Split Fiction is a game where you can feel the passion behind it in practically every minute you play. There is an almost ridiculous amount of creativity packed into it. Every level introduced some new idea, mechanic, visual style, and so much more—just when I thought I'd figured out what kind of game I was playing, it turned into another game entirely.
At various points, I was playing pinball, controlling shapeshifting robots, snowboarding for points, crossing between completely different worlds, solving wonderfully creative puzzles, and dealing with situations so absurd that my partner and I couldn't stop laughing. Then, somehow, the game managed to turn around and deliver moments that genuinely made me cry.
The side stories deserve particular praise because they were not just filler content, but rather little explosions of creativity in their own right that I doubt I'll experience anywhere else. The Halloween-themed one was my favourite, especially the flower-planting section. Some of the funniest moments in the game came from them! The main story itself develops in a way that pushes the game to further extremes; as the machine becomes increasingly unstable, the worlds themselves do so with it, and this progression gave the developers an excuse to get even more ambitious with what happens around you. Even the boss fights refused to settle into a formula. Every single one felt like a completely unique idea rather than a variation of the last, and then there was the finale...
I genuinely don't know how to describe it without ruining what makes it so special. It was completely and utterly mind-bending. The game took everything it had been doing and pushed it to its absolute limit.
Now, I've played a lot of games, but I don't think I've ever experienced anything quite like that sequence before. It was technically impressive, visually insane, incredibly imaginative, and one of those moments where I found myself wondering how somebody even came up with the idea in the first place.
But beyond all the mechanics and creativity, my favourite part of this game will always be the joy it engendered. There were evenings where I had to force myself to launch the game and start a session; I was miserable, tired, and struggling to motivate myself. But every single time we played, I felt energised, happy, distracted... and sure, maybe the happiness didn't always last very long after we stopped playing, but for those few hours... I was laughing, thinking, getting completely absorbed in whatever bizarre world the game had thrown us into next, and forgetting about everything else for a while.
I don't think every game needs to have some profound emotional impact on the person playing it, but for me, this one happened to arrive at a time when those treasured, fleeting little pockets of happiness genuinely mattered most, and that's probably the highest compliment I can give Split Fiction. It was not simply an incredibly creative co-op game. It was a game that constantly surprised me, made me laugh until I couldn't breathe, occasionally made me cry, and at times, even gave me something to look forward to.
You can feel the love that went into making this, and I hope you can feel the love I have for this game by reading this.
Simply beautiful.
