“Unveiling the Impact: The Mind-Blowing Experience of Damage Up in Fiction (Xbox)”
When the credits rolled on Hazelight Studios’ award-winning cooperative adventure It Takes Two back in 2021, my wife turned to me and inquired about when the next installment would release. She was absolutely enamored with what that game had to offer, and aside from the quirky round of Mario Party in the time since, no other video game has truly piqued her interest.
Split Fiction managed to capture her attention once again, however. Just like with It Takes Two, I have been hounded to play this game during every free moment over the past few weeks, and by the time the credits rolled after approximately 15 hours, we both agreed that we had just experienced perhaps the most outstanding Hazelight game to date… although it may also be the most exasperating one.
Similar to It Takes Two and 2018’s A Way Out, everything in Split Fiction is focused on cooperative mechanics, meaning that you both need to collaborate to solve puzzles, defeat foes, jump from platform to platform, and much more. There is an incredible variety that goes into all of this, with the gameplay frequently evolving – we’re talking massive chases, side-scrolling segments, gravity-defying situations, multiple ways to interact with the environment, a plethora of inventive weapons… the list just keeps expanding.
The story really lends itself to this level of variety, centering on a couple of aspiring writers named Zoe and Mio who find themselves caught in a mechanism that aims to turn stories into reality. Mio’s concepts are primarily sci-fi oriented while Zoe’s are narrative-based, and the game alternates between the two worlds at a semi-regular pace. Neither world takes precedence over the other – we’re talking hours’ worth of brilliant ideas that draw inspiration from all types of IP, complete with a surprisingly vast array of mini-bosses and significant bosses throughout the journey. There are moments when these major sci-fi and narrative segments can feel a bit prolonged, yet overall they are both exceptionally impressive and incredibly enjoyable to navigate. For our tastes, I’d say we appreciated the narrative gameplay just a tad bit more overall.
One of the aspects I truly want to emphasize in this review is the significant ambition that has gone into Split Fiction, especially when compared to the other two titles. Clearly, the triumph of It Takes Two has resulted in a larger budget this time around, and none of that funding has been squandered – some of the gameplay sequences in Split Fiction are genuinely breathtaking and will leave you wondering how they managed to execute them so effectively. The final stretch of gameplay at the peak is so remarkable that we couldn’t stop exclaiming “this is incredible” throughout its duration, and we nearly had to pick our jaws up off the floor by the time it concluded!
The Side Stories are equally delightful. As you progress through the game, you may encounter these tiny orbs of light that lead to side-missions known as ‘Side Stories,’ and these can provide a vast array of gameplay experiences. I don’t really want to spoil any of them, but one that has already been publicly revealed involves a few pigs (one of which uses the power of flatulence to navigate) that we both found incredibly entertaining, while there are various other instances that you’re sure to enjoy. Some may even go viral!
You get the point then – Split Fiction is an utterly remarkable cooperative adventure. We’ve got to mention the “frustrating” aspect though, as we found ourselves getting quite irritated with the game at times,