Split Fiction Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Split Fiction Review – Detailed Summary

Podcast Information:

• Title: Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast
• Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., and Andy Cortez
• Episode: Split Fiction Review
• Release Date: March 4, 2025

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Introduction In the March 4, 2025 episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast, the hosts—Tim Gettys, Greg Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., and Joey Noel—delve into an extensive review of Hayes Light’s latest cooperative adventure, Split Fiction. The episode begins with casual banter and brief mentions of ongoing projects before transitioning into an in-depth analysis of the game.

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Game Overview

Split Fiction is a co-op adventure developed by Hayes Light and published by EA, released on March 6th for $50. The game emphasizes cooperative gameplay, requiring two players to navigate through diverse, creatively designed worlds. It includes a Buddy Pass, allowing one additional player to join for free, enhancing its accessibility and multiplayer appeal. As of the episode’s recording, the game holds a Metacritic score of 91, following in the footsteps of its predecessors like It Takes Two (score: 88) and A Way Out (score: 78).

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Gameplay Analysis

The hosts unanimously praise Split Fiction for its inventive gameplay mechanics and the sheer creativity embedded in its design. Greg Miller highlights the game’s ability to continuously surprise players with diverse mechanics and inventive level design:

Greg Miller [07:21]: "The gameplay side of Split Fiction, Hayes Light has it absolutely wild as far as the amount of ideas, the amount of mechanics, the amount of creativity to where I look at Hazelight now in the same regard as [other top developers]."

Joey Noel echoes this sentiment, appreciating the game’s accessibility and adaptability:

Joey Noel [10:27]: "This game, I feel like is really accessible in terms of platforming. I didn't think it was overly hard, which I appreciated."

Tim Gettys adds that the cooperative elements allow players to synergize effectively, making challenging segments manageable:

Tim Gettys [11:10]: "The game does a really good job of giving you opportunities to cheese the system if you need to. If one of you dies, the other just has to stay alive to come back."

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Story and Narrative

While the gameplay receives high praise, the story and character development invite mixed reviews from the hosts. Greg Miller expresses disappointment with the narrative and character chemistry:

Greg Miller [07:45]: "I'm so let down by the story and characters in this game. None of them worked on me. I didn't believe in the chemistry really between any of these characters."

Blessing Adeoye Jr. critiques the story’s execution and its alignment with the game’s whimsical elements:

Blessing Adeoye Jr. [12:20]: "The narrative did not hit for me in a world where we talk about video game writing being cheesy, being cringe, being all these different things... this feels like I'm playing a Disney Channel original movie."

Tim Gettys concurs, feeling that the story took a direction that did not complement the gameplay effectively:

Tim Gettys [22:05]: "I was very much let down by the story and the characters. The story was a major letdown for me, despite the quality of the gameplay."

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Personal Experiences and Opinions

The discussion reveals varied perspectives among the hosts regarding Split Fiction. While Greg and Tim lean towards high praise with minor reservations, Blessing and Joey offer more critical viewpoints on specific aspects of the game.

• Greg Miller rates the game 9 out of 10, emphasizing its standout gameplay moments:

  Greg Miller [09:29]: "I'm giving it a 9 out of 10. There is a moment in this game that I think will go down as the best video game moment of the year."

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. assigns an 8 out of 10, balancing praise for the gameplay with critiques of the narrative:

  Blessing Adeoye Jr. [17:04]: "I give this an 8 out of 10. It is a great game, but the narrative pulls it down for me."

• Joey Noel rates it 8.5 out of 10, highlighting the game’s accessibility and fun cooperative experience:

  Joey Noel [11:10]: "I had an excellent weekend playing it with my friend Maria. It felt really accessible and enjoyable."

Blessing shares a personal anecdote that underscores the emotional disconnect caused by the story, contrasting it with the memorable cooperative gameplay:

Blessing Adeoye Jr. [24:45]: "But nobody does co-op gameplay better than Hazelight. They are the co-op studio and they are only getting better at it technically."

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Boss Fights

The boss fights in Split Fiction emerge as a key discussion point. Tim Gettys and Greg Miller laud them for their creativity and integration of gameplay mechanics:

Tim Gettys [50:34]: "They make the boss fights so creative. It’s a perfect example of what I love most about this game: great gameplay gimmicks, fun music, cool setpiece moments."

However, Joey Noel offers a more critical take, expressing frustration with the difficulty spikes during boss encounters:

Joey Noel [50:45]: "I did not love the boss fights. Dying all the time doesn’t make it particularly fun."

Blessing adds that while she doesn’t hate the boss fights, they contribute to occasional frustrations:

Blessing Adeoye Jr. [51:14]: "I think of when I was annoyed by something like, ah, fucking. This guy was doing this... that was a good thing."

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Replayability

The question of whether Split Fiction merits a replay similar to It Takes Two is addressed with mixed responses. Greg Miller suggests the gameplay's variety could encourage replaying:

Greg Miller [45:56]: "The different abilities encourage us to go back and play it again."

Conversely, Tim Gettys remains skeptical about replay value:

Tim Gettys [45:28]: "Is it worth a replay? I don't think so. I recommend it to everybody, but I’m not interested in doing that."

However, Joey Noel emphasizes the enjoyment derived from the cooperative experience, potentially making it a favorite despite not replaying:

Joey Noel [49:05]: "This will be on my list of favorite gaming experiences because we just had so much fun playing together."

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Listener Interactions

The hosts engage with listener feedback throughout the episode, addressing questions about gameplay difficulty and suitability for younger players. For instance, a listener named Rival Knight inquires about the boss fights, to which the hosts respond with varied opinions reflecting their personal experiences.

Additionally, Blessing shares a testimonial from Patrick Kleppig, highlighting the game’s family-friendly prowess:

Blessing Adeoye Jr. [42:36]: "Playing this new co-op game with my 8-year-old has been a special experience... kids can play this game and have a great time."

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Conclusion

Split Fiction receives a nuanced but generally positive review from the Kinda Funny Gamescast hosts. The gameplay's innovation and cooperative depth are celebrated, while the narrative and character development receive criticism for not matching the high expectations set by previous Hazelight titles. The hosts agree that, despite its flaws, Split Fiction stands as a commendable addition to the co-op genre, especially for players seeking a fun and engaging multiplayer experience.

Final Ratings:

• Greg Miller: 9/10
• Blessing Adeoye Jr.: 8/10
• Joey Noel: 8.5/10
• Tim Gettys: 8/10

Overall, Split Fiction is recommended for its standout gameplay mechanics and creative design, with the caveat that players seeking a deep and emotionally resonant story might find it lacking.

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Notable Quotes:

• Greg Miller [07:21]: "The gameplay side of Split Fiction, Hayes Light has it absolutely wild..."
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [12:20]: "The narrative did not hit for me..."
• Joey Noel [11:10]: "I had an excellent weekend playing it..."
• Tim Gettys [50:34]: "They make the boss fights so creative..."

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Overall Takeaway Split Fiction excels in delivering an inventive and enjoyable cooperative gameplay experience, making it a strong contender in the co-op platformer space. While its narrative may not satisfy all players, the game’s strengths in design and cooperative mechanics ensure it remains a worthwhile title for fans of multiplayer adventures.

Transcript

[Joey Noel]

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[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm ready for my life to change.

