A Way Out Review – It “Makes You Reflect. It Makes You Feel.”

<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;hazelight&period;se&sol;games&sol;"><em>With Hazelight we aim to take our craft further&comma; and push the boundaries for interactive storytelling and engaging emotional experiences&period; So far we&&num;8217&semi;ve only just scratched the surface&period; <&sol;em><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thus reads a preface underneath the &&num;8220&semi;Games&&num;8221&semi; section of Hazelight Studios&&num;8217&semi; official website&period; <em>A Way Out<&sol;em> opens a door for the industry&&num;8217&semi;s narrative potency&period; Games like <em>The Witcher 3&colon; Wild Hunt<&sol;em>&comma; <em>What Remains of Edith Finch<&sol;em>&comma; and <em>Hellblade&colon; Senua&&num;8217&semi;s Sacrifice <&sol;em>tell engaging stories&period; Games like <em>Nier&colon; Automata<&sol;em> utilize the medium&&num;8217&semi;s interactivity to tell a story not possible elsewhere&comma; even in truncated form&period; With all that said&comma; no story in the past five years feels as purposely built for co-op as <em>A Way Out<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137000" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137000" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137000" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;03&sol;25124721&sol;AWayOut1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137000" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A Way Out&comma; EA and Hazelight Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-136994" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;03&sol;25124640&sol;AWayOut&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1" height&equals;"1" &sol;><em>A Way Out<&sol;em> stars Vincent Moretti and Leo Caruso&period; Vincent is a well-educated and reserved father-to-be with a borderline dysfunctional relationship due to his line of work&period; Leo is short-tempered and violent&comma; turning to a life of crime after meeting his wife in an orphanage at the age of 12&period; They share a Bonnie and Clyde-like relationship&comma; remaining faithful no matter the circumstances&period; As opposites with similar goals&comma; the duo exchange genuinely funny and natural dialogue through the roughly six hour adventure&period; The plot is framed in media res&comma; with Leo and Vincent&&num;8217&semi;s conversations on a helicopter post break-out sprinkled in between a linear series of flashbacks&period; A decent chunk of  flashbacks involve the gradual build-up from Vincent&&num;8217&semi;s arrival at prison to Leo and Vincent&&num;8217&semi;s collaborative escape&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Collaboration seems to be the key design doctrine governing nearly every scene&period; By now&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ve likely seen gameplay and trailers that show split-screen action&period; This holds true not just for local co-op&comma; but also online play&period; <em>A Way Out<&sol;em> runs with this concept&comma; consistently pitting players in varied situations&period; While Leo might be talking to his son in a cinematic on one half of the screen&comma; Vincent is outside playing darts&period; While Vincent has a personal moment with his emotionally detached wife after delivering&comma; Leo might be playing with cards or talking to NPC&&num;8217&semi;s in the Maternity Ward&&num;8217&semi;s waiting room&period; Conversely&comma; paths regularly converge with several opportunities for both players to engage in distractions together&period; Leo and Vincent might play connect four or a modified <em>Pong<&sol;em> style arcade game on a single full screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137002" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137002" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137002" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;03&sol;25125348&sol;AWayOut51-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137002" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A Way Out&comma; EA and Hazelight Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Screens seamlessly grow and shrink and sound design is constantly shifting depending on the gravity of each player&&num;8217&semi;s actions&period; In the scene with Leo talking to his son&comma; Leo&&num;8217&semi;s side of the screen overshadows Vincent&&num;8217&semi;s while sound propagation plays more heavily through his soundscape&comma; subduing the sounds of Vincent&&num;8217&semi;s time-wasting interactions&period; The ever-shifting camera work and sound design never grows stale&comma; keeping both players distracted while at times&comma; one screen is so engaging that players may forget they have control on their end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>A Way Out<&sol;em> is THE game for best friends and couples&period; Its deliberate design relies on players building bonds through mechanical interactions while simultaneously witnessing the emotional bond between Vincent and Leo&period; In select moments&comma; Vincent and Leo propose different approaches to a situation&comma; forcing both involved parties to agree on the plan of action&period; These scenarios have the potential to elicit fierce debate depending on who you play with&period; The early prison sections contain nail-bitingly tense moments that require keen perception and team work&period; While the prison and subsequent escape provide some of the strongest collaborative moments&comma; <em>A Way Out<&sol;em> delivers enough interesting scenarios throughout&comma; with strong pacing&period; It never lingers on an event for too long&period; That is&comma; at least&comma; until a chase sequence near the end of the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Because of <em>A Way Out<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s design&comma; mechanics are routinely thrown in and abandoned while others show up more than once&comma; but remain underdeveloped&period; Shooting feels fine enough for a game that has maybe half an hour total of it&comma; but driving is too stiff for comfort&period; Of the two major vehicular chase sequences&comma; the latter chase on motorcycles controls so poorly that it entirely shatters the illusion of the chase&period; It was a funny mess of awkward animations and collisions&period; It is also the only section that feels like it drags on longer than it needs to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137004" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137004" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137004" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;03&sol;25130158&sol;AWayOut61-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137004" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A Way Out&comma; EA and Hazelight Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Aside from shooting and driving&comma; <em>A Way Out<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s mechanics are situational&period; Most fist fights are just quick time events&comma; while any environmental interaction is also relegated to button prompts&period; They work fine&comma; though the few rhythmic quick time events that require pressing a button along a meter feel off&period; The game lacks proper feedback during these sections&comma; making you question whether you pressed the button with the right timing until the proceeding animation plays out&period; Fortunately&comma; they are only required twice in the main story with some side mini-games offering additional practice for this borderline broken rhythmic QTE implementation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The storytelling and writing isn&&num;8217&semi;t on the same level as the industry&&num;8217&semi;s best&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t competing with Naughty Dog&&num;8217&semi;s recent games&comma; but its fully integrated co-op design makes the most insignificant of tasks feel like a monumental journey&period; This variety and inventiveness makes it easy for players to connect with the characters they&&num;8217&semi;re playing as&comma; leading to a personal journey for each player&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;137006" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-137006" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-137006" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;03&sol;25130844&sol;AWayOut21-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-137006" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A Way Out&comma; EA and Hazelight Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>That journey is the beating heart of <em>A Way Out<&sol;em>&period; Even when mechanics aren&&num;8217&semi;t the most fleshed out&semi; Even when the solution to a problem is simple&semi; Even when the motorcycle chase rears its ugly ass&comma; none of it detracts from the character driven journey&period; <em>A Way Out<&sol;em> makes you reflect&period; It makes you feel&period; Let Hazelight Studios take you on this adventure&period; By journey&&num;8217&semi;s end&comma; you may find a deeper connection with your partner in crime&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;