You won’t even need to take your Joy for this one. Yesterday, Compulsion Games, developers of We Happy Few released the game on early access.
Players can dive into the still-in-development Orwellian world of Wellington Wells right now for the discounted price of $29.99. This leads us to assume that the price will go up for the final release, which is unknown. Polygon says that in the game’s current state it doesn’t include “story elements like cutscenes and other narrative interactions”.
So if you are eager to play the game and don’t mind a few bugs and missing features you can play the game right now. The game can be downloaded through Xbox One Game Preview, Steam Early Access, GOG’s Games in Development, and the Humble Store.
To celebrate the game’s release the studio released a new gameplay trailer.
In the trailer, we get a look at the game in action and from what you can see, the game borrows, in a good way, from the Bioshock series, but the game goes beyond just running and gunning. According to Polygon, the player will also have to manage resources such as hunger and thirst, as well as taking just enough Joy to keep up appearances, lest the local catch on to your disillusioned state. The game also features a procedurally generated world and permadeath, meaning that you will have to start from the beginning with each death.
If you’ve never heard of the game before, on the game’s website it states that We Happy Few takes place in a dystopian version of 1960’s England in a city called Wellington Wells. The population is kept in blissful ignorance thanks to their leader Uncle Jack and a mysterious drug called Joy which, much as the name implies, keeps the citizens happy. You play as a person off their Joy, who can see the world for what it really is.
No word on when the game will be completed. The game is currently out on Xbox One and PC.