We Happy Few Preview

The video for We Happy Few that was presented at this year’s E3 caught my attention fairly quickly, promising a ride through a unique, dystopian version of England. Compulsion Games’ previous game, Contrast, may not be a title you’ve heard a lot about, but it definitely had personality. The fact that the studio is able to envision these worlds that ooze originality is also clear from We Happy Few’s alpha which I’ve recently played through.

While the E3 clip focused on what’s to be the main story, the pre-launch version does and will not contain more than the prologue. Said prologue follows the same exact events, providing a good glimpse of the atmosphere found in We Happy Few’s world. Long story short, Britain’s involvement in World War 2 left it terribly shaken to the point where a drug called Joy is constantly used, and not always willingly, by its citizens to forget all sorts of nasty memories. This drug goes so far as to alter one’s reality and at least one of the three character’s stories will follow someone who chooses to break away from the drug-filled zeitgeist, opting to remember.

A couple of Orwellian elements can easily be identified in the areas you get to explore. Encountering different types of citizens will require you to behave accordingly. People in the less fortunate districts will look at you suspiciously should you come in wearing a fancy suit. The opposite is available for the Joy-entranced denizens. Needless to say, the grip that the E3 trailer had on me grew when I played through the prologue and further on, when I ventured out into the world, trying out the survival aspects that come with the pre-release build.

Despite only having close to 50% of the procedurally generated world that’s to be found in the full version, We Happy Few has you doing a fair number of things. You wake up in an area safehouse with the objective of escaping past a certain point on the map. As you get out and explore, you’ll be faced with a number of encounters. When completed, they provide both items that may come in handy and a better understanding of what’s going on around you. A house defended with mines may contain war rations; very high quality food, that some Downers (people off their Joy) are keeping from themselves. Out there somewhere, a couple might be trying to keep alive until they can move on or simply require something to put away their worries for a day or two.

These encounters, once picked up do not lock you into any form of linear progression. You are always free to explore the procedurally generated world, provided you have the necessary resources. Thus, scavenging plays an important role. Flower petals can be used to craft medical ointments, old houses may contain food or other materials. Keeping your hands clean will be a difficult task, though, as the rarer crafting materials will often be found in areas where more NPCs roam. A nightly approach is probably the best, especially if there aren’t traps, as most of the NPCs will be sleeping. Then, all that’s left to bother you is your conscience when you silently dispose of a fellow man that’s having it just as worse as you are (a thing emphasized very well through your character’s voice acting when you perform a takedown on someone).

Resources are hard to come by in We Happy Few and inventory space tends to be limited. Most of the food I found tended to be rotten. This would cause illness which would apply a debuff unless I took a certain type of pills. Touching a plagued body resulted in contracting a disease that’s pretty difficult to cure, at least when you’re just stepping into the game’s world. Bleeding wounds may get infected unless they’re bandaged. You might think these things are fairly normal in a game that claims to focus on survival and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. On paper, they’re a series of simple systems. In practice, with resources being scarce, they make up for a survival experience that’s very entertaining to play through. The pre-release version allows choosing whether or not you want Permadeath in your session, which is a good idea in case the first few deaths become stressful. You can also check the Second Wind option which, when you die for whichever reason, gives you another chance having you wake up in a dying state (which requires you to quickly heal up).

When sneaking won’t do, We Happy Few will have you throwing punches, rocks, or helping your pointy stick make friends. The combat, however, feels a little too rudimentary. You can block, take swings and push people away, leaving them open for a follow-up attack, all while managing your stamina bar. It’s functional and getting into a fight with 5 armed people won’t probably end too well for you, but it’s definitely an area that could use some improvement, which I hope is somewhere in the content that’s not yet been introduced.

It’s safe to say that the people over at Compulsion Games seem to have a solid foundation for We Happy Few. Now, it remains to be seen how the survival aspects will be expanded upon in the upcoming months and how they will mingle with the three stories that are being prepared for launch day. In any case, We Happy Few is a game worth keeping an eye on.

Bogdan Robert, NoobFeed
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