We Happy Few – PAX East 2015 Hands On

<p>In November of 2013&comma; Compulsion Games released a puzzle platformer entitled Contrast&period; As a linear experience which was released before gamers could give their feedback on the development process&comma; Complusion is taking a different route with their newest game&comma; We Happy Few&period; With a kickstarter launching in the coming weeks and then plans to release the game first on Steam Early Access&comma; the developers are looking for fans to participate in the development process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While Contrast took place in the 1920&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; We Happy Few is set in the &&num;8220&semi;drugful joys&&num;8221&semi; of England&&num;8217&semi;s 1960s&period; The game is being described as a first person&comma; alternative rogue-like survival game where each playthrough is procedurally generated&period; The developers expect each playthrough to consist of three to four hours of gameplay&period; Since each playthrough will not be the same as the previous and the game will be easy to modify&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re expecting the replay value to be very high for We Happy Few&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;UncleJack&lowbar;bagogames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;" wp-image-78905 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;UncleJack&lowbar;bagogames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"UncleJack&lowbar;bagogames" width&equals;"450" height&equals;"450" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The inhabitants of this England city are hooked on a drug called Joy&period; When one takes the drug&comma; the environment becomes somewhat blurred as if you&&num;8217&semi;re riding the wave of a high&period; As you come down from Joy&comma; the once colorful retro yet futuristic world becomes a boring black and white&period; The face of the city&comma; Captain Jack&comma; broadcasts his daily reminders to the citizens on televisions throughout the city&period; He will instruct everyone on how to be happy by reminding them to shower&comma; get dressed&comma; take their joy&comma; and even play &&num;8220&semi;Simon Says&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Everyone in We Happy Few are wearing white masks which are equipped with fake smiles&period; Clearly the abuse of Joy makes it harder for people to smile naturally and therefore an artifical grin becomes necessary&period; While not intentional&comma; there are parrallels to the City of Smiles of the 1930s in Budapest&period; Here citizens of post World War 1 were committing suicide at a rapid rate&comma; many inspired by the song &&num;8220&semi;Gloomy Sunday&&num;8221&semi;&period; To combat this epidemic&comma; a Smile Club was created where they promised to teach people how to smile like famous celebrities of the era&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In-game mechanics for We Happy Few are familiar to those who play many first person survival games&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll be collecting items throughout the city and then crafting items such a lock picks&comma; health&comma; and weapons&period; The game will display meters for your health&comma; food&comma; and water levels as they start to diminish&period; It is essential to replenish these items or else you will die and have to start your playthrough over again&period; Players should stay on the move looking for these items as if you&&num;8217&semi;re caught loitering&comma; the other people in town will become suspicious&comma; which results in them chasing you down and killing you&period; Not a pleasant experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Compulsion Games have an interesting premise on their hands&period; The current state of the game is in pre-alpha but what we were able to play gave us confidence that the game is heading in the right direction&period; We look forward to hearing more about their kickstarter and how they plan to include gamers into the drugful joy of We Happy Few&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;Village&lowbar;bagogames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-78907" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;Village&lowbar;bagogames-1024x740&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Village&lowbar;bagogames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"578" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;