We Happy Few Arrives on Early Access and Xbox Game Preview
From Compulsion Games, this first-person, narrative-driven roguelike survival game is the tale of a plucky bunch of slightly terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful delusion
Happy Announcements About We Happy Few – July 2, 2015
We Happy Few takes place in an alternate timeline in which, during WW2, England is successfully invaded and occupied by Germany. Most of the country, including the town of Wellington Wells, is pretty much turned into rubble.
During the occupation, the Wellies do A Very Bad Thing. To relieve their anguish over what had happened, they invent a happiness drug called Joy.
Fast-forward to 1964, and there you are in dystopian, drug-fuelled, happiness-obsessed Wellington Wells. But there’s one big problem. You don’t want to be happy all the time. This makes you, in local parlance, a Downer: someone who’s off the happy-pill regimen.
This deviation from the rules does not go over well with the Wellies. As a result, your primary objective is to blend in with Wellington’s happy citizens as you try to find a way to escape all of this unbridled, albeit drug-induced cheer. You must learn to conform in order to avoid suspicion. It’s a “hide-in-plain-sight” kind of thing.
If you slip up and forget to act happy, and someone sees you, you’ll be attacked by Wellies and forced to take your happy pills, one way or other. They’ll use extreme violence if necessary. In those cases, your only alternative will be to fight, run and/or hide.
We Happy Few has three Downers to unlock and play. These characters are flawed and not particularly heroic, warped by the trauma their world has endured. Each has a story to play through.
The game is designed for permadeath to keep hardcore players happy. (Happy! Get it?) But no worries; it offers easier difficulty settings for everyone else.
Developer Compulsion Games (Contrast) has stated: Our stories are definitely Not Appropriate For Children, unless your children are already reading Neil Gaiman novels, in which case, good on you. But don’t worry, it’s not all frowns and sadness! It’s also laced with dark humour, hope, and even a spot of redemption.
We Happy Few is now available for PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox One on Steam Early Access, GOG.com Games in Development, The Humble Store and Xbox Game Preview. According to Compulsion Games, it will be 6-12 months until the game’s final release.
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