Brendan: Hello, Nic.
Nic: Brendy! Why are you here, successful my review? What is this, immoderate benignant of Split Fiction? Some benignant of co-op escapade by Hazelight? Fine, since you're here: what's the champion spot of Split Fiction, Brendy?
Brendan: We were escaping sci-fi gunships connected the backmost of a stolen motorcycle. You indispensable person felt chill steering america betwixt missiles and gunfire. I could spot nary of that. I was excessively focused connected clicking the "accept" container connected a Terms and Conditions screen. Our ill-gotten bike's futuristic information had kicked in, you see, and it was my occupation to disable its self-destruct protocol by phone. You were driving accelerated and jumping betwixt skyscrapers portion I was wrestling with captcha aft captcha to halt america from exploding. I laughed the full time.
Nic: My favourite spot progressive pigs. You were a pig that could alert by farting and I was a pig that could alteration into a gangly Slinky. Then we fell done a nutrient grinder and popped retired arsenic sausages. Then we had to grill and mustard ourselves arsenic a last enactment of sick humiliation earlier wriggling into immoderate buns and getting eaten by a elephantine child.
Trying to evade captcha. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Electronic Arts
Brendan: I didn't similar that bit. Although it did marque maine hungry. Let maine explicate the basal set-up earlier we get deeper into it. Two unpublished writers conscionable astatine a large shady company's experimental encephalon scanning session. But, ohio no, the terse and introverted sci-fi writer has fallen into the brain-bubble of the outgoing and affable phantasy writer. Each subordinate takes power of a writer, with the ensuing puzzles, exploration, battles, and brag fights each requiring a spot of backmost and distant chat arsenic you play to get through. If you've played the studio's erstwhile game, It Takes Two, you astir apt cognize what to expect.
Nic: Brendy, you've successfully pulled the discourse lever connected your broadside of the screen, leaving maine escaped to participate the item hallway. Great job! If lone your acold sci-fi bosom would clasp phantasy past admit maine arsenic a writer and person, we mightiness person a touching if trite unusual mates communicative connected our hands! What a bully thought for a videogame.
Brendan: It's "video game". Two words.
Nic: Anyway. I deliberation you said you the pig enactment was "too overmuch whimsy" for you. There were besides 2 whimsical pigs grilling a 3rd whimsical pig connected a whimsical spit. But those astir Amanita-style bits stood retired for maine due to the fact that overmuch of the crippled felt accepted and restrained. I crave novelty successful each things, but what you're getting present is simply a bid of mostly predictable setpieces, each a metaphor for Large Emotions.
Brendan: Yeah, the large thought is that the fantastical and futuristic stories you're playing done bespeak immoderate deeper trauma oregon occupation our heroes look successful existent life. Mio's troubles bleed into her cyberpunk indebtedness story. Zoe's puerility memories are a changeless root of phantasy twee.
Nic loved these filthy animals. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Electronic Arts
Nic: The champion of these acceptable pieces springiness some players a antithetic toolset and person you enactment unneurotic to flooded obstacles. My Ape had to stomp down flowers to wide a way for your fairy to alert through. Your cool, acerb spitting, flying dragon had to melt immoderate metallic truthful my lame woodlouse rolling dragon could bump into the door. But a large chunk of the crippled conscionable felt similar a elemental 3D platformer, albeit 1 wherever you'd sometimes person to halt and bash thing for a spot portion your mate finished their alternate way and kicked down a ladder. Only sometimes alternatively of ladder you're getting hurled crossed rooftops wrong a portaloo.
Brendan: I deliberation it's a precise elemental game, successful that you could blaze done it implicit a fewer nights with your spouse oregon housemate, and you'd person a fewer laughs and thing astir your beingness volition alteration but possibly that's fine. I bash not deliberation it is simply a crippled for either of america - Warhammer McFadden and Tekken O'Hara. But I did laughter a astonishing magnitude astatine the slapstick quality of galore deaths. And the respawning is truthful forgiving, it felt astir arsenic consequential arsenic dropping a azygous portion of popcorn successful the cinema.
Nic: The simplicity is simply a bully happening successful theory, to support the momentum up, but I don't consciousness that simplicity needed to beryllium expressed done truthful galore sections that felt indistinct and interchangeable. I compared it to eating a container of Revels - cocoa bits wherever you don't cognize what flavour they are. The joyousness of Revels is discovering whether you've got toffee oregon raisin oregon atomic discarded oregon immoderate erstwhile you wound into them. It's each downhill from determination due to the fact that nary of them are really that tasty. Split Fiction is amusive erstwhile it introduces a new, caller conception - little truthful erstwhile you person to laboriously chew connected that thought for 10 minutes earlier getting to the next.
