| We Happy Few | |
|---|---|
| |
Developer(s) |
Compulsion Games |
Publisher(s) |
Compulsion Games |
Genre(s) |
rogue-like, narrative, survival |
| System requirements | |
Minimum
Recommended
| |
We Happy Few is a first-person narrative-driven roguelike survival game from Compulsion Games. It is a tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial. Set in a drug-fuelled, retro-futuristic city in an alternative 1960s England, players will have to blend in with its other inhabitants, who don't take kindly to people who don't abide by their not-so-normal rules. We Happy Few was successfully funded on Kickstarter on 4 July 2015 with pre-alpha backer access starting on 10 July 2015. It entered Steam Early Access and Xbox One Game Preview on 26 July 2016. The release version will be available on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Xbox One.
Setting[]
The game takes place in Wellington Wells, a city located in the southwest of England in 1964. In 1933 this world deviated from our own, having the Germans successfully invade and occupy England during World War 2. Most of England is rubble, as is a fair part of Wellington Wells.
However, during the Occupation, the Wellies all had to do A Very Bad Thing. To calm their anguish and guilt - and forget what they'd done - the Wellies invented Joy, the miracle happiness drug.
Narrative[]
In We Happy Few, players play as a Downer - someone off their happy pills. The game has three Downers, and each one has a story to play through. Their stories all interweave, so by playing one character, the others can be unlocked.
All three characters are haunted by terrible things they've done in the past, and they each have something they urgently need to accomplish.
Gameplay[]
The main minute-to-minute need is to avoid suspicion by blending with the Wellies and Wastrels, while looking for a way to escape the city. The player will have to fend for themselves by scavenging and crafting key items from areas with different social expectations. Inconsequential situations, players might also have to fight, run, or hide from the Wellies. The game was designed for permadeath for more hardcore players, but is more accessible on easier difficulties.