[Greg Miller]

ABC Sunday American Idol returns.

[Tim Gettys]

Give it your all.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Good luck. Come out with a golden ticket.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's hear it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is immense world.

[Greg Miller]

I've never seen anything like it.

[Tim Gettys]

And a new chapter begins. We're going to Hollywood.

[Greg Miller]

Carrie Underwood joins Lionel Richie, Luke Bryant and Ryan Seacrest on American idol.

[Tim Gettys]

Season premieres Sunday, 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu.

[Greg Miller]

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[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

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[Joey Noel]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling today.

[Tim Gettys]

What's up and welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by the big daddy himself, Greg Miller.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hello Timothy.

[Tim Gettys]

It is Christmas in March. Joey Noel.

[Joey Noel]

I'm not happy with this side of my hair today, but hello. Not the way I want.

[Tim Gettys]

And the new face of video games blessing ad. Oh yay junior.

[Greg Miller]

Hey day Tim, you want me split in your hair? I mean, go for it.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh my God. What a. What a way to start the day. Everybody. Of course, this is the Kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about video games and all the things we love about them, whether that's reviews, previews, predictions, going through lists. We talk about everything you'd want to hear. When it comes to video games, of course you can get that wherever you are, whether it's podcast services, YouTube, Twitch, we're live, we're VOD, we're podcasts. We are trying to serve you. And if you like that, you should get the kind of funny membership where you can get the show ad free and you get a daily exclusive. Greg way Greg, what's it about today?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Grief.

[Tim Gettys]

That's. I don't like grief. You know what I mean?

[Joey Noel]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Deal with it though.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Mayday wrote in about it. They're going through it. I'm there to help them.

[Tim Gettys]

He can help you too if you need the help.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Get the kind of funny memory you come to the Chicago thing. You want me spitting your hair? You just say it. I'll do it.

[Tim Gettys]

Kids, please don't ask Grade to spit your hair. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to deal with whatever.

[Joey Noel]

Good repercussions from that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'll do it. Kevin, you want some spit for just.

[Tim Gettys]

Be part of this show. You can submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats. We are talking about Split Fiction, the latest from Hayes Light. So if you have any questions about that, please super chat them in and we will get to those. A little housekeeping for you. You already got our reaction to Tony hawk's Pro Skater 3/4 on kind of Funny Games Daily. God is real. I guess religion is something I care about now and. Or Satan.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Thank you.

[Tim Gettys]

According to Greg.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Just saying. Could go either way.

[Tim Gettys]

Who knows. The kind of funny podcast will be right after this. Live for everybody. With our new schedule where now all of our shows are live, we are a live talk show network. Thank you so much. We appreciate you hanging out with us each and every day, all day. Starting with Games Daily, going through to Gamescast, following that up with whatever other show we got and then a gameplay stream. Whole bunch of cool stuff for you. Speaking of gameplay streams, the stream today, Bless is returning to Dark Souls.

[Greg Miller]

Andy's sick so we'll see.

[Tim Gettys]

We'll see. Bless might be returning to Dark Souls. He's doing something though. It's going to be fun. If you're kind of funn member, you get Greg's Greg way about grief. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, you're the best of us today. We're brought to you by Monster Hunter now. But we'll tell you all about that later. For now let's get into it. The topic of the show, Split Fiction. Our review. Everyone at this table has played it. Multiple other people are kind of funny have played it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What up Barrett?

[Tim Gettys]

And that makes sense because the only way to play this game is with multiple people.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's right.

[Tim Gettys]

It takes two. Greg.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

Not the name of this game. It does take two to actually do it. The theme description reads as follows. Embrace mind blowing moments as you're pulled deep into the many worlds of split fiction. A boundary pushing co op adventure. The developer is Hazelight publisher EA. The release date March 6th for $50. And it comes with Buddy Pass which allows you to for free play with another friend.

[Joey Noel]

So cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Very very cool. Metacritic is currently sitting at as of 10am today at a 91.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

God damn.

[Tim Gettys]

It takes two. Their previous game was an 88, also a game awards game of the year winner and no Way out got a 78. And some exciting news for you. We did something different for this one that we've never done here at Kind of Funny before. Greg and I recorded our entire playthrough of this game that we're going to post on Thursday. If you want to watch us play through the entirety of the game for this review for the purposes of us editorially thinking about this game so you can kind of get a little bit of insight into how we review the game and like we, we give our updates kind of like as we're playing a different style of content than we've normally done because a little less on the like let's make a whole bunch of jokes and streams.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We play for the most part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Or laugh out loud at this part.

[Tim Gettys]

Exactly, exactly. So a lot there. So you'll be able to actually see that entire thing. But that'll be on Thursday and right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Now the plan is that that's taking the place of the stream because it's like a 12 hour third 14. It hasn't been assembled. I forget how long it's going to be. And that'll be a YouTube premiere, right? If everything goes correctly.

[Tim Gettys]

If everything goes correctly.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sometimes things don't go right with YouTube when you put a thing into it. So we'll see what's up.

[Tim Gettys]

But we're going to try and it should be fun. So hang out and check that out later this week. But enough about all that I want to get into it blessing. I want to start with you. What would you give Split Fiction the kind of funny scale Before I say.

[Greg Miller]

The number, I want to wax poetic for a second because I've been looking forward to this game, as we all have, Right. I think Hazelight is one of those developers that you look at and you're like, oh, man, there's something special. They're unique. They are small, I guess, small on the AAA side. I don't even know how we categorize them anymore, whether they're indie aaa, obviously they have their games published by EA and their budgets grow with every single game. Right. And this game, Split Fiction is their biggest fort, is their biggest endeavor yet. Jumping into Split Fiction, my expectations were over the moon as far as what this is going to be because I love It Takes Two. We love It Takes Two. I even loved A Way out and many of us loved a Way out as well, right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

By the way, I screwed you over. I wrote no Way out because of course that's a WWE pay per view, so that's always on my. I'm sorry. Way out of, Way out of, Way out.

[Greg Miller]

Upon playing through Split Fiction, finishing Split Fiction, I'm so let down by the story and characters in this game. There are three major characters here, right? We got Zoe, we got mio, we got Raider. None of them worked on me. Right. I didn't believe in the chemistry really between any of these characters. I think thematically there are things with the story where I'm like, oh, man, I see what you're going for, but I don't know if this is the right format for the kind of story and the kind of themes you want to tackle here. And so much of those things, I think overall let me down to the point where I look at a game like It Takes Two and even A Way out, and I'm like, I might have liked the stories in those games better. That said, on the gameplay side of Split Fiction, Hayes Light has it like it is absolutely wild as far as the amount of ideas, the amount of mechanics, the amount of creativity to where I look at Hazelight now in the same regard as I look at a team of Sobey or even as a Nintendo, as far as their game, their gameplay design acumen, their chops. Here I. There are moments that I had in this game playing alongside Barrett where we're saying we're like. We're saying wow out loud. We're blown away. We are, you know, surprised by things, whether it be art direction, whether it be the amount of fidelity, where at any time, of course, you're playing Split Fiction and it's a Hazelights game. So it is split screen and the fact that we're seeing things that are rendered twice on the same screen at the same time, we're blown away by what we're looking at. The amount of different ideas here. As far as. Wow, you guys, like when we visited Team Asobi, me and Roger for Astrobot, right? Like, they showed us how they come up with ideas and it was like a note card thing or sticky note thing where people would come up with ideas on sticky notes and we got to see the wall. You was crazy to see how many different ideas that they had there at Team Asobi. I imagine Hazelight has a very similar system of, hey, we come in today, what ideas do we have? Let's fucking try them out. And it is crazy to see moment to moment, how things change moment to moment, how like, you know, things work together and they allow you. Allow you to feed off the other player in very interesting, creative ways. I am blown away. The one last thing I'll say before.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I pass it on one score though, I want to see how this nets out for you.

