Split Fiction feels like a Mass Effect-meets-Fable platformer and I'm obsessed with it after just one hour

As soon as I'm introduced to Split Fiction's dual protagonists, I share a glance with my partner. I knew immediately that I would be cast as standoffish wannabe sci-fi author Mio, the yin to fantasy-obsessed Zoe's yang, but that's about all I was prepared for.

Having played, enjoyed, and admittedly sucked at developer Hazelight's 2021 hit It Takes Two, I was once again ready to suffer through my own platforming ineptitude in the name of another brilliant story. Not only do I resonate a lot more with Split Fiction's heroines and their writerly dreams, but the story itself is a lot easier to simply dive into. It's peppered with nods to beloved genres and games alike – including an Assassin's Creed-style "leap of faith" – and that sense of familiarity put me at enough ease to really jump head first into the action. I know what you're thinking. Mass Effect meets Fable? Weird combination. But that's exactly what Split Fiction is trying to give us: a whole lot of weird in an expertly-wrapped package.

Writer's block

When Zoe and Mio briefly discuss their book genres on the way to their publishing meeting – one sci-fi, the other fantasy – I feel my expectations shoot up. But it's not until girls are swept off to experience an AR simulator of their respective story ideas that the true kooky nature of squishing those two genres together really takes shape.

Zoe's high-fantasy medieval world, all bright colors and vivid, crackling magic, is something fresh out of the Fable trilogy – or, for a more recent comparison, think of Avowed's vibrant fairytale environs. When Mio appears at her side, along with a glowing purple glitch resembling cracked glass, the two women start panicking – until Mio touches the glitch, transporting the duo to outer space. There's projectiles raining down from a spacecraft overhead, slicing through the orange sky, and all I can do is run amok until the barrage stops. I'm then faced with my first platforming challenge – and you know what? It's not half bad.

Falling to my death in a platformer has never felt better than in Split Fiction. That said, the traversal and puzzle system is way more forgiving than its predecessor's. I notice this almost as soon as I take my first double jump as Mio, very nearly missing the ledge of the platform dead ahead of me, only to find that my character automatically grapples it to pull herself up. That's already a huge tick for me. One of my biggest gripes with It Takes Two was the sensitivity of each movement I made, frequently causing me to miss a jump by a hair's breadth or pivot suddenly to the side, toppling into the abyss.

Split Fiction seems to have a very slight snap-to element applied to its more fiddly platforming sections, allowing me to smoothly hop between small circle platforms in what feels like one fluid motion. Sometimes, though, I forget about it. The platforming panic sets in as I perform one jump too many while trying to wall-slide, or hit the A instead of X button while trying to dash up a climbable pole and leaping off all together. For the most part, though, Split Fiction's brand of platformer action is very easy to get the hang of, and it's made all the better for its stunning level design.

If Mio's story world gives me major Mass Effect vibes, all leaping about a floating space station in futuristic battle gear, Zoe's is the total opposite. The girls touch the glitch a second time, and are sent back to her magical realm – and into the warpath of rampaging trolls. The picturesque medieval township would be a beautiful place to wander about if not for the hulking brutes on our tail, so in typical Hazelight fashion, I'm thrown into another chase sequence that's bookended by traversal puzzles galore.

The one that gives me and my partner the most grief, though, involves scaling wooden poles. The aim is simple: dash up one pole before leaping to another before the encroaching troll reaches us. Unfortunately, I discover that colliding with any other surface causes Mio to glitch out in a faux digital "death", only to respawn later in the puzzle alongside Zoe to attempt the next phase again. This is pretty helpful, since it means only one of us really needs to make it all the way to the end. Of course, that "one of us" is not myself. Zoe touches the glitch, and we're whisked off again to… somewhere.

The introductory hour of Split Fiction has been a wild ride already, and I can tell there's plenty more waiting down the line. A cursory glance at the control settings tells me that each character will have access to a special ability or power at some point, much like the character-specific moves in It Takes Two, and I can't wait to discover what exactly those end up being this time around. Hazelight Studios knows how to make an entrance, and if the rest of Split Fiction is this pacy, bizarre, and thematically playful, you can bet I'll stick around for the whole thing.

For more two-player goodness, see our pick of the best co-op games, or look ahead with our roundup of everything we know so far about Fable 4 and Mass Effect 5.