During this year’s Game Awards, EA announced that Hazelight Studios’ A Way Out will be launching on March 23, 2018. The announcement came at the end of a new trailer, which also provided some more information on the gameplay, characters, and business model.
Aside from the release date, Hazelight made another big announcement during the trailer. Since the game is built around co-op multiplayer, you and your friends won’t need to buy multiple copies to play the game together. This doesn’t appear to be a demo or limited trial, either. Instead, your friends will be able to play the entire game for free as long as you’re online with them.
One thing that was not made clear was how many friends you can invite to play the game with you. Given that Hazelight is attempting to create the old school co-op experience, it’s possible there will be no hard limit, aside from the fact that only two people can play at a time.
The trailer itself emphasized the co-op nature of the game and gave us several intriguing moments. By interspacing tense scenes such as a gas station robbery with more tender moments of reuniting with loved ones, the trailer served to showcase the game’s narrative strengths.
In particular, the trailer does a good job of highlighting the differences between the two playable characters. It is clear that these two men, Leo and Vincent, are forced to work together out of circumstance, though we can imagine they’ll do some bonding along the way.
A Way Out was announced earlier this year during EA Play 2017, offering an experience seldom seen as of late. Co-op games, such as Left 4 Dead, have been around for awhile, but A Way Out is the first time in a while that we’ve seen a developer attempt to create narrative-driven co-op game.
A Way Out‘s focus on co-op multiplayer may make the game a hard sell for some people, since it can be difficult to find others to play with. If you’re on the fence, check out our hands-on review to get our thoughts on how the game plays.
