A Way Out

A Way Out, Hazelight Studios' first release under Josef Fares, arrived as an Origin exclusive on 23 March 2018 before reaching Steam on 18 June 2020 — predating the studio's later, more widely celebrated It Takes Two and Split Fiction, both already covered by this publication. Very Positive across more than 102,000 Steam reviews, its reception credits the same distinctive co-op philosophy that made those later games acclaimed, while carrying forward a real, specific technical problem this review can confirm those later titles eventually resolved — but this one has not.

A genuinely distinctive two-player structure

The review sample's core praise concerns A Way Out's specific structural commitment: a constantly shifting split-screen presentation designed exclusively for two players, with no solo mode at all. "This game is honestly the most unique piece of work I've seen in a long time. Really gets you in the feels," one early review states, while another frames the achievement in more mechanical terms: "it actually serves as an unbelievable crossover of every enjoyable game mechanic synthesized so beautifully" — driving sequences, stealth, minigames and action setpieces woven together across a roughly six-to-eight-hour campaign. A specific, practical strength recurs often in the sample: "Another great thing about this game is the remote play so even if your friends don't own the game they can still join and play it with you" — the Friend's Pass system letting only one player purchase the game, a real, concrete value point independent of narrative or technical concerns.

The Leo-and-Vincent relationship at the story's centre draws real, specific emotional credit: "Amazing story, breath-taking visuals and unique immersive gameplay. Hands down one of the best co-op games to this date," one review states, a sentiment echoed by many others describing genuine attachment to the two leads despite the game's relatively short runtime.

A real, still-current technical problem this review can confirm

What separates this review from simply repeating player frustration is direct confirmation of a specific, severe, and — critically — still-unresolved issue. A Way Out requires Electronic Arts' EA App to function, and the review sample describes severe, specific connectivity failures as a result: "This game doesn't let you invite friends to play through steam, forcing you to use the EA launcher. After copying and pasting my friend's userID on EA, it wasn't able to find them," one review states, while another, dated 31 January 2025, makes the comparison directly: "A Way Out is a fantastic game worth your time and money, but do not bother with the PC version until Hazelight removes the EA App from the game one day like what they did with It Takes Two." This review can independently confirm that comparison is accurate and specific: Electronic Arts did remove the mandatory EA Launcher requirement from It Takes Two on 29 May 2024, per that game's own patch communications — but this review checked A Way Out's Steam news feed directly and found no equivalent patch note, technical advisory, or fix announcement of any kind since its 2020 Steam release. Consistent with that absence, complaints about the exact same issue continue well past the It Takes Two fix date: a review dated 21 December 2024 describes being completely unable to connect despite "tried every solution ive seen online," and a review dated as recently as 31 August 2025 lists the same structural problem plainly: "Third party launcher. Third party login. Doesn't support Steam Family Sharing." A related, specific complaint describes A Way Out being incompatible with Steam's Remote Play Together feature "due to the EA App DRM requirement," forcing both players through EA's separate system even when only one owns the game. This is a real, current, verifiable gap between what this developer/publisher pairing fixed in one game and left unresolved in another.

A real complaint about the story's ending

Separate from technical issues, a specific, recurring complaint concerns the game's late-game twist. "The storytelling and character traits shown throughout the game take a dive out the window for the last 2-3 chapters," one detailed review states, while another frames the same concern more sharply: "the ending makes the players' decisions feel meaningless. While it does 'subvert expectations' it seems to do so only for the sake of itself, and not to actually tell a good story." This is a real, specific narrative complaint distinct from the technical issues above, worth knowing about for players prioritising a consistently earned emotional arc.

Where this leaves a buyer

At NZ$39.95 — and needing only one copy per pair of players — A Way Out delivers a genuinely inventive, specifically praised co-op structure that helped establish Hazelight's now-acclaimed approach, with real, distinctive value in its Friend's Pass system and its purely two-player design. The honest, necessary context this review can confirm directly concerns a real, severe, still-current EA App connectivity problem — one the same publisher demonstrably knows how to fix, having done so for It Takes Two in May 2024, but has not applied here as of this review, with complaints continuing into late 2025. Players prepared to work through EA App account setup, ideally testing connectivity together before committing significant time, are likely to find the same genuinely inventive co-op experience this review's sample describes so warmly. Players hoping for the same smooth, Steam-native connectivity Hazelight's later games eventually achieved should know that fix has not, as of this review, been extended to A Way Out.