Saturday 1 September, 2018

Picking up from I left, I and my friends finished the second part of the game. We had successfully broken out of the prison and escaped with a vehicle. One player drives, the other shoots the police. There are two types of games that I hated the most: shooting and racing game. I was worried I am not going to do well and wasted my friend’s game. However, controls are easy, and the escaping scene is fairly short, that even player such as me can manage to do it before getting too anxious about failing too much.

This game is a character-driven piece. Although in the beginning, it seemed like a story-driven piece, in the second half of the game really evokes players deepest emotions. Till this point, the player playing as the protagonist had bounded together after all these journeys, they reflected some of their feelings to the protagonist. Leo and Vincent both went to their family and witnessed each other’s private life, moreover, weakness. I was moved by their stories. It is weird but I do feel like me and my friend had bonded deeper throughout this game. A lot of times when we are making decisions whether following Leo’s plan or Vincent’s plan, we tend to vote for the same plan. This makes me know more about my friend’s personal trait.

Breaking into the house was intense. I and my friend were both pumped up in the end when we killed the final boss. We were satisfied with the “ending” until we played until the very last scene. After all, I have been through with him, he betrayed me. The ending is shocking and gives me a deep impression.

This game is enjoyable to play with friends. Normal cooperative games are most of the time are action games and are not supposed to be emotional, A Way Out offers me a new perspective of multiplayer games. Gameplay is short and I think this is perfect because me and my friends we don’t always get to play together since we are both busy students. Gameplay is smooth, controls are easy to understand. This is one of my favorite game of the year.

Good job Leona! You talk a lot about what happened in the game, but digging a little deeper will help you come up with topics that you can focus on for your OPA. For example, you said "The ending is shocking and gives me a deep impression," why did it impact you so much? Was it ethical for the developers to include betrayal in a game so heavily focused on teamwork? You also mention the break out scene where you have to shoot the police, what ethical questions does having to do that raise? Looking for these kinds of questions during your game logs will help you pick a topic for your OPAs.