Asymmetrical design really stands out with some funny and absolutely unforgettable gameplay that had us cackling when we just lost ourselves in play.
Hazelight has made it's name pushing the boundaries of cooperative games, I know lots of people who got a non-gaming partner to sit down with them and play IT TAKES TWO.
It was a gut punch in parts for sure, but the story, gameplay and dialogue left an impression.
SPLIT FICTION is a genre mashing collision between two video game mainstays as lead characters Mio and Zoe's hopes and dreams smash together in an evil animus, that really just serves to show just how good these developers are at gameplay.
The story unfortunately won't be as memorable as its predecessor, though some of the incredible action scenes had us cackling with glee still making it one of this year's must play games.
Here is the very quick premise, do not spend too much time thinking about it because sadly dialogue and characterisation in this game is pretty surface level, genuinely awkward and uncomfortable.
Ok ready? An evil tech bro invites a bunch of aspiring authors to his evil publishing company, to slurp up all their ideas for his own evil reasons. Fantasy author Zoe is all in; she's not going to turn down this opportunity to be published, however Mio who pens sci-fi epics is a little bit more realistic with the grim dark reality of their current future.
A struggle ensues and our two protagonists get stuck in the same floaty bubble combining their narrative aspirations, and beautifully crafted set piece after set piece continues apace for the rest of the game.
That's it, it's as thin as the paper these prospective novelists haven't even been printed on yet.
Luckily for SPLIT FICTION the gameplay is incredible, with absolute delight at every turn and hilarious moments both written and organic.
Each character is armed with different sets of tools, as cyber ninjas in Mio's world our characters are equipped with perspective shifting katana or object manipulating gravity whip.
It's fast and changes all the time and we spent ages just fighting each other as friendly fire was turned on, poor Adam controlled Mio was whipped into oblivion a silly number of times by the cackling Gianni. It's joyful play and you know they had a meeting about whether or not to keep that damage on, we're so glad that they did.
In another world Zoe was able to shape shift into a fairy bounding across massive gaps in pirouetting leaps then turned into a treelike creature which could manipulate the level itself. I'm sorry to say Gianni wasn't able to stop being a troll here either. When we cooperated though the sense of achievement was palpable, with some real coordination to pull it off in some puzzles, but when we didn't cooperate THAT was memorable.
It's fun to progress through the story to see what the next big experience is, but it's also incredibly fun just to murder your friend again and again and again. Sometimes not even on purpose, I promise! Think of how enjoyable it is to accidentally explode your friend in HELLDIVERS 2 and you'll be some of the way there.
The puzzles change up every couple of minutes, in one side quest we battled against the clock against dollar store GLADoS in a twisted game show chucking a bomb back and forth as we made it to the final drop zone.
If you're like us you'll just sit in awe of how the team kept coming with new things to play, and play is exactly the right word for it.
There are lots of little moments off the critical path where you can spend some time mucking around, play a monkey themed slot machine for bananas or roll a roulette table until you win. There isn't any achievement, it's just enjoyable.
Sitting on a swing rocking back and forth, gazing off into the distance in a fantasy land on a beautiful park bench or riding a waterslide into a pool again and again. It is just joyful.
One of the first bosses you come across is a giant evil sphere blasting cars and motorbikes at our protagonists. It's completely different for each player, but each meaningfully contributes to the defeat of the baddie. Adam was dodging bullet-hell projectiles mode running across the surface of a rotating sphere as Gianni dodged out of the way of cars waiting for a moment to attack the core from a distance.
There are smaller battles too which are sometimes the culmination of a side story, like the train heist hang glider mission which has you dodging flying bombs before jumping into a spaceship and fighting the boss in a R-Type style side scrolling shooter. If a player gets taken out you've got a short window to review before it's all over which ratchets up the intensity.
"Hit that button to respawn oh my god!"
While the lack of real humanity in the scripted cutscene moments does jar a bit, with some wooden dialogue that is performed well despite everything, it's very easy to overlook some of those stilted narrative moments. They feel like pencil sketches of people in so many ways, not grounded in reality, like a vague description of a person's life.
Although you'll warm up to Zoe and Mio as they warm up to each other, you'll end up craving those moments of action after every break in the gameplay.
But maybe we should give Hazelight some credit, with some incredible set pieces, it's not like you're super paying attention to the story in between pig transformations, or motorbike escape scenes, or rolling tank combat. You're mostly chatting to your friend about what you just pulled off. That's actually really great to be honest.
It just would be nice if SPLIT FICTION could deliver on its plot in the way that it massively over delivers everywhere else, it's still very easy to recommend this to almost everyone.
Copies of SPLIT FICTION on PlayStation 5 was provided to SIFTER for the purposes of this preview.
