Compulsion Games’ We Happy Few is a weird little title set in a procedurally open world (because, why not?) and features players trying to survive in a dystopian society that takes place after a troubling war where everyone takes pills to stay “joyful”. It’s set during 1964 in Britain and the developers are currently gathering funds on Kickstarter.

The gameplay itself operates within an open world environment and allows for multiple play-styles, such as fighting, sneaking or stealthily blending in with the rest of the pill-popping peds in the prudish province.

The game features scavenging, crafting, exploration and a bit of NPC interaction. You can check out the announcement trailer to get an idea of what the game is like.

https://youtu.be/MqWZkCqI6NM

We Happy Few almost reminds me a little bit of The Stepford Wives with a dose of BioShock, a sprinkle of Fallout and a snippet of Equilibrium. Although, technically it would be the inverse of Equilibrium since it’s all about controlling society through pills that force people to be joyful as opposed to oppressing society through the removal of emotion. But there’s definitely a lot of Stepford Wives and BioShock in there.

So what do you do in the game? What’s the point? As mentioned over on the Kickstarter page…

“You will need to learn how to conform and avoid suspicion. You will need to hunt for supplies, and craft the devices and weapons that enable you to make it out of town alive. What do the Wellies approve of you doing? What makes them suspicious? What turns them into a homicidal mob? And is there anyone here who can help you?”

Well that sounds an awful lot like Gremlin Interactive’s Normality.

If the game still has you more confused than a in a pink dress participating in a beauty contest, you can

see 25 minutes worth of gameplay courtesy of Jim Sterlnig below.

WE HAPPY FEW (Pre-Alpha) – Going For A Joy Ride An early look at Compulsion Games’ creepy little survive-in-a-world-of-drugged-up-happy-addicts game. Pre-alpha, and already better than a lot of finished Steam games. The Kickstarter, if you’re into it! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/112359230/we-happy-few-welcome-to-wellington-wells-you-saucy

Dat disclosure. #GamerGate would be proud, prodigal Jim…

The crafting is a nice touch, and I actually feel like this game captures how BioShock should have been. It would have been really cool if you could spend a larger portion of Irrational Games’ title searching throughout an open world setup similar to We Happy Few as opposed to the quasi-corridor setup that the game employed. Then again, if BioShock wasn’t as linear as it was the graphics would have had to take a massive hit.

Anyway, there’s a lot of work put into We Happy Few already, well before the game has even managed to hit its goal. The vintage-retro look works really well and those creepy masks are a real nice touch to the overall strange factor.

You can learn more about the game or stuff your face with more images and concept art by paying a visit to the official Kickstarter page.