Summary
- Split Fiction received a new trailer showcasing its co-op gameplay.
- The video emphasizes the game's immense gameplay variety, showing protagonists Mio and Zoe engaging in dozens of activities.
- Split Fiction launches on March 6, priced at $49.99. In addition to local split-screen multiplayer, two friends can also play the game online with only one copy.
Hazelight Studios has shared a new Split Fiction trailer offering another look at its upcoming title. The video highlights Split Fiction's chaotic co-op gameplay and features some new glimpses of its many levels, including one set in a vibrant cyberpunk city.
Split Fiction was officially announced at the latest edition of The Game Awards in mid-December 2024. The upcoming action adventure is the third-ever title from Hazelight Studios, which previously worked on award-winning games A Way Out and It Takes Two. Like the Swedish developer's previous projects, Split Fiction was envisioned as a co-op experience for two players.
Split Fiction Hands-On Preview: Hazelight Continues to Impress With Boundless Creativity
The Best War Games plays Split Fiction with Hazelight's Josef Fares, whose latest game is even more inventive than GOTY winner It Takes Two.
Six weeks following its original announcement, Split Fiction received a new gameplay trailer, which premiered on Hazelight's YouTube channel on January 27. The video illustrates some previously confirmed details about the game, including the fact that its story revolves around writers Mio and Zoe, who become trapped in their own fictional worlds. In this instance, the duo is shown getting stuck in one of Mio's sci-fi stories, set in a sprawling cyberpunk metropolis.
Split Fiction Will Offer Immense Gameplay Variety
Split Fiction director Josef Fares narrates the two-minute video, emphasizing Hazelight's love for gameplay variety. The developer is hence aiming to have its next game keep players engaged by offering a constantly evolving mix of environments, characters, and mechanics. Over the course of the new trailer, Mio and Zoe are seen running on walls, racing bikes, floating through space, swinging around with grappling hooks, fighting a giant killer robot, diving, water-skiing, chatting up a fairy, riding a sand monster in a Dune-like fashion, and shapeshifting into various fantastical creatures, among other activities.
New Split Fiction Trailer Shows How Side Quests Will Work
The January 27 trailer also offers another look at Split Fiction's side quests, which Hazelight aptly refers to as "stories." This optional content promises to be entirely different from the main game, and will be accessible via portals to other worlds. Completing side stories will allow players to learn more about Zoe and Mio's pasts and their current predicament. Much like the main story, side quests will be looking to lean into Split Fiction's world-hopping premise to deliver immense gameplay variety, constantly alternating between platforming, combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving.
Split Fiction is scheduled to hit digital and physical store shelves on March 6. It will release on the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, priced at $49.99. Split Fiction will incorporate Hazelight's Friend's Pass system, which allows two people to play online together with a single copy of the game. It will also offer local split-screen multiplayer, much like It Takes Two and A Way Out.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 98%
- Released
- March 6, 2025
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Hazelight Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
WHERE TO PLAY
The co-op masterminds are back, pushing the creative limits with their new action-packed buddy adventure, Split Fiction. From the studio behind 2021 Game of the Year Winner It Takes Two, venture into a world that jumps between Sci-Fi and Fantasy to overcome varied and unexpected gameplay challenges with a friend. Split Fiction’s vast array of ever-changing mechanics keeps you on the edge of your couch with surprising moments. Find out what happens when two radically different worlds collide in this fortuitous story of friendship.
Story
Mio and Zoe are contrasting writers who become trapped in their own stories after being hooked up to a machine designed to steal their creative ideas. To escape with their minds intact, they’ll need to overcome their differences to crash the system that holds them, uncovering secrets and personal struggles hidden within their own fiction.
Key Features
● True Co-Op Adventure - Split Fiction is an adventure tailored for two. As Mio and Zoe, you’ll experience split screen co-op gameplay where you have to coordinate your actions and timing, as well as work together to overcome challenges through unique worlds of fiction like lush Fantasy environments and Sci-Fi skylines. This wild ride comes to you from Hazelight, the co-op thrill-makers that brought you It Takes Two and A Way Out.
● Unparalleled Variety - Discover new mechanics and abilities in every level of your adventure, which will alternate between sci-fi and fantasy settings. Escape a sun that’s going supernova, challenge a monkey to a dance battle, try out some cool hoverboard tricks, fight an evil kitty, and ride everything from gravity bikes to a sandshark. Experience worlds that are entirely different from each other, unexpected new abilities, and a range of gameplay that includes platforming, puzzles, and more. There are surprises waiting for you and your partner around every corner.
● The Power of Friendship - Mio and Zoe don’t get along at first, but soon enough they become each other’s only hopes. This journey will throw unexpected twists at them and if they want to make it through, they’ll need to have each other’s backs. They’ll encounter both bizarre situations as they traverse stories born from their own wild imaginations. Most importantly – they’ll face it all together.
● Sci-Fi and Fantasy Worlds - Venture through fantastical realms and discover idyllic villages and mystical sanctuaries filled with magical beings in Zoe’s world of fiction. Board a flying train and explore Mio’s imaginary realms of futuristic space stations, intense battlefields and more. Engage in hidden “side stories” – vivid snapshots extracted from the depths of Mio and Zoes’ minds that go beyond Sci-Fi and Fantasy – where you can learn more about their past and the roads that led them to by Rader.
● More Ways to Play Together - Friend’s Pass - Hazelight’s staple feature that allows one player that owns the game to invite a friend to play for free - is back and makes playing with friends even easier with crossplay options enabled for PlayStation, Xbox and PC (via Steam).
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
