We Happy Few Preview

By Nate Lakritz
9 years Ago

Shortly after World War II, the people of an isolated society in Europe try to forget the war by constantly taking a happiness drug called Joy&period; They lose their ability to think clearly, and start to go insane&period; The premise alone of We Happy Few is enough to draw tons of attention and interest&period; Everything about this plot sounds great&period; First off, we can expect to find a retro-futurism theme present in the game &&num;8211&semi; something we always love to see&period; Secondly, there’s obviously going to be shape-shifting visuals due to the Joy drug and desire for happiness by its victims&period; We Happy Few seems like a recipe for success, but does its gameplay stack up&quest;&NewLine;We Happy Few combines RPG and survival-horror components in an open-world environment&period; Taking inspiration from franchises like Fallout and Bioshock, the game delivers a great universe that could stay fresh for years&period; Also, many locations and items in the game are procedurally generated, further adding to the freshness&period; The object of the game isn’t set in stone, as it’s non-linear with various quests, but I actually think We Happy Few could benefit from a linear plot&period; Although we try to stay away from undeviating storylines these days, this game doesn’t feel quite right as an open-world RPG&period; Even a few more cutscenes would give some needed direction to the player&period; I wanted to have a movie-like experience with my preview of We Happy Few, but couldn’t find anything more than an opening sequence being offered&period; Hopefully, more guidance will be present in the final form of the game, rather than just a few more story quests and a conclusion being added&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;111216" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-111216" style="width&colon; 1921px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-111216 size-full" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/08161410/We-Happy-Few&period;jpg" alt="We Happy Few (&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;We Happy Few&lt&semi;/em&gt&semi;, Compulsion Games)" width="1921" height="1080" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-111216" class="wp-caption-text">The town of Wellington Wells&period; (We Happy Few, Compulsion Games)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;As I already mentioned, your main objective isn’t streamlined&period; I spent most of my time wandering around, looting random houses and people for items&period; My strategy was to pick up as many items as possible, and make sense of them after filling up some inventory space&period; A crafting system must be utilized in order to advance through certain areas of the game&period; Luckily, you’re notified when you need to craft something to proceed&period; I found the crafting feature to be well-implemented and self-explanatory&period; Every item you find has some purpose, whether it be immediately, or a couple hours down the road&period; So, it’s always a smart idea to hold onto everything, even a rotten carrot&period;&NewLine;We Happy Few is primarily advertised as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;survival” game, but I surprisingly found those features to be the most awkward&period; As a whole, the game felt like a standard RPG with a bunch of random survival meters slapped on&period; Specifically, food, hunger, and sleep counters constantly bug you and drain extremely quickly&period; Every time I was in the middle of a quest or exploring a building, I was interrupted by a hunger warning&period; Although ignoring the survival components won’t kill you, there are certain movement and regeneration penalties for doing so&period; Also, your character will occasionally become sick or injured&period; With all these factors ticking at all times, I felt less anxious and more like a zombie as I played through the game&period; Some would argue that’s the point, but I’d rather play Fallout than stumble around as a starving, sleep-deprived, alcoholic (because I couldn’t find a water source but had tons of beer)&period;&NewLine;Combat in the game is 100&percnt; melee from what I experienced&period; Your character’s fists are surprisingly durable, but a weapon always helps in battle&period; Bringing up survival again, I never really was randomly attacked by anyone&period; Every time I found myself fighting, it was after I had initiated a scuffle or started robbing someone in front of their face&period; In a dystopian world, I would imagine there would be gangs and corrupt police trying to rob you, but everyone in We Happy Few just walks around aimlessly&period; It was nice not having to deal with any of that, but somewhat unrealistic&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;111217" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-111217" style="width&colon; 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-111217 size-full" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/08161803/We-Happy-Few-2&period;jpg" alt="We Happy Few (&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;We Happy Few&lt&semi;/em&gt&semi;, Compulsion Games)" width="1920" height="1080" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-111217" class="wp-caption-text">Uncle Jack gives me nightmares&period; (We Happy Few, Compulsion Games)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;The best part of the game was its subtle horror&period; You constantly hear the creepy voice of a live-action clown named &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Uncle Jack”&period; This Big Brother type character appears to be the primary antagonist of the game, and he’s everywhere&period; Even in my underground bunker, Uncle Jack appeared on a TV and told everyone to hunt down anyone who doesn’t take Joy&period; Also, the effects of WWII are apparent with destroyed houses and vandalized buildings&period; It will be interesting to see if Uncle Jack’s backstory is explained and if he has anything to do with the conclusion of the game&period; &NewLine;We Happy Few still has some development work ahead, but I’m not sure if any of its core features will be altered&period; Fortunately, the game’s developers have promised a story, but it might be a long wait&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Early Access” games are always a strange case, as fairly judging them isn’t really possible&period; I’m hoping for the best with We Happy Few, but it’s definitely far from finished&period; &NewLine;

Categories: Game Previews, PC Previews
Tags: Compulsion Games Games Open World PC Survival Top Stories We Happy Few

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