As writers, these 2 should travel up with amended dialog for themselves. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Electronic Arts
Brendan: It is decidedly a novelty parade. Not lone are you visiting antithetic sci-fi and phantasy stories that Zoe and Mio person banked successful their imaginativeness (not to notation the galore broadside stories we skipped), you're besides catapulted into chiseled genres of crippled with alarming frequency. Look, you're successful a R-type benignant shmup now. No wait, a family-friendly platformer with pigs. Scratch that, present you've gotta blast done a multi-phase Metroid-style brag encounter. It plays with gravity-shifting, and the portals of, uh Portal. There's a bushed creation conception with a culturally indeterminate disco monkey (he refers to you arsenic "homey" and "habibi" successful the abstraction of 2 minutes). It is sometimes a precise accepted third-person shooter. You erstwhile remarked there's a definite God Of War 2 flavour to immoderate bosses.
Nic: Repeatedly mashing a fastener to punch a ample carnal successful the oculus volition ever punctual maine of God Of War, yeah. There are besides galore sections wherever you plaything betwixt grapple points portion things illness astir you.
Brendan: On apical of this, it is afloat of watery references to different games and media. Easter eggs for scenes successful Lord Of The Rings, Zelda's Deku tree, the tube blasting of Donkey Kong Country. It's a precise accessible please-as-many-dweebs-as-possible game.
Nic: Ah, The Deku tree. This was a large old-faced oak successful 1 of Zoe's stories. I can't retrieve her sanction for it, but I retrieve Mio saying it was a "strange sanction for a leafage tree". Then we spent 10 minutes trying to observe if we were the idiots for not knowing what a "leaf tree" was oregon wherefore idiosyncratic would enactment those words successful that bid and past grounds them.
Brendan: Ah yes, a leafage tree. Like a fur cat. Or a stone stone. The uninspired dialog is specifically achy to america arsenic existent writers, and the characters are mediocre portraits of the career. Hazelight person the get-out clause of being capable to accidental that "these gals are diegetically atrocious writers" whenever thing successful the communicative is simply a spot crap. But the framework communicative is besides somewhat rote, and if you're going to marque your writers mediocre astatine their craft, past wherefore not marque them canonically awful? Why not Garth Marenghi them oregon something? But Mio and Zoe are simply by-the-numbers scribes trapped successful a by-the-numbers communicative (inside different by-the-numbers story).
Nic: There are definite Alan Wake by mode of Mr. Men morality vibes to the full thing. Also, I successful nary mode co-sign Brendy's assertion that I americium a "real writer". But yes, I deliberation we spent a portion trying to 2nd conjecture the game's intentions: Are they expected to beryllium atrocious writers? Is that portion of the joke? Is it really clever erstwhile the main villain claims he's a bully dude, and past the writers accidental "oh, travel on, the atrocious feline ever says he's a bully guy, what a cliche!". Obviously if you're going to spell traipsing astir a magical wood you request to larn however to forage for herbs, but possibly spell casual connected the deadly lampshade.
One dragon tin alert and spit acid. The different is simply a glorified armadillo. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Electronic Arts
Story aside, I liked the bits wherever it was intelligibly taking a breather to fto you screw each different successful assorted ways. Or person a deathmatch. The parts wherever it winked astatine you: "We're presenting this arsenic a spot workout but it's really truthful you tin fto your mate's caput bounce disconnected the carpet and cackle astir it".
Brendan: This is different crushed I similar that games specified arsenic this exist, adjacent if I'm not truly into them. There was a section erstwhile you played arsenic a large magical histrion and abruptly had power implicit the full wood environment. You could retract spikes and widen platforms. While I, arsenic a large ape, had to navigate the hazards and carnivorous flowers of your ineffable woods. It's afloat of these moments successful which the 2 players tin person a playful excavation astatine 1 another, with nary existent hostility of messing up.
Anyway, I deliberation we've dissected this rather a batch now. I got the feeling you were increasing bushed of our misadventures astatine a faster complaint than I was. And that disparity is ne'er a bully happening erstwhile it comes to sofa co-op games similar this. But we some came to the statement that, eh, it's not our bag.
Nic: Despite my gripes, I can't spot anyone playing this with a mate oregon spouse and coming distant feeling they'd wasted the weekend. That's arsenic agelong arsenic you're some up for it successful the archetypal spot - I uncertainty it's going to person anyone who isn't already into Hazelight's schtick. And it's not similar I'd accidental "this is simply a fantastic videogame and you'll miss retired if you don't enactment idiosyncratic successful to play it with you". It's a joyousness facilitator, alternatively than a joyousness generator. A amusive bridge, not a amusive spout. (Remember erstwhile you said I was a existent writer?)
Brendan: I basal by it. You would ne'er telephone an oak a "leaf tree".
Nic: I judge it's written 'leaftree' actually.
This reappraisal is based connected a reappraisal physique provided by the publisher.
English (CA) · 
English (US) · 
Spanish (MX) · 
French (CA) ·