Survival plays a huge role in navigating Wellington Wells, as you’re forced to micro-manage your character’s hunger, thirst and sleep. There are skills you can purchase that negate these burdens, but by the time you’re able to buy them, you’ll have been worn down by the game’s inherent inconsistencies and brutal attempts to reinforce its rules. Many games of this ilk gift you wriggle room, a small warning ping that acts as the harbinger of your compliance, but in We Happy Few, the repercussions seem instantaneous. Even if I worked up into a canter, distressed cries of the upstanding citizens signalled I’d soon be cut down with no recourse. I admit, I committed a social faux pas stepping out in a leather gimp suit I’d forgotten I’d donned but to be beaten mercilessly the instant eyes were laid on me was frustrating. The game is frustratingly unforgiving when it comes to breaking these laws, also. Jumping is banned, despite numerous and vexing examples of townsfolk jumping playfully into puddles, though the no-running rule is the worst of the lot, reducing foot traffic to a mere amble. Taking the aggressive approach worked for me for the most part until I hit Hamlyn Village, an early-on district of middling socioeconomic status that employs a strict hardline against downers and has a baffling list of laws that make navigating the rainbow-clad roads an utterly unenjoyable chore.
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The upswing is that you’ll have full control of your faculties so it becomes a genuine dilemma working out how best to navigate the psychedelic landscape. If you go cold turkey from Joy, you’ll suffer withdrawals that expose you as a downer, forcing you to fight or sneak through most of the game. With pep in your step, you avoid unwanted attention from both the Bobbies and the village’s other compliant townsfolk, intent on maintaining the idyllic status quo.
The drug Joy, We Happy Few’s gameplay element that saw it refused classification briefly in Australia, allows the player-character to blend in with the other brainwashed occupants of Wellington Wells. While the missions seldom amount to much more than fetching items and are fairly basic in their approach, the game is helped along by the story and its bevy of twists that hook you in. Much like Irrational’s underwater critical darling, We Happy Few has a satisfying quest loop. Both games boast terrific settings and the writing in both shows off the developer’s rapier-sharp wit. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t immediately evident that the two games share developers. We Happy Few has long enjoyed the spotlight during its development with the BioShock factor playing a huge part in that. and imperfect survival aspects that often hamstring the game’s momentum. It can go from a thriving, joyous experience to being a tiresome slog in a heartbeat, often smothering the game’s fleeting glimpses of fun with its broken A.I. This dreadful contrast, which lends itself so well to We Happy Few’s setting, is symbolic of the game’s problematic inner workings. Fields that appeared to be in bloom return to their true state, dead and flattened from the bombardment and occupation by Germany, the alternate-history victors of the war. It’s when the Joy, the hallucinogenic pill at the core of the We Happy Few experience, wears off that the curtain drops and the colourful facades fall away, revealing a bleak world that looks long devoid of hope in post-war Britain.
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