If you’ve been looking for a co-op game to play with your partner, look no further. Split Fiction was released this month, and it’s quickly crept its way up to become a date night staple.
The game comes from Hazelight Studios, the company that made the wonderful It Takes Two. Four years later, it’s finally dropped a new epic, and needless to say, it’s yet another banger of a game. Split Fiction is a similar experience to It Takes Two in that it lets you and a friend take control of two characters while completing a variety of fun mini-games with a tight narrative built around it. Even better, only one friend needs to own the game to ask another to jump on and play with you.
These mini-games involve journeying through sci-fi and fantasy homages that are absolute joys to play. Thankfully, they’re also very accessible, letting your non-gamer friends easily pick them up and not feel overwhelmed. So, if you’re looking for yet another cozy game to play with someone, this might be your next best safe pick.
What happens in Split Fiction?
The game follows Mio and Zoe, two aspiring writers hoping to secure book deals. Both characters are complete opposites. While Mio is an angsty writer penning science fiction stories, Zoe is an extroverted country bumpkin with a passion for fantasy. After meeting with a publisher, they enter a virtual simulation of their own stories. The system, however, goes haywire, intertwining Mio’s science fiction worlds with Zoe’s fantasy settings. Despite their reluctance, both must now team up to help each other escape the simulation and reclaim their stories.
Split Fiction in an unashamed love letter to creatives and creativity. The story is literally about an evil organisation using AI to steal the stories of creators and remove them from their works. What a crazy sci-fi idea, I’m sure that’d never happen in real life.
What do I do in Split Fiction?
Split Fiction is a platforming action-adventure game that traipses through different genres and video game tropes. Jumping from sci-fi to fantasy, each level embodies a different gameplay mechanic. In one level, you’ll be breaking out of a sci-fi prison on a motorcycle. As Mio, you’ll have to steer the bike through an intense obstacle course while Zoe solves various captcha puzzles under a time crunch. It’s essentially The Password Game but with more explosions.
Alternatively, another level will have you jumping through different fantastical medieval settings. You’ll go from riding dragons to a cute 2D-handrawn platformer game. Other mini-games will turn you both into flying pigs that poop out rainbows (it’s very based when it happens). My other personal favourite is one where you’re turned into sausages and have to cook yourself. It’s delightfully absurd, which makes for a great time with a friend.
Even better, if you or your friend aren’t too familiar with gaming, Split Fiction goes to great lengths to keep every level accessible and seamless to pick up.
The general structure is you’ll get introduced to some kind of ability or mechanic for the level. You’ll get familiar with it, and then the game will show you a bunch of different ways to use said ability (with some curveballs along the way). Then, you finish the level and pretty much never see it again. It’s a great gameplay loop that keeps the game feeling fresh and exciting the whole way through. I never knew what to expect before each level, and I was always delightfully guffawing every time I’d start a new one.
Should I play Split Fiction?
If you’re looking for a game to play with your partner, Split Fiction is genuinely the best game out there right now.
This game is, however, a 100% co-op game. You can’t play it alone and need a designated player two. So, unfortunately, you won’t be able to slot in an AI-companion and play it solo. Thankfully, developer Hazelight Studios lets anyone join you for the experience. With the game’s Friend Pass, as long as one of you owns the game, you’ll be able to send online friends invites to play with you. They won’t need to buy the game themselves; they can just join in and play without spending a dollar.
As someone with a friend who chronically asks us to buy games, we’ll only spend 2 hours playing — I love this. Getting to play with someone to try it out and not spend a dollar is so consumer-friendly. Plus, it makes the barrier of entry to getting people to play with you pretty much disappear. Or in my experience, it also means you won’t have to buy the game twice for you and your partner to convince them to play with you.
Despite coming out in March, I have no doubts that Split Fiction will be in the running for game of the year by December and will be remembered as one of the best releases of 2025.
You can play Split Fiction on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S | X and PC.
Buy it from: Amazon ($102.20), PlayStation Store ($69.95), Xbox ($69.95), Steam ($69.95).
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