We Happy Few Reviews
Check out We Happy Few Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 32 reviews on CriticDB, We Happy Few has a score of:
There’s not much wrong with We Happy Few that can’t be fixed with some patches, and regardless of what happens there, the game has a narrative that is brave, intelligently crafted, and so incredibly poignant. There’s a reason that this game is set in the immediate aftermath of World War 2, and it’s something that people should be paying attention to, as inconvenient as that is, because it tells us an awful lot about what’s going on today. Focus on that, and the game’s other flaws become almost redundant in comparison.
Most of all, it's trying something new that we really haven't had much experience with, and to fantastic effect. If you're as terrified of a dystopian society as I am but also endlessly fascinated by it, then We Happy Few is for you. Just be sure not to forget your Joy! We wouldn't want you labeled as a Downer, now would we?
I'll play more polished, bigger and more bombastic blockbuster games this year, but We Happy Few will stay with me long after its quests are over.
We Happy Few tells the story of a society hopped up on literal happy pills, trying to avoid anything that interrupts its collective high. Similarly, playing We Happy Few is often intoxicating, but the high is interrupted by small issues that prevent it from attaining pure bliss. Thankfully, an intriguing world full of fascinating mysteries and enjoyable missions make Compulsion Games’ dark, open-world title worth the journey down the rabbit hole.
We Happy Few is an interesting game. It has a story that can quickly switch between dark and hysterical as you move through it, leaving you wanting to know more about the world of Wellington Wells. Because of the optional difficulty choices, Compulsion Games has created an interesting world that anyone can enjoy, regardless of their gaming skills and that in itself is something that should be applauded. At the end of the day, however, this world can present some odd bugs. While not perfect, W...
We Happy Few, from Compulsion Games, pretty much embodies the idea of “potential” – its dark atmosphere, mixed with its British humor and psychedelic aesthetic, have caught the eye of many a curious gamer ever since its earliest reveals. But that potential has not quite been realized thus far, as players complained about the game’s survival elements and meagre story. Now, We Happy Few arrives on consoles and PC in a full release, with some retooled elements and a beefed-up narrative – is it enough to bring us joy, or will it still be a downer?
We Happy Few is a game of high highs and low lows. It's certainly far from perfect, with questionable stealth mechanics, sometimes derivative gameplay, and a lack of polish that intrudes on the fun. However, it also offers a totally unique world full of interesting characters and places.
The ideas of power, giving in to hegemonic cycles just to feel safe, and other gameplay systems are unfortunately overshadowed by the technical hiccups found in the game's software. It's a shame, because this game could have been good.
We Happy Few offer a fantastic world but fails to provide a pleasing combat experience or solid stealth gameplay.
We Happy Few is an ambitious open-world survival game that does not benefit from being one. Tedious exploration courtesy of poorly-designed environments and underdeveloped survival mechanics detract from an otherwise strong main adventure. Charming presentation, colorful writing, and powerful environmental storytelling are highlights that are unfortunately eclipsed by a shallow open world.
We Happy Few has a pristine narrative vision, but it feels layered on top of a wholly different game. Much like the famous visage of the Wellington Wells citizenry, the story is a mask that tries to hide a buggy open world and needless procedural generation.
In We Happy Few, you’re happy at work, everyone is kind to each other and your football team never loses. Well, that’s what it looks like on the surface. In reality, none of this is true – football teams don’t even exist. Yes, it’s that kind of dark world you inhabit.
We Happy Few features one of this year's most interesting settings but fails to fill it with quality gameplay most of the time.
There’s a huge amount of potential in this dystopian 1960s drug trip, but ultimately it starts to feel frustrating quite quickly. Every time We Happy Few draws you in with an interesting tidbit about the world or the character you are playing as it’s scuppered by the systems fighting against you. It just becomes frustrating and makes a potentially immersive experience an irritating exercise in dealing with the game mistaking your intentions. Much like the dystopian world in which it is set, We Happy Few never feels quite right.
The bobby smirks at Arthur with his creepy, Cheshire cat-like grin, warning him not to get himself into any mischief or there’ll be hell to pay. He brandishes his baton menacingly, giving Arthur one last knowing look before turning away. It’s a tense moment, especially since you’re not sure if the bobby knows you’re secretly a Downer. After turning away, though, the bobby proceeds to walk in aimless circles around the bench Arthur is sitting on. Every few seconds or so, he’ll tell Arthur the same thing he did before —that he needs to keep himself out of mischief— then proceed to walk in circles and repeat the cycle.
We Happy Few would have been better served as linear narrative game. Its open world sections and fetch quests don’t completely sink the game, but they’re filler at best. Ultimately, it still manages to entertain, nails its sixties style and tells a compelling story with the odd dash of very British humour. If you’re prepared to stomach the game’s less appetising sections, you’ll still get a little Joy out of We Happy Few.
