Split Fiction has a 90 percent critic average on OpenCritic. It’s received an astonishing number of five star reviews from critics, which has largely made me want to pull my hair out. It’s a great game, and very fun to play, but is it anywhere near perfect, as a five star rating should suggest? Not even close. I’ve already complained about review scores being skewed too high recently, so I’m not getting into that again, but suffice it to say that Split Fiction is a perfect example of a game being rated far more highly than it deserves.
That high rating is likely what’s led to Hollywood studios fighting tooth and nail over the rights to adapt the game to the big screen. Despite the game only being two weeks old, a movie seems to already be in the works, and it’s caused a bit of a bidding war. I really have to wonder – have any of the people throwing money at the project actually played the game? Clearly not, or they’d know an adaptation is a bad idea.
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Split Fiction’s Story Isn’t Serious Or Silly Enough To Work
Split Fiction’s writing isn’t bad, it’s worse: it’s boring
Split Fiction Is Great Because You Have To Play It
Split Fiction’s strength is in the video gameyness of it all. From level to level, my gaming partner and I have been surprised at how many different mechanics have been invented, polished, and then quickly abandoned in favour of a new, equally compelling trick. The game is a masterclass in gameplay and level design, keeping the moment to moment experience exciting and joyful, and on top of that, it’s co-op.
But if you look past its gameplay, there’s really not much else to love about the game. Its story is flimsy, self-serious without a compelling hook to back it up. Its premise makes very little sense and doesn’t provide a strong motivation for cooperation, which is sad since it’s a co-op game. And it’s more about gaming than it is writing, a confusing choice since its protagonists are writers.
A Movie Takes Away Everything Good About Split Fiction
Obviously, a movie doesn’t have any gameplay or interactivity. It adapts the story or world of a game into a compelling, watchable film. Even if you put aside Split Fiction’s abominably bad writing – a decent writer could have made its weak storyline at least well-written – everything about its story is empty. Its characters, including its comically evil villain, are flat. Its backstory is only vaguely alluded to. Its themes are near non-existent. The only interesting thing about it is its namesake, the two genres that gameplay flip flops between.
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Again, a good writer could arguably fix the worst parts of it, but there’s incredibly little in the way of plot to bring to the big screen at all. If you chart out the game’s plot beats (spoilers!), very little actually happens across its 13 hour runtime. Mio and Zoe reach Rader Publishing. Mio falls into Zoe’s bubble in the machine. The pair find out their ideas are being stolen. They refuse to leave the machine. Rader throws a temper tantrum and fires his employees. The pair re-emerge. Rader is arrested and a year later, the heroines publish their first novel together.
It’s the bits between those plot beats where the game shines – the actual gameplay, that is. And that just isn’t fun when you’re watching it and not doing it. The exhilaration you get from Split Fiction doesn’t come from watching someone ride on the back of a dragon or through a cyberpunk city on a futuristic motorbike, it’s from being the person doing the riding. Its boss fights aren’t conceptually interesting or novel, but they feel good to play. Put the game’s big setpieces on the screen, and you’re really just watching two women duke it out with tired sci-fi and fantasy tropes. There’s no joy in it.
And Split Fiction succeeded as a game because it’s a joy to play. What it isn’t is a joy to watch. That’s true of it as a game, and it will be as a film. A film adaptation would be a colossal waste of money, but what else should we expect from a Hollywood that fundamentally misunderstands gaming?
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Fantasy
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OpenCritic
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Top Critic Rating:
90/100
Critics Recommend:
98%
- Released
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March 6, 2025
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Hazelight Studios