Even the clothes you wear in certain sections of town can reveal you, making the level of commitment to We Happy Fews’ ability to hide in plain sight quite deep.Īs far as combat goes, while I only got into one major brawl during the demo, it already seems clear that fighting is going to feel like a last resort, and should seemingly be avoided at all costs. Actions such as looting bodies or wandering into restricted areas will turn all nearby citizens hostile, leaving the player to fight or flee. Arthur can approach the ragged and drugged out people of Wellington Wells, and even engage in conversation with them, but maintaining a façade as one of them will be crucial to keeping your cover. Buildings are falling apart, filth and litter line the streets, and Joy checkpoints can be found every few blocks, causing hurdles for players who can’t maintain a proper level of medication.īut the real kicker is going to be navigating the streets without drawing the attention of townspeople. Stepping outside of the bunker and into Wellington Wells reveals the tragic and dilapidated state that this society finds itself in. Keeping even one of these properties above or below its optimal level can cause detrimental gameplay effects, such as weaker strength for fighting and running, and juggling all of these properties feels like it’s going to be a daunting task that adds great weight and consequence to We Happy Fews’ decisions. Hunger, thirst, exhaustion and joy must all be maintained throughout the game to keep Arthur in healthy physical and mental condition. We Happy Few plays as a roguelike, giving the game a random element alongside all of the micromanagement that usually accompanies the genre. Having moments of peace to regather yourself will be vital to progression. These underground chambers will act as safe houses and provide Arthur with opportunity to recuperate between visits to town. The gameplay demo picks up hours later when Arthur awakens in a bunker. After cracking open a piñata – which turns out to actually be a dead rat – causes him to vomit, Arthur is labeled as a ‘Downer’ and finds himself on the run, out to find the answers behind the false lifestyle in front of him while trying to survive from the brainwashed townspeople of Wellington Wells. Known as ‘Joy’, these pills help to create an illusion of happiness in this society, but it’s only after prolonged absence from the drug that Arthur sees how grim the actual world around him is. Set in an alternate, dystopian 1964 England in which World War II has been lost, players are cast as a man named Arthur who, after stumbling upon an old newspaper article about his deceased brother, secretly decides to go off his meds in search of the truth.
The demo begins with the same opening sequence seen during Microsoft’s E3 presentation. If my brief hands-on time with the E3 demo is any indication, this is just the beginning of a thread that I can’t wait to unravel. We Happy Few tells a twisted tale of conspiracy and illusion things in this world aren’t as they seem, and We Happy Few is a fascinating story about how far people will go for false happiness. This chilling quote opens the We Happy Few demo and immediately sets the tone for what is shaping up to be one of the most shocking and narratively brutal games I’ve seen in years. “Happy people have no history.” – Leo Tolstoy
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