Let’s face it. I died so much in Cut up Fiction after I performed it with a companion at a preview occasion held by Hazelight and Digital Arts. However I acquired proper again up and went again into the fray. And I actually loved my time with the split-screen co-op motion journey sport.
Cut up Fiction, is popping out on the consoles and PC on March 6, 2025, for $50. However I acquired to attempt it out for just a few hours and I additionally interviewed Josef Fares, founding father of the award-winning Hazelight studio, after taking part in the sport.
Sitting on the sofa with my companion, the sport began with the humor of a few e book authors who instantly didn’t hit it off. You play as Mio and Zoe — two authors, one sci-fi, one fantasy. They’re like oil and vinegar on the subject of personalities. However they’re thrown collectively into a typical disaster. Solely by working collectively — with one participant serving to the opposite — can they get out of it.
The 2 go to a simulation tech firm the place they’re promised a publishing deal. The writers develop into trapped in their very own tales after being hooked as much as a machine designed by an evil e book “simulation” writer who desires to steal their artistic concepts.
To flee with their minds intact, they’ve to beat their variations to crash the system that holds them. The exhausting half is studying to work collectively, Fares mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat. Mio isn’t significantly pleasant, however she has an correct, skeptical intuition towards the corporate’s intentions. Zoe is much more trusting and is prepared to simply accept any indignity to get printed.
She fortunately steps onto a platform because the machine prompts a bubble that places her right into a form of sleep stasis — and begins extracting the tales from her head. However Mio resists and needs to go away. The evil CEO gained’t let her, struggles along with her and she or he falls into Zoe’s bubble. They fall into the identical fantasy world, with Mio showing inside Zoe’s story world by way of a glitch. They begin looking for their manner out by following the glitch, which alternately takes them into totally different fantasy or sci-fi worlds.
The gameplay begins out pretty straightforward, however in every encounter/puzzle/battle, it took us a few tries to get the timing proper on preventing and motion. It wasn’t tremendous tough in that we by no means acquired caught for a very long time. However generally one participant needed to carry the opposite by way of a given battle scene.
It was early to study to play quick. I noticed that a lot of the interactivity was shade coded. If there was a purple lettering, that was meant for Mio and so I needed to hit my proper bumper on my controller to make use of my grappling hook to fly by way of an area rapidly. If it was inexperienced, it was meant for the opposite participant, Fares on this case, to make use of his controller to get Zoe to do one thing. You can run on the partitions like in Titanfall, and you may leap on a rail and slide like in It Takes Two.
A few hours in, there have been some more durable fights the place it took us a very long time to get by way of the battles. We favored how the problem ratcheted up step by step by way of the sport. The humor of the pig aspect quest was gross in an enthralling manner — Mio flies round with atomic-powered farts, whereas Zoe climbs by . I at all times favored how each battle concerned Mio doing one factor and Zoe doing one other — and victory solely coming by way of cooperation in preventing the enemies.
As you may know, split-screen video games are very exhausting to day. It’s like utilizing one sport console to show two totally different video games directly on the identical display screen. That pushes the computing sources to the restrict, and the developer has to ratchet down the standard of the graphics to maintain the twin body charges up. Thankfully, with the animated model of the sport, the standard seems to be fairly good, as it’s constructed on Epic Video games’ Unreal Engine 5.
Hazelight additionally has a number of veterans engaged on the sport. Fares began with Brothers: A Story of Two Sons, a shifting story of two brothers. Hazelight adopted that up A Manner Out (about two prisoners in a jailbreak) in 2018. In 2021, Hazelight gained Recreation of the 12 months for the split-screen sport It Takes Two, a few couple on the verge of divorce. I’ve performed every sport, however have but to get to the tip of It Takes Two. Alongside the best way, Hazelight stored working with EA Originals, they usually have the system down and a uncommon skill to inform a narrative that’s each shifting, humorous and filled with gameplay originality.
Cut up Fiction’s has an array of ever-changing mechanics that retains each gamers on the sting of the sofa. Each Mio and Zoe have to acknowledge the scenes from their tales that the simulation is visualizing as digital worlds. They usually must work their manner by way of the plush fantasy areas and sci-fi skylines.
You must do issues like remodel your self with a button push right into a fish to swim by way of a fantasy stream. Zoe has to make use of a magnetic arm to fetch packing containers and throw them at attacking flying police vehicles. Mio has to enter shut fight with troopers and hack away with a cybernetic sword. They must experience on hoverboards by way of desert sands and surf round sand sharks from one thing like Dune. I’m conscious there shall be extra surprises within the gameplay however I’m not going to spoil them.
A part of the narrative enchantment of the sport is that Mio and Zoe don’t get alongside at first, however they study they’re one another’s solely hope. The characters will change not directly alongside their journey. They usually must study extra about one another as they go alongside — and defeat issues collectively.
I requested Fares should you would ever be capable to play as a human participant, paired with an AI character. Fares mentioned that may simply be a standard single-player sport that wouldn’t be as enjoyable, as your AI companion can’t actually behave like an actual human.
“If it’s isn’t broke, don’t repair it,” he mentioned.
Is that this sport going to be value $50? For certain. It’s a 15-hour sport that to this point may be very entertaining. And it’s one other title that would win the ever-creative Hazelight a number of awards.
Disclosure: EA paid my solution to the occasion for the aim of this preview.
