A Way Out (2018)

I had a lot of fun playing this one. Love the influences, and references to action films and a particular prison breakout film, at least I think ^^. Both main characters are great, and the writing and voice acting for them is great!

There isn't too much of a difference between playing either character, as both characters seem to play the same way, just unique dialogue interactions and some unique moments, and interactions with the environment.

Had a great time playing this game with my buddy. There are not many co-op games in the world, and even less that are conducive to busy lifestyles. Allowing couch co-op is a rare gem these days, unfortunately my wife was uninterested in a game with two macho male protagonists, and as a mature adult with many responsibilities it's hard to get together with friends. So the online mode which allows a friend to play with you without them having to buy their own copy of the game really allowed was what even allowed me to play at all.

Mechanically, the game has a good number of janky bits (both the gunfights and car chase sequences are pretty lackluster), but not bad enough to ruin the game. The puzzles aren't very challenging, just enough to keep the players engaged but not slow down the narrative.

The narrative is where the game really shines. It's well-written and emotionally engaging, and giving two players agency to operate in tandem is well-used not only just to give you something to do together, but as a device that drives emotional engagement with the story.

We played the local split screen mode and were hooked throughout the entire game. The story keeps twisting and stays interesting. There are some sweet heartfelt moments and some action-packed ones. There isn't much puzzle nor strategy required but the narrative and the co-op action keeps everything together.

We'll probably play it again at some point since at various points in the story, the game will ask both players to decide together how to approach a problem so you could replay it and take a different approach

I always like playing co-op games, and always looking for new fun ones. This one had been on my wishlist for a while, and finally got around to playing it.

Narrative

Two guys, Vincent & Leo meet in prison. They both have been burned by the same guy. When they find this out, they decide to hatch a plan to escape from prison together, and get their revenge. The story is told through dialogue and cutscenes.

Gameplay

Both players in this game control one of the characters. You can pick this in the main menu, and can just switch the next time. You have to work together to escape the prison by doing various different things. For instance, one distracts a guard and the other tries to steal something they need. The whole game basically consists of these small puzzles you need to do together to escape. Nothing too difficult. There is a few chase scenes that were very annoying though. There is also some minigames you can do, competing with each other to get the best scores (think baseball, darts etc). That was pretty fun.

Setting

It starts in a prison, and then goes to various other locations. Most of the game is pretty drab and sad, but that fits the theme pretty well. Background music, not memorable but serves its purpose. I thought the graphics were pretty decent, nothing amazing though. As it's by the same people as It takes two, they really stepped up on the graphical department in that game. Overall I wasn't blown away but it was servicable.

Other

No real bugs, but there were parts of the game that were pretty clunky. Hitboxes could be iffy, and the shooting/driving parts didn't feel very well fleshed out. Could've done without those.

Conclusion

It was a pretty enjoyable co-op game, but there is definitely better ones out there. Story was decent, and the ending was surprising. Graphically it was nothing special, and the gameplay was clunky at times. If you're like me, and play lots of co-op games, give this one a play, you will probably have a nice time. If you have to pick just a few to play, go check out It Takes Two, overcooked, or the lego games (especially the star wars ones, harry potter ones and the first marvel one). Those are imo far superior co-op games.

I occasionally had fun with this game and enjoyed moments of its story, enough that I almost want to give a higher score, but I really don’t think it’s that good overall.

When you look at this game’s gameplay, it is generally quite minimal. A lot of the game consists of quicktime events, which I honestly don’t mind in concept, but these tend to be awkwardly executed ones, especially when shoved into big story moments. Games like Asura’s Wrath, Until Dawn, and Detroit did this much more smoothly as far as I can remember.

When we go into more involved gameplay, like a motorcycle escape sequence, or a little puzzle, or stealth section, it is rarely good. So much clunky-feeling stuff that you just tolerate until it’s over. Even the 1v1 minigames peppered throughout the game were never really any fun in and of themselves. The worst offender is when the game turns into a cover shooter for a while, where everything from controls to level and enemy design feels pretty poor.

The story is serviceable, and its overall presentation is the game’s main saving grace that makes it tolerable to play through. The characters have their moments, but they and the world you spend time in generally are pretty lacking in memorability. The game is best overall for about an hour and a half in the middle after breaking out of prison, the prison section in particular being a bit tedious at times. I’m not a big fan of the endings, particularly the alternate one I watched online afterward. Not much to say without spoiling, I just think if the game is going to be this lacking in fun interactivity, you have got to do better than this on the story.

