We Happy Few - PlayStation 4

I'd been looking forward to We Happy Few since I first heard about it. I had enjoyed Compulsion Games's previous game, Contrast, which was a short indie game with a distinctive look, soundtrack and story. I imagined We Happy Few might be a slightly bigger game, but along the same lines. I almost contributed to the Kickstarter campaign, but in the end decided against as it was not clear to me at the time whether it would be coming out on my preferred platform. A long period of waiting followed, and the game underwent many changes. I was actually pleased to discover that it was now going to be a "triple A" title with a major publisher attached. I was even more pleased to discover that it was going to come out on the majority of platforms rather than just being a PC or Xbox exclusive.I like things that are weird and different. One of my favourite game series is the Bioshock series as I love the game world and the themes. We happy few made me think of Bioshock whenever I saw any screenshots or footage, so I decided based on that, this game would be one that I liked. I wasn't completely wrong, but I wasn't very correct either. Bioshock's gameplay flowed better, and the game world had a better structure. We Happy Few, was a great idea, poorly executed. A procedurally generated game world giving players a different experience with each playthrough, sounds like a good idea in theory, it is something other games have pulled off. But in this instance if just feels like bad design. There are wide empty spaces of nothingness in between objectives, and the cities themselves are weird, with alleyways that lead nowhere, and streets so similar you can easily get lost even when following your quest markers. However there is no denying the game looks beautiful with a very unique look. My only complaint aesthetic wise is that some NPCs look too similar, particularly the police and the little old ladies, but the game sure does look pretty (when working correctly - more on that later).The story is, that the British town of Wellington Wells did something terrible during the war, and have been taking a drug called Joy ever since in order to stay permanently happy and forget the past. Everyone is vague and cheerful and even wear masks that shape their faces in to permanent smiles. It's brilliantly creepy, and very intriguing. You instantly want to know what the truth is, and why they all so badly need to forget it. You get to play three different characters to see things from different perspectives and learn different parts of the story. Firstly Arthur, who remembers his brother Percy, and wants to discover what happened to him. Next, Sally, a childhood friend of Arthur who became a chemist supplying drugs to the people of Wellington Wells and is hiding a shocking secret, and finally Ollie, a former soldier who talks to a girl who isn't there, and wants to let people know the truth. Each character requires you to learn different gameplay techniques, as they have strengths, weaknesses and quirks which must be catered to. An interesting idea, but can be frustrating particularly as you are also meant to make sure to eat and drink regularly, get enough sleep, wear the right clothing for the area you are in, and craft everything you need. It's all a bit muddled and if you play on an easier difficulty you can forgo most of the crafting if you want to, which begs the question......why bother? It's the same when it comes to things like being out after curfew. You can spend time carefully sneaking past bobbies, taking them down stealthily, or you can just run past them then hide in a bin or some tall plants until they inevitably get fed up of looking for you. Why conform to the rules when not doing so can be achieved without any significant consequences?And then, there are bugs. Depending on when you read this, it may have been patched and working better by now. During my playthrough, which began on release date in August 2018 and ended approximately 2 months later (I work and usually only game on weekends so I don't have that much time for gaming sadly) I saw two patches, but I can't say they made any great difference to me. I got a corrupted save once, but it only cost me a couple of hours of progress. Aside from that I have witnessed textures not loading correctly, NPCs floating in the air and glitching through walls and doors, two NPCs sitting in the same chair, and a few quests being glitchy and uncompletable. Now I know some players have achieved a platinum trophy or 100% gamerscore in this game so it is no doubt worth me going back and trying again at some point, but the butcher's apprentice and thomasina house quests were completely broken in my initial playthrough which was frustrating to say the least. I am glad they were side quests not effecting progression of the storyline. A particularly bad glitch for me was getting stuck inside a "headmistress" (robot enemy) when trying to sneak past it, and having to stay put until I died. A very strange glitch indeed, I should not have been able to get in there in the first place.We Happy Few certainly has its faults, if you are a particularly impatient person you should definitely give this one a miss. My feelings are very mixed. I feel perhaps I have been overly negative. I thought the voice acting was brilliant, and the soundtrack is lovely, the music fits the game really well. It on the whole looks fantastic as long as it is not experiencing texture glitches. The concept and themes are great, even if the story is not as in depth as I would have liked. Despite the issues with the gameplay, I really wanted to know more, to find things out, so I kept playing even when really frustrated. The cut scenes in particular are beautiful. I was so looking forward to this game that I decided on the deluxe edition including the season pass. I'm not so excited for the future content now, but I hope the future content adds to the story and gives it more depth and flavour. I hope future patches address glitches/bugs and other issues. I do not think a lot can be done for the feeling that the game world is too big due to the weird procedurally generated game maps, but if they fix other issues this could go from a bit of a mess to more good than bad.I don't completely hate it but I would hesitate to recommend it in the current state. It's a great concept which was exectued poorly, maybe the devs bit off more than they could chew? I'll update this review if anything changes in terms of patches or dlc content, but at present I would say if you are in any way interested in this, wait for a sale.

Excelente juego

Great game

This game is 5 star worthy. Well done Compulsion Games on that kick ass, dark, and different story. I am a sucker for interesting stories, this game was very satisfying to play.Though I loved the story, there were multiple bugs that kept me from collecting everything I needed and opening fast travel in certain locations, which made some of the game a little tedious.There were some quests that I couldn’t get to because they were bugged that I was unsure why they had even released it yet.It was definitely playable and worth the money, but if I had know there would be issues like this on release, I would of held off until they were patched.Don’t let the bugs stop you from purchasing this great game. I didn’t let it stop me from giving the game a solid five stars. All in all, it’s interesting and a very fun play through.

音声は英語です。日本語字幕が出て内容は理解できますが文字の読みづらいことこの上ないです。

Arrived on time, good price, very easy transaction.