We played Split Fiction, the new video game of Josef Fares and the Hazelight team published by Electronic Arts. A title to be played compulsorily in two that gives hours of involvement and convinced.
Game Industry is a sector full of eccentric and visionary personalities. Among these there is Josef FaresSwedish author of Lebanese origin returned in the spotlight for Split fiction, a co-op video gamewhere you have to play in two. It is not new in the tradition of Fares and his study Hazelight: The entire videogame production focuses on concepts of sharing and nostalgia. In fact, playing split fiction, as well as previous works such as acclaimed It Takes Two, A Way Out and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sonsreports to the 80s and 90s, when you spend the evenings with their own best friend sitting on the sofa playing together.
A way of sharing a passion that has been losing with the Diffusion of online multiplayer video games. Yet the success of the Hazelight production shows that this approach to the game works perfectly even today. It is true that there is a discord server to allow you to find a second player and play online, but the heart of split fiction remains the sharing locally.
The thousand split fiction worlds
My loves to write science fiction, Zoe di Fantasy. Both are about to fulfill the dream of a lifetime: to sign a contract with the Rader Publishing, a prestigious publishing house. Yet something is wrong: on their arrival there is no sheet to sign, but of the bubbles in which they are invited to enter with other emerging authors like them. To mine this does not convince, and to be hindered: those bubbles are gods devices that simulate the ideas of writers and writersthen steal them.
To stop all this, mine ends by mistake together with Zoe, triggering a short circuit that transports the two authors to the fantasy and sci-fi worlds born from their minds. Only by destroying the glitches between the various scenarios can they get out of the simulation and stop the rader publishing on its plagiarism. It starts like this An adventure that defining engaging is reductive, because the variety of challenges and settings to be lived in company manages to amaze and make you smile continuously.
Split fiction | The game uses the split screen, the screen divided into two, typical of a co-op experience.
Playing Split Fiction you really meet everything: magic moles in medieval-fantasy villages, Ninja Assassins in Cyberpunk city and much more. The game in fact reproduces and reintepreter styles e Topoi of fantasy and science fictionproposing a heap of quotes to films and video games among the most representative of the two cultural genres. There is everything: Halo, Dune, Assassin’s Creed, Star Wars. This variety of references not only affects the settings but also on game mechanics. It is impossible to enclose split fiction in a single kind of belonging, because Each scenario has a different gameplay, between platform phases, sliding shooter, puzzles, stealth and much more. Hence the constant sense of discovery.
Split fiction | Synchrony between mine and Zoe is essential to go on. Here an example in a sci-fi world.
To overcome all this it is necessary to find the right synchrony and face the correct reasoning together with your adventure companion. Unlike IT Takes Two and other supermented titles, Split Fiction focuses more on videogame performance, for this reason it is good that the two players have good mastery with the commands and the game camera. Only in this way is it possible to start A truly satisfactory exhilarating and adrenaline flow. This does not mean that the title is not playable by the neophytes of the video game, only that you have to have more patience. Fortunately, dying in split fiction is never frustrating, since you immediately return to the last position. A structure Trial and Error Intelligent, given that the players are thus encouraged to try various approaches before finding the most functional approaches.
Split fiction | In the game it will happen to see mine and Zoe transformed into fantastic creatures: in this case they are two magical pigs.
The profound variety of mechanics and scenarios makes the quality of the game design evident, truly superfine, which reiterates the overflowing creativity of Fares and the Hazelight team. Not only that, also their ability to know how to read the contemporaneity through two cultural trends, science fiction and fantasy, thanks to a wonderful videogame reinterpretation.
An experience not to be missed
Despite the very warm welcome of the public and criticism, Split Fiction was accused of being a “Woke” video game due to the presence of two female protagonists. Fares, who since he has publicly made his debut has always expressed himself without filths, has said that the characters of Mia and Zoe are inspired by his two daughters and that in general it is an empty extension, given that the current production of Hazelight counts Five male protagonists against three female protagonists. “I don’t care what a character has between the legs,” said Fares. “I am only interested in being beautiful characters.” And mine and Zoe are.
In other words, Fares has asserted his authorial vision against an “anti-woke” ideology that softens the videogame debate and beyond. In reality, the criticism received is nothing more than a claim to want to find a defect in a title that is instead A real hymn to fantasy and emotional sharing More genuine and powerful. Surely one of the most successful videogame experiences of this 2025 recently started. Split Fiction is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S and PC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCWNGWPXQTG
