The characters meet when they’re placed in adjacent cells in prison at the start of the game. Besides, I kind of grew attached to playing as Leo over the course of the game.) It’s not the sort of asymmetrical co-op game where each character has specific skills and abilities. (In theory, you could swap controllers to play as the other character, but there are no real gameplay differences between them. Each player sticks with the character they choose at the beginning of the game, and the stories play out as a strictly split-screen experience. If you don’t have a friend to play with, this isn’t the game for you.Ī Way Out puts players into the shoes of two characters: Leo, a brash loose cannon who views violence as the first solution in a situation, and Vincent, who’s older and calmer. There are a handful of sequences that involve driving, and one extended gunplay portion at the end, but for the most part, if you and your partner are able to navigate a 3D environment with a controller, you’ll be able to play A Way Out. You don’t need lightning-quick reactions or other typical video game skills. Fortunately, A Way Out is a very story-driven affair that doesn’t ask too much from players. I played through the entirety of A Way Out with my roommate Josh, who is decidedly not a gamer, but I managed to bribe him with baked goods. If you don’t have a friend to play with, this isn’t the game for you. A Way Out draws a lot on the co-operative nature of Brothers, but instead of mapping each character to different parts of the same controller, A Way Out fully embraces couch co-op by not only encouraging, but outright mandating that you’ll have to work together with someone to play it. Fares is best known as the creator of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a game from the Xbox 360’s indie golden age that had players control two characters at once to solve puzzles with strong story elements. What should be a tense moment has turned into something far less interesting - yet it’s still entertaining because I’m playing with a friend.Ī Way Out is the latest game from director Josef Fares released through his new studio Hazelight, in partnership with EA. It’s our third time trying this sequence, and we haven’t quite managed to get the timing right on the quick-time event of mashing the square button at the same time we take out our would-be killer. “Okay, we need to strangle this assassin together!” I shout, exasperatedly at my roommate.