PAX East 2015: Hands-on with We Happy Few

Revealed about a week before PAX East, I was surprised to hear that We Happy Few would be playable on the show floor. I use the term playable loosely because even though you could technically explore this very intriguing game, it’s nowhere near ready, and Compulsion Games even admits that.

The demo created for PAX East was more to show off the future of We Happy Few, a game set in an alternate history of England, sometime in the 1960s. Following some sort of unknown catastrophic event, everyone is forced to take some sort of pill/drug to remain happy and forget the tragedy. Citizens in the town also wear masks with smiles chiseled into them. Those who don’t comply or begin to show signs of unhappiness are hunted down and beaten to death. Naturally, your character is one who goes against the grain, and so begins your survival.

At this point, there’s not much to do within the game. There were only very few systems in place to show off certain features, like a crafting system and a hunger/thirst meter that it looks like you’ll have to manage. According to Compulsion Games’ Chief Operating Officer Sam Abbott, you’ll have to scavenge the city for food and water to manage your hunger and thirst. You’ll do this for a few days before you realize that you need to escape this crumbling city, “and that’s when the real game starts,” according to Abbot.

The demo began with my character in some sort of basement/sewer dwelling. After some quick scavenging, I was able to craft a few items. I also watched a short television sequence featuring some character referred to as “Uncle Jack,” a rather creepy fellow who I suspect is the man responsible for the whole mandatory drug thing.

After watching a quick clip, I exited the basement to the city streets. Bugs were definitely noticeable as characters glitched while walking; but again, this is a game in pre-alpha, so that’s to be expected. The citizens of this town notice suspicious behavior, so running or pulling out my paddle (weapon) only attracted attention. After a bit of exploration, a masked character noticed something abnormal about me – I’m not sure what I did to draw attention, but I soon found myself being chased down the streets by just about every citizen in the city. I ducked into a phone booth, which instead of a phone were dispensers for the drug. I took the pill, which put me in this weird drug-induced state that changed the way I perceived the world, but also removed all suspicion.  I walked around for a bit in this drug-induced state and soon after found my character crashing, just about draining all of my hunger and thirst meter. With no food, I quickly found my health depreciating.

So I began searching for food, entering a house someone left open. As I explored, I noticed a red laser that I avoided, but heading upstairs I encountered another civilian who, once again, noticed my suspicious behavior. After about a minute or two of running, I found myself dead from an explosion of some sort, and that was the entirety of my gameplay experience.

At this stage of the game, there’s not much else to talk about in We Happy Few. The demo was designed to show off core systems. Despite being in a very early stage of development though, We Happy Few has quite a few (sorry!) things going for it. The environment is amazing, but anyone familiar with Contrast already knows Compulsion Game has a knack for creating unique worlds that beg to be explored. Combat is still clunky, but the premise of the game is definitely intriguing. It has a unique style, one that sort of reminds me of BioShock, especially since characters don these creepy masks that remind me of Splicers.

Asked about the current progress of the game, Abbott said the studio plans to hold a Kickstarter sometime in a to raise some more funding to help complete the game. According to Compulsion Games narrative director Alex Epstein, the studio plans to add more developers to help flesh out the gameplay and provide "a lot more" narrative. I’m not sure what’ll happen to We Happy Few if it isn’t funded, but I guess that explains why they brought the show to PAX East. An intriguing premise, an interesting setting, a unique art style, and core systems set the stage for some fun gameplay paint a promising picture for We Happy Few.