Just a few months ago, Compulsion Games pushed back the release date for We Happy Few from April to summer. While there’s still a wait, the good news is that we now know when the game will definitely release. At Microsoft’s E3 conference this past weekend, Compulsion Games announced the release date of August 10, 2018. Originally just for PC and then for Xbox One, the game will release for those two as well as PlayStation 4.
In addition to providing a release date, Compulsion also showed off a brand new story trailer.
The game has certainly come a long way since I played the first demo of it at PAX East in 2015. At the time, the story was fairly bare bones and I was told the game would be more of a roguelike, with a procedurally generated town that you’d try to escape from. After receiving more attention and getting picked up by consoles, the team has naturally had more time and resources to expand upon this premise.
In the latest statement from publisher Gearbox, the team elaborated on the expansion:
“Featuring an additional 20+ hours of narrative-driven gameplay, players will play as three uniquely flawed characters coming to terms with their past and uncovering the secrets of Wellington Wells, an island off the coast of England that seems to have been cut off from the rest of the world after World War II.”
The basic premise remains the same, with players navigating a 1960s era town whose resident take a drug known as “joy” to always stay happy. As the trailer shows, the town’s residents have little to rejoice about, as society is on the brink of collapse. Starvation, murder, and pileups of bodies are just a few of the issues plaguing Wellington Wells, but the residents are too high to care. There’s also a terrible secret that the town is covering up, which the trailer suggests will play a large role in the story. It may have something to do with a “blackberry,” which I’m guessing is neither the handheld device nor the small fruit in this scenario.
All in all, the happiness of the townsfolk of Wellington Wells seems slightly… misplaced. But players who’ve eagerly waited for the game’s release have every reason to rejoice.
