Hazelight’s 2018 co-op adventure game, A Way Out, is pretty unique in the type of co-op gameplay it offers. If you’re looking for a game that enables you to work more closely with your co-op friend than just mindlessly shooting bad guys, you’re in the right spot. Here are games like A Way Out, if you’re looking for something similar.
Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine
Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine, is surprisingly not the only neon-drenched, co-op-fueled game on this list of games that match A Way Out. However, it is one of the most unique.
You and up to three other friends must work together in a variety of different missions to rob banks, museums, and police stations all in the name of money. While this all sounds very similar to Payday, its vibrant art style and top-down perspective make it stand out from the crowd.
Think the frantic action of Hotline Miami, mixed with the tactics-heavy gameplay of The Escapists.
If you liked A Way Out’s focus on criminal activity and co-op-focused gameplay then Monaco is the experience for you. Better yet, it’s incredibly easy to pick up and play, so within minutes you and all your friends will be pulling off heists like the pros.
This post was originally written by Dawson Roberts.
It Takes Two
When two parents are staring down the barrel of divorce, they suddenly find themselves transformed into dolls and must work together to overcome the many obstacles that have cause them problems over the years. That hoover that she broke and he could never fix, the pesky toolbox, you get the idea.
It Takes Two is from the same developer as A Way Out, albeit with a more care-free, comedic tone. Its vibrant colors make for a magical experience and the game constantly offers up new mechanics to keep the gameplay feeling fresh. This one’s well worth checking out if you were a fan of Hazelight Studios’ previous titles.
Overcooked
If you think that you’ve tested your friendship to the max by completing A Way Out together, then you would be sorely mistaken.
Overcooked is a true test of how strong your friendships really are. This is a game which prides itself on being an incredibly stressful and frantic experience and it’s all the better for it (some would probably go as far as saying it’s the Dark Souls of cooking games).
By working with up to 4 people you must try your best to complete various food orders and cook them to perfection. While that sounds relatively simple you’ll be faced be faced with a whole host of obstacles to stop you in your path, from sinking pirate ships to busy crossroads.
By the very end, you and all your friends will finally be able to relate to how stressed Gordon Ramsay gets in the kitchen. That is, if you have any friends left.
And if you do, you can get rid of the rest of them by making them play through Overcooked 2 with you!
Moving Out 2
Want something else a little less serious and more quirky than A Way Out? Moving Out 2 has you basically doing the same broad objective as Hazelight’s A Way Out, just substitute a prison with residential homes. Okay, that wasn’t a perfect comparison, but these two co-op games really do have many things in common.
The first Moving Out featured couch co-op fun for up to 4 players, but the sequel finally adds online co-op functionality. Players lacking couch buddies now have no excuse not to get into the Moving Out series.
Frantically transporting furniture from house to moving van is chaotic and stressful at times, which is where Moving Out 2 differs from A Way Out. A Way Out is frantic in its story beats, but not so much in the mini-game-drenched gameplay.
Moving Out 2 will provide plenty of hair-raising situations akin to a prison break, but in a less-intimate format. Both had us engaging in similar flurries of banter with our co-op partner at the end of the day, even if one has you doing a house break rather than a prison break.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
Imagine for a second that you’re the pilot in Galaga. You’re trying to simultaneously fly a ship, figure out who you’re going to shoot next, and avoid the enemy bullets coming your way, all while things go wrong left, right, and center. That is exactly the experience you’re in for when playing Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime.
By working with teammates, you must control every aspect of a ship as you fly through space trying to defeat enemies in your path.
It’s an experience that relies on working with your respective lover as each person mans a specific element of the ship, whether that be the ship’s flight path, a gun, or the force field.
It’s yet another game on this list that really emphasizes the fact that you need to work together to solve your problems, a message A Way Out heavily imposes on you. But its cutes-y, neon-filled art style is but a disguise for its rampant difficulty and within mere minutes you’ll wish you never left earth.
The Escapists
A Way Out tapped into what made shows like Prison Break great – the camaraderie, tactics and convoluted ways of escaping prisons – and if that’s exactly what you’re looking for in a game, then The Escapists should be your next venture.
You play as a simple prisoner who is desperate to escape his capture and must work your way through increasingly more complex prisons, trying to escape as quickly and elegantly as possible.
But in true Prison Break fashion, the ways in which you escape get more and more ridiculous as time goes on.
Each prison has its own obstacles to face whether that be electric fences or tighter security and you’ll be spending a lot of time figuring out exactly how you’ll execute the perfect escape. But by the end of the game, you’ll be able to escape anything that comes your way, you might even be able to give Houdini a run for his money.
Payday 3
If you’re looking to break into the prison instead of escape, look no further than the newly-released Payday 3.
Payday 3 doesn’t change the basic formula that players love about Payday 2. You’re still teaming up with a team of burglars in heists through banks, stores, and mansions. It’s the iteration on said formula where Payday 3 really shines. Level design in Payday 3 is more intricate and involved than ever before.
Teamwork is crucial to pulling off a successful robbery, so the player’s trust in their partners will be put to the ultimate test. While Payday 3 still doesn’t feature local co-op, it does add crossplay for the first time in the series.
If you’re looking for a similar theme and tone as A Way Out, but want something with a greater team-building challenge, Payday 3 is perfect for the outlaw gamer.
Snipperclips
If you’ve come straight out of A Way Out looking for another great couch co-op experience, then Snipperclips may fill that gap you’ve just created.
Its imaginative take on the puzzle genre makes it one of the best multiplayer experiences available for the Switch.
In it, you play as up to four miscellaneous shapes (with each player controlling a shape) and your aim is cut each other into the exact right shape so to solve a puzzle at hand.
Each puzzle is remarkably different from the last and while one minute you’re playing a friendly game of basketball the next you’ll be shouting at each other as you carefully try and transport a very fragile egg to a goal.
Snipperclips is a game that requires some intense levels of communication and teamwork but the satisfaction of completing a particularly tough level is unrivaled.
Biped
The unsung hero of modern co-op games, Biped is a 2-player puzzler demanding moment-to-moment coordination. Biped is not only a local and online co-op, but it’s also light on the wallet with a $5 price tag.
Not far removed from A Way Out’s predecessor, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, footwork in Piped is achieved using a thumbstick for each robot’s legs, hence the game’s title.
Levels comprise thoughtful puzzles and a small serving of platforming, so fans of Hazelight Studios’ cooperative games will find themselves on familiar ground playing Biped.
While Biped doesn’t have a dialogue-rich narrative, it does feature an adventurous plot requiring teamwork to overcome and it’s vibrantly adorable to boot.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Both A Way Out and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons are created by eccentric developer Josef Fares and are both games in which you control two characters simultaneously.
However, while A Way Out sees a friend control one character, Brothers sees you solely control both characters at the same time.
By using each thumbstick, you must move the brothers through the fairy-tale environments at hand, solving increasingly difficult puzzles and performing some impressive finger gymnastics along the way.
Don’t be fooled by its cute exterior, though, Brothers is a game with some heavy themes behind it and it’s unlikely you’ll leave without shedding a tear or two.
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