No way outta this crime thriller cliche storm.
In modern day gaming local co-op is pretty much a thing of the past unless you look into indie titles or inside the Switch's library, which is why
A Way Out is so special: You can
only play it with another person. It's a
narrative focused game that has the screen split between both players 95% of the time.
The game follows inmates Leo and Vincent, who quickly join up together in order to escape from prison. But that's only half of the game, it turns out that
both characters were wronged by a man named Harvey, so they team up in order to bring him down. I've read complaints about the voice acting, but the main characters were really good, Leo sounds like a generic Italoamericano you see in crime movies, while Vincent plays the more stern type that can
play off Leo's more excitable nature. The characters play well together, and the story itself is well paced and a decent popcorn movie-type analogue. Heck, we even get a few slower paced sections to develop both main characters, so they really grow on you. Which makes the endings all the more tragic, for you see, there are
two endings, and both are
bittersweet.
The game is made up of various chapters, each one having a main
objective: You might have to muggle a wrench out of the crafts ward, you might need fix a car or you might have to escape from the police. There's a ton of variety here, sometimes you'll be solving simple puzzles that require both characters working in
tandem, sometimes one character will drive while the other shoots and the final chapter of the game is a very
basic third person cover-shooter shootout. There's plenty of variety which keeps thins
interesting. Most chapters have slower paced parts in which you can interact with npcs or objects around you. You can make small talk with characters, each character gets their own different conversations with the same characters, and most of the time you can pick what you want your character to tell them.
Usually it amounts to nothing more than a different response, but in a few chapters it might produce slightly different results. Plus, there are many small objects you can interact with just for the fun of it. In the hospital you can play 4-in-line with the other player, there are a few dart boards in a few locations, compete for who can do the most pull ups, play a rudimentary arcade machine.... not to mention objects that are there just for
interactivity's sake, like sanding wood. You can do it, you don't even get a line of dialogue for doing it, but you can do it if you want. And it's amusing, because both characters can be doing completely different things at the same time, you may be interacting with stuff around you just for kicks while the other player interacts with NPCs just because, it's very
amusing.
Besides all those little interactions you can do or skip, there are many times in the game in which both players will have to agree on either Vincent or Leo's way. While the end result will always be the same,
how you get to that result will change. Very early in the game you have to
decide whether to listen to Vincent and go through very simple, non-deadly platforming or agree with Leo and steal a car to drive through the bridge.
Widely different playable sections, but the end result is the same. So, y'know, it's fun, and it adds replayability just to see what you
missed.
Puzzles in the game are very easy to figure out, and the few shooting sections don't pose much challenge, since health regeneration is very
generous. But the entire game is not about challenge and overcoming odds, it's about following an interesting, even if very cliched, narrative, while working
with your partner. It's a lot of fun.
A Way Out is a very fun time, and while I applaud the developers for making a such a good co-op game, it's
almost a shame that you can't play the game by yourself, I mean, it kinda sucks having to depend on someone else every time you feel like playing A Way Out.
8.0 out of 10
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