Released this week across PC, PS4 and Xbox One, A Way Out is a co-op only experience from the makers of Brothers: A Tale of Two Souls. As you’d expect, there’s a bunch of puzzles where two people need to be in different places, some of which are timing related. But just after an hour, the game dropped a fun little timing puzzle that woke my partner and I right up.
We played a couple of hours of Hazelight’s Prison Break-esque adventure last night, which tells the stories of crims Vincent and Leo as they attempt to break out of jail to exact revenge on Harvey. You don’t get much info about Harvey to begin with, but I’m avoiding spoilers as much as possible so I won’t go into details.
Most of the puzzles early on are pretty straightforward, which makes sense as it’s designed to be a shared, accessible experience. You’re not breaking out of Central Yharnam, after all. But as you progress some of the puzzles become a little more timing related, and then there’s this one in particular:
Military precision.
Faced with a large shaft and no ladder, Vincent and Leo’s only method of climbing is this awkward, back-to-back method. It triggers a timing puzzle where both players have to press X in tandem, and if someone mistimes their button press the crims find themselves slightly out of joint.
We were sitting in bed – A Way Out is relaxed enough to enjoy that way, despite the prison environment – but after a couple of missed prompts, Tegan and I immediately set about trying to nail the sequence. We eventually settled on a basic counting system – hitting the prompt on 1, 2, 3 – until we reached the top of the shaft, only for Vincent and Leo to realise they didn’t have the necessary wrench to proceed further.
Gracefully, the game didn’t make us do the puzzle again. But the technique has proved handy throughout the game, with a number of takedowns and other instances where the two crims need to move in sync.
Like a lot of the puzzles so far, they’re relatively simple but fun in a shared environment. I can’t say whether the entirety of A Way Out is worth the price of entry, but it kept me up at least an hour past my bedtime, so that’s a good start.
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