What does your writing say about you? (Split Fiction, in review)

     A few years ago, an unexpected game won the coveted Game of the Year award at the Game Awards. It that didn't come from a major developer, but from a fairly small studio, Hazelight, and published under the EA Originals banner. This game was It Takes Two, and while it went up against some pretty tough competition, such as Psychonauts 2, Metroid Dread, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, it took home the big trophy of the night. That game had so much creativity, it didn't know what to do with it all. The game is full of sequences that completely change the gameplay style, add some crazy new mechanics, and then quickly move along to the next idea. It was something really special that we hadn't seen before. Sure, some of the mechanics had been seen, but very few games would jump from one to another in such crazy ways. I'm talking about this a bit today, because as of March 6, Hazelight Studios has put out their latest game. Split Fiction is another experience that will bring both people playing (because it's a co-op game) into crazy new scenarios every few minutes, even if they stick around for a bit longer this time.

Are you more into Fantasy or Science-Fiction?

    In Split Fiction, you follow aspiring writers Mio and Zoe as they're thrust into a meeting with Rader Publishing about a potential book publishing deal, though this company works by some different rules. There's a special machine that allows writers to live out their submitted stories, and once they're finished with their experience, they come out and the data of their adventure will be written in book form, then published by the company. Unfortunately, there is a twist, and Mio is not quite as willing to believe that everything is above board here at Rader, so she refuses to get into her pod once the machine turns on. The CEO and his two lab assistants try to convince her that everything is okay, but she refuses and is accidentally shoved into Zoe's pod, where the game truly begins. Zoe writes Fantasy stories, and Mio writes Science-Fiction, but because they're both in the same pod, the game swaps back and forth between their different story beats. It doesn't take long for them to discover that Rader isn't quite as great of a place to work as they thought, as the machine's true intention is to steal all of the ideas from the writer's heads, and eventually create something of a monopoly on creativity. I don't really understand how it works, but suffice it to say that the CEO of this company is the bad guy, and Zoe and Mio have to break out of this simulation by finding as many glitches in the programming as they can before they have all of their stories stolen from them.

    This is a cooperative game, meaning that you need another player going through the experience with you and working together. My brother and I played it together, with him playing as Zoe and myself playing as Mio. I felt like this fit pretty well, because though I'm not nearly as edgy and distrustful as Mio is, my brother is definitely the more bubbly and optimistic of the two of us, meaning he was perfect as Zoe. Like in It Takes Two, the story is really just there to service the gameplay, and not so much the other way around, so I won't say too much about it, but I have to say that this game handles its story much better than its predecessor. I liked Zoe and Mio all the way through the game and I felt like they were much more relatable and enjoyable to listen to than Cody and May, the protagonists of the previous game. Zoe and Mio have to work on the issues of meeting someone new and learning to trust and work with each other,  instead of a story about them reconnecting after a long time of falling apart, which I feel like is just easier to tackle. Zoe and Mio both have strong reasons to behave the way that they do, and it's interesting to go through their different stories and unpack some of the deeper meanings hidden behind their stories. The best thing that I can say about the story of this game is that I never had an experience like the "Cutie the Elephant" section of It Takes Two, which was the number one thing that I was nervous about.

    In the vein of this game's crazy sense of running with a concept, and then throwing it away, I got distracted talking about the story for a moment there, which seems pretty fitting. I was about to launch into the gameplay, which is so cool that it makes up for any potential misgivings that the story may leave you with. I personally like the story a lot, but I understand how it may not be for everyone. The sequences in this game are a bit longer and more fleshed out than It Takes Two, but it does it in smart ways. Many of the sequences begin with a pretty minor mechanic that it teaches you how to use for a bit before thrusting you into more involved puzzles, and then it adds another feature onto whatever mechanic it has thrown, and again and again, until you're doing something completely crazy like it's no big deal. It's really cool how it has this way of easing players into a new feature that it will certainly move away from pretty quickly. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I'll just use the example that Josef Fares used in the announcement trailer. There's a sequence where Zoe and Mio both get dragon eggs, and soon they hatch. One has the ability to glide and the other one allows you to climb up walls with its tail. You keep going through the level and the dragons grow to the point where you can ride on them. The one that glided now also has the ability to spit acid, and the other one has the ability to roll around in addition to climbing up walls. Before the level's finished, you're riding on two massive dragons in a pretty impressive sequence of "on rails flying." It's such a cool sequence, and the whole game is full of adventures just like that. Very different, but all extremely slick.

    Speaking of different sequences, it would be wrong for me to continue on without talking about the Side Stories. Within the different large scenarios that you're going through all throughout the game, you'll occasionally find a little portal off to the side surrounded by some imagery that doesn't really match the setting of the location that you're currently in. That's because some of Zoe and Mio's smaller stories have bled into the settings of the other's work. These Side Stories are honestly some of my favorite bits of the game, because they're really just there to be fun little things that aren't super long, and then you're shot right back into the action. Honestly I was really sad when we got the achievement for finding all of the side stories, because I was always looking out for the next big thing all through these levels. There is just too much good to say about this game, and the fun really never stopped until the game was over, which is something that I can't say about many popular games today. 

    Split Fiction is truly a win for anyone who loves to play video games of any genre. It's a game for those who are creative enough to come up with stories, but maybe are too nervous to face the challenges associated with being criticized by another, or by a company. I know as someone who writes a fair amount, I could feel for what Mio and Zoe were talking about. These stories are a way for them to escape their worlds and the challenges that they face, writing scenarios where they always win, and the happy ending that is hoped for is always found, even in the most unlikely scenarios. Real life is hard, and this game does a great job of highlighting the reasons for storytelling in such a way that you can really relate to the two heroines. 

    This game is family friendly for the most part, though there are a few sequences that are hard to watch for younger players (I'm thinking mainly of the side story with the pigs and the one with the teeth, but even those aren't quite on the level of It Takes Two). On top of the gruesome nature of a few scenes, there is some language here and there, and also some trauma that's tackled through the game's narrative, so I would advise parents trust the "T for Teen" rating that ESRB set for it. 

    By the time that credits rolled, my brother and I were so sad to see Split Fiction end. It's not a super long game, we probably beat it in the span of about 10 hours or so, but it was a game that held my attention every step of the way, introducing more and more interesting set pieces and mechanics, and the ending totally succeeds in what it's going for. The incredible team at Hazelight has done it again with Split Fiction, and I think most people will enjoy this game, I know that it's going to be on my list of favorite games for this year, even though the year has only just begun.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends. I hope you're having a good week! Split Fiction absolutely was a game that I didn't want to put down, though we had to in order to get things done, of course. It's pretty rare to have Co-op games nowadays, so I'm really glad that we have a studio like Hazelight still cranking out some absolute gems from time to time. I'm sad to be finished with it now, but I look forward to playing again with more of my friends, especially since both players don't need to have a copy of the game. Are you excited for this kind of game? I know that I'm excited for the next game that this studio puts out, even though that'll be a good ways off. Thanks again for all of your support, friends, it means a lot to me. Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed writer, and I'll talk to you again very soon!