Feeling split on Split Fiction
Our interview with Josef Fares on a co-op epic
No one can accuse Josef Fares of lacking confidence.
The Lebanese Swedish director spent years thundering that his new co-op game Split Fiction would blow players away. Debuting to rapturous reviews, his profanity-laden prophecies proved true. He repeated them — while remaining FCC-friendly — in an interview I produced for Here & Now (also, click the link to hear a cameo from my wife, Arvilla!):
Two aspiring authors. A high-tech machine that knits their story ideas into a virtual reality playground. And the powerful corporation that wants to steal these stories for its own ends.
That’s the premise of Split Fiction, out Thursday. The co-op video game casts players as Zoe and Mio, two antagonistic writers who must work together to escape the simulation that accidentally entangled them.
“You are jumping between sci-fi and fantasy throughout the game — these two people are not a fan of each other's genre and are not a fan of each other,” says game director Josef Fares. “But this game is ultimately about friendship and about two extremely different people that still can find a connection.”
Fares’ company, Hazelight Studios, specializes in two-player games that require intense collaboration. 2018’s A Way Out featured an audacious prison break. 2021’s It Takes Two followed a couple on the brink of divorce, scrambling to reverse a spell that transformed them into tiny dolls.
“It's an experience that is not common these days,” Fares says. “You want to experience stories together — why not play a great narrative where you actually can sit on the couch and enjoy it together?”
Hazelight found incredible success through this approach. It Takes Two won Game of the Year at The Game Awards and went on to sell more than 20 million copies. But Fares asserts that his games aren’t just fun — they also demand teamwork.
“If you want to test your relationship, go play It Takes Two or Split Fiction and see how it is with the communication skills,” says Fares. “Some friends have married each other, and we've also had couples who actually broke after this game.”
The action-packed Split Fiction may be tougher than It Takes Two, which focused on comparatively mellow puzzles. Fares, however, doesn’t want to smooth over skill disparities between players. “We don't make them too challenging,” says Fares, “[but you] got to learn the hard way, my man.”
Ultimately, Fares hopes that Split Fiction wows audiences. Self-censoring his famously colorful language, he prophesied that players “will walk away with ‘what the bleep happened’ — they will be amazed.”
“You will experience something that is extremely rare — and the final chapter is something that hasn’t been done in video games before.”
My wife and I haven’t yet gotten to that much-hyped final chapter. But the first eight hours of the game have tempered our expectations. 2025 has had plenty of great games — Split Fiction is one of them. We just wish it was better.
Its weaknesses? Predictable dialogue, tired tropes, and daunting difficulty spikes. The game is at its most succinct and thrilling in optional “side stories”— its main path can drag on.
We’re not the only NPR couple to feel mixed on the game. TED Radio Hour’s James Delahoussaye started with a positive note when he spoke to me about it: “we are really liking how it feels like It Takes Two, but cranked up to 11.” His partner Joanne Lin also praised the side stories: “they're shorter and you can explore a different kind of weird space.”
But Lin and Delahoussaye agreed that the main characters felt flat. “Their dynamic with each other,” Lin told me, “isn’t as fun as It Takes Two.” Delahoussaye elaborated that “It Takes Two was more relatable and obvious — even though those characters were arguably not good people, I understand they're going through a divorce that's really distressing.”
Ultimately, I may prefer Split Fiction’s more generic heroines to It Takes Two’s bickering protagonists (who are truly monstrous parents, by the way). But the consensus between the four of us — Arvilla, Joanne, and two Jameses — is still generally warm. We’re all excited to see if the game’s celebrated conclusion lives up to the hype.
Finally, before signing off I also have to give a hat-tip to my colleague Jay Vanasco, who reported on a massive war game that simulates the events of January 6th.
Other Mastromarino Productions
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How state lawmakers and governors can block or pursue Trump's agenda
'Anora' sweeps the Oscars in a huge night for independent film — a blast to put together with NPR film critic Bob Mondello!