I love saying ‘wow’ out loud while playing video games. It’s even better if it can happen often – And the same was true during the hour-long practice session. split novelThis is a new game from Hazelight Studios that will once again be published by EA.
As a cooperative game, Session’s playing partner is Hazelight founder Josef Fares. In the UK we call him a pretty flash dude. To put it in modern language that gives me a headache, he would say: Leeds. The guy is so well-dressed that you almost want to apologize for finding him on a nasty video game website instead of writing a GQ profile. As a luxury watch fanatic, I look at his wrist the moment we shake his hand. I was quite impressed.
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Another interesting way to summarize Fares is: I often use my phone as a recorder. Once the recording is complete, Google’s AI goes to work to transcribe a rough (but often woefully inaccurate) transcript of the conversation. Give it a name based on that text. The AI talking to the boss behind Flight Simulator calls the conversation ‘flight’. While chatting with Capcom’s hunting honcho Ryozo Tsujimoto, he surprisingly chooses the word ‘monster’. That makes sense. Chat with Fares? It gets a name ‘Dung Road’. This track is great not only because of the fresh and colorful way the studio boss speaks, but also because of what the game is about. is.
A huge amount of this is Split Fiction’s design philosophy. But this isn’t the overpowering open-world icon-vomit approach. Following the award-winning It Takes Two, Split Fiction is a linear adventure with some odd side content that aims to throw something at you. all new To you almost every few minutes. The results are quite surprising. As I said, it left me saying ‘wow’ or some more colorful variation on more than one occasion.
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In many ways, the killer philosophy here is the same one that has driven Hazelight’s last two or three games. To some extent, this means that there’s a risk that new games will feel the same. And that was the fear that crept into my mind when I was first briefed on the nature of Split Fiction before the announcement. . But the game’s clever design, interesting setting concepts, and constant search for new ideas mean it doesn’t feel like It Takes Two, even if at first glance they have a lot in common.
This concept is essentially about the clash of opposites. We have two strange protagonists (named after Fares’ young daughters, Zoe and Mio) with very different personalities. What the two have in common is that they are both writers. But their tastes in fiction differ greatly. Mio is a science fiction writer and Zoe is all about fantasy swords and sandals.
The pair stumble upon the headquarters of a company that bears the shadow of Assassin’s Creed’s evil Abstergo. They can put people into brain-scanning machines to extract the stories in their minds and turn them into a kind of virtual reality experience. Only one person is allowed into the machine at a time, but somehow Joey and Mio end up in it together, causing their worlds of reality and imagination to collide.
Here the actual video game part of Split Fiction has always been – pardon the expression – split between the two fictions. all right? You’ll play one level as Mio and Zoe battle their way through a Blade Runner-esque sci-fi cityscape, and the very next level will take you into a delightful fantasy forest of Zoe’s creation.
The way this framework is used utilizes video game concepts and metaphors in a very enjoyable and thrilling way. Yes. Some of the sci-fi levels briefly resemble puzzles from Metroid. But the other is a more modern concept, taking you into a surprisingly good recreation of a snowboarding game like SSX, complete with tricks, grinding and scoring mechanics. The game takes place on a sci-fi level.
Fares knows Hazelight is up to something here. He laughed as he watched me sit in my chair in disbelief as he repeatedly opened Split Fiction’s debug menu to teleport me from one level to another. Take a look at this mechanism: Now this. Now this. Games are art, right? They just aren’t satisfied. I believe it with all my heart. But this game has a lot to offer. content – And that doesn’t mean it’s just an explosion of the same content, it just means there’s a lot of really different content. lump of shitIf you want.
Sometimes things are here because they’re cool. Sometimes you look at it and say, “Well, someone on the team definitely likes Contra,” or “Someone thought this was a funny gag.” This is what most often applies to optional segments that throw in new gameplay mechanics. 10-15 minutes and you will never see it again. Of course, some of the more significant design is driven by the game’s co-op nature, which, like Hazelight’s other titles, is essential.
