Welcome back from Spring Break! Today, we’ll take a look at an upcoming indie game that has held my attention since its announcement: We Happy Few. We’ll talk about the basics of the game and how well the mechanics might hold up after the initial release.
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We Happy Few comes to us from Compulsion Games, the creators behind the experimental puzzle-platformer Contrast. We Happy Few relates the story of a futuristic 1960s English dystopian town called Wellington Wells, a place of happiness and merriment. The citizens of this town maintain their cheery mood by taking Joy, a narcotic that induces a lovely disposition in the consumer. Life is good in Wellington Wells, so long as you take your Joy. If you refuse, the citizens turn hostile and attempt to do away with anyone intending to kill the mood. These killjoys, also known as Downers, are hated in society and are denounced by Jack, the local TV personality. Should you be a Downer, you can expect a bad time in this quaint village…
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| A classic 1960s village with a retro-futuristic twist, Wellington Wells is filled with secrets and grand locations for the player to enjoy. |
However, an interesting mechanic is used here with great effect: Societal survival. In this case, the player must try to blend in with the crowd as well as a Downer can, usually by returning pleasant greetings and avoiding suspicious behavior. Should the player act out of the ordinary, the police and townspeople with chase them down with bloodthirsty intentions. The player can defuse the citizen’s aggressions by taking Joy, which can be found on nearly every street corner. For a few moments, the situation will become pleasant and the player’s aggressors will move on. However, Joy dehydrates the player and plagues them with withdrawal systems, incentivizing the player to avoid reckless behavior in the first place.
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| Even the police are in on the Downer hunting, meaning even the most friendly constable isn't to be trusted. |
The game also lacks a respawn system, meaning that a dead player stays dead. Should the game be restarted, not only will the player have to start from square one, but the entire town’s layout will have shifted, meaning a genuinely fresh experience.
The highly stylized aesthetic of the game certainly help emphasize the citizen’s uncanny behavior, coupling bright colors and pleasant architecture with the dark underlying intentions and hidden decay of the society as a whole. The citizens are rendered as caricatures of human beings, which helps emphasize their brutality against the hated Downers.
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| The cartoonish graphics help magnify the cheery disposition of the citizens, which in turn emphasizes their grotesque behavior towards the player character. |
Overall, the game appears promising. The themes, mechanics and graphics all smack of an oppressive and entertaining experience. However, since this game remains unfinished, very little of the actual narrative structure is unknown, which worries me a little. The developers promise a rich story to accompany their world, but due to the game’s open-world nature, it might be difficult to create an enticing underlying narrative. A disappointing story just might kill the game, seeing as the mechanics all feed into the central theme of exploration and survival amongst a people that inexplicably hate you for your origins.
Pessimistic quibbles aside, We Happy Few is a title to keep an eye out for this Summer. With its interesting take on societal interactions, immersive world and inherently dark themes, this game promises an unforgettable experience that begs to be played. Just don’t play too long, or you might find yourself dodging looks in the real world!
Want to speculate on the narrative of We Happy Few, or talk about the mechanics at length? Go at it in the comments, or at our Twitter @GamerGweek!
Written by Spence
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