NO NEED FOR A WAY OUT WHEN I COULDN’T GET INTO IT.
I’ll admit I have little familiarity with Josef Fares’s previous work Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, however the acclaim it has received is not lost on me. So when Josef Fares excitedly presented his next title A Way Out at EA’s press conference I was intrigued by what was on display until I heard it was co-op and wrote it off as something I’d never have the opportunity to play and enjoy. Well, I played it. Enjoy it though? Not so much.
The story is of two unlikely partners teaming up to escape prison and strike back against the man who wronged them both. Don’t expect to spend the majority of this game in prison mind you, as it will consistently change up locations (as well as gameplay) to attempt to keep things fresh. Short of simply spoiling every single moment, that is the through line for the majority of this game. Sure, the story has its necessary speed bumps to deliver exposition to try to get us to care about the characters, but it never loses focus of its goal despite many opportunities to. There is nothing here that hasn’t been seen before in terms of plot; in fact one scene is ripped straight out of Scarface. I feel it necessary to call that out (and break format) because a lot of this game’s pivotal moments are pulled from other media including other games, and it doesn’t come off as referential or a cheeky wink at the audience, but rather a legitimate attempt to create some emotional impact in the players. This is very much presented as a serious story.
PLATFORMS: XB1, PS4, PC
MSRP: $29.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $15
A Way Out is a third person action adventure game that attempts to make every scene new and exciting. A large portion of this game is its aforementioned story which is delivered mostly in cutscenes or dialog while players walk over to various objects and interact with them by pressing one of the face buttons. However, during certain sections, the gameplay will change. During the prison escape sequence (which is the opening portion of the game) stealth and looking out for one another is key, while later one player may drive a vehicle and the other shoots out of it. In fact, the latter half of the game is a straight third person shooter. This game never wants to settle into a formula which is respectable for being only around six to eight hours long.
So where does it go wrong? Well from moment one, direction was unclear. While I was funneled into prison (the very start of this game) my co-op partner was left wondering what to do as a lot of objects can be interacted with and it’s not clear what objects are going to progress the story and what objects are just there to waste time. This was a consistent problem throughout our play through. While it was usually clear what needed to be done, the question was what the other person was supposed to do while this was happening. Were they to wait? The answer most of the time was yes. One scene had my friend walking his character slowly to advance the plot while I was forced to just wait. Eventually his side of the screen eclipsed mine so I could stop fiddling around and we could move on. This is not fun and undermines the necessity of this game being co-op only.
The second problem is that the game’s accessibility is poor. This game starts off very slow, more like a Telltale adventure game or Until Dawn. It comes off as very accessible to people who prefer slower titles or are unfamiliar with games. In the end, this game is so action packed that I feel players who come looking for those action beats will be highly disappointed with the pace of the beginning of the game, while players who enjoyed the earlier sections will be left potentially turned off by the sudden shift to pure action gameplay. More importantly, because this game is a mandatory co-op experience, it requires people who are generally around the same skill level with a wide variety of interests to enjoy this game.
The third, and the most important problem is the story. It’s by no means bad, but not once did I find myself caring what happened to these characters. I didn’t care about their families. I didn’t care about how they were wronged by the villain, who might as well be a cardboard cutout because he is arguably just a plot driver as his character received little dialog that said anything outside of him being just a generic bad guy. Again, this game is trying to be serious. Had it chosen to be campy I think I would’ve enjoyed it more despite its faults but it so desperately wanted me to feel something and it failed. This was in no means helped by moments where these two convicts are supposed to be escaping and going to see their families but because of the over abundance of interactivity my friend was chopping wood and I threw horseshoes. We also arm wrestled and played an arcade game against each other. They are fine mini games, but maybe for a less serious game. It felt completely out of place.
But what about the good? Well, when this game decides to place game mechanics over storytelling I’d say this is the most unique co-op experience I’ve ever had. Those promised moments of asynchronous gameplay do exist and are fantastic. Having to plan with each other on who is doing what and seeing the plan come together is fun even if there are only so many outcomes to the scenario. An early part of the prison escape had one of us making a distraction while the other had to sneak away to get a screwdriver. When both players are given equal opportunity to responsibilities this game shines. Towards the middle portion of the game there are two key moments (that take place in a theatre and hospital) that are shot beautifully (some of the most unique cinematography I’ve ever seen in film or video games) and played the balance of co-op gameplay and wanting to tell a story extremely well. Had this whole game been like these two moments I think it would’ve been spectacular, however these moments were short lived before we were pushed along to what the game wanted to show us next.
When it focuses more on being a game than an interactive movie, I think there’s a lot to enjoy. While I personally had technical hiccups, I don’t need to talk about those as this game has enough faults in its gameplay pacing and story that can’t be fixed with a small technical patch. It’s not a bad game, but it’s mostly forgettable. Finding a co-op partner to play this with will be difficult for some people and due to the later portions it isn’t as accessible as it should be. This person will have to stick by you for six to eight hours which is a fair sized time investment for some people and I don’t think there’s enough to make you want to come back and see what’s next. It’s not the most unique or interesting story but it does a satisfactory job telling it. You’ll be able to see twists and plot points coming if you’ve played games or watched movies before which makes the main drive for this game (experiencing the story) not enough to get through those very slow parts. I appreciate the attempt of what it tried to do by changing its mechanics but it’s was not the first game to use the mechanics in the way it does to tell a story, especially at its climax. The moments of greatness however make it clear that Fares and Hazelight are a talented crew who deserve attention and are the reasons I can’t simply right this game off. Ultimately I would say this game would’ve done better with its tongue in its cheek rather than its heart on its sleeve.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