[Greg Miller]

I'm going to get. I'm giving it a 9 out of 10.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, wow.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, this is a 9 out of 10 video game for me and I. The thing that sealed it in is there is a moment in this game that's later on in the game that I think will go down as the best video game moment of the year. And I think it'll be very tough for any other game to challenge it.

[Joey Noel]

And I feel like there's no doubt about what you're talking about.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, it'll be very.

[Joey Noel]

Oh, this is what Bless is meaning Joey. This is my first Hazelight game. I haven't played It Takes Two or Way out or Brothers. I think I have, like watched some of you all play in different amalgamations, whether it be like maybe Andy or Mike playing on stream. Anyways, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I just know that it looked cool and it sounded cool and I wanted to play it. So I went in, kind of not really having any expectation because I just didn't know. I had an excellent time. I terrible at platformers. I tried. I pushed really hard through. I finished Astrobot.

[Tim Gettys]

Who'd you play with?

[Joey Noel]

I played with my friend Maria. It took us like, we pretty much played like all weekend and that's all we did and it was an excellent weekend. So I terrible at platformers. This game, I feel like is really accessible in terms of platforming. I didn't think it Was like overly hard, which I appreciated. And I do think that. And I can't really confirm this because I haven't actually talked to any of you about it. I do feel like some of the boss fights, if you're struggling with them, get easier.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, interesting.

[Joey Noel]

But I don't know if that is just me getting better or if it. It seemed like some of the elements maybe were like dialed back a little bit, so it made it easier to progress if they like obviously knew that you were having issues, which as a terrible platformer, I really appreciate.

[Tim Gettys]

I do think the game does a really good job of because it's co op, like giving you opportunities to cheese the system if you need to. With the. If one of you dies, the other just has to stay alive.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

To come back. And I think that maybe that like inherently makes it easier because the more you do it, like you. You kind of get used to that stuff because I don't know that it gets easier, like from a gameplay perspective, but I do think there's a lot of systems that allow you to keep.

[Joey Noel]

Not giving myself enough credit. I'm getting better. I agree a lot with Blessing. I think the story overall is like very fine. I think that there's part of the story that for me felt a lot stronger than the other one. So I think that's my story issue is just that they feel a little bit unbalanced. The gameplay and what they do in all of this I think is incredible. And it's. There's so many. This is a game that I think the less you know about going into it, the more fun it's going to be. And like, I kind of almost. It's going to be a hard game for me to review because I don't really want to talk about a whole lot because I think that there's so many cool things and reveals and stuff like that that it's going to be really fun. And I would. I don't want to spoil anything for anybody. So I had a great time. I'm so excited. Oh, I'm an 85.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Hell yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Nine from Bless. Eight. Five from Joey. Greg Miller. I don't know what score you're giving this game. I played the entire thing with you.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I know. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Talk to you the whole time through it. But we didn't talk after. We didn't talk at the end.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And I feel like purposely doing it. We didn't talk like, what are you. Where are you scoring? What are you feeling? Yada, yada. There's so much I want to say about split fiction. And a lot of it echoes what Bless said in the front. I am disappointed in this game. The narrative did not hit for me in a world where we talk about video game writing being cheesy, being cringe, being all these different things. Like, I think it's especially bad here. I thought this was very much you. And I say it multiple times, especially as we were getting going. But, like, this is written and performed like a young adult novel. Which games should be for all ages. And I'm not. I love young adult stuff often. So it's not like I'm knocking that. But it is, as I said at the end, I think. But I was saying, talking to people about it, like, this game is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Like, from the moment you meet the three characters, you're like, I see where we're going. I wonder how this is all going to wrap up. And go to the point that, for me, then when you battle up these hills to get to that payoff, it isn't worth the narrative structure of it. Like, I just. I. Early on, and it was like, oh, like, you and me turn to each other throughout this game and let's play. You'll see on Thursday. And laughter right at the lines, the way they're delivered, what they're doing. We say it before the character says it. Cause we know, like, what's the most cheesy, predictable thing you'd say here? This is what you would do. And for me, that hampers the entire experience because it takes two. Getting sucked into this kid's playroom, being the dolls, being the toys, added this whimsical playbox nature to the game and the narrative, where suddenly I thought that made sense of how you're mixed up and what you're doing. And this is so crazy, but we're okay. Cody, you. There was something to it that also skews young adult, I think. Right. But worked for what they were doing overall, where this feels like I'm playing a Disney Channel original movie, which, again, isn't me throwing shade at that. I'm not the audience for that, though, right. For the most part. So that was a bummer to me because I was never, like, when you and I would sit down on the couch, I was never like, I can't wait to see what happens next. I can't wait to get through this section to see the payoff to this. Because really quickly I learned, oh, like, I know where we're going. I know what this is going to be. This is very by the basics, whatever. What I would say though to then bring it back to the positive is that nobody does this better co op gameplay than Hazelight. You want to talk about an industry littered with the corpses of developers who have due to, you know, the head of their studio, the head of their publisher had to go and do something that they aren't passionate about that they shouldn't go do a game that is outside of their genre. Hazelight sitting here and now doing this three times in a row and be like we are the co op studio and we're only getting better at it technically. Here's a $50 game that comes with a pass to play with your friend for free. Cross platform exists. Yes, you can give the pass to somebody cross platform and play with them. You can do all these different things, do all that and still say the best way to play this is on a couch with somebody. That's how you want to experience this game for them to do that. The finale of the let's play is what I It's all one big video but our final session is the one I would point to because not only is it the best stuff in the game that it's inarguably I say it well, this should be done in the game. This should have been the game. The game's great as is.

[Greg Miller]

Don't get me wrong saying the same thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is just so holy fucking shit. When it starts happening right, What I would point to is let's put peel back the curtain and you don't see us review games often. I sit down on the couch and I am upset. It has been a long day of content. Things are not going my way on a few different projects time wise we are in a crunch because of this and so I sit down not in a good place and you will see by the end me grinning holy shit, this is great. Blah blah blah like it did. What I always talk about Tales from the Borderlands doing where it's an old Greg story of being I'm super grumpy. I don't. I go through a bunch of games I don't want to play, I don't want to play. I'm not finding what I want to play. I sit down and play Tales from Borderlands and suddenly I'm laughing and I've forgotten my troubles. It's the same thing here. The gameplay is that good and it takes two and I want to. I think it's going to be an interesting look in because I think the majority of time and maybe I'm Just skewing negative on my own thing. It's a very just us again. We're not hamming it up for the camera. We're playing it and reviewing it and trying to process all the information. I think so many times in there it's me mocking the game and the dialogue or it's me saying this side story is what the content should have been like why aren't we doing this?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, you say that so many times which I do think says something of like there's so many great ideas there that like.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But to take it's. I can't take away from the fact that even like. And I think I say in the second to last one we're doing a section and I'm like I think I do. Hey, real quick just to point out, I know I'm saying X, Y and Z and making fun of this but like this is so good and we have our own language now of how we're playing this game and what we're doing in this game and it's running flawlessly and doing all this different stuff. Like the gameplay is so good. I give this an 8 out of 10. I think this is a great game. It is not my favorite Hazelight game. I think we can get into it as we get into the weeds here about more of. I think it overstays its welcome again I think I'm not. I wasn't into the fantasy setting of Zoe's world versus Mio's world of being this like cyberpunky future kind of thing which kind of takes which then makes half the game be like we're doing this but like that's a personal thing. I'm not trying to talk about the quality of it. I think the story pulls it down for me. But you. There's still so much amazing gameplay here. 8 out of 10 for Greg. Great.

