We Happy Few XB1 Review

The crafting, rather than adding to the game, actually just got in the way of progressing the story and added significant extra frustration. There came a point after about 10 hours into Arthur’s storyline that I needed a certain item to progress. It wasn’t a quest item, but one that needed to be crafted. I didn’t have the recipe or any idea what ingredients were required, and eventually after many hours looking through walkthrough videos and FAQs, it appeared I had missed a side-quest that was actually required to get this item. But the game never tried to guide me here. Honestly, it was just appalling game design. When everything works, the mix of stealth, combat, open-world gameplay, crafting and survival is impressive in scope and depth. But unfortunately it all falls apart far too often, with game-breaking consequences.

Presentation:

We Happy Few has a great art style, with exaggerated, masked characters, and some well