20 Best Video Games Of 2018

9. A Way Out

Props to Josef Fares. After first helming the ace adventure game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, he signed onto EA's Originals program, and birthed a story-driven third-person shooter exclusively playable in split-screen.

Because of this, it allows A Way Out to pay tribute to various gameplay tropes and mechanics, before innovating on them with dual perspectives. Escaping a prison is only the tip of the iceberg, as you'll pulling off twin stealth kills, infiltrating a compound by alternating cover fire - even pausing to play basketball or Connect Four against one another.

Standout sequences come at a steady clip too, with one set-piece in a hospital showcasing a camera that flies in and out of rooms, down corridors and through ventilation systems, only to match up with alternating players for key chunks of gameplay.

Here's to Fares and Hazelight for executing on such an idea. Though the story is itself a tribute to American action cinema, the way everything culminates is one of the most unique scenarios in all of gaming.