The most notable part of the presentation is the game’s experimentation with different splitscreen formats. There is occasionally a pretty dynamic comic book feel coming from this, and I would have liked to see even more of it. The best section for this is one taking place in a hospital, which had a lot of different angles, configurations, and handoffs between characters to make things interesting. This makes it all the more disappointing when the game devolves to horizontal splitscreen shooting and chase sequences right afterward.

I am not mad that I spent time with this game, and think it’s an okay co-op experience. Honestly, I think we would have had more fun replaying Resident Evil 6 or something though, which is… not exactly my most glowing statement about a game. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend avoiding this, but I also can’t really actively recommend it as a game. You can see the seed being planted for sure, but this studio’s improvement in every facet of their game design and scope between this and It Takes Two is just astonishing.

Well, I guess I'm moving this to the 'abandoned' folder.

Me and my wife were really enjoying the plot and characters, but she just couldn't deal with controlling the camera. The dizzyness seems something of the past, but she was still struggling with basic navigation of the scenarios: controlling Leo and the camera at the same time.

We reach the part when the protagonists are getting the money to go to Mexico against the villian. But she got very stressed when we were trying to rob the gas station and told me she wasn't enjoying this.

So... I'm gonna miss Vincent and Leo and move on. Maybe I'll watch the rest of the game on YouTube. We're gonna continue playing Horizon Chase Turbo, a game she loves (maybe because she wins almost every race).

Just got this to play with my wife because it was very cheap.

We were liking the plot a lot. But after less than an hour she started feeling very ill. She's an avid 2D gamer, but is not used to play 3D games with camera control at all. We really want to keep playing it, but not if she's gonna feel so bad after every session.

What can we do? Any tips?

I played this with a friend I moved away from over the course of a few nights over a few months (we were busy).

Anyway, it is just a series of dummies goofing off and playing minigames and doing QTEs for a few hours. It was fun until SPOILERS you get guns, and it becomes a very clunky Gears game.

MILD SPOILERS I also hated the ending. What little agency you have in the game is taken from you at the end and it is awful.

I heard lots of good things about this one, and that it would be best-enjoyed playing with a friend couch co-op (rather than online). I'll agree on that -- definitely play this with a friend together. You'll have a great time.

This is a game that has to be played two-players. You work together to escape a high-security prison. You solve simple puzzles, time your actions properly, find the right people to talk to, etc etc. The way the game is presented is pretty great, shifting how much space is given to each player on the split-screen depending on the assigned tasks. But overall it's basically an adventure game that felt part-Shenmue, part-Uncharted (more so in the second half, which is more action-packed). Lots of little dumb mini-games to compete against your friend with, which makes things a real hoot and a holler if you start to get competitive.

The story itself is just okay. Without spoiling too much, I'd say the endgame twist only sort of makes sense, and the ending is very hit or miss. There are two endings you can get. One ending works well enough, while the other ending makes zero sense and feels lame. There isn't much replay value for this one, other than swapping characters in a second playthrough I suppose. So most likely it'll just be a fun diversion for one afternoon -- which is fine. I'm all for seeing more of these sorts of games get made, to encourage more co-op playing goodness. You could easily make a sci-fi space opera story for this setup, or a Lovecraftian horror, etc.

So this game is a 10. But it also is a 5. And sometimes it is such a 0 that it is a 10. If you don't want spoilers (Just avoid spoilers. Every surprise is such a joy.), I would say play this game. I frequently see it on sale, and you only need one copy to play it with your over the internet buddy. Just try it. I really hope we get more games like it.

This game's premise is a ten. Just going on an adventure with your friend. And not like RE 5, where the only difference is your character's name and appearance. The two leads are distinct in personality, very frequently in activity, and as we come to find out, even in motivation.

Some of my favorite stuff in this game are the detours. I won a bunch of games against my friend Tyler in Connect Four at the hospital. He beat me at darts. We giggled seeing who could do more pull ups. If this were just a mini game collection, I wouldn't enjoy it. But the context made each stupid mini game so fun. And it is, in my opinion, some of the funniest gaming when we completely ignore the objective to attempt to play a song on some stranger's piano.

A lot about this game chunks and I think it would have benefitted from a healthy budget. Also I'm not that into Fares Fares' performance- although at times his cheesy delivery makes a moment hilarious. The gunplay is fine, and the plot as a whole isn't revolutionary. A lot of the things you would normally judge a game by are lacking. But its charm and wealth of activities really make it shine.

