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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :)