[Review] A Way Out

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A Way Out is an action-adventure game developed by Hazelight Studios and published by Electronic Arts under their EA Originals program. It is the second video game to be directed by Josef Fares after Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. The game has no single-player option: it is only playable in either online or local split screen co-op between two players. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 23, 2018, selling over a million copies in two weeks.

A Way Out dedicated its entire title to only one act of its story. It's a bit deceiving to call this a prison break game (even though, yes, they do eventually get out) because it's a lot of other things too. A Way Out is a revenge saga, a Bonnie and Clyde-like outwit and outrun the cops tale, a bonding adventure, and a guilt trip that masquerades as a road trip.

What's left is this patchwork quilt of pastiche, a B-movie Frankenstein of a million things that have been done in cinema. But as far as video games go, A Way Out is often a brilliant cooperative experience that is legitimately enjoyable -- and that will be enough to convince you to turn a blind eye to a lot of the writing that's as delicate as a sledgehammer.

A Way Out is a pure cooperative game in that it can't be played any other way. Two people are required, either through couch co-op or online play. (It's worth noting that purchasing the game essentially grants you an additional copy to gift to a friend. While this person can play through the entirety of the story, they can't unlock achievements and trophies.)

There's good reason for this forced collaboration. A Way Out is structured such that a partner is necessary for most every moment. Some of it is done in predictable ways -- like someone standing on a platform while the other person moves it -- but a lot of it is better than that. An early sequence has both players in adjacent cells, requiring one person to act as a lookout for guards while the other creates an escape hatch through the back of the toilet. A little later, the duo maneuvers up a ventilation shaft by going back-to-back and slowly climbing by moving their legs at the exact same time.

Because of this shared responsibility, A Way Out's protagonists are equally important although very different people. Vincent is a rational and mostly-quiet man who's at the very beginning of a 14-year sentence for white collar crimes (with a fishy murder charge tacked on too); Leo is a brash bruiser who has been in the clink for six months on armed robbery and grand theft charges.

I don’t want to spoil anything about its finale, but know this: A Way Out is worth seeing through to the end.

A Way Out’s revenge-fueled plot is structured around flashbacks to how Vincent and his next-cell-neighbor Leo ended up in this predicament, until the story catches up to them aboard a plane and carries on from there. It ebbs and flows like a movie, and it somewhat feels like one too, despite a runtime about three times longer than your average theater experience. You will spend a lot of its roughly six hours with your controller down, watching cutscenes. But you’re also often free to walk around in many of those moments, with the screen frequently split to accommodate both players’ freedom to move and explore.

Gameplay

A Way Out is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. It is specifically designed for split-screen cooperative multiplayer, which means that it must be played with another player through either local or online play. In the game, players control Leo and Vincent, two convicted prisoners who must break out of prison and stay on the run from authorities. As the story of both protagonists is told simultaneously, their progress may not be synchronized, which may result in one player being able to control their character, while another is watching a cutscene. Players need to cooperate with each other in order to progress, and each situation can be approached differently, with both characters taking different roles. For instance, during an early segment of the game, the player controlling Vincent needs to distract a nurse and guard, so the player controlling Leo can find a chisel needed to aid their escape. These roles are not fixed, so Leo and Vincent can swap their roles in another playthrough. Players can interact with many non-playable characters, and there are dialogue options for players to choose.

Similar to the PlayStation 4 version of Far Cry 4, players will be able to join online sessions (hosted by the player's friends) whether or not the joining player owns the actual game.

They have similarities, though. They're both family men. Leo has a young son who he's trying to hide his criminal life from. Vincent went to prison when his wife was mere weeks away from giving birth to their first child. However, their strongest commonality is a vehement hatred for a man named Harvey. Breaking out and delivering just comeuppance is the greatest motivator for this narrative that relies on vengeance more than anything else.

Along the way, Vincent and Leo begin to understand each other. They find ways to lean on and support each other emotionally, like when Leo eventually (and unexpectedly) suggests Vincent should write a letter to his wife that tells her what kind of husband and father he wants to be. It takes a while to get there though. Early intimate interactions between the two come off stilted and awkward. There are separate moments where they both explain the heart-breaking situations that led to their incarcerations; each time, the listener simply replied with "that's rough."

I made a point of remembering the first "that's rough" because I thought it felt so human. What do you say when someone tells you something so crushing that you don't have a good response? What do you say when you feel like your words won't ever be good enough to serve as any sort of consolation? You end up muttering something like "oh, no" or "I'm so sorry" or "that's rough." But to have the second character return in kind with the exact same phrase, well, that's bad writing.

Leo and Vincent each have believable motivations that become clear as the story unfolds. So, too, do the actors’ performances improve as the plot progresses, with most of the notably wooden dialogue delivery contained in the early scenes. It’s as if they had to get to know each other, just as we needed to get to know them.

It’s interesting to talk to the same NPC with Leo and Vincent separately, one right after the other, because while the conversation will usually turn out the same way, the path of those chats will be completely different. Leo is more violent and action-first, while Vincent prefers to talk his way out of sticky situations. So when you’re given the choice to handle a tense moment with a curious police officer Leo’s way or Vincent’s way, Leo wants to knock him out, while Vincent fakes a highly contagious illness.

Game Story

In 1972, Vincent Moretti (Eric Krogh) is freshly incarcerated and sent to prison for fraud and murder. In jail, he meets Leo Caruso (Fares Fares), who has now been inside for 6 months for grand theft, assault and armed robbery. While in the cafeteria, a thug sent in by crime boss Harvey tries to murder Leo, but Vincent intervenes, resulting in both of them being sent to the infirmary while the thug is beaten to death after stabbing a prison guard. While in the infirmary, Leo requests Vincent's help to steal a chisel from the office. Vincent complies. After the theft, Vincent senses that Leo is planning on a prison break and offers to help so that he can escape too. Leo initially refuses, but begrudgingly agrees to collaborate when Vincent reveals he also has a grudge with Harvey.

Leo and Vincent make progress on their escape plan, stealing sheets to make a rope and smuggling a wrench to open a grating. Using teamwork and gathered tools, the two escape from the jail on a rainy night. After evading the police in the wilderness, the two find an empty camp and fish to make food. Vincent reveals that Harvey had him launder money before murdering his brother as a warning and framing Vincent for the murder. Leo starts telling his story but is interrupted when a police helicopter flies by, causing both to start moving again. They later find an old couple's house, and the two steal new clothes, a shotgun and a truck before evading the pursuing police in the vehicle and, after crashing, a rowboat. After surviving a waterfall, the duo finds civilization, after which Leo reveals Harvey and him had stolen a valuable gem, a Black Orlov, but that when Leo tried selling it, Harvey betrayed him by killing their buyer and escaping with the gem, leading to Leo's arrest.

At a trailer park in the city, Leo confirms the safety of his wife Linda and his son Alex, before going to a construction site with Vincent. They find Ray, one of Harvey's underlings who works as a construction foreman, and, after a chase, the two capture and interrogate him to find Harvey's location, which they find out is Mexico. Plotting revenge against Harvey, the duo robs a gas station to buy guns from an arms dealer, Jasmine. When the two leave, Jasmine follows them and betrays them by giving their location to Harvey. Later, at a telephone booth, Vincent calls Emily, a pilot, and convinces her to fly them to Mexico. He then learns from her that his wife, Carol, had just gone through childbirth. The duo agrees to go to the hospital, but a hitman sent by Harvey arrives, attempting to kill them, but in the end failing. They then go to the hospital and Vincent gets to see his newborn daughter, but quickly needs to leave as police officers surround the building. Leo is captured but manages to escape thanks to a diversion by Vincent.

The next day, Emily flies Leo and Vincent to Mexico, and the two find their way to Harvey's mansion. After a firefight with Harvey's guards and Harvey himself, the two overpower Harvey, force him to return the Black Orlov and, after he attempts to take one of them hostage, kill him. Escaping with the Black Orlov, Vincent and Leo return to the United States on Emily's plane, but are immediately surrounded by police upon landing. An officer takes the Black Orlov from Leo and hands Vincent a gun, revealing that both him and Emily had been undercover police officers. Leo and Harvey's Black Orlov deal had actually been arranged by the police, and the dealer killed was Vincent's brother, Gary.

Feeling betrayed, Leo subdues Vincent, takes him hostage and hijacks a police car to escape. While trying to avoid a police roadblock, he crashes the car into water. Both escape the submerged vehicle, Leo stealing a boat while Vincent is picked up by Emily in a police helicopter. After a chase where Vincent tries to destroy the engine of the boat, Leo jumps off before it crashes into explosive tanks and runs into a portside warehouse. Emily lands the helicopter and both her and Vincent chase him inside. Leo manages to ambush Emily, taking her gun away and ordering her to leave as this fight is between him and Vincent. The gunfight ends with both sides injured, unarmed, and exhausted on the top of the roof. Seeing that one of their guns is dropped nearby, both try to reach it, but only one is able to and shoots the other. The two share a final moment of friendship before the person shot dies from their injuries.

If Leo survives, he takes Vincent's apology letter and delivers it to Carol, then proceeds to leave town with his family while Vincent's funeral is taking place.

If Vincent survives, he informs Linda of Leo's death before returning to Carol, making amends to save their marriage and raise their daughter by revealing he resigned from the police and proclaiming that it's over.

Frankly, A Way Out is littered with bad writing. It's full of the sort of clichéd one-liners that are an earmark of '80s crime movies. At one point, Vincent literally says "I'd rather be uptight than a loose cannon." These are regular occurrences, and they don't necessarily come off as adoring nods to their influences. They feel more like forced banter that doesn't elevate the story in any way.

One of A Way Out's more stylish tricks lies in the presentation. The split-screen format lends itself to smooth transitions from cutscenes and into each player's perspective. Sometimes, when one person triggers a particularly important moment, the screen will grow in their favor and relegate the other player's going-ons to an afterthought. It's a double-edged sword though, as it can lead to some supremely stupid interactions. There's a hospital scene where my partner tried offering hope to a terminally ill cancer patient; I was in the other frame seeing how long I could balance myself in a wheelchair.

But, for all the ridiculous situations and terrible dialogue, it's easy to stay enamored with A Way Out. Obvious influences like Shawshank Redemption and Scarface make for a game that feels familiar yet entertaining. (Seriously, there's even a sequence where you time your loud-noise-making to the crack of the thunder.) The explosive setpieces and creative cooperation make up for any bungled exposition.

A Way Out is laced with small cooperative moments outside of just dialogue, too, like having to tap X simultaneously to bust through a door, or one person splashing around in a pond to chase the fish toward the other player holding a spear.

But even though it’s focused on its story sequences, A Way Out is decidedly not a “walking simulator”-style adventure – in fact, it’s more like a collection of largely enjoyable minigames. Sometimes you’re sneaking around in tall grass like Sam Fisher, choking out bad guys. Sometimes you’re punching people from a 2.5D side-scrolling camera like it’s a Double Dragon remake. Sometimes you’re driving a car, or throwing darts, or playing a banjo, or shooting hoops, or arm wrestling, or fishing, or...you get the idea. All of that variety is a double-edged sword: though this swath of activities often left me smiling, the trade-off is that none of them control and feel as good as games dedicated to those ideas. The baseball segment won’t be unseating MLB The Show 18, is what I’m saying, but even so it put a smile on my face. “Clunky” is probably the best description of the worst A Way Out’s minigames ever get, with the gunplay feeling particularly subpar in this, the age of spectacularly polished shooters.

There's a constant mood about A Way Out that makes it seem like it's more inventive than it really is. Disregard that and you're left with a decent-enough story with some genuinely enjoyable video game moments. It's campy fun and that's perfectly fine. Just don't expect too much more.

Development

A Way Out was developed by Hazelight Studios, a small team of developers in Sweden led by film director Josef Fares. Both Fares and several members of his team previously worked on the acclaimed title, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons from Starbreeze Studios. Production of the game began in the second half of 2014. The design philosophy for the game is that the team wanted to create a cooperative game that is unique and different. As a result, the team opted not use the traditional drop-in and drop-out cooperative format featured dominantly in mainstream cooperative games, and instead, the team decided to create a full game that must be played cooperatively with another player. According to Fares, the game was his passion project and he cancelled an upcoming feature film in order to devote more time to working on the game. The game uses Unreal Engine 4.

Despite the game's heavy focus on multiplayer, the game was described as an "emotional adventure". As a result, cutscenes will play out even during online play to ensure that players can understand the story of the other character. The game features a wide variety of gameplay sequences from stealth to driving to ensure that players are often presented with different gameplay situations and generally make the game and its characters more interesting. To make the two protagonists more realistic, the team ensured that Leo and Vincent have distinct personalities and that they have different opinions and responses while interacting with the game's world. Fares Fares, a Swedish-Lebanese actor and Josef Fares' older brother, plays Leo.

The title will be part of publisher Electronic Arts' EA Originals program, dedicated to funding small independent games. The partnership came to fruition when Patrick Söderlund, the Executive Vice President of Electronic Arts, approached Fares personally for collaboration after being impressed by Brothers. EA offered $3.7 million for the development of the game and gave Fares and his team complete creative control over the game's development. According to Fares, all revenue from sales of the game will go back to Hazelight. The formation of Hazelight Studios and the partnership between Hazelight and EA was officially unveiled at The Game Awards 2014. The game's title and gameplay was revealed at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 during EA's press conference. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 23, 2018.

None of those is A Way Out’s specialty, though. Instead, it focuses primarily on its story and the intertwining cooperative gameplay with the characters of Leo and Vincent themselves, and in those key areas it largely succeeds. Does the timing on certain moments seem implausibly convenient? Yes. Do the two men end up escaping unscathed from seemingly impossible scenarios? Uh-huh. (Side note: A Way Out’s police officers make Star Wars’ Stormtroopers look like expert marksmen.)

The prison-breaking pair definitely don’t always get along, though, and sometimes they even compete, just like real frienemies would, which creates some fun player-versus-player moments. Neither my co-op partner nor I would give in during our button-mashing arm-wrestling match, even though it had no bearing on the game or the story, and I took a completely unnecessary glee in beating him in Connect Four (twice). At times it felt like we really were inhabiting these characters.

A Way Out’s finest moments come when it’s at its most cinematic. The brilliantly choreographed hospital escape scene, for example, maintains one unbroken “camera shot” even as controls are cleverly trading back and forth between Leo and Vincent, while the aforementioned ending blends cinematography and gameplay in clever ways. And a Splinter Cell-esque back-to-back climb up a tall maintenance shaft requires the utmost cooperation and communication and had us laughing at every misstep. It was the peak of the mandatory cooperative gameplay that’s enforced here. And commendably, you get a free download token to give to a friend, so you only have to buy one copy to play online.

The Verdict

If you go into A Way Out thinking its mandatory two-player co-op is a gimmick, you’ll likely come out of it realizing that it couldn’t have been done any other way. Vincent and Leo’s journey will have you and a friend performing tasks together both mundane and dramatic, and the result is a memorable, variety-packed cinematic adventure that feels like what Telltale’s games might’ve evolved into if they’d leaned into game mechanics instead of phasing them out.

 

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System Requirements

MINIMUM:

O/S: Windows 7 64-bit, 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
CPU: Intel core i3-2100T @ 2.5GHz/AMD FX 6100, or better
RAM: 8GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti 2GB, AMD Radeon HD 7750 2GB
DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent
Hard Drive: 25GB
Input: At least one Xbox-compatible/PlayStation-compatible controller
Online connection requirements: 256KBPS or faster Internet connection

RECOMMENDED:

O/S: Windows 7 64-bit, 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
RAM: 16GB
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K; AMD Ryzen 3 1300x or equivalent
GPU: Nvidia GT 960; AMD R9 290 or equivalent
DirectX: 11 Compatible video card or equivalent
Hard Drive: 25GB
Input: At least one Xbox-compatible/PlayStation-compatible controller
Online connection requirements: 256KBPS or faster Internet connection

 

 

REVIEW FROM MULTI RESOURCE