FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Games

Break Out of Prison With Your Best 70s Bro in 'A Way Out'

Hazelight studio's 70s prison-break game looked fresh in a sea of super-budget glitz.
Image courtesy of EA

EA's E3 press conference had some heavy focus on sports games and Star Wars, but sandwiched in the middle was a trailer and a little bit of promotion for a new title called A Way Out. The first project by a studio called Hazelight and published via the EA Originals program, A Way Out appears to be a prison break (and after) story about two guys who are just trying to make good in a pseudo-1970s world. It has some exploitation-y elements, and there was a Strong Emotional Moment where a grown man hugged a child.

Advertisement

Importantly, it is a co-op only game. You spend your time, either on the couch or online, talking to someone else about how you're going to do all the adventure game/action/driving sequences. To put it lightly, it seems both complicated and exciting.

The game is partially being sold on its pedigree. Hazelight, the developing studio, has some key creative talent from the celebrated Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Brothers was notable for its fairy tale story and control method, which had the player moving each brother with a different analog stick. Lots of people told me they loved it, and almost as many told me that I would love it.

Brothers mostly fell flat, and it was because the gameplay concepts steamrolled over any other possibilities.

I did not love it. I thought that the conceit was interesting, and I thought that the game's "twist" was neat, but I ultimately thought it was a great idea that didn't pan out for me. It was, in the end, a simple fairly tale with a neat control mechanic. The parts that were so celebrated were great, but they were the only parts that were notable. The intense focus on the single idea seemed to come at the cost of deepening any other part of the game. To me, Brothers mostly fell flat, and it was because the gameplay concepts steamrolled over any other possibilities.

A Way Out looks great, but I hope that the co-op isn't like Brothers's control mechanism: a one-note idea that pushes out other, more interesting missed opportunities.