The Ultimate Co-Op Prison Escape
Game Info: (Box Display)
- System: PS4, Xbox One, PC
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Developer: Hazelight
- Release Date: Mar 23, 2018
Have you missed the days of couch co-op? What about just a game that focuses on co-op first and foremost rather than just be a tacked-on element like some triple A games do? Well, if you said yes, then you’re looking for A Way Out by developer Hazelight! A Way Out makes co-op fun again as players unite for the ultimate prison escape! Now get your chisels ready and make the breakout of the century a reality in A Way Out!
A Way Out is a two player focused action-adventure game where cooperative gameplay shines brightly. Players will choose between a tough guy named Leo or a rather calm and reserved Vincent and help them perform a prison escape. Actions in A Way Out must be done together with players performing context button presses in unison and often figuring out a way to make both character useful for various situations. A Way Out can be experienced with a real friend in person—which is the recommended way to play—or online with a friend as well. Make choices together to escape prison and seek revenge. That is the crux of A Way Out and players will soon learn the beauty of teamwork if they enter the world of Leo and Vincent.
Two men have been sent to prison for various reasons. However, little do they know that soon they will meet one another and learn that there is one thing they have in common, revenge. Leo and Vincent have both been betrayed by a man named Harvey and are hell bent on taking down the man that wronged them both in different ways. Together, they will need to use their skills to escape prison and find out where Harvey has run off to. With two great—but different—minds working in unison, the new alliance between Leo and Vincent might be enough to accomplish their goal and somehow survive doing so. Welcome to A Way Out where teamwork means the difference between success and failure.
Cooperative games—otherwise known as co-op games—haven’t been an experience seen often as of late in the gaming world. Seen even less are couch co-op games, which seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth. We’re not saying the genre is completely dead but most games don’t offer co-op experiences anymore and we’ve always missed that here at Honey’s Anime. Thankfully though, as if to answer our prayers, a development team called Hazelight has created a quite unique co-op title called A Way Out. Is this co-op title worth playing or should you and a friend avoid it completely? Let us find out in our review of A Way Out.
A Way Out is pretty simple to explain. Two players—which are needed as this is a co-op only game—choose between two characters named Leo and Vincent. Both have been thrown into prison and both must escape together. Neither Vincent or Leo have different abilities or skills when being used in A Way Out but do have different sequences that coincide with each other. That means you’re literally seeing two perspectives on a split-screen experience which reminds us of games like Army of Two or even Portal 2. However, A Way Out isn’t just a co-op shooter or puzzle game, A Way Out is numerous genres all wrapped up in a clever co-op action-adventure title.
Players will need to work together—literally—to do nearly everything in A Way Out. For example, there might be an inmate that needs to be distracted allowing another player to move in and accomplish a goal that they couldn’t do without the other player’s distractive move. Then there are parts of A Way Out where a player might need to lend a hand to their friend to avoid a quick death because of an ambush attack or a struggle in a fist fight. There are dozens of moments where co-op shines in A Way Out and we don’t wish to spoil any of these moments as its always exciting to see what will happen next. Just note that A Way Out never gets boring as you might be running one minute and then the next getting into a driving shootout where a player needs to drive and the other needs to shoot.
Another strength of the co-op experience in A Way Out is that there are moments where the game will offer multiple ways to solve a problem. Early on, Leo and Vincent will need to smuggle out sheets to help their escape plan. One way is to cause a fight to break out diverting the attention of the guards long enough to allow players to sneak a friend into a cart filled with linen. Another way is to bribe off some guy and then break a machine to accomplish your goal. We found that no puzzle in A Way Out had just one solution and often there was a multitude of ways to reach your end goal. There are even bigger story moments that can change dramatically based off an action the players both—as you must always come to a unanimous decision in choices found in A Way Out—decide on.
Graphically and sound wise, A Way Out also impresses with some solid voice work and awe-inspiring music. We did notice some strange glitches with the graphics—as well as technical glitches—that did cause some strange moments in A Way Out, but none were too annoying. Though a few times we did need to restart a checkpoint—which there are tons of—but again, it wasn’t constant and was just a once in a while occurrence. A Way Out did impress us though with some strong visuals that usually aren’t seen on same screen co-op games and it shows that any studio with a little work and time can mirror the solid graphics found in A Way Out.
Finally, we wish to share something very interesting about A Way Out. As we’ve said time and time again, this is a co-op experience, folks. That means no single-player is possible with A Way Out and we’re glad to be honest. A single player with an AI would ruin A Way Out and make choices and dialogue between Leo and Vincent less meaningful. Now this does mean you need a real friend in the same room—or online—to play A Way Out and with no matchmaking, this might cause some gamers to worry they won’t be able to even start A Way Out at all. Luckily, developer Hazelight actually made A Way Out playable with someone who doesn’t own the game by having the one owner send an invite to a friend so they can download a trial version of A Way Out. The trial version of A Way Out lets the non-owner play the entire game as long as they play with the owner, it’s a brilliant idea and one that we applaud here at Honey’s Anime.
A Way Out is an experience we sure won’t forget anytime soon here at Honey’s Anime. Ironically, we didn’t want out while playing A Way Out and that was a feeling that didn’t end even after the credits rolled. A Way Out might not be perfect due to some glitchy moments and occasionally overly simple puzzles but even those minor gripes wouldn’t stop our enjoyment of this amazing co-op experience. That’s why we say the following statement with much pride here at Honey’s Anime. You need to pick up A Way Out as this will be one co-op experience you won’t be forgetting anytime soon, folks. That’s how good this game truly is.
In the current generation, there are a lot of lesser known titles that get passed up for triple A games quite too often. A Way Out is a game that might be seen as one of these types of games but we here at Honey’s Anime wouldn’t ever call it that. A Way Out is a brilliant game that excited us and filled us with pure adrenaline and enjoyment from the start to finish of this 5 hours or so experience. Even now, we find ourselves wanting to dive back into Vincent and Leo’s world to redo some scenes and see what could have happened in different areas. If you have a friend online—or offline—that wants to play a co-op game that will show them the genre of couch cooperative games isn’t dead yet, then you need to download A Way Out right this second! Are you now thinking of picking up A Way Out? We hope you are, but please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For all your game reviews and article needs, be sure to keep stuck to our wonderful hive here at Honey’s Anime.
Hey everyone I’m Aaron Curbelo or Blade as I’m called by my YouTube Subscribers. I’ve been an anime/manga fan since I was a young kid. In terms of anime I have watched nearly a thousand shows and have read hundreds of manga series. I love writing and honestly was so happy to join Honey’s Anime to get a shot to write articles for such a wonderful site. I’m a firm believer in respect in the anime community being the most important embodiment we should all have. We all love anime and we have varying opinions of series but we should respect one another for those differences! Life is too precious to spend it making needless arguments in a community that should be the shining example of loving an amazing medium. I hope as a writer for Honey’s Anime I can bring you folks some amazing articles to read and enjoy!
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