[Tim Gettys]

God, it's so fun going last here and hearing everyone's thoughts and agreeing with so much of what's being said. I. I want to kind of just jump off of what Greg's saying. But the flip of it, I'm going to start with saying I'm giving this an 8 out of 10. I. It's an 8 out of 10 that I would recommend to anybody though. I feel like this is a game that literally anybody that's ever held a controller is going to enjoy playing. It might not be their favorite game ever, the best game ever, but there's going to be so many moments in it that are worth playing this game. Hazelight has done Such an amazing job of creating gameplay that can own and experiences that can only happen with another person. And I think that that is so commendable and important. And beyond that, come up with so many creative new ways to play games that I've never seen. Bless bringing up the. The Astrobots and that Nintendo magic. Like, there's so much of that here. And like that I don't say lightly, like that is a very big deal because I don't think that many developers have the ability to do that, let alone do it over and over and over again for a. What? I think our final account was probably close to 14 hours or so. I think so because we did all of the side stuff as well, which I love the side stuff. Some of my favorites.

[Joey Noel]

I have more to go back. I have three that I missed that I need to go back to.

[Greg Miller]

I'm just realizing that I never popped that trophy and I thought I did all the, all the, you know, side stories.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

So now I gotta go back to Barry.

[Joey Noel]

Which one did you miss?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And yeah. So from a gameplay perspective, which I do think is the, the most important thing to talk about here because I think that it is so good. Um, I feel like gameplay wise though, for as good as it is, I. I'd give just that a 9 out of 10. Like, I don't think it hits that 10 astrobot levels of creativity. And this just feels so good. There's a lot of moments that I'm like, this could have felt a little bit better. Having said that, I do think it's very forgiving. I think that they designed the game very well to not frustrate you. Like, the checkpoint system is very, very good. And there's a. A handful of times that it was like, but. But it's not. It just stood out because it's so good. The majority of the almost don't even criticize that at all. I feel I don't either. That would have been one checkpointing is. Is great, but. And again, like, the amount of things you're doing that are different but that are immediately understandable. Yeah, I. There was maybe in 14 hours, two moments that we're like, what do we do? And that lasted a minute maybe, and then we figured it out.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And one of them was yesterday when I was all bent out of shape and I couldn't. I was like hitting R2 when I should have been hitting L2. Oh, yeah, well, hit that. I'm like, oh, hold on. I'm an idiot.

[Tim Gettys]

Boom. Done. That thing is like, this game is so brilliantly designed that when you're playing it, no matter what new gimmick, gameplay, mechanic, puzzle they throw in front of you, you know how to solve it and you're kind of excited to solve it. So I think like that to me is like, wow, they really pulled that off. I totally agree about the story stuff. It was a, a major, major, major letdown for me. Similar to Bless. I was very excited for this game. I had very, very, very high expectations and I was hoping that since they were going a different direction with the narrative and clearly putting more into it, like maybe it's just because they're a bit more humanoid, but it still has the fun gameplay stuff of It Takes Two. But they're, these are more human stories we're dealing with. I mean, I guess It Takes Two was as well story wise. But like, in terms of like how they're presenting it, it seemed a little bit more like, hey, we're going to try to tell a story that matters. And like I was very, very let down by it. I think the game is very funny. I think that there's a lot of well written jokes. I laughed a lot of Easter eggs and oh, a lot of homages and I was popping off left and right for things, like a lot of great stuff with the writing. I just think that the characters and plot are like bad.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, Disney Channel Original Movie I think is such a good analog because as I was playing I was like, this feels like it went straight to Nickelodeon as far as like what the vibe is of the story and who these characters are, where you get like you get later on and they're trying to have emotional moments. I'm like not going to get tears out of me, bro. I'm sorry, like this isn't working on, working on me in that way, but I'm. Yeah, go on. Sorry. I'm with you though.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I mean I, I don't have to say too much more, but yeah, I, I'm very much let down by the story and the characters and I think that that is a bummer because I, I think that a different tone and different direction, like the talent's there, they have the stuff. I just feel like they went too far in a direction that I, I don't feel like was in service of what this game is. When you look at the quality of the gameplay and what they ask you to do and the environments you're in which are beautiful and there's so many of them and dozens of times I was like, how are there this many assets in this game. Like, it's so impressive reusing stuff and.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Things we kept calling it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, exactly. And similar to what Greg was saying, like, I also preferred the cyberpunky stuff over the fantasy stuff. And that's just the type of person I am.

[Joey Noel]

What did you prefer?

[Greg Miller]

I mean, I'm more of a sci fi person than a fantasy person in general, but I think by the end of it I kind of like both.

[Joey Noel]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

I was. I wasn't dreading going into one or.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The other and I wouldn't say I was either.

[Joey Noel]

And I don't really like sci fi that much or fantasy. And I was like, I'm picking that sci fi side of. Or the sci fi girl. And I ended up liking the fantasy stuff way more.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I, I was never dreading going into the fantasy stuff, but I always preferred to go into the sci fi stuff.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, for me the, the dread, which I don't. I would not use as a word. It was more the fact of like, ah, we're gonna be here a while. Like there was.

[Joey Noel]

That's exactly how I felt about the sci Fi stuff.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

One of the days we. And see, this is one of those module kind of thing where we came out and it was like these levels are long in levels I'm using loosely. Chapter I guess or whatever. Where he came out and it was like Bear's like, oh, did you get. I'm like, we did what? We were in there an hour and a half, I feel like. And we did one maybe an hour 15 or whatever. And so it's like one of this is where it is again for me. Like, I wish it was just quicker. I wish it was just faster again. Like, this is such a weird one but with the narrative not being great, being good, even back to you being. Saying it's just straight up bad. If I was at home and Jen and I were playing this, we would have never rolled credits. We would have. We would have enjoyed this for two nights and been like, oh man, the gameplay is cool, blah, blah. But inevitably it would have been. Especially with Jen who's like got a way higher bar for what she wants to play or do with her time. She would have wanted to watch something over this. And I feel like that's always my critique of these games of our. As much as we love Supermassive, as much as we love dark pictures and until dawn kind of games. Like, I really feel these types of games should be four hours tops. And it should be like you're doing two movies and being done that's my personal preference. Because even for us trying to schedule the time to do the let's plays became so tough because we have so much going on and so many things. So it's like getting in there and stuff. I would have preferred, rather than be in these levels for so long, get the levels the same, you know, sci fi or fantasy, but then have it be way quicker as we're switching what we're doing. Because it is. You get in these things and you get. All right, this is going to be this chapter's mechanic for what you're going to go through and do and the mechanics good. But when it's not great, I was like, okay, I'm ready to move on to the next thing and get out of here.

