The price of the war was terrible for the United Kingdom. In Wellington Wells, the people just want to forget about the gruelling price they had to pay, the price of giving their own children to be taken away in Germany in order to subdue any fighting spirit left in the Britons. To forget, everyone keeps popping pills known as Joy.
This drug keeps everyone happy, makes everyone forget. Under the watchful eye of loved Uncle Jack, who tells his stories to the people, the people keep on trucking, happy as happy can be, forgetting, that there hasn't been a child born in 15 years. But they all are happy because of Joy, except those who can't stomach the drug anymore. The Downers. Dirty, rotten, dangerous Downers, who try to bring down everyone with them.
There are plague victims as well. They're deadly, berserk, and will attack anyone in sight and infect people with their taint. Luckily the happy people of Wellington Wells are well guarded by the bobbies. Always helpful and vigilant bobbies, who'll knock the head in from any downer they meet.
The Downers and the plague victims both live outside the villages. That's where those goof for nothings belong, out from the sight of good, decent people, who want nothing more than to continue their happy lives, no matter if at times their own family members or friends might turn out to be Downers. It all can be forgotten with a little bit of Joy. And when everyone else is wearing their happy masks, what could go wrong?
Nothing, Arthur was thinking during his busy day as a government censor censoring books and articles for the good people to read. But then it hit him like a wet rag against the face, an article about his brother, who was sent to Germany all those years ago. And with that recollection, Arthur remembers a promise of always being with his brother. This is where the 1st chapter of We Happy Few begins, with Arthur dropping the use of Joy and wanting to escape the caressing embrace of Wellington Wells.
The second chapter stars Anne, it-girl of Wellington Wells, a chemical genius with a secret complication of her own, as she isn't taking her Joy. She gets by having tied men around her little finger and by producing a special brand of Blueberry Joy for the constabulary. But her problem is the one thing that would make her an outcast faster than becoming a Downer. She has a baby, the only one in Wellington Wells. She has to be protected at all costs, escape from the hellhole of drugged up lunatics at any cost, any way possible.
3rd chapter star Ollie, an old, mad soldier, who, haunted by his dead daughter, is trying to live his days in an abandoned church outside the villages. This existence is disturbed when he is finally driven out of his abode by the outskirts' bobbies. Shaken by this, he finally begins to see the disaster as it is. There is not enough food left. The people tripping on Joy don't mind, they are just as happy and hungry as they are fed. It doesn't matter if you are happy on pills though if you are going to starve to death. So Ollie takes it up to himself to talk some sense to the people in charge.
We Happy We is an action/RPG/adventure with a survival element. Each of the characters you play has a different set of skills, making the playing a tad different experience. Arthur is a well-rounded everyman, who is a bit good at everything. Anne is better at stealth and in using her chemistry skills in creating things to help her knock out people. She is also handicapped by her motherly love, which makes it harder for her to stay away from home for long periods. The baby has to be fed as well. The longer she is away from the baby, the weaker she comes. Ollie's handicap is diabetes. And madness. He is strong and technically gifted but knows very little of chemistry. He does know how to make glucose syringes to fight his diabetes though. If his condition worsened, he loses health.
Each of the characters can be trained tougher and better with skill points you get by completing missions. You can get better at fighting and sneaking as well as gain new recipes to manufacture. Anne can get things to help with her child, which allows her to stay out longer. Arthur is the easiest character to play, Ollie is the harder mostly because he has the tendency to rub people in the wrong way especially if his blood-sugar levels are low.
Besides the handicap systems of Anne and Ollie, there's nothing extraordinary in the survival or crafting mechanics of the game. You go around and collect stuff. At times you can pop in a store to sell off things you don't need and buy the stuff you actually do need. Money is a rare commodity though, so looting is, most of the time, the way to go.
What really makes We Happy Few remarkable are the world, the setting and the story it has. The whole concept of a happy pill-popping dystopia trying to forget its own sins is intriguing. And the story it has is slowly revealed piece by piece the further the tales of each character go. The further the rabbit hole you go, the grimmer the world is revealed to be.
The world, which seems almost like an Austin Powers style of a pastiche of the 60s, full of bright colours and music soon reveals its true nature. A world of haves and have nots, where even those who think they have something have nothing at all.
People pumped up in mood-altering medication are parading with a permanent grin on their faces to their deaths. The world is far from being the happy blissful utopia the powers that be would want the people to believe.
If you are like me and don't particularly care for survival game elements (the need for eating and drinking), We Happy Few can be played on easier modes as well. There's also a possibility to play the game with custom difficulty, so you can do harder combat, but have an easier take on the survival elements. Now, I know there are people who think the survival elements are a part of the game, but I have to eat and drink enough to ensure my daily existence, so I don't see the appeal in doing that in a game. So given that you can tone down the survival elements and play it as an action/RPG instead, I can recommend it to those people as well, who don't necessarily care about survival games.
Comments
Post a Comment