A Way Out Review | Hours Later

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From the people who brought you Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and one of the most memorable
moments in gaming this generation:
Josef Fares: "Fuck the Oscars, yknow?!
Fuck the Oscars!"
Comes a very ambitious co-op only title that, until I played it, wasn't really quite sure
what genre it would fall under.
Alex here, and here's my review of A Way Out, hours later!
A Way Out is a co-op game that is essentially a modern take on traditional adventure games
set at an undetermined point in the past.
The game casts players as either Leo, a rough and rugged criminal or Vince, a man framed
for the murder of his brother.
Shortly after meeting in prison, they both find out that they were both betrayed by the
same man and swear revenge on him.
While much of the game's promotional materials highlight their escape from prison, the game
extends beyond this locale, taking you on an adventure that's both engaging and filled
with interesting situations.
In order to see the game through, you will need to work closely with your friend (or
significant other) in situations that either require some communication or synced button
presses between both players.
These challenges are fun and entertaining, even outside the confines of the stories that
unfold.
That said, there's nothing really much noteworthy to talk about when it comes to these challenges,
as I liken the experience to playing a Telltale Game, but with somebody else present in the
same game world.
I will point out though that the shooting scenes were the least fun part of the game
for me, but it should be restated that the challenges were, for the most part, fun and
was able to sustain itself for much of the adventure.
I wish I could revel on how much fun the game's challenges were because they truly are good.
However, they're not good enough to excuse some glaring faults within the game.
For example, I experienced numerous issues with the game's audio where the game's
soundtrack would skip or even fail to play in certain scenes.
I retreaded through multiple parts of the game on 3 PS4s and found the issue to be more
prevalent on the 2 regular PS4s that we have.
The PS4 Pro would still exhibit similar audio issues, but not as often as the regular PS4.
And while I can't really speak for Xbox One owners, I've seen reports of PC owners
experiencing similar, if not worse, technical issues than what I've mentioned here.
Leaving technical issues aside, while I did enjoy the exchanges between Leo and Vince,
the dialogue felt really dry and banal due to the script's insistence to portray the
characters as "real."
In some choice moments, the dialogue actually pulled me away from the story a bit.
Leo: "We've come too far to back down now.
You need to talk to me.
Tell me what's going on in your head.
Talk to me!"
For the most part, the dialogue is serviceable and does its job fairly well.
To be clear, I'm not saying that the characters need to talk like they're in a Quentin Tarantino
movie, but there's better examples of dialogue that feels more real and substantive in other
media compared to some scenes in this game.
I feel that the developers were hoping that by working with another player and talking
with them a lot that this offline relationship would be a worthy substitute for these missing
elements in the game.
But we aren't these characters by any stretch of the imagination, and game makes that very
clear later on.
Most of the people playing this game are friends and even couples.
This latter point leads me to a section of my video that I wish I didn't have to talk
about, but have to.
Imagine that you're playing this game, and you're completely invested in the success
of your characters, only to reach a point in the game that completely undermines why
you bought the game to begin with.
Sadly, I cannot elaborate more on this subject matter.
But it's a huge gamble that the writer and developers took to deliver an emotional payoff
that, for me and my co-op partner, didn't work well.
Maybe it didn't work out because my co-op partner is also my girlfriend...
Leo: "Nice."
Vince: "I know."
...but without expanding on this topic, this specific section alone made us question our
entire experience with the game up until that point.
It's a real pity too, because while the game has these issues, the story it's trying
to tell for most of the game was really engaging, and the chemistry between both protagonists
really stick with you for a long time.
The stylized realism that the game has stands tall with the rest of its peers in the genre,
and the soundtrack enhances the scenes well - provided they play properly.
All the actors in the game do their best with the dialogue they're given, and its their
performances that really breathe life into the characters on screen.
And I know I've said this before, but the game is really fun to play with another person.
I wanted to like A Way Out more than how I've been talking about it here.
The game has a lot of really cool ideas and was fun, for the most part.
But the way it sneakily undermines itself in some sections and the little nicks and
dings here and there put a damper on any immediate recommendation of the game for me.
Granted, the latter issues can be fixed with patches and updates, but the former issue
is something drilled deep into the game as crucial to its storytelling and, sadly, its
execution is what's going to split people right down the middle.
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A Way Out Review | Hours Later | Backlog Battle

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