[Greg Miller]

The side stories fix that so much for me.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, well, I wanted more side stories. I would love a game that was all that way.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Like for context, for people.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

So you have these two characters. Characters you're playing as. One person's playing as Mio, the other play is playing as Zoe. Both of them are. Mio is more of a sci Fi. Sci Fi person. Zoe's more of a fantasy person and like dictated by that. That then determines the world that you're in. So when you're, you know, more than like Zoe's mindset, you are playing in like these fantasy worlds, but where, when you're more like on Mio's side of the thing, you're playing more, way more sci fi worlds, but you have these side stories that pop up. And when you're in Zoe's sci fi, when you're in Zoe's fantasy world, Mio's sci fi worlds might start popping up and you don't know what kind of sci fi or what kind of cyberpunk type thing is going to be. And I absolutely loved, like, you know, I'm. I'm playing with Barrett and every, every time a meo side story pops up, I'm like, oh, here we go, here we go. We're going to get that good. And it often was like such a breath of fresh air to go from fantasy to be. To be like, okay, we're doing five to 10 minutes of a sci Fi thing real quick before we continue what we're doing, or vice versa, where we are in the sci Fi world and it is like, all right, let's see what Zoe's got for us. We hop into it. I'm surprised many times because the stuff they do with Zoe's side stories because they can get so wacky because, you know, fantasy is open to so many interpretations of it. I just love where they go with that stuff. I think if you want to go, you can go.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, please, please.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, I was gonna kind of veer into, like. I think one of the things that. In regards to what they do with the genre, because I think the genre side of the. Of the stuff is fun and interesting because they are throwing at you different types of sci fi and different types of fantasy. The thing that I kept looking at Barrett and saying is that I don't like that this is a story that's about storytelling. Because Zoe and Mio are writers, right? And so, like, the idea of these stories is that these are stories they're telling in their books. That didn't work for me because oftentimes I'm like, these aren't stories. These are just gameplay segments. Like, I'm hopping into a side story, and it's like, oh, fly through the thing and get to the end. And I'm like, man, this would be such a better story if it was about game design. If there are game designers. And all these different things we're hopping into were different, like, video game genres because the game was split. Fiction tackles so many different types of video game, I guess, genres and styles that. That would have made way more sense. And that for me, that was the letdown of hopping into a side story, being like, all right, let's see what story you got for us. And being like, oh, this wasn't a story, but this was a cool gameplay segment. Like, why couldn't this game be more about that?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, the side stories, I truly loved every one of them. Well, except for the pig. But, like, even then, the payoff was good to that one, right? And so it was the idea of. I said early on, I say it at the end. I'm like, this should have been the game. But every side, I was like, man, why isn't this the game? And what I mean by that, I would like it to be that we were just in and out of stuff faster and faster. And I know you're going to say, well, that takes more work to do all the stuff. But, yeah, that's why I'm saying, condense the game. Give me the side stories to break up the things I'm doing here, but even make the main chapter shorter. Like, at this point, I'm just Monday morning quarterbacking a game. I've never fucking done anything, so what do I know? But it's back to the point of me as a consumer, like, oh, I Don't care about these characters. And yes, I'm enjoying playing this, but I have no desire to see it all the way through just because I want to see the next gameplay mechanic.

[Greg Miller]

I will say I was surprised by how much this game didn't drag for me. I.

[Joey Noel]

Not at all for me.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

On the side of It Takes two, I was. Well, I'm definitely one of the people that thought that game just went on way too long. And by the time me and Barrett finished this game, like, yeah, it could have been. For me, I was like, it could have been maybe two levels shorter. But even by the time we finished, I was kind of like, man, I could have used more. Like, I kind of. And it. By the time you get to the last level, it was more like, oh, I want more of this 100. There's way more to chew on, a.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Thousand percent of that.

[Greg Miller]

But, yeah, I was surprised by how much I. I felt like I wasn't. The pacing felt right for me.

[Tim Gettys]

I. There's a clear moment in the game that I feel like. And I thought spoilers here. Like, there's two levels towards the end that I think that they could have cut or just changed and moved somewhere else. I actually feel like a criticism I have. The game is. I don't feel like, gameplay wise, it's paced that well throughout it, where I feel like some of the stuff is like, harder and more hype and set PC than some of the later stuff is, or the balance of whatever those things are. Just I feel feels better in some of the earlier stuff than the later stuff. And that's not 100% true the entire time, but I just feel like the A to B to C to D was kind of in the wrong order, at least not the order that I would put them in. And I just feel like taking out there's a clear, like, story beat that we could have just jumped to the end. I think that that would have been a more satisfying package overall. But there's still a lot of fun to be had in the other stuff. It just kind of felt more like more content as opposed to, like, oh, we're really focusing on just the good stuff here. Especially when you see the highs of this game and, like, when the game is at its most creative and most, like, wow. Like when we. When we out loud are saying wow or holy or look at that. Like, there's so many of those moments that the amount of other moments that I'm just like, all right, this is cool. I feel like we can cut a couple of those, and I think it would have went a longer way. But overall though, I feel like it doesn't outstay its welcome. I just think that it could have been stronger if it was a little shorter.

[Joey Noel]

Interesting to hear you guys talking about the story and stuff like that. Because I've never played a Hazelite game playing through it, I think I just didn't put that much weight on the story because to me it seemed like, do people play these games for the story? Do they play it for the cool gameplay mechanics? Do you. Is story like a driving factor in these games?

[Greg Miller]

Honestly, usually that's why I land more at a nine than eight. Because I do. I mean, they are. I think stories are as much of a driving factor in Hazelight games as is presented in Split Fiction. It just so happens that this story I just don't think is as good as the other stories. Where It Takes Two does have. Like, It Takes Two is about a divorce. And like, it is. I think that story makes more sense for what you're doing in that game than this game, I guess, makes sense for what you're doing with this story. I think this story almost feels like they sat in the studio and went, all right, what's a kind of story that we can tell that allows us to do crazier things than we were able to do in, like, the other games? And this story allows them to do that because it's all fantasy shit, right? It's all like it's within the mind. I don't know. Like it's. It's. It's in a crazy scenario where they can give you 2D, they can give you 3D, they can give you, top down, they can give you all these different, you know, ways of playing. And I think because of that, they kind of had to put more emphasis on making this story feel a bit more, I guess, grounded or. I don't know. Like, it feels like they weren't able to put as much focus into making the story as good as they could have because it was more focused on the gameplay, which worked for me because I am. I think at this point with Hayes Light, I'm more on the side of yo. Just get rid of story. In fact, in your next game, don't even have a story. Just have it be levels and just let me play as two. Let me and my friend play as two characters and call it a day. Because I think the gameplay shines so, so much that it's almost a thing of if these weren't human characters that we're Dealing with if this was a. I don't know, like, a ratchet or, like, maybe ratchet is a bad example. If this is a 3D platformer with, like, anthropomorphic animals or some. And I don't. And we're not worrying about story at all. This is a 10 out of 10 for me.

