A Way Out Could Be The Split-Screen Revolution We've Been Waiting For

The split-screen presentation works to portray potentially familiar gameplay sequences from a new point of view as well. Just about anyone who's ever picked up a game will have played through a stealth sequence where they're choking out enemies from cover, running away from a troop of gun-toting baddies, or punching their way through a hallway of goons. A Way Out has all of these scenarios too, but through its idiosyncratic construction the developers were able to make them all feel fresh. Whether it's using part of the screen to show your partner in danger or to keep an encroaching threat constantly in view, the multitude of perspectives present in every scene always makes for a more engaging experience overall.

Likewise, one of the key times the game does break its split-screen-only rule is during a climactic chase through a hospital. Riffing on movies more than it does games, the section is constructed as a "oner" that moves between the location of the two characters as we find them struggling to get from the building's top floor to the getaway car outside.

Using the camera to flow from character to character, the scene might move from Leo in a 2.5D corridor brawl to Vincent using a window ledge outside to escape a heavily-guarded room, and then back to the previous character facing an entirely new obstacle. For the first time you don't fully know where your guy is or what they're up to, which only adds to the intensity and the unpredictability of the set-piece.