Lastly, the ending. I asked my friend when we saw the twist if the game was gunna make us kill the other. Sure enough, it does. There is no "we both get to live" ending. Only one gets to live on with their family. It was emotional. The close overcame a lot of the cheese from earlier to deliver something affecting. It was the one time in the game our voice chat went silent as we hunted each other and had to pull the trigger. He killed me by the way.

If this sort of concept were in the hands of a more capable director like Barlog or Hennig and a studio with a bigger budget, I really think this could have been a defining video game. Even as it stands currently, it is quite good and worthy of your time.

A final thought- If there is ultimately no choice or skill involved, you don't need to give us interactivity. The final button press of the game where the characters clasp hands as the other dies was ruined by my friend and I dinking around and just moving the hand half way. Don't let two bro idiots ruin the close of your emotional game. Just make it a cutscene. It's fine.

spoiler-free review

A Way Out took me by surprise - I had expected it to be a long campaign full of meticulous planning and perilous execution. Instead it turned out to have quite simple and very forgiving mechanics as one character would distract a guard and the other would casually and easily get away with whatever mischief they were doing. It was still pretty fun though, and on this mechanic alone I would have given it a 3/5 review. However in the final few chapters of the game, they really started shaking things up, introducing multiple approaches to solving the same problems, and then including some bold cinematography as the camera did some very memorable wizardry during an escape section of the game.

What really stood out for me though was the mini-games scattered around the world. I didn't find any of the characters particularly notable, nor did I feel particularly compelled to explore every corner of the game. I played this with my best friend, and so first time he found a mini-game where you could spam X to do dips, a sudden and fierce rivalry erupted between us. Throughout the rest of the game, we kept score of who could get more points in darts, baseball, pong, Connect-4 and a variety of other contests the game included. Greatest of all, we found ourselves in a virtual arm-wrestle, perfectly matched for 15 minutes straight as we both desperately spammed X until we were exhausted. Back and forth our contest went: he'd pull ahead, I'd close the gap. It looked like we were going to have to end the campaign on a tie.

And then, blessing of all blessings, the story threw us one last contest in a twist ending which brought the whole thing together. (I don't want to brag, but I can't resist taking this opportunity to tell you I came out on top, making me the Ultimate Queen of Gaming.)

A Way Out is a pretty simple game. The characters barely have any depth or motivation, the world is pretty bland and uninteresting, and the combat isn't remarkable in any way. But for bringing two people together and generating a game-long rivalry? What a masterpiece. 4/5 from me.

PRE-PLAYING THOUGHTS

A Way Out is a unique co-op game that you can get for as low as $25 less. What a steal! And the developers of the game didn't require the two players to have one copy each just to be able to play it. You can play the full version locally together and you can also have your friend download the trial and invite him to play the full version with your copy. Pretty generous of Hazelight and EA to do that. With those in mind, I had to experience playing this game with my close friends.

GAME PLOT

The game requires two players to start. The two of you choose between Vincent or Leo, you two are convicts that will help each other find their way out of prison and their way out to freedom.

The plot wasn't really unique to be honest. We've already seen a lot of movies with these kinds of story lines. Make a friend in prison, break out together, find your way to freedom, the end. But what made this plot great is that it was designed to make the co-op experience very enjoyable. You ever wonder sometimes in the movies when the partner of the other guy acts like an idiot and if he/she had not been like that the output would've been different? That's what I liked about the game's plot. I get to blame my friend for his failures. Haha!

The developers did a really good job making the storyboard for this game, allowing the players to maximize the co-op experience by working together in every scene of the chapter. Relatively getting harder and harder for both players as they progressed. While the plot is linear and we're sure to arrive to the same conclusion (in one way or another), the developers gave us some options on how to go about an objective in specific scenes in the story. This feature just made the game flexible and worthy of a 2nd play-through.

GAMEPLAY

Some parts are QTE and the rest are pure teamwork (repeatedly tapping a button together, or holding R2 together, etc.). The controls are pretty basic, but I must say that the jog/run control could've been made easier. To jog/run you must push the left stick forward while pressing it down. We had some difficulties with that control. The gameplay was made to maximize the duo, so almost every scene in the game you need each other to progress.

If you're into action/adventure games with a choice-driven plot and would like to experience it with a friend, then I really recommend that you play this game. :)