A Way Out

A cinematic and often exciting co-op experience, which is unfortunately marred by a completely nonsensical plot. If you shut down the part of your brain that executes logic, you will be rewarded with beautiful visuals, great voice acting, thrilling sequences, and moments of fun silliness.

While not as polished and dense as Hazelight's later games (It Takes Two, Split Fiction), it still often gives you that "I can't believe they put that in the game" feeling. There's just so much going on in some scenes that—blink—and you'll miss it. But most of the time you get to slowly explore areas at your own pace. Note that, also unlike the later games, a second remote player has to own a copy. Alternatively, you can play with Steam Remote Play Together. Local splitscreen works great.

Though the story doesn't make sense as a whole, the individual scenes mostly do, and are beautifully crafted to bring out emotional, sensitive portrayals of the characters. It's very much a story about masculinity and male relationships, but I'm happy to say that it goes a bit beyond the clichés and is not afraid to show some tenderness and even hint at homoerotic sexuality. Just don't expect a deep exploration of these themes.

It's telling that I had the most fun with the silly moments, of which there are many. In between the spectacles and challenges you're given many opportunities to slowly explore areas and just screw around. Perhaps this does reveal that the story arch is not as engaging as it could have been. I think that it might be because there is not enough background: I don't fully understand how the characters got into this situation, and so I don't understand the reasons behind their choices. You're thrown into the plot and just have to go along for the ride.

But it's cool ride. Recommended.