While secret levels in video games aren’t a new concept by any stretch, one discovered in Hazelight Studios’ recently-released co-op game Split Fiction has been of particular note. The secret level, dubbed Laser Hell, has been completed by a duo of China-based speedrunners E1uM4y and sharkOvO. Check it out the video of their completion of the level below.
What makes the level particularly interesting is the fact that a video plays at the end featuring game director Josef Fares. In the video, Fares congratulates the players on completing the level, going as far as to say that only a few members of the development team were able to complete it.
“Wow, amazing,” says Fares in the video. “You have to understand that there are barely people on our team that can make it. It took us a lot of time to finish it. And I’m telling you that this is a crazy, crazy achievement that you have done.”
Fares also goes on to tell people that might be watching this post-level video through YouTube to go play the game instead in order to really understand how challenging the level is. He caps the message off by saying that, if the players can prove that they finished the video, they will be personally invited to Sweden to take a look at the next game that is currently in development at Hazelight.
“And I’m not talking to you guys who are looking at this on YouTube. If you see this on YouTube, you should go to the game,” Fares continues. “It’s a really hard challenge. But for those of you who are actually in the game seeing this video, I am super amazed.”
“I’m going to say one thing. If you see me in real life, somewhere, and you can prove to me that you actually did this challenge, I can promise you, the first one to do that, I’m going to fly you to Sweden and show you footage of our next game.”
Fares has since also mentioned that he will be keeping this promise through a post on social media platform X, once again congratulating the two players in the process.
“Congrats to ‘sharkOvO’ and ‘E1uM4y’ for finishing the secret challenge ‘Laser Hell’ in Split Fiction,” posted Fares on X. “VERY impressive! I will keep my promise and invite you both to Sweden for an early look of our next game. We’ll be in touch!”
Split Fiction is a co-op game that was recently released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game was incredibly successful, selling a million copies in its first 48 hours, and then going to sell 2 million copies in its first week. For more details about the title, check out our review.
Fares has also revealed that the studio has started working on its next game in the wake of Split Fiction‘s release. On a podcast, Fares said that he was “super, super excited.” No other details about this next title have been revealed so far, but going by Hazelight’s history, it might also be a co-op game.
Congrats to ”sharkOvO” and ”E1uM4y” for finishing the secret challenge ”Laser Hell” in #splitficton. VERY impressive! I will keep my promise and invite you both to Sweden for an early look of our next game😎
We´ll be in touch!
— Josef Fares (@josef_fares) March 19, 2025
