After seeing the live demo of We Happy Few on stage during the Microsoft press conference earlier this week, the title jumped to the top of my list of games to get my hands on during E3, and the demo for We Happy Few did not disappoint.
From Compulsion Games comes We Happy Few. Set in a dystopian version of England during the 1960s, we meet Arthur Hastings, a man living in a highly stylized world where it is a criminal act to be a “Downer” by not taking your “Joy” pills.
As the demo begins, I wake up at a desk, presumably at work. In front of me is a machine, “The Redactor.” A cinematic plays out before I can assume control. Using The Redactor, Arthur sorts through newspaper articles, marking them as “approved” or “restore.” Arthur blocks out certain portions of text and marks it as approved, as his job at the Central Processing Office is to determine if a piece of writing is suitable for circulation or not.
After hesitating to take my Joy pill, I toss it to the floor. A woman enters the room with her face painted in exaggerated mime makeup and a smile drawn up the sides of her cheeks. She says it’s someone’s birthday and that I should come and break a piñata with them. Okay, definitely not weird at all.
Making my way to my objective, I explore the office location. I soon learn that everyone seems to be wearing a variation of this makeup, and I must say, all of the characters in this game are scary as hell just to look at and successfully creeped me out.
Making my way through the office, I pass various suspicious-looking characters, and while I don’t get to do much with them in the demo, there is definitely a mystery to be unraveled here. I also picked up on the hierarchy that exists in the world of We Happy Few, with themes alluding to a drug-induced population controlled by some higher authority.
Once I arrive at the demented birthday party I have been invited to, I’m greeted with a roomful of people who are super excited for me to break the piñata, which I do begrudgingly. But instead of being filled with candy, I realize it has a small animal in it, which splatters all over me in a bloody heap. Judging by how everyone gobbles it up, I think it’s safe to assume “Joy” not only makes people complacent, but also causes controlled hallucinations.
After realizing that I'm not on my meds, security is called and I have to make a break for it. I eventually come across a small boiler room of sorts and during this part of the demo, I realize that the location is my safe house where I can catch my breath and store items in an inventory locker, which means you won’t always have your items with you. We Happy Few drops pieces of information to move the story forward, such as notes or recordings. Most everything is searchable, but in survival horror fashion, doors could be locked or items can be scarce.
From the short time I had with We Happy Few, it was apparent that this is a game that will heavily feature scavenging and crafting elements. For instance, one objective required me to craft a crowbar-like item out of two separate objects in order to pry open a door.
Personal care is also an issue. In my experience, when a player is given a bed in a game, it’s more of a loose suggestion or a way to move time forward. In We Happy Few, you will die from things like dehydration or sleep depravation, so you have to keep on top of the “real-life” stuff beyond the surreal things happening around you, which only adds to the challenge. I really dug what I’ve seen so far, and I can’t wait to dig into more of the story in the future.
After enjoying a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, We Happy Few is coming to Xbox One Game Preview on July 26th, 2016, and a full release will follow in 2017.
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