A Way Out developer Hazelight Studios is working on a new game, but so far it's only been teased by studio head Josef Fares and, for now, remains a mystery. What it definitely isn't, he said, is a sequel to the co-op criminal caper, though you can expect some familiar bits and bobs.
"What I can say is that it’s not A Way Out 2," Fares told RPS. "But it's going to be something with story, and in many cases remind [players] of Brothers and A Way Out, but in a very different way."
A Way Out isn't one of the best co-op games, but it's still one of my favourites. With a good buddy in tow, it's a great road trip full of escapades and close calls, so much so that it can be easy to ignore that the stealth is rubbish and the shooting isn't great. It's got a pretty clean ending, though, so it doesn't really seem like it needs a follow-up.
Fares didn't offer up any other details about the new project, aside from hyberbolic promises, though he did touch on multiplayer story-driven games.
"I do believe that there [is] a lot of potential in telling great stories for more than one person," he says. "If you look at movies today, we look at them together, we experience stories together… I do believe that multiplayer story games are underestimated. I think that there’s a lot of potential there that I would like to explore."
A Way Out's story was a bit played out, but it was elevated by having a buddy along for the ride. Even the terrible, out of place minigames can become weirdly compelling, slowly creating a competitive, adversarial component to the relationship between the crooks on the run. Hopefully, then, the mystery game will be another co-op romp, but Fares isn't telling.
