If variety is indeed the spice of life, then Split Fiction must be a bottle of fiery tabasco sauce, mixed with a hefty dose of cayenne pepper and topped off with a generous portion of scotch bonnet chilli flakes. Oh my goodness, this game is one hot piece of variety packed goodness, from its environments, its gameplay, its abilities and even its camera angles. Actually, I am sitting here trying to remember every different thing I experienced during my hands-on preview with Split Fiction, and you know what, I don’t think I can just off the top of my head. There was much packed into the three hours I got to play, and the result was an absolute hoot that kept me on my toes throughout.
What developer Hazelight has essentially done here is build on everything it’s done so well with its previous co-op games A Way Out and It Takes Two, and dialled up its ambitions even further. Before I get too carried away, however, let me go back to the start, which is very conveniently where my preview began. Split Fiction kicks off by introducing Zoe and Mio, two writers looking to get published and whose dreams are seemingly answered thanks to a tech company known as Rader Publishing. But there’s more to this place than your average publishing house. For starters, both writers are asked to enter a simulation of their own stories via a machine known as, erm, The Machine.
Zoe, an eager, wide-eyed fantasy writer from the countryside, is hyped up and ready to go, but the slightly cynical, leather jacket-wearing Mio is less convinced. There’s a feeling Rader’s intentions aren’t quite as honest as they appear on paper, and when Mio refuses to enter her own simulation, Rader’s head honcho (also called Rader) won’t take no for an answer. In the resulting kerfuffle, Mio gets pushed inside Zoe’s simulation bubble and transported to Zoe’s fantasy world.
Understandably, Zoe’s a little surprised to see the sci-fi loving Mio suddenly appear in her story, and even more surprised by the strange purple, glitchy void that’s torn through her once cosy lodging. Before they have time to question it, though, both of them get pulled into a dusty sci-fi world full of metal structures and warring crafts – a stark contrast to the rural wooden beams and roaring hearth of Zoe’s world. So begins their quest to resolve this little mix up – and this is where the fun truly begins.