Split Fiction Preview - Double Vision

Hazelight Studios has become something of a darling since its inception. With projects like A Way Out and It Takes Two gathering critical acclaim, the announcement of Split Fiction feels like another step forward for the developer, and a massive one at that.

From the outset, what drew me to the game was its very concept – two characters having to work together, jumping across worlds and even genres in what looked like one of the most creative games I’ve ever seen possible. After getting some time to sit down with Split Fiction, I can safely say that my first impression is not only valid but only scratches the surface of what the team at Hazelight have put together here.

From the several hours I got to play (with a partner of course, since this a cooperative experience), I got to see how Split Fiction opens with a little bit of setup. That setup amounts to a quick introduction to the main characters: two women known as Zoe and Mio, who have been invited to ink their own deal with a company known as Rader Publishing.

We see the pair meet moments before things start to get a little suspicious – it seems this publishing house and its creator have something more off the books planned for the gathered participants. Mio and Zoe are then tasked to suit up, and prepare to enter an experimental machine – one which will effectively bring their stories to life. Mio, however, isn’t buying it, and as she tries to back out, gets thrown into Zoe’s simulation.

It’s there that the pair ends up on a collision course together, and they’ll have to work in tandem to follow through glitches as they swap each other’s stories in order to escape the system and stop their ideas from being stolen.

What this amounts to is a crazy mash-up of science fiction (courtesy of Mio), and fantasy levels (from Zoe’s mind) combined with fast-paced action spread over a multitude of gameplay styles.

One minute they’ll be in a dystopian sci-fi level with plenty of platforming and having to work together to escape. In the next, Mio and Zoe are in a quaint fantasy town being overrun by trolls and they’re forced to run through the level while jumping over and climbing up obstacles.

Of the different worlds I got to see in the preview, the one that really stood out was a futuristic, sci-fi setting known as Neon Revenge that had Mio and Zoe set up as cyborg ninjas. Not unlike Metal Gear Rising, Mio got to handle a gravity-defying blade, whilst Zoe took control of a whip that could grab items in the environment.

And this wasn’t just a short experience either. This specific story of Mio’s had multiple parts and each one did well to break up the gameplay in fun and interesting ways. In one part, they had to work together to leap across moving vehicles, which lead to a boss fight, which then lead to a racing bike segment, and even that had some wacky gameplay elements like one character needing to solve a CAPCHA on a phone to stop a self-detonation sequence.

Split Fiction is just so wild in every way and felt very non-stop from the three hours I got to play of it. That said, there are some quieter moments in things like side stories – one of which had us playing as pigs who needed to grab apples to open doors, and then that lead to a bit of a morbid conclusion.

Then we had a go in a fantasy level that reminded me more of Monster Hunter mixed with How to Train Your Dragon, and this one was a more laid-back, puzzle-based experience with having to work together as a team to move objects around, create platforms, and activate several items around a temple. So there is that sort of variety in Split Fiction that expands just beyond the frenetic style in some of the levels I did see.

Beyond that, we were shown a snowboarding level evocative of EA’s own SSX series, Mio and Zoe playing as literal pinballs in a machine against a boss, and a classic sidescrolling shooter level not unlike the Contra series.

There’s a lot, and it’s kind of amazing that all of this has been put into Split Fiction, and that it works so seamlessly. Even with all the genre and gameplay swapping, it never felt cumbersome, and getting used to the controls every time felt rather natural because everything is spelled out and kept to a few buttons regardless of the level.

A lot of the intuitive nature of Split Fiction relies on the co-operative gameplay, and having to work together, and get used to working together to solve platforming puzzles, or activate doors, and even get into a gunship and shoot down enemies together.

There’s a sense of competition as well because both Mio and Zoe have different abilities, and there’s a lot of opportunity to lean into each other’s strengths and then perhaps later, the replayability aspect comes into play because they’re both doing different things despite the split screen across the same worlds.

So yes, Split Fiction is every bit as promising as it looked at first sight. And like I said, I only got to play around three hours total, but in that time there was already such a breadth of variety, I can only be left wondering just what else has been jam-packed into this crazy adventure.

If anything, it’s safe to say Hazelight has another sure-fire hit on their hands and I can't wait to see what happens next when Split Fiction launches in just a few short weeks.

TechRaptor was invited to an event to preview Split Fiction by the publisher.