From developer Compulsion Games comes a physiological thriller, We Happy Few. Currently available on Xbox Game Preview, the game appears to question how much pressure we put on being happy in society.
The trailer opens with the main character performing what we can presume is his job. The current year in the game ends in 64, although we aren’t sure if its 1964 or sometime in the future. As he’s completing his job, his “joy” runs out, and he begins to remember details of the event in front of him in the newspaper. He reaches over to grab his joy, a drug which causes the user to hallucinate a twisted, happy society around him.
He refuses to take his joy, however, and begins to see the world for what it is. Perhaps the most striking moment in the trailer is when the character asks “Do you think the canister wonders what life is like outside the tube? Of course, he’d have to break the tube to get out… And that’ll break it for everybody.”
The gameplay demo goes on to show the main character talking about how he brought a welcome back gift to a missing co-worker, and he begins to wonder if they are ever coming back. It ends with the character being caught as a “downer”, and security being called on him. Where this game is going, I have no idea – but I fully intend to find out.