Action · 2020 · Hazelight Studios · local · online
A Way Out
Two convicts break out. Nobody gets over that wall alone — the two of you included.
What it is about
Leo and Vincent are in the same prison and both want out. You each play one of them — always at the same time, each in your own half of the screen. That split screen is not a technical compromise but the storytelling device: sometimes one of you sees what the other does not.
You do a bit of everything: sneak past the guards, work a window grille loose while the other keeps a conversation going, drive a car while the other shoots, hunt through a workshop for tools. Hardly a task repeats, and almost none of them work alone.
In between there are quiet stretches — a dinner, a drive, throwing a baseball in the yard. They carry the story and give the escape the weight it lives on.
Our verdict for couples
You will look for a solo mode in vain, and so thoroughly so that the game will not even start without a second controller. The screen stays split the whole way through, cutscenes included: you never see the same thing, and again and again something happens on one side that the other one misses. Almost every chapter brings an idea that never returns — a rowing boat, a workbench, a wheelchair. In exchange it is over after five or six hours, and a second run is not worth it: once you know the story, you know it.
Pros
- Built for two from the ground up, not retrofitted
- Both of you on screen at once, both of you needed
- New mechanics throughout instead of one repeated
Cons
- A lot of cutscenes through the middle
- One playthrough and the story is spent
- Rather short for full price
Suitable from
Casual–Hobby
- Conflict potential
- Harmonious
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 30–45 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 5–15 hours
What other co-op fans say
Almost every review tells the same story: they played it with exactly one person, and that person gets named — brother, partner, best friend. That is not a coincidence but the heart of the game, and the reviews recognise it as such: a game built for two from the start feels different from one that had co-op bolted on. The praise centres on the variety — every scene brings something new rather than the same task in a new setting. Strikingly often someone mentions playing it a second time to show it to a different person. The most common objection concerns the middle: a lot of storytelling pushes in between the playable stretches.
- “A Way Out is a game which clearly demonstrates what a game created with two players in mind can achieve.”
- “This is honestly the perfect game to play with your bestie.”
- “This gave me two unforgettable experiences. Playing it with my childhood bestfriend on release and then replaying it with my brother who knew nothing about it.”
- “Great short couch co-op game. Can be a little slow in action.”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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