All 3 Hazelight Studios Games, Ranked

Hazelight Studios has become one of the most prominent video game studios over the past decade, starting as a small team but growing into a staff of 80. Founded by Josef Fares, who wanted to make a new genre of video games, the studio originally began as the core team that developed "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons," which is regarded as one of the most emotional games of all time. Learning from that game's development, Hazelight Studios has developed three games in total and stuck to what it knows best: co-op experiences.

Since being founded in 2014, Hazelight has developed "A Way Out," "It Takes Two," and "Split Fiction." While all three of these games are generally the same in a broad gameplay sense — being split-screen, co-op experiences — each of them offers a unique story, different characters, and plenty of distinctive mechanics. If you're looking to hop into the Hazelight Studios universe, you might want to start with the best of the trio. However, it can be difficult to discern which one of the three is the actual best (because they're all great), so we're offering our subjective ranking of every Hazelight game.

Coming in at the third spot on the list is Hazelight Studios' first game, "A Way Out." While this is technically last place, that shouldn't reflect poorly on "A Way Out" at all, as it's still a fantastic game that acts as the foundation for everything Hazelight has done since the game was released in 2018. Just like all other Hazelight games, "A Way Out" is a fully co-op experience that sees you and a partner play the game in a split-screen environment. So, while your character is doing something on your half of the screen, your partner's character could be doing something else entirely on their half.

While you and your partner will eventually do things together, the game begins with your characters in completely different locations. Initially set inside a prison, "A Way Out" gives each character unique tasks and activities for the first part of the game before bringing them together. The two characters' synergy is what makes "A Way Out" such an enjoyable experience, as their banter and emotional ties make for engaging dialogue and a story you want to see through to the end.

"Split Fiction" is Hazelight Studios' latest game, and it received critical and fan acclaim across the board when it was released in 2025. It takes the same general ideas as the studio's previous two games, but builds up a different co-op methodology to make the gameplay even more captivating. You and a partner play as two aspiring writers who are invited to partake in a science experiment, but things take a turn for the worse, and the writers end up as characters in the various stories they each created.

With your partner, you must escape each tale, battling with all of the elements the writers placed in their individual fictional worlds. There are fantasy levels with dragons and mythical creatures, as well as sci-fi maps chock-full of futuristic vehicles, weapons, and cyberpunk-style cities. You need to work closely with your partner to make it through each level, as "Split Fiction" requires a heightened amount of teamwork compared to Hazelight's other games. While it doesn't take the top spot on our list, it's still one of the best games to come out of 2025.

It should come as little surprise that "It Takes Two" takes the top spot on our list, as it was — and still is — Hazelight Studios' crowning achievement as a company. "It Takes Two" won the Game of the Year award at the Game Awards in 2021, beating out other nominees such as "Resident Evil Village" and "Deathloop." Hazelight developed an honest masterpiece with "It Takes Two," as it takes every gameplay idea used in "A Way Out" and improves each tool across the board.

"It Takes Two" sees you and a partner play as soon-to-be-divorced parents who have been turned into their daughter's dolls. The parents are then thrust into a journey of love and understanding, where they confront their issues, make supremely difficult choices, and attempt to get back to their daughter. All of this is set in the characters' now oddly-sized home, and there are some standout levels, mini-games, and cutscenes that make "It Takes Two" one of the most memorable games you'll ever experience. It's easily one of the best co-op games ever developed, but also simply one of the best video games of the modern age. In the end, though, you can't go wrong with any of Josef Fares' titles.