If you're going to reveal a game, you'd be hard pressed to do better than developer Compulsion Games did in February 2015, when it unveiled a beautiful, fantastic, terrifying trailer for We Happy Few.

The player isn't high, everybody around him knows it, and nobody likes it. Especially the guy who beats him out of his house and onto the street with a frying pan. Also the guy who knocks him unconscious with a shovel isn't a fan, either.

With a mixture of live-action and computer-generated footage, it introduces a hyper-stylized world reminiscent of 1960s Britain. Everybody in We Happy Few's seemingly idyllic town looks happy. They saunter down the streets, giggling, laughing. For some reason, though, everybody's wearing a mask. Also, they're on drugs. Lots and lots of psychedelic drugs.

I didn't know what We Happy Few was about, exactly, but in less than 90 seconds, I knew I wanted to know more.

A few months later, in a faraway setting accidentally tied to the game's story (OR WAS IT????), I got to play the game at Gamescom 2015. Instead of getting more excited, I walked away confused.

At PAX East 2016, We Happy Few had a shot at redemption. I saw a revitalized version and got some context, and that experience went much smoother. It's become a real game in the intervening months, and what I saw reinvigorated the interest that the first trailer sparked.

Now I know why I walked away scratching my head, too. We Happy Few is a complicated game that poses challenges and questions in equal measure. But you have to learn how to play it first.

Of schnitzel and confusion

In August 2015, I boarded a plane that flew over an entire ocean and landed in Germany, which is a whole other country with different words for almost everything.

A few days into Gamescom and infinity orders of schnitzel later, I walked into the basement of a centuries-old church, where a couple dozen Xbox Ones sat beneath a brick ceiling and support arches. It was the kind of room I'd only visited in video games. (Except better. Video games don't have currywurst.)

As I wandered around a windowless room illuminated almost entirely by the cool blue glow of TVs flashing video games, I turned a corner and saw We Happy Few. Someone sat playing on a low stool, and I watched over his shoulder as a game that looked just like the trailer unfolded. When he set the controller down, I picked it up and started playing a game I was eager to get my hands on.

That was the second time I saw We Happy Few. It was the first time I played We Happy Few. My experience was raw and disjointed. I walked around with no sense of purpose and no idea what to do.

As I explored the largely empty town, I crossed paths with a few lowly masked characters. None were happy to see me. They snarled and hit me. I ran away. They chased me. I didn't know where to go or what to do. I could feel the line growing behind me, and I wasn't getting anywhere. I set the controller down and left, not sure exactly what happened and no closer to understanding what We Happy Few was really about.

Last month, I flew to Boston, which is a city in the continental U.S. where people speak English, but some do it with a particular accent. At PAX East 2016, I got to play We Happy Few again.

This time, I sat next to Guillaume Provost, Compulsion's founder and creative director. I told him about Germany, and he laughed in surprise. Someone was supposed to be there to guide players through like he was about to do at PAX. With Provost at my side, I picked up an Xbox One controller and played We Happy Few again.

What a difference a few months, a bit of context and a creative director make.

Of Boston and understanding

In the world of We Happy Few, Nazis occupied Great Britain. The game takes place in 1964, about 30 years after the occupation, in a city called Wellington Welles. During the occupation, the citizens — Wellies and Wastrels— had to do something vague and bad. To forget, they invented Joy, a drug that makes them feel better and helps them forget.

You play as a Downer, an inhabitant of Wellington Wells who's forsaken Joy and earned the ire of everyone else. Your mission: Keep suspicion to a minimum and sneak your way out of the dystopia.

No two games will be exactly the same, because We Happy Few is procedurally generated. What I played in Germany looked similar to what I played in Boston, but it couldn't have been the same. Every time you press start, We Happy Few randomly generates its world and inhabitants.