and it shows. The controls never feel half-baked, even when a mechanic only lasts ten minutes before the game throws something new at you. The Friend's Pass system is genuinely good value. Only one person needs to own the game for two to play the full campaign, and it now supports full cross-platform play across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. That's the first time Hazelight has enabled crossplay, and the online connection held up well for players separated by significant geographic distance based on community reports. There are no microtransactions, no loot boxes, and the whole thing runs a clean 12-15 hours including the 12 optional Side Stories, which are accessible through portals and each carry their own standalone mechanic. Completing them all matters if you're chasing achievements. Where the game gets honest criticism is the writing. The story leans hard on Mio's emotional arc while Zoe gets the shorter end of character development, and the dynamic between the two can feel forced in the opening chapters. Some critics noted the narrative reads more like a mechanical delivery vehicle than a piece of genuine drama, especially compared to It Takes Two. If you came to feel something deep, manage expectations. If you came to have a great time with someone next to you on the couch or across a voice chat, that part delivers consistently. The base gameplay loop is a third-person platformer at heart, competent but not exceptional in isolation. Everything layered on top of it is where the magic lives. For me, the honest recommendation hinges entirely on whether you have a reliable co-op partner lined up. No partner, no game, full stop. There is zero single-player mode and no option to matchmake with strangers. Get that person locked in, and you have one of the more technically polished and imaginative co-op experiences available on PC or Xbox right now. Fred, Scout Team