I for one love Microsoft`s Xbox Preview Program. I honestly think it`s one of the best ideas to have come out of Microsoft for a long, long time in terms of the Xbox Division. When it was announced at last year`s E3 by Phil Spencer, it looked to give something to the ID developers that they hadn’t had anywhere near before. The platform to get a game out, and to develop the game and enable gamers to play as they went along and to have their say on feedback. A game very much for the fans. Over the last year we`ve seen some cracking ones, such as Prison Architect, The Solus Project, Layers of Fear, aswell as some that are still in the program, such as Ark Survival Evolved, Subnautica and others. But, this year, there was one game that really took my interest as standing out from the rest, and being slightly different. We Happy Few.
We Happy Few is an Indie Horror Survival game, developed by Compulsion Games. They announced a kick-starter project way back in June 2015, before being accepted into Microsoft`s Xbox Preview Program. The Game was released to Preview Program members in July 2016, in an alpha state. We Happy Few is a game that takes place in the fictional city of Wellington Wells, a dystopian city that has been fuelled by alternative events within World War II which is on the verge of falling apart in the 1960s. Everyone in the town takes a type of drug called “Joy” which stops them from thinking about the horrors they`ve done and committed in the past, whilst leaving them very vulnerable to be easily controlled. Players control one of three characters throughout the game, who is dubbed as “Downer” after deciding to stop taking Joy, and must survive long enough to compete and mean something to themselves, all while trying to escape the city.
The Game offers a sandbox-style narrative and game, where you will be able to explore the city, and do missions in your own time, while collecting things that`ll help you to craft to your advantage. You, Arthur, will have to find things to feed himself, clean himself, and keep himself fully prepared, as you try to avoid the corruption of government, where you work as a censor. The prologue as soon as you boot into the game you`ll recognise instantly if you saw E3, as it opens with the 5-minute segment that you saw at E3 (Where you saw a Piñata getting bloodily beaten) before opening up to the sandbox and open world of Wellington Wells to explore. Survival and stealth seem to be the main key points and focus within the game, and not so much at the moment focused on the narrative (I have no doubt though by the time that the full game is released, the narrative will be a much bigger focus). The focus on Surviving will be strong art first, and you`ll be hit hard with how much you actually have to do in order to keep yourself going, and to keep yourself out of reach from a government that want to destroy you.
You won`t be alone. You won`t be seeing the creepy masked characters and policemen that we were engaged to in the E3 segment, but while creeping around the city, you`ll find several other characters that are also known as “downers” – People who have stopped taking their happy pill tablet, and are muttering under their breath several and focusing on several low points from the past. You are able to interact with all the characters, either talking to them or getting physical with them (you can walk straight up to someone and start a fight with them). The game offers a lot of interactivity, combined with the survival element, offering a unique experience, but one that at first appears to be very heavy on the survival element, as the need to re-fill your hunger and sleep gauges are very often, and they reduce at a rapid rate. But as I`ve said, I`ve no doubt that Compulsion Games will offer a more unique and more enjoyable experience when the game fully launches. That`s the idea of the Preview Program and that`s what I love – listening to the fan feedback and making the necessary changes ahead of the launch.
It`s a game that from early impressions, has the ability and potential to be a very successful and good project. There`s a few early things that will niggle at you, but if you can get past that and into the game, it offers something quite fun and unique to the market, and Bio-shockesque. Compulsion Games have a very good pitch on their hands and I hope that listening to feedback, and regular updates, will see them release a very successful, and cracking title.
Thank you to XCN for supplying us with a copy of We Happy Few.