[Tim Gettys]

Bless them. Right there with you.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, I think the 3D mascot platformer. The point is very, very apt because I. I think that if you gave that level of story to this game, because, again, I do think the writing's funny, and I think that, like, the tone that it's going for with the. The jokes and the humor backing up the gameplay, the. The quips back and forth between the characters, more often than not, I was like, I'm into this stuff. It is just the amount of cutscenes, which. There's a lot. They clearly were trying to tell a story. Story was a priority for them in this game. Like, in development of this game. And I feel like. Yeah, with what you're saying, like, take that stuff away and just, like, have a save the princess type story, like.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Would really go a long way in this one, too. Again, just the money. Mortal quarterback. This thing, just take away the antagonist. Like, the idea here, right. This is not a spoiler, right, is that there's this guy who's invented this machine where writers can step into these bubbles and then basically play. Because as Blessing saying, it would make more sense for a game design, but play the story out that they have in their head so they're a character in there, and they go and do the thing, and then that would write the story, and that would be the end of it, right? These two women find themselves in the same bubble. Bam. There's split fiction. Something's gone wrong. But then they add in this, like, enemy to it, where you could have just been like, oh, shit, we fell in together, and now our worlds are merging. And somebody on the outside could have been like, find the glitches and get out, though. You know what I mean? And then it just is. You're playing through and doing the thing. And then if you want to have them try to become friends, enemies, whatever, you want to tell the story between the two of them, they'd be fine.

[Joey Noel]

But clearly they wanted to, like, say something with the way that they presented.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And I don't think. And I mean, again, subtle as a sledgehammer. As soon as this starts, you know where we're going on all of this, and it's like, I don't Think you nailed that. And so you're qu. And you asked him like, you know, are you playing these for the story? Yeah, my thing would be I am playing pretty much every game for a story, right. That's why I choose this as my entertainment factor. And I think, you know, what about Monster Hunter Wilds, right? And even there I would be like, well, the story there is the monster I'm wearing and the thing I'm going.

[Joey Noel]

For this is my, yeah, we gotta.

[Tim Gettys]

Get this kid to his fucking house. Got it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

There's a callback of the 12 hour stream, but like, no, it would be the thing of like my character is the story that I'm going and doing. So for this to play this way and have this. These are meant to be the way they've always been talking about. It is a co op playable movie you're doing with your friends, right? That's how it's always played out. And that's why Kevin and I have such fond memories of a way out of him coming over and us going through and doing that. I have so much with Jen of playing It Takes Two and I enjoy the experience we had here. But again, if it's just us playing stuff that could have been a let's play rather than a full play and I would have been happy and satiated. Right?

[Joey Noel]

One more thing.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, Joey, before you do that.

[Joey Noel]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's take a quick word from our sponsor.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This episode is brought to you by Monster Hunter Now. Whether I'm taking Ben to the playground, soccer practice, or on a hike with Jen, I'm wandering the outdoors more than ever. That's where Monster Hunter now comes in. It's an authentic Monster Hunter experience on your mobile that lets you find and hunt monsters in the real world using your phone. Whether you're out on a walk, commuting, or just need a quick hunting break between your console sessions. And right now, there's no better time to jump in because Monster Hunter now is running an epic collaboration event with Monster Hunter Wilds packed with surprises that any Monster Hunter fan won't want to miss. Let's talk about the good stuff. For the first time, a monster from Monster Hunter Wilds has made its way into Monster Hunter Now. Players can also experience the thrill of riding a sacred for monster Monster Hunter Wilds with the new layered equipment and so much more. This won't be available once the event ends, so don't miss your chance to get it while you can. And don't you worry about me and that sacred look. I already unlocked it. But that's not all. By completing event quests, you'll unlock a special gift code that can be redeemed in Monster Hunter Wilds. These rewards will give you an early head start, making sure you're geared up and ready to take on the next big adventure. So if you haven't already, now's the perfect time to download Monster Hunter. Now it's free to play. And trust me, once you start hunting monsters in the real world, you'll be hooked. Go to kinda funny.com mhnow jump into the event before it's gone and I'll see you out there. Remember, that's kindafunny.commhnow happy hunting. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this.

[Tim Gettys]

But anyone can get the same Premium.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you.

[Tim Gettys]

To Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail].

[Joey Noel]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Month plan equivalent to 15 per month required Intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] Sorry Joey.

[Joey Noel]

No, you're fine. I was just going to say to your point about you think that it would have worked better if they were like video game developers instead of writers. I think that the gameplay is so clearly a love letter to different genres and different types of games that making them devs would have really narrowed it. Yeah, it's like for the story that's already pretty on the nose. That would have really made it one note and I think that they probably thought like, hey, we want to do all these different types of gameplay. What other forms of storytelling do we think that would work well for this? And then decided writing is like the next best option.

[Tim Gettys]

Speaking of gameplay real quick, something that I really appreciate about this one in comparison to It Takes Two is I do think the difficulty was ramped up. I don't think it's like impossibly hard in any way, but I feel like it was the right level of challenge and there was multiple things that felt good when we achieved them. Right. There's certain boss fights in particular that I think do really, really good jobs of throwing a bunch of things at you. You're constantly moving with the controller, you're shooting this thing moving this way, jumping a different way. And on top of that there are very Funny jokes happening and the boss is attacking you while, like, talking to you, but what they're saying is funny. And like, there's a lot of, like, meta jokes based on just game design or references to things. And like, that's what I think the game sings the most, is when it's actually challenging you. And it's not just the, hey, hold forward and keep jumping, which there is a fair amount of in this game. But I think that it isn't. It's rarely at a point that I'm like, okay, just keep going, keep going. Because the environments are so varied and there's. Even if you are. I mean, I don't want to say what I was going to say there. There's a lot of moments in this game we're just jumping from like pedestal to pedestal, pedestal to pedestal, but because every time you're doing it, it looks completely different, it feels different. And I think that's very impressive for this game because there's a lot of that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

My question about that. I agree with you that this game is harder than it takes to. There's a. Harder is not the right word. There's a difficulty increase here. Right. And I enjoy that we played on normal difficulty. You can crank it down. There's other stuff there. Do you think playing this. If you were to play with Gia, could she have gotten through this?

[Tim Gettys]

Not a chance. Gia could not have got through this game.

[Greg Miller]

I was having that thought while me and Bear were playing. The fact that about like a year and a half ago for Christmas, I went over to my sister's house right in Houston. Like, me and my nephews were like, booting up their. Their Xbox and seeing what games you had, and they're like, oh, yeah, we just played this game It Takes Two a while ago, but we got stuck and like, you know, booted up. It Takes Two. I got him past the part they're stuck at, but, like, looking at that game, I was surprised by how far they even got because one of them was like 8 years old, the other is like 4 years old. And I'm like, oh, man, I know you working with this four year old is gonna. It's gonna be a struggle of you trying to get past some of these parts. Playing through split Fiction, I was like, oh, they're not getting past half this. Like, I don't know how they're gonna be doing this.

