We Happy Few is, presumably, not trying to do the same thing. In Fallout 3, I forgave that because it’s a big, omnibus RPG that really is trying to cram a lot of different designs into one game. It is clunky, has floaty combat, and feels like it is trying to cram all kinds of gameplay into one game. This comparison is going to sound very strange, but I promise it’s apt: We Happy Few feels more like Fallout 3 than any other game.
But it feels like decisions were made at every step to prevent me from truly enjoying what We Happy Few was doing. I don’t think that games need to fit into a recognizable container to be good games. And, look: I love the idea that We Happy Few is trying to break the boundaries between game genres.
It also wants to do the Bioshock thing of tightly directing you to objects, locations, and specific puzzles that need to be overcome in very specific ways.Īt this very basic level, the level of design in which We Happy Few is determining what it wants the player to do, the game is confused. It wants to do the Dishonored thing of throwing you into a massive open world with some quests that you can do in whatever way you see fit. Deus Ex, Thief 2, Dishonored, and Prey all occupy the space of the immersive sim that asks you to read enemy encounters, craft items, and do stealth and combat to solve environmental puzzles. They’re called “immersive sims,” and they share a lot of DNA with Bioshock. Weirdly, we already have games like that. The first act of We Happy Few splits the difference between a crafting game and a Bioshock title. This brings up all sorts of bad memories, Arthur goes off his Joy, and eventually the police chase him miles and miles away from his office and leave him for dead.
#HAPPY GAME CHARACTERS ARCHIVE#
One day, Arthur is working through the archive of his newspaper, redacting anything that might hurt the current society, and he sees a picture of himself and his brother Percy as children. Things just seem brighter and more cheerful when you’re on Joy, but it also has deleterious effects on someone who takes too much or too little. Like everyone else in society, Arthur wears a white mask and takes Joy, a pill that alters one’s mood and perception of the world around them. The first act puts the player in the shoes of Arthur Hastings, who works for a newspaper. My displeasure at what was in front of me and dread of what was to come emanates from the core of We Happy Few. Believe me, I tried, despite absolutely hitting a wall at about hour four where I didn’t think I would be able to keep going.
I’ve only played the first act of We Happy Few because I cannot summon up the willpower to play more. But the road it has chosen to go down isn’t one that I find fulfilling, and I’m going to have to write a lot to explain why. This is a game that isn’t like anything else on the market.
#HAPPY GAME CHARACTERS FULL#
After completing the first act of the full release game, I can say that it, still, hasn’t lost any of that strangeness. When I played the gameplay alpha back in the summer of 2016, I said that it had a lot of crossed wires and weird assumptions. We Happy Few is out of Steam Early Access and into full release.
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