Cut up Fiction, the brand new recreation from It Takes Two developer Hazelight Studios, doesn’t do something significantly new. The sport is a simple co-op journey that strings collectively disparate sci-fi and fantasy video games like hyperlinks on a series. In case you bundled collectively the sci-fi and fantasy sections as separate entities, they wouldn’t type a cohesive expertise in both gameplay or story. And the overarching narrative that connects all of them is a reasonably heavy-handed (although crucial, in right now’s local weather) parable in regards to the rapaciousness of generative AI instruments and the artistic chapter of the executives that develop them.
Nonetheless, there’s an ironic genius in Cut up Fiction exactly as a result of it takes so many little gameplay components that I’ve seen and accomplished earlier than and executes them with a brilliance and polish I’ve not.
In Cut up Fiction, you and a companion play as Zoe and Mio, two individuals who have come to the curiously named Rader Company underneath the auspices of getting their tales revealed. However — gasp! — as a substitute of getting paid, they get trapped in a machine designed to extract folks’s artistic concepts. After mishaps and shenanigans, Zoe and Mio are compelled to work their means by digital simulations of one another’s tales in hopes of stopping Rader’s plan to “personal” all tales to take advantage of for revenue perpetually. It’s about as refined as a brick to the face, however what do you anticipate from the studio run by the man who mentioned, “Fuck the Oscars”?
Cut up Fiction is an obligate co-op recreation. For this overview, my husband Travis and I hopped between Mio’s futuristic cities and Zoe’s fantastical kingdoms like strolling by the vehicles of a passenger prepare. In every part, we obtained a brand new set of powers designed to work solely in that individual world.
For one stage themed round shapeshifting, I had the ability to show right into a magical ape and an otter, whereas Travis might remodel right into a fairy or a Groot-like tree creature. We had to make use of our completely different kinds with their completely different talents in tandem to navigate the world. My ape type smashed obstacles that impeded our path, whereas Travis’ Groot type manipulated the setting to create new paths ahead.
In one of many sci-fi sections, I… wait, I truly don’t keep in mind. Let me go look.
Oh, yeah. I obtained a sword that slashed enemies and in addition functioned as a form of private gravity manipulator whereas Travis toyed round with a whip that pulled enemies and different objects towards him. In that reminiscence lapse lies my one criticism with the sport: the moment-to-moment gameplay dissolves in your thoughts like a lot cotton sweet.
Mario’s powers in Tremendous Mario Bros. Surprise, just like the elephant power-up or the drill hat, had been so distinct and distinctive that they carved out their very own place in my reminiscence of the sport. There’s a motive folks can recall Titanfall 2’s Impact and Trigger or Halo 2’s Gravemind ranges by title. Cut up Fiction has none of that. Sure, it’s enjoyable within the second and is an immensely satisfying expertise general, however the belongings you do in it and the story it tells are so generic they’re instantly forgettable. Travis and I completed Cut up Fiction in 12 hours stretched throughout day by day play periods over the past week. And although we rolled credit simply yesterday, neither of us might recall with any certainty any of the powers we had within the first 5 hours of the sport.
However, actually, that’s okay as a result of it’s not the gameplay itself that makes Cut up Fiction as satisfying as it’s; it’s the co-op expertise. Most co-op video games we’ve performed aren’t true cooperative experiences, and we wind up enjoying a recreation individually collectively. However Cut up Fiction is strict as hell, requiring exact communication and execution whereas being forgiving sufficient that gamers at completely different talent ranges (say, father or mother and baby) can nonetheless play collectively.
Our favourite second in the entire recreation was the place he and I primarily performed two-player pinball. We navigated the extent — I managed the paddles and launcher, he managed the ball — whereas a boss chased us. We needed to give one another instructions about what paddle I needed to flick or exactly when he needed to leap whereas outrunning a murderous robotic, the place one mistake or missed timing would lead to demise. There’s one thing so good about speaking together with your companion by a high-stakes job. Cliche because it sounds, it felt like our minds and our bodies had melded collectively just like the Jaeger pilots in Pacific Rim. It was actually kinda horny.
It was additionally actually enjoyable how our character decisions mapped precisely to our personalities. I selected Mio, the sci-fi author, whereas Travis was Zoe, the fantasy woman. Like Zoe, my husband doesn’t look after sci-fi, however his lockscreen and desktop background are an ever-rotating gallery of old-school high-fantasy artwork. In the meantime I, like Mio, get aggravated with my husband and Zoe’s indefatigable cheerfulness and might watch Interstellar, Sunshine, and Occasion Horizon on repeat. It was actually cute.
Whereas Cut up Fiction’s story is basically forgettable, we each loved its telling. The sport is plagued by references to so many different video games, and it was enjoyable pointing them out. I’m an enormous sap, so I loved seeing my husband get excited a few reference he caught. I obtained such a kick when he acknowledged the legally distinct Halo 2 part or began fortunately shouting, “It’s Battletoads!” throughout a boss battle. I’ll additionally say the sport’s ultimate boss battle had the innovation I had hoped to see extra of all through the sport itself. I gained’t spoil the specifics as a result of it’s a pleasant little parting reward to gamers, but it surely was a trippy, thrilling sequence that performed hell on our visible notion.
Since we performed It Takes Two collectively, we had been trying ahead to Cut up Fiction additionally having little minigame breaks in the course of the narrative. Cut up Fiction’s model of that had been facet tales the place Zoe and Mio would come out of the primary story to have a brief journey in one other world. Travis’ favourite was a creepy-cute Fall Mans-inspired stage the place we performed as anthropomorphic tooth, whereas mine concerned sketches of characters progressing by a narrative the place all of the motion was being drawn in actual time by an enormous pencil.
We beloved Cut up Fiction as a result of, together with its predecessor It Takes Two, it’s the one trendy recreation my husband and I can play collectively that doesn’t depart us eager to kill one another. The gameplay was easy however required a stage of cooperation that was deeply satisfying to drag off. It’s a cotton-candy ass recreation, and I gained’t be capable of inform you a particular factor about it in every week aside from it’s enjoyable, however that’s nice. We like cotton sweet as a result of it tastes good, not as a result of consuming it’s a significantly memorable expertise.
Cut up Fiction launches March sixth on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.