A Way Out

2018 | Hazelight Studios | Playstation 4

Originally announced in 2014, A Way Out is the breakout co-op experience by Hazelight Studios under the EA Originals banner. The same initiative that brought us Unraveled and more recently: Wild Hearts. The director, Josef Fares, founded Hazelight after his work on Starbreeze’s excellent Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, seemingly seeking to invoke a similar feeling of cooperation within A Way Out, where each player takes control of either Leo or Vincent as they attempt to break out of prison.

Where A Way Out’s premise originally starts as a prison break story, it quickly becomes evident that it’s more of a celebration of 80’s action movies and the games that inspired the director. As such the game goes from having a Fugitive like escape sequence to a full on revenge plot as both main characters feel like they’re wrongfully imprisoned at the hands of the central villain, Harvey. For how central the theme of the prison escape was for the marketing of this game, it actually only constitutes the very start of it. In the second chapter you already find yourself on the run from the police after a successful breakout, and the game simply doesn’t slow down. The story takes a rollercoaster approach as you work together to stay out of the hands of the law, finding yourself in boats, cars and even an airplane within minutes of one another. A Way Out seeks to captivate players with its action set pieces, but this has the unfortunate result of the game quickly losing its sense of urgency as the partners in crime survive wave after wave of police cars that bring home the same energy as the Blues Brothers car chase.

It’s not that the game is unpolished, more that it’s unfocused. A Way Out opts to use very simple controls to interact with the environment and each other, frequently only needing to press square or triangle with the occasional R2 to hold hands. There are some gunplay sequences that are scattered throughout, but these tend to feel a bit unimpactful due to the simplicity. What really carries A Way Out, however, is its narrative and how it presents it. It brings you a game that was made to be played on the couch, by two people. The screen is either constantly split down the middle wherein each player walks around and works together to solve puzzles or help each other forward. This is probably best showcased in the sequence where you smuggle a wrench through security by baton passing it through checkpoints. It’s honestly really cool. Even going as far as to have a camera swooping chase sequence in a hospital where both players take turns covering the whole screen, including a rather surprising reference to the Old Boy hallway fight scene. The story is the beating heart of A Way Out, as we learn more of the characters motives and why they’re so driven for revenge against the evil Harvey. It’s presented in a way that gives a somewhat lightheartedly believability to the cast, without too many compromises.

A Way Out is not the most polished game, you’ll frequently stumble in and over one another and it can feel a bit unfocused and muddied as to what it wants to be as a story. I will say, however, that the experience of sitting on the couch and playing through this game together is a fantastically nostalgic feeling experience. I genuinely enjoyed the constant back and forth of having to work together to make it through the game. If you’re looking for a good weekend of couch coop and light speed action, I highly recommend A Way Out. Or alternatively, if you’re looking for something similar but lighthearted, Hazelight also made It Takes Two, about how to raise a child by becoming a doll.

Movie reference/10