I thought I might be put off by the oh-so-British pastiche the way I was by BioShock Infinite's candied Americana: every table is littered with tea cups, everyone is delightfully repressed, and umbrellas are exclusively called 'brollies.' While it's laid on thick-not as thick as in Sir, You Are Being Hunted, but thick-it's occasionally critical enough not to feel totally indulgent and hokey. But We Happy Few's greatest strength makes its weaknesses even weaker: I always wanted to see what would happen next too badly to putter around hiding from people who are no more than switches flickering between complacent and homicidal. Had I been more content to meander, I might not have minded tip-toeing around to steal food and drink (you won't die without sustenance on Normal, but you'll suffer penalties), lockpicks, healing herbs, and Scotch to bribe bobbies with before I charged into a bludgeoning in that control room. Let them chase! I can just run to my next destination and either hope to trigger a conversation which resets the enraged villagers, or hide and take the opportunity to make another cup of tea while they calm themselves. Quests typically involve going somewhere to find something, and so to get anything done in a timely manner, I eventually started ignoring the civilians and Joy detectors. We Happy Few lifts the burdens of its own premise as you play, seemingly aware that hiding in plain sight in its oversized open world turned out to be a chore rather than a playful test of wits.Įven with fast travel, there's a lot of sprinting, allowing your puny stamina meter to deplete, then walking to refill it and sprinting again as soon as you can. Learning to craft Sunshine, a drug which imitates the outward effects of Joy without the withdrawal, is also vital. As you progress, you'll unlock fast travel points and abilities which allow you to ignore many of the rules, letting you sprint around or go out after curfew without issue. We Happy Few succeeds in making me feel self-conscious all the time-another thematic victory and a funny send-up of the absurd ways players tend to behave in games-but there is no intricate social engineering challenge to any of this, just tiring routines.
I drank more tea out of the game than I did in the game. I took to hiding in trash bins while the withdrawal meter slowly ran down, using the time to get up and make a cup of tea. But if your Joy high runs out, you suffer withdrawal, which near instantly causes everyone in your vicinity to turn hostile. That's one way to get past the 'Joy detectors,' which raise an alarm should you pass through unmedicated. Pop a Joy, and the bloom effects explode, the rainbow-painted streets glow, and butterflies replace the filth. In the city streets, however, one must always keep up the appearance of Joy dependency. Wear filthy clothes and don't get caught trespassing and they'll leave you alone. Wear a tattered suit on the other side of the gates, and the little old ladies will scream as hordes of bobbies and civilians descend on you. Wear a fancy suit in the wastes, and the populous will tear you apart. The idea is that one must blend in correctly depending on the company. In the middle-class neighborhoods, well-dressed citizens endlessly pop a drug called Joy, which inhibits memory (mainly the memory of giving all their children to Nazis) and reduces cognition to cheerful hellos. In the wild gardens, desperate rejects stand listlessly in decayed roads and hide out among bombed-out buildings. The districts of its oppressed British islands are divided into two categories. We Happy Few's central roleplaying premise and most novel idea is its least successful. We Happy Few lifts the burdens of its own premise as you play. Cute distraction devices like rubber duckies are occasionally helpful, but for the most part I preferred to just get shit done rather than try to hide from people who walk about like miscalibrated Roombas. The rest of the time, a stealthy approach is liable to become a Benny Hill chase, in which the best course of action is to run the mob in circles until you have enough of a lead to round a corner, hide under a bed, and wait out their rage.
When you absolutely must get somewhere to flip a switch (a sibling of button-pressing which also shows up often), We Happy Few takes after Half-Life 2 and throws a heating duct in your path or some pipes to climb for a makeshift catwalk.
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