The first must-play game of 2018 is here: 'A Way Out' is an incredible, cinematic experience that you can't miss

Just three months in to 2018, and we've already got a must-play game: "A Way Out" is here, and it is like nothing I've ever played before.

A Way Out (review tag)

Where to even begin?

"A Way Out" is a two-player co-operative experience — it literally cannot be played without two people. It follows two men, Leo and Vincent, as they escape prison and embark on a quest for revenge.

On paper, "A Way Out" is an ambitious, interesting concept. In reality, "A Way Out" is a remarkably well-told interactive story that's like nothing else on modern game platforms. It's a game that, barring few exceptions, I'd suggest everyone play — video game fan or not. Here's why!

"A Way Out" is the best example yet of how video games can be used for storytelling.

"A Way Out" is essentially a playable action film, tropes and all.

There's a prison break, and a villainous antagonist that the protagonists are out to get, and various twists and turns that complicate the main storyline. There's a realistic, nuanced relationship between the two main characters — Leo and Vincent — that directly plays into the overall narrative. The dialog is believable, and the stakes are grounded in reality.

You're not a superhero. You're just one of the two main characters, trying to escape a prison and get revenge.

If "A Way Out" were a movie, it'd be slammed as a relatively straightforward, derivative experience. It probably wouldn't be very good, honestly. But it's a game, so the heavily trodden narrative foundation of "A Way Out" works much better. More importantly: You've never played through such a narrative before — not like this, anyway, with two human players depending on each other so directly.

The game is literally divided in half between the two main characters — it's an ambitious design choice that gets more interesting as the game goes on.

Again, to be all the way clear: You seriously can't play "A Way Out" without two humans controlling each of the two player characters.

The game can be played cooperatively over the internet, or on a single game console/PC. Bonus: You only need one copy to play the game, even over the internet on two separate game consoles!

If you're playing locally, like I did, you'll see a screen divided in two: On the left is Vincent, on the right is Leo. I played as Vincent, my buddy as Leo.

Sometimes they're in the same area, doing different things or working together, and sometimes they're in completely different places — no matter what, each character can directly impact the other. Early on in the game, this plays out in obvious ways: Vincent helps Leo climb up to a ledge, for instance. As the game goes on, though, the concept of two different screens and two different characters becomes something far more interesting.

Notably, the controls are never too complex — most of the game's actions come with on-screen prompts, which should help make it a bit more accessible to sporadic game players.

Yes, this is both characters working together to choke a man.

The way that "A Way Out" uses cooperative play is incredibly smart, and it changes a lot as the game goes on.

Take, for instance, the scene above. Here, both Leo and Vincent are furiously scrambling to choke a man. The scenes leading up to this big moment are tense, and break from the game's usual two-screen setup.

Here's what things looked like before the big climax you see above:

A Way Out

You can see the enemy on the left side — he's attempting to break through a barricaded door so that he can shoot Leo and Vincent. On the right side, you can see Leo and Vincent assisting each other in a relatively simple puzzle they needed to solve in order to continue escaping.

The moment was tense, as my buddy and I scrambled to get away from the enemy. I didn't realize how impressive it all was in the moment, but it was a major topic of discussion when we had some downtime soon after. We had both been monitoring the progress of the bad guy on the left, while simultaneously communicating with each other in real life how to help each other in the game.

That the scene culminated in all three screens coming together for the co-op choking was especially impressive (and gruesome, of course).

See the rest of the story at Business Insider