‘Cut up Fiction’ hands-on: A co-op journey via sci-fi and fantasy worlds

Yearly’s version of The Sport Awards, which appears to be much more about trailers than awards, provides us no less than one actually striking-looking unique recreation to stay up for. It is often buried in between trailers for updates to cellular video games, however it’s all the time there.

This yr, that recreation could be Cut up Fiction. Developed by Hazelight Studios and headed up by Josef Fares (recognized for utilizing colourful language at earlier Sport Awards exhibits) Cut up Fiction is the religious follow-up to 2021 Sport of the Yr recipient It Takes Two. Meaning it is a actually wacky and creative journey about rival fiction novelists meant particularly to be performed by two individuals collectively cooperatively. I did not get the impression that single-player is even an possibility, nor would it not make sense for it to be one.

Anyway, I received to sit down down and play about 45 minutes of Cut up Fiction with Fares himself earlier than the large reveal at The Sport Awards. Whereas it stays to be seen if any of its huge concepts will work when the sport releases in early March, I can no less than verify that Cut up Fiction makes a hell of a primary impression.

Cut up Fiction hands-on preview: You bought sci-fi in my fantasy

To grasp what, precisely, Cut up Fiction is, it’s essential to perceive the premise. The issue is that I did not absolutely grasp it in my temporary time with the sport, however I will do my finest to elucidate.

Two feminine novelists named Zoe and Mio (Fares was fast to say these are his daughter’s names) have, via seemingly nefarious means, been trapped inside a digital simulation of their work collectively by an evil publishing firm that wishes to steal their tales. One among them is a sci-fi author and the opposite is a fantasy novelist. The majority of the gameplay looks like it can happen in both a fantasy or sci-fi world, relying on the extent, with the thought being that these two ladies who do not like one another (or one another’s work) very a lot have to work collectively creatively to get out of the simulation.

The secret in Cut up Fiction is selection. Each single stage seems to have some sort of distinctive, bespoke co-op mechanic that in all probability solely lasts for 10 to fifteen minutes, and that you simply will not see anyplace else within the recreation. Listed here are only a few examples that Fares confirmed me within the very fast demo I received to play:

• A stage the place Zoe and Mio do aggressive snowboarding down a mountain, full with a fairly deep trick and scoring system

• A stage the place Zoe and Mio hatch, increase, and in the end journey on two dragons who develop as the extent progresses

• A stage the place Zoe and Mio play as two pigs, one in every of whom can prolong vertically like a Slinky toy, whereas the opposite farts rainbows with a purpose to clear horizontal gaps

Oh yeah, there is a stage the place you shapeshift into bizarre monsters, too.
Credit score: Hazelight/EA

A very powerful half is that every little thing I received to play was enjoyable. Cut up Fiction‘s base third-person platforming mechanics are strong and snappy on their very own, however as soon as the extra goofy mechanics come into play, issues get fairly neat. The snowboarding stage was a good sufficient approximation of SSX, whereas the pig stage was a neat little non-compulsory distraction that Fares assured me lasts like 10 minutes. Talking of non-compulsory distractions, Cut up Fiction looks like it will likely be filled with hidden ranges which might be set in different tales these two characters have written. The pig stage was one in every of these, however one other one turned the sport right into a hand-drawn-in-pencil side-scroller for some time.

Hazelight’s earlier work in making distinctive co-op video games shone via within the brief demo I performed, as nicely. It isn’t simply that these mechanics are enjoyable and two gamers get to do them collectively; in lots of instances, every participant is given a special means or function, so coordination is vital. Typically one participant must alter gravity to stroll alongside the ceiling, reducing down platforms for the opposite. You realize, stuff like that.

I can not say whether or not or not Cut up Fiction will reside as much as the superb first impression it makes when the total recreation launches on March 5. However between a bunch of actually enjoyable co-op shenanigans I noticed in only a temporary demo, and the truth that there is not a really annoying, omnipresent narrator like It Takes Two, Cut up Fiction is lining as much as be one of many extra attention-grabbing video games of early 2025.