If there was ever a studio with a hard act to follow going into 2025, it would be Hazelight Studios, the Stockholm based game development company founded by director Josef Fares known for its story driven multiplayer games. Fares’ previous release, “It Takes Two” was the surprise hit of 2022, drawing in gamers and snatching the coveted Game of the Year Award from larger AAA studio behemoths with its fun design, gripping gameplay, and what has become the studio’s trademark, its story driven multiplayer only cooperative experience. True to its title, “It Takes Two” requires the player to work as a team with a partner, solving the game’s puzzles and overcoming its obstacles as they progress their way through the game’s story. Released to rapturous acclaim and selling over 20 million copies, it was clear that “It Takes Two” would be a monumental game for the developer to follow up. In spite of this, Hazelight’s newest title, “Split Fiction,” breaks free from its predecessor’s shadow with an entirely new experience, mixing the multiplayer experience of “It Takes Two” that drew in so many fans with a breathtaking original game with even more exciting gameplay and striking beautiful visuals in a sci-fi buddy movie brought to life.
“Split Fiction” tells the story of Mio Hudson and Zoe Foster (voiced by and modeled after Kaja Chan and Elsie Bennett respectively), two struggling writers chosen by publishing titan Rader to test the corporation’s newest creation, “The Machine.” “The Machine,” an advanced virtual reality supercomputer, promises to bring the writers’ ideas to life, transporting them to the worlds of the ideas they submitted to bring them to life. Suspicious of the corporation’s true intentions, Mio’s struggle to get out links her and Zoe together, as their worlds of sci-fi and fantasy collide, trapping them inside the machine, where they uncover a deeper conspiracy by the company to steal all the writers’ ideas from under their noses, placing them at odds with the increasingly hostile Rader.
Visually, “Split Fiction” is a unique delight, taking players to exciting locales as they travel through Mio and Zoe’s worlds of science fiction and fantasy, from neon lit cyberpunk cities and asteroid battered space stations to ancient dragon temples and troll besieged towns, “Split Fiction” has no shortage of beautiful and thrilling worlds to explore and liberate from the machine’s grasp. Where the game truly shines visually however, is in the “side stories” scattered around the virtual world, where you can discover the strange and surreal worlds from the corners of Mio and Zoe’s imagination, each with its own distinct style.
In regard to gameplay, “Split Fiction” offers a fun mix of platforming challenges and exciting boss battles. The game’s platforming brings out the best of its visually striking worlds as players explore and solve their way through puzzles to progress through the story. While combat is a weakness for the game, with encounters being generally basic, these hacking and slashing moments are few and far between, and the boss fights mix in platforming mechanics to increase the challenge and make them stand out, feeling cinematic and epic. The “Rise of the Dragon Realm” level stands out in particular, playing to all of “Split Fiction”‘s greatest strengths, with some of the game’s best sights, designs, character moments, and boss fights.
“Split Fiction” is an exciting, enthralling platformer adventure that will enchant fans of “It Takes Two” and newcomers alike, with its simple but inventive mechanics and its creative co-op adventure that will leave even the most discerning gamers satisfied. More than a worthwhile follow up, “Split Fiction” shows that both Hazelight and Josef Fares are a force to be reckoned with in the gaming industry, with the studio continuing to carve out its own niche and Fares solidifying his place in a league of his own in a market starving for more games that offer local co-op and fresh ideas.