[Joey Noel]

Something that we talked about too was because there's so many homages to different types of gameplay and stuff like that. I think even for me, if I Didn't have Maria, who has, like, a wider breadth of game knowledge. I think it would have been hard for me because she inherently was like, oh, I know what they're going for with this, what the inspiration was. This is what we have to do.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Joey Noel]

And so I think not having that kind of historical knowledge of different games and genres and types and stuff like that is like a. Does hold you back a little bit.

[Greg Miller]

I do.

[Joey Noel]

Or make it harder.

[Greg Miller]

I do wonder if there is something beneath the hood that is back to what you're mentioning earlier.

[Joey Noel]

I really do think it is because, like, there was one point where I was like, oh, we don't have turrets trying to kill us anymore because they have murdered us multiple times.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Joey Noel]

So I think it's small things like that where it's like, okay, we'll give you some little buffs.

[Greg Miller]

Again, I wasn't able to confirm this. Right. But it felt. And I think for a game like this, you have to design it around some kind of rubber banding because you have two people doing a lot of set pieces. A lot of set pieces in this video.

[Tim Gettys]

Maybe more set pieces than.

[Joey Noel]

Is it an entire game of set pieces.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Which is incredible. But the fact that you have so many set pieces and you have people that are playing in tandem, you have to build in some things to be like, all right, cool. Even if you're falling behind, we're going to find a way to zip you forward. Whether it is you falling and then responding up to where your partner is or whether it's us just finding ways to bring you together. I think you have to do some stuff under the hood. And I wouldn't be surprised based on the kind of game it is. It is a family game. It is a game that you want to be playing with people. I saw Patrick Kleppig even tweeting about playing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hold on. Because I want this question and I have it pulled up.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, okay.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

From Icy Wiener.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Super Johnson says, my son is 5, but good at games. Can he play this if he's good at games? I think yes. I think it will be a challenge, but I think that he will be able to. To learn and figure out, like, how to get better at games and beat this game. I do think, though, that this game and Joey actually, I. The thing kind of hit. It hit the nail on the head there where. Because it does reference so many gameplay styles of previous games, there is, like, an inherent, like, up for people that have a history playing different genres. I do think this is a great way to kind of learn the genres. And I also think that the game does a very good job of having the exact same control scheme the entire way through. Like, you were always. Your R2 is always your ability. Your L2 is always your like alt ability or like ability modifier. R1 is always a form of grapple. X is always a jump. And I think that because of that and then squares like a dashboard, every single gameplay style, whether it's 2D, 3D, top down, like, whatever, it still controls the same. And I think that that goes a long way in allowing people to like, kind of push themselves if they're not comfortable. But me and Greg joked multiple times and we were joking, but we're like, Nick Scarpino couldn't do this. And like, clearly he can. But, like, it did have that moment of like, oh, he'd get frustrated with this and like, he wouldn't want to keep playing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Friend of the show, Patrick Kleppig, of course, has a whole bunch of different things going on. One of them is Crossplay, which is a newsletter he does about parenting and gaming. Today's is, I'm playing Split Fiction with my kid and it rules. Playing this new co op game with my 8 year old has been a special experience to join in progress. This. So long as your kid has basic platforming competence and you're okay with hearing a few swears and a little violence along the way, you should have a great time. Parentheses Split fiction got my 4 year old to accidentally, hilariously say, shit. Both. Both players need to die for progress to stop. And it's only a few moments before the other person hops back in. In what we've played, it's possible to carry the other player to victory a few times. We've swapped controllers so that I could help her navigate those hard parts. Yeah, it's not been a process without friction. And I think it's best to explain what it's been like playing the game, walking through a few clips.

[Greg Miller]

And I think that's super vital for Hayes. Like, because when you look at it takes two and the sales of it take two, it sold 20 million units by October 2024. Right. And like, that's a large astronomical number. That's an astronomical number. And I think a big part of that number is the fact that you are selling to families, you're selling to a wide consumer base. And I don't think I. I would hope that in this, within the studio, they're working meticulously to be like, all right, we got to make sure that kids can play these games at least with their parents or at least with each other. Right. So, like, I think the simple button presses as far as the only things are really changing are your R2 and L2. And even when they're changing, you're still sticking with the same concept, the same control scheme for a long enough time for it to grow on you, for it to like, you know, like sink in before you switch that up. But the game is. The game comes down to like four different buttons. And I think that helps a lot. And yeah, the respawn thing that Patrick was talking about.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

Like, helps a lot. So I wouldn't be surprised if even though for us we're like, oh, this is tough. Like I'm. How are kids gonna play this? I'm sure the kids are gonna be fine playing this game.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sure.

[Tim Gettys]

Shout out to the kids. So much better than us. Volk Dasher super chats in saying I can't watch live, so I'm leaving. Question to watch later. Who's the better quote unquote character to play as with more crazy gameplay? The sci Fi main Mio or the fantasy main Zoe? This is an excellent question. I love that question because Greg and I haven't really talked about it. I clearly both of us were fighting over the Sci Fi one to start. I mean, well, we both wanted the Cyber one going in. I ended up winning that. And throughout the game I had multiple times we didn't say this. I never said this to you. I really won. I won out here. I think I had the better gameplay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The entire interesting. See, what I think is fascinating about it is this. I. I didn't connect with the fantasy world and the levels, but I never didn't like being Zoe. I thought I was always doing something as interesting as you. So I was never like, oh man, Meo's got this cool thing and I wish I was. I was always like, oh, you're doing that and I'm equally as cool. Or it's fine. Whatever things going on, I will say there.

[Greg Miller]

I don't think the genre of character you choose really determines the kind of gameplay that you have. Because both characters are usually in the sci Fi thing or both characters are going to be in the fantasy world.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

You just get different, different abilities. Abilities.

[Joey Noel]

And I feel like they do a good job of swapping them between worlds.

[Greg Miller]

Yes. Where like, I'm somebody who. In a game like this, if there's a scenario where somebody's like. I don't know if somebody's like moving the World around or. And somebody else is like, in the world jumping around. I want to be in the person who's in the world jumping around because I believe in my platforming ability. And there are times where I'm like, all right, Bear, it's obviously the dungeon master here, right? Or like the next level, I'm the one that's controlling, like, all right, I'm.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

A turret and spinning this and doing that.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, exactly. So they switch it up enough to give both people both experiences.

[Tim Gettys]

Boom. Slang in the chat says, is it worth a replay? Like, it takes two. Then the different abilities actually encourage us to go back and play it again. Recently, I. I don't think so. Here's the thing. It's funny because I'm not interested in doing that. I do think that the gameplay styles are varied enough that there's gameplay there. Like if you were, if you were like, I'm, I'm craving more of this game. There's another game to go back and play. Like the amount of times I look at Greg screen back, he's doing something completely different than I was very impressed by. And there were a handful of times I was like, oh, I do wish I was doing that thing right now as opposed to what I was doing. So there's a lot there and incredibly well designed in terms of let's have this area and you have this ability. You have this ability. You both need to work together. There was a lot of communication necessary.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Mainly when we were up is when we were talking. Exactly when we were thinking, we thought we knew what we were doing.

[Joey Noel]

That's so interesting because I felt like with Maria and I, like, Joey went off. Honestly, both of us were so locked and like, Marie's one of my best friends. So like, this makes sense to me that like, we didn't have to do a lot of talking until we got to things that like broke both of our brains essentially. But it's. For us, it was very much a we're vibing and like in the flow state kind of a thing.

