We Happy Few - The Bear and Badger

FranticPea

We Happy Few is an upcoming indie survival horror video game developed and published by Compulsion Games.

The game revolves around a person in a dystopian retrofuturistic-fashioned world where everyone is controlled by a personality-altering pill called 'Joy". The protagonist, Arthur Hastings, works as a 'redactor', a government censor similar to the Ministry of Truth, erasing unhappy stories from newspapers and records. During his work one day, he finds an article about his brother, Percy and has a sudden flashback. Feeling somewhat traumatised by this, he decides not to take his Joy. By doing so, he soon finds the real world much different from the reality he believed himself to inhabit.

If you die in “We Happy Few”, that’s it – there is no reloading your save. It’s designed to be replayed. Each time you die, you’ll restart in a brand new city, thanks to our procedural generation tech. You’ll be able to customize the world to your liking, and play through using multiple characters and playstyles. Each time, you’ll learn a little more about how to survive in Wellington Wells.

Out on Steam Early Access and Xbox Preview on the 26 July.

FranticPea

I'm all over this tomorrow. Looks right up my alley. Watching a few videos it looks creepy as hell.

Kernowgaz

As am i

Webbins

Aye fancy this. Didn't see it on DGP though so I was going to hold off a touch.

FranticPea

I've found they're sometimes a bit late adding some stuff. Check again tomorrow.

hylian_elf

Didn't like the sound of the procedurally generated cities/town in the Edge preview. Apparently you can tell its procedurally generated and therefore lacks personality.

But everything else about the game sounds amazing so I am still hype for this.

hylian_elf

How do I get Xbox Preview?

mistercrayon

I'm not sure how early access fits with a narrative game? Is it just a different word for episodic?! Otherwise a glitchy version of the whole story?

Will be more interested when the whole thing is full.

Kernowgaz

hylian_elf wrote:

How do I get Xbox Preview?

Anyone can get it, it's like early access on Steam

FranticPea

mistercrayon wrote:

I'm not sure how early access fits with a narrative game? Is it just a different word for episodic?! Otherwise a glitchy version of the whole story?

Will be more interested when the whole thing is full.

Think its a bit like The Long Dark. Survival mode then they'll add a story mode later.

Might be worth waiting if that's not your thang.

Dark Soldier

I liked this more when I thought it was a mystery style game going off E3 reveal. Intrigued, though.

FranticPea

Off to Rochdale tomorrow. Could do with some Joy.

Dark Soldier

I'm in Farnworth gardening, I feel your pain.

Webbins

I'd much prefer this to be not Early Access and they just release when ready, it doesn't strike me as benefitting from it. Games like 7 Days to Die sound like they would however, as I gather the PC version was Early Access but the console version wasn't.

g.man

This looks quite intriguing.

Billy

The E3 footage looked great, kind of a yellow submarine meets clockwork orange.

FranticPea

Been bugging me what it reminded me of, why didn't I realise it was Clockwork Orange? Kicking myself now. Also giving me a Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch vibe with the drug giving everyone a shared alternate reality.

regmcfly

I'm mega in for this.

Skondo

FranticPea wrote:

Been bugging me what it reminded me of, why didn't I realise it was Clockwork Orange? Kicking myself now. Also giving me a Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch vibe with the drug giving everyone a shared alternate reality.

Perky Pat!

yourfavouriteuncle

I'd have been all over it until the dreaded phrase of procedural generation popped up. The idea is ace, it looks cool, I liked the promise shown in Contrast (despite its problems) but the thing needs authoring dammit. A narrative, an arc and an end. I appreciate I'm in the minority here but once the p.g term crops up I'm generally out. I don't get the indie dev fascination with it?

FranticPea

The in thing. I'm still all over it for the theme alone.

FranticPea

£23, or £12 from Russian store. An hour free available too.

MattyJ

I'm really interested in this, but going to wait for people to get their hands on it first.

Nexx

The gameplay trailer looks good but other gameplay footage I watched during E3 made it look really average. For example, the last 5 minutes of this looks pretty shit

Diluted Dante

I still don't understand the early access stuff for this.

Billy

That's a shame, when i first saw that E3 pinata footage i hoped it would be a straight up linear narrative story. I don't need to play essentially the same story in lots of different towns, just 1 really good one.

Paul the sparky

Webbins wrote:

I'd much prefer this to be not Early Access and they just release when ready, it doesn't strike me as benefitting from it. Games like 7 Days to Die sound like they would however, as I gather the PC version was Early Access but the console version wasn't.

Diluted Dante wrote:

I still don't understand the early access stuff for this.

Exactly my thoughts. I don't see the benefit to them (although I'm obviously not a game dev), or me as a punter.

For stuff like ARK, Elite, Terraria, The Long Dark etc. I can see it being useful to get what's playable out into people's hands, see what works, what doesn't, and to shape the finished game in a direction more suited to the people playing it, who get to play it sooner as a little bonus. But they're all games where you can add systems, mechanics and items into what's already there, this seems more story based to me.

Procedural stuff interests me, as if you get the mechanics right then you can play it endlessly. No Man's Sky's galaxy full of planets to explore could be great, but you could easily switch themes and have pirates exploring islands, zompocalypse survivors scavenging new towns etc. but I'm not sure how this will be of any use here. The same story played out in a random map each time you die? I'm not sure how that's going to work. I guess that free hour will have some answers, it's an interesting enough idea for me to want to find out.

Tempy

Maybe the early access will be as simple as they'll be adding the other character's stories as they go on, as they indicated that there are multiple player characters in the game.

Paul the sparky

Last five minutes of Nexx's video does indeed look shite.

Dark Soldier

Watching this on Twitch, its your typical search draws and pick shit up kinda gumph. Not my bag. Also for a horror style thing, there's no horror (so far).

Also the geez you play waffles on, repeats some lines often.

[Deleted User]

Billy wrote:

That's a shame, when i first saw that E3 pinata footage i hoped it would be a straight up linear narrative story. I don't need to play essentially the same story in lots of different towns, just 1 really good one.

My thoughts exactly.

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