E3 2016: We Happy Few Much More Than Horror
One of the odder reveals in the Microsoft Press Conference was the title We Happy Few. A game that features a dystopian world where people take a “happy” drug to shield them from the horrors around them. When one person refuses to take the drug, things get violent.
Despite the horror tones and looks, the game is more than you think. As the title will feature one of three characters trying to escape the place known as Wellington Wells. However, the world itself will be procedurally generated, meaning every escape run will be different. Which was a boon to developer Compulsion:
“The procedural world creates an illusion that there’s a massive world around you, and that’s really great for us. For a small team, as high quality as we can. We’re really happy with the decision,” says Compulsions CCO Sam Abbott, “It’s a highly extendable system. We’re no Ubisoft with The Division, or Destiny. We’re not trying to build this ongoing money-sucking system. For us, what it means is we can make awesome, cool content, and hopefully we can punch above our weight in terms of our size.”
He also acknowledges the similarities the game drew to titles like Bioshock:
“I think the similarity begins with the dystopian world. Honestly, people talk a lot about the art style similarities. Whitney, our art director, has never played BioShock. It’s coincidental, but the comparison is reasonable,” Abbott said, crediting the comparisons to the fact there aren’t many dystopian games with this visual aesthetic on the market. “I think once you get a few more games out there like this, people will start to understand the differences better.”