[Tim Gettys]

For us it was more. It was less like talking things through about can you go up there and. Or whatever. And it was way more like, we're sick ass U.S. navy SEALs, you know what I mean? Like at the end of Karate Kid.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah, exactly one power fantasy of Navy seal.

[Tim Gettys]

All it came down to was just like, okay, boom.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, that true. One, two, three, jump. One, two, three.

[Tim Gettys]

And then we were just like. It got to a point that like, we didn't even need to like talk that through. Just like we would start making sounds and like, we got there, it was like, all right, this is satisfying.

[Joey Noel]

I also think it's maybe potentially an inherent difference of, like, not necessarily men and women, but just maybe that too.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Badass baby seals, you know?

[Joey Noel]

Yeah. Navy seals. Not on.

[Tim Gettys]

What were you saying was.

[Greg Miller]

I'll just say me and Bear are gamers.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Like, we're just locked the in the entire time. Like, anything that was like a time like. All right. Yeah.

[Joey Noel]

You guys didn't really talk a whole lot.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. No, because we. I think me and Beard are the same kind of person. And, like, we're all just good. We're both good at video games. All right, let me be real here. And so, like, as we're going, anything that was all right, we gotta race to the finish and it's platforming, but we gotta stay together. We didn't have to communicate that. We know that we're just going. Just jump when you gotta jump. Like, we're gonna stick together. We're good.

[Tim Gettys]

Thanks to Joe. You're pointing at the chapter sec.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Joey Noel]

And I don't remember what the person said, so that's all I got.

[Tim Gettys]

Anything else we want to talk about with Split Fiction?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm still so impressed with Hayes Light. You know, I think it's always interesting to have these critical reviews. Just. I'm gonna give it an eight. Oh, I called it great. Right. But it's like that thing of, like, I think even it, like, I saw it go through, it's like, oh, it sucks Andy's not here. I. I would like to know if he thinks it's a contender. Right. Right now he hasn't played well. I know. But he owns the contender a bit.

[Joey Noel]

Oh, I don't know this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, don't worry about it. Is it a contender indicating what would be on your top 10 list. Right. Like, for me, this one won't be. I don't. I don't see Split Fiction being on my top 10 at the end of the year. Not because it's bad. I think it's great. Right. And I think the gameplay is so good. It just didn't give me the experience I think I wanted out of it. And that goes as far as to just like, you're doing so much stuff in here and there's so many assets, but still, like, how many times I'm like, oh, this outfit looks dumb. You know, like, dumb shit like that. Like, of just a game as a whole for what I'm talking about and what I want out of this kind of Thing, but I don't want like my criticism of it. And again, me laughing at the writing non stop during the let's play to get in the way of like Hazelight is so good at what they do. And what they do is make badass co op games for you to play with your friends.

[Tim Gettys]

This will be a contender for me, but I feel like again the disappointment comes from. I think it's going to be in the back half of my 10 as opposed to I wish this was in the my top five. And it, this game will not be in my top five at the end of the year. And unless a ton of incredible games come out that push this out, like I think that this will firmly be sitting in that five to ten spot somewhere.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, this game will, this will likely change by the end of the year, but right now it's my number one. Like there's not really. There's not another game I played this year that would, that would top it. And I think again this, this, this comes down to I think my prioritization for this game of gameplay over story where I was let down by the story. But I also wasn't coming in here for the story. I was coming in for the gameplay. And the gameplay for me is like, for me on the level of other things that I would look at as contenders. Right. Like I'm coming out of this on the gameplay side being like, yo. I think the platforming here for me worked as much as an Astrobot works for me. Right. Like, I think it is on that level as far as what they're doing on the gameplay side. So it's a strong contender for me.

[Joey Noel]

Yeah. I mean, I don't usually. I play games that I know I'm gonna like pretty much. Like, I feel like I definitely play way less than a lot of people at this office. I think it'll be on my list mostly because too like the thing that I don't know that we've ever talked or that we really touched on is like. Like I had so much fun with Maria. Like we laughed like crying, laughing multiple times in this. Mostly when the parts we weren't good at. And it's just like you have to throw it at me. You can't just throw it wildly out there. I'm like, that's right. But we've been playing this for six hours and I kind of forgot about that part of the game. Like, this will go in my like list of like favorite gaming experiences. Like, we just had so much fun playing together that I think that That'll. It'll. Being on that list will definitely mean that it makes my top list of the year, even if I don't play a full 10 games.

[Tim Gettys]

We have a final super chat here from Rival Knight. How's the boss fights?

[Greg Miller]

Oh, I love the boss fights. I think they're fantastic. Like, I. For me, I would put the boss fights next to the side stories is probably my favorite parts of the game. But I'm curious how you guys feel.

[Joey Noel]

I did not love the boss fights and that definitely could be like a get good kind of a thing of like dying all the time doesn't make it particularly fun. I do think that a couple of them stand out as being like, maybe we could take out one element. Like, I don't know if we need this and this and this. Like, because at that point we're just hopping around someone trying to stay alive. So I would say that I kind of played through a lot of this kind of despite the boss fights. And that was like the part of me that like, we really had to, like, suffer through to get to the more fun stuff. For me.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

For me, I like how you. What did you like most? Right? This would be. The boss fights would be right behind side stories for you. Side story's number one for me by a long shot. And then behind it, it would be the. Not the destination, but the journey, the stuff we did on those moments. So boss fights for me, I didn't hate, but like, when I think. What did I think of these boss fights? I think of when I was annoyed by something like, ah, fucking. This guy was doing this. The shark came by this way and I should have gone, you know what I mean? And that's the one we just did last night. So it's a good thing.

[Tim Gettys]

But I'm closer with bless where I put the boss fights right behind the side stories for me, where I really, really, really loved them. I think that my. My biggest criticism of them is multiple times I wish I had the full screen for them. Like, that was the only time in the game that I was like, there's. They throw so many particles at you and there's so many moves and so many things. And again, they. They make the game easy enough that like, if you die a whole bunch of times, you're right back in the action. It doesn't really matter. But I feel like I would have played a lot better if I had just a little bit more real estate to see what's going on. But I think the boss fights were so creative and to me they just kind of like were a perfect example, like a microcosm of the things I love most about this game of like great gameplay gimmicks being used to their utmost, great fun music playing, cool setpiece moments with the boss. And I think that was the funniest dialogue in the game was the boss fights and the quips that they would have.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And like the one in particular, right? Yeah, the one. The one guy.

[Tim Gettys]

So I've really enjoyed that stuff. And that's it everybody. Split Fiction. Joey gave it eight, five. I gave it eight, Gray gave it an eight, bless gave it a nine.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And this Thursday you can see Tim and I play the entire thing after.

[Tim Gettys]

Let us know in the comments below if you are excited to play Split Fiction. Like I was saying, I recommend it to everybody. I think it's a great time. And also at a discounted discount, it's not the right word but at a lower price point for entry. Plus you can place free with somebody like that's awesome stuff. So support this type of game. I think it's really important. Shout out to Hayes Light for continuing to crush stuff. But stay tuned everybody. Right after this you're getting a kind of funny podcast live for everybody on Twitch and YouTube. I'm on that. It's going to be fun. Until next time. Love you all.

[Greg Miller]

Goodbye.