Split Fiction is one of the best co-op games we’ve played recently, offering sharp split-screen gameplay across a wide range of platforms, including PS5, PS5 Pro, PC and Xbox Series X/S. Perhaps that’s no surprise, given that this is the latest title from the team at Hazelight Studios known for It Takes Two, A Way Out and, under Starbreeze, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. But on what platform does it play best – and is this a rare example of a perfect Unreal Engine 5 release?
Before we get into the technical minutiae, it’s important to underline that Split Fiction benefits from a rightly generous philosophy. Not only can you play together with a friend on one console, but you can also do so online and on different platforms. Moreover, there’s even a pass system that lets you play the game with a friend even if they don’t own it – very cool stuff.
The game is also one of the most polished releases we’ve experienced on console for quite some time, which is surprising as it’s an Unreal Engine 5 release – which allows for some striking visual features, but also typically opens the door to some familiar issues, vis a vis compromised image quality and traversal and/or shader compilation stutter.
The reason is perhaps that the game doesn’t look to use any of the headline UE5 features, such as Lumen global illumination, Nanite geometry, MetaHuman NPCs or virtual shadow maps (VSMs). Instead, Hazelight has opted for more established techniques that work well within the game’s design goals. Characters look good and are animated effectively, while lighting is handled via baked global illumination and environments are on the smaller side. That allows for nice visuals that don’t push any boundaries, but also don’t exhibit any of the aforementioned UE5 issues or more widespread limitations like visual pop-in.
Going for these more traditional techniques allows Split Fiction to hit some impressive levels of image quality, with a noticeably sharper image on most platforms than your typical UE5 Lumen and Nanite release. For example, PS5 Pro runs at a native 4K with TAA, PS5 and Series X hit 1800p internally, and Series S brings up the back of the pack at 1080p, all at a perfectly stable 60fps. We couldn’t find even a single deviation from the 60fps line on consoles, a rarity indeed.
It’s also worth noting that Series S doesn’t lose any visual features versus the other consoles, which is something that’s become a little less common in an age when games are pushing hard on RT features.
The game also performs well on PC, though we only had time to test on one high-end system and we therefore can’t speak to how well it scales to lower-end machines. However, on a top-end PC with a 12900K processor and RTX 5090 graphics card, the game ran at max settings, at 4K with 150 percent resolution scaling, at a locked 120fps. (That’s without the need for frame generation too, which isn’t available anyway, and might not suit split-screen titles.) There’s a shader precompilation step on first launch that seems effective, with only a few instances of small frame-time drops on camera cuts during the intro sequence.
That smoothness made for a pleasant experience, and we also appreciated the option to play co-op with a mouse and keyboard for one player and a gamepad for another, or two gamepads if you prefer.
The takeaway then is pretty simple: there’s nothing to complain about here on a technical level, Split Fiction looks good, runs smoothly and plays great. It’s full of crazy experiences and very imaginative setpieces, with a range of both sci-fi and fantasy inspired sequences with their own material choices that keep things interesting and visually distinct. Overall, we can’t recommend it enough.