After a long and turbulent development period and an early access release, We Happy Few is finally available in its (mostly) finished form. However, does it have what it takes to make this reviewer happy?
A mess of crafting, jogging, and disagreeable stealth frames a good script and fantastic acting.
After being revealed to a reasonable amount of fanfare, it's fair to say that We Happy Few is one of the year's biggest disappointments. Though there's a lot of the BioShock fingerprint evident here, this lineage isn't ever lived up to. The story, characters and the character of the world itself are positively to die for and exist as the game's few triumphs. It's a beautiful disaster of a game and was perhaps too ambitious for a developer so green as bugs, frustrating A.I. and a slipshod procedural generation robs We Happy Few of any chance it had to be great.
We Happy Few is a confusing game at first glance. It’s got the trappings, grand scale, and look of a AAA title. But dig a little deeper, and it’s really an indie title masquerading as one of the “big boys”. Given that just about everyone in the game wears a mask, this is a rather enjoyable double entendre, but the real question is ultimately whether developer Compulsion Games – one of the studios Microsoft announced it had acquired at this year’s E3 conference – was able to make us happy with its game. And the answer to that is: it’s complicated.
We Happy Few is unique. It features gorgeous environments, great music, twisted humor, and a magnetic story. It deserves praise for those aesthetics. But the game is what matters, and it is lackluster in that regard, with bad combat, mundane stealth, and endless, frivolous mechanics. By choosing the fastidious “micro-management” path, We Happy Few distracts far too much from its true potential as a dystopian gaming classic. And that’s the biggest downer of all.
There was a vision here for something much greater.When I think of Compulsion Games, I remember 2013’s Contrast, the company's underappreciated development debut. While very brief [...]
There's a brilliant game that mixes peril with colourful exploration inside We Happy Few, but it's buried under flawed systems and bugs
There's no doubt a ton of positive elements to We Happy Few, but it seems like a fantastic world clouded over by overzealousness on the part of Compulsion Games. While they should be lauded for their hand in crafting a world that I wanted to dissect every inch of, too much of the game feels like filler for its own good. Perhaps with a little Joy, We Happy Few could be more palatable to modern audiences.
While We Happy Few's story contains some genuinely wonderful twists and turns once it gets going, it's dragged down by frustrating survival systems, shoddy combat, and an empty world.
We Happy Few is a case of quantity over quality. A by-the-numbers venture whose game world seems to have been populated by a script rather than being handcrafted. Despite moments of what could only be described as brilliance, We Happy Few is full of fetch quests, boring busy-work and some of the most baffling design decisions in the history of video games. Oh, and it’s broken as shit too. Happy? Not really, no.
We Happy Few is a game that began it's life on Kickstarter before being picked up by Gearbox and Microsoft where it could be polished up and given the life it was meant to have. However what we got in return was something that should have spent a lot more time in a program like - Read our full Gaming News on The Outerhaven .
We Happy Few went from being a ‘little known’ indie game to one of the most anticipated games of the year after Microsoft’s E3 conference.
With this “final” release, the game sees an evolution from a survival game into one that resembles something more like an adventure title, but what’s here just doesn’t do much and its piss poor mission structure hinders what little is there. The basic goal of each character is to leave the island and missions play out like this: reach a roadblock on the way to your goal, character has inner-monologue that Person #1 has the McGuffin that will let you past the roadblock, go see Person #1, they say they won’t give you the current McGuffin unless you fetch something for them, do that, receive your McGuffin, get past the roadblock, reach the next roadblock and rinse repeat. It’s such a monotonous formula with characters spouting drivel that just leaves your finger itching over the “skip cinematic” button. Even the game’s main hook, the Joy drug everyone takes to be happy, ends up being something you don’t actually ever need to use. You’re told to take it to fit in, but I never took the drug unless the game forced it upon me and I was able to walk around the city areas perfectly fine. If a robot sniffed me out I’d simply run past it and it’d forget about me. If there was a Joy detector on a street I’d have to pick between the mild inconvenience of going around the block or just running through the detector and outrunning the triggered enemies. A caveat of never taking your Joy is that you’ll never see the bright and colorful hallucinogenic aspect the game is practically known for, which turns an already dull world even duller. You’re just never presented any genuinely good reason for taking the drug which is just wild considering it’s a major part of the game.
We Happy Few launches on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, and it offers up a unique dystopia to explore, saddled by frustrating survival gameplay.
We Happy Few may have one of the most absurd and convoluted development histories within gaming. From a small development studio and Kickstarter success to one of Microsoft’s first party developers, Compulsion Games has certainly received a lot of attention during the development of their humble survival game. We’ve also seen an E3 trailer go viral, a drastic switch in the game’s core focus, Gearbox coming on board as a publisher, its price point double from where it was originally plan...