Imagine an alternate history in which the allies lost World War II, forcing the English Powers That Be to appease their glum population with a happy drug aptly called Joy. It’s that nightmarish scenario that underpins We Happy Few, the psychedelic new title arriving by way of Contrast dev Compulsion Games.
Thrust into the limelight during Microsoft’s E3 keynote just yesterday, Compulsion’s oddball stealth game takes place in the fictional setting of Wellington Wells, where players must acclimatize to their surroundings, slap on a smile, or risk being beaten to a bloody pulp by the town’s deranged inhabitants.
As such, We Happy Few is set against “a dystopian, mod 1964 England that lost World War II, the citizens of Wellington Wells are taking a happy drug called “Joy”, and living in denial over their grim existence and a terrible past. Can you survive among them once you stop taking your Joy and become a ‘Downer’?”
Launching via the Xbox One Preview program on July 26, it’s understood that We Happy Few will expand to a full release across both Xbox One and PC at some point in the summer.