Review: A Way Out

A how to escape prison simulator, now available on Steam.

We previously mentioned that EA/Origin was moving a bunch of games over to Steam. Amidst the move, many EA games were on sale in the Steam store and it has brought many of these games back onto my radar.

I have been wanting to play A Way Out for a while now and this seemed like as good a time as any. The game is exclusively a 2 player co-op experience and it cannot be played without a friend. The main premise of the game is you reliving the tale of two inmates escaping prison. The main menu literally shows your two characters outside of prison talking back on the feat, so you know you successfully escaped already.

Game Play

The game is on the story telling side, rather than being challenging or having any advanced combat mechanics. I don’t think I even saw a difficulty setting. This is not a bad thing at all, the game accomplishes its goal very well. The coolest thing is that even if you are playing online, you are always seeing the game in split screen. You can see everything that your partner in crime is doing, which keeps you in the loop and creates a new sense of immersion into the game.

The acting is pretty good and they do portray the emotions of your characters and the NPCs pretty decently. I wouldn’t rave about the acting, but I’m not mad at it either. You can also interact with numerous items in the environment which adds to the experience. The puzzles are pretty straightforward, I don’t think anything will have you thinking too hard, but it’s enough to keep you entertained for a while.

Bugs

The game has been out for a while and it is clear that EA (Or Hazelight Studios) didn’t care enough to fix any common and very clearly reported bugs. I ran into 2 game breaking bugs the first 3 hours, which I had to google and found out happened to literally almost everyone. Game companies need to pay more attention and fix GAME BREAKING bugs. I ran into an infinite loading screen 3 times that required me to exit the game and reload. While another bug broke the environment and I could not advance in the story anymore.

I think the game is awesome and would recommend people to pick it up if they have a friend they can experience the game with, but it is disappointing to see some sloppiness from the developers. There are brief sections of the game that I felt were poorly developed, but I’ll avoid talking about those as they could include spoilers.

Check the game out on Steam.

EA Origin Games Moving to Steam, Including APEX

EA announced back in October 2019 that they would be moving many games to Steam.

Many of those games are now available on the Steam store. As a bonus they are discounting a ton of titles on the steam store as well! You can snag star wars, need for speed, battlefield titles, and more!

APEX Legends will also definitely be moving to steam and the store page is already available but listed as TBA.

The common question is – will you still need Origin?

Unfortunately, yes, you will still need Origin installed and running to play these games even if they were bought and installed on Steam. A common model used by other publishers like Ubisoft’s Uplay. However, you still reap the benefits of Steam’s download servers and stability. I often have problems with many other publisher’s launchers, and steam has remained the best in functionality and stability. Steam also never fails to give me MAX download speeds on games.

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New Releases

Even without APEX, lots of titles are already available. A Way Out is exclusively a 2 player co-op game where you explore prison life and try to escape. I’m personally excited to try this one out.

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Titanfall and APEX!