Between the ever-changing elements of each level, you can definitely expect tight platforming, beautiful cinematic moments, perfect split-screen framing, and clever little puzzles that require player communication to progress. This is arguably the first hurdle in a game like this. It’s not all crazy creative stuff, but of course Hazelight has it all. This is something the developers have been practicing for some time, so it looks like they’ve been able to deliver something with impressive depth and sophistication.
“I think we are getting better and better because we have been working together for so long.” Fares said, clearly pleased with my reaction.
“We are pretty much the best in the world at what we do. Because no one else is doing what we are doing. The idea is like a design written from scratch as a cooperative. There are single players that do split screen and such, but no player does it from the beginning.”
Of course, all of this led to challenges. Let’s take the snowboarding mentioned earlier as an example. There are quality standards by which Fares insists on his team’s success. Because players are sensitive to the quality of even just a few minutes of play.
“When you snowboard as an athlete, you’re expected to play like a snowboarder. And that’s acceptable. ‘Because players aren’t supposed to think. Players don’t know, ‘Oh, if I play a combat game like Devil May Cry, they’ve been trying to polish that combat the whole time.’ But you can’t do that in this game. But as a player, I expect it to play like a fighting game,” explains Fares.
“In a sense, we are not doing ourselves any favors. But we need to release something polished and solid. That’s the biggest challenge, but it’s also something that we’ve become very, very good at within Hazelight. We can actually identify which mechanisms can be improved or not. Sometimes it’s early, sometimes it’s late, but we can see better and better.”
We’re back to the demo, almost like a demonstration. There’s a great trailer for the game, narrated by Fares, released shortly after our hands-on experience at The Game Awards. A very good explainer for a game that I don’t think is actually easy to explain. But now Fares is going into spoiler territory and clicking through his development toolbox like a madman, showing off some crazy mechanics and systems from the latter half of the game. Even from the very last level. Not that I can tell, but once again I’m leaning back in my chair. Oh my god, these guys are crazy. In a good way!
There are two more things I want to say about Split Fiction. It’s about what the game’s approach to development and design reminds me of. The first is just that – this game has a very Nintendo-like energy, but the truth is that it’s driven by a man who swears like a salty sailor. The second is a more specific comparison with the UK. doctor who.
Please bear with me, okay? But the wonderful thing about Doctor Who, as difficult as it is to make, but incredibly amazing, is that nothing is really predictable. Think Star Trek. Most episodes of The Next Generation, Discovery, etc. are set on ships. There are lots of lovely, expensive standing sets out there that are used week after week. They are then transferred to the planet for a few scenes in front of a matte painting or green screen, the Red Shirts die, transferred back to the ship, and more ship scenes are completed. The point is that those expensive ship sets end up being the centerpiece of the show.
In contrast, Doctor Who idiot. It’s a stupid concept. For most of its 60-year-plus history, the show’s only standing room set was a single room. After that, every week there’s something different, something new. They build an entire planet, spend 45 minutes on it, then tear it to pieces and never come back. Months of work will be used for 10 minutes and then never used again. In Doctor Who, ships are just tools. In a kind of confusing way, the show has no center.
Anyway, you get what I want. Trek’s way of working is very similar to traditional game development. On the other hand, what Hazelight does in Split Fiction is closer to the Doctor Who style. That is, a bold and slightly crazy willingness to build things, tear them down and throw them away. minute. Players need to be swayed by the speed at which they encounter new things, and that’s by design.
After all, this is a slightly unconventional practice. Rather than playing through an entire level in a natural way, it was a hands-on guided tour where you jumped through small sections of the entire game while the charismatic director passionately explained his vision. That’s why it can be really difficult to know exactly what the end game will be. But as a first impression, it’s hard to get any better than this. I truly think this game could be one of the most exciting games of 2025.
You won’t be waiting long anyway. Split Fiction comes out on March 5th. I can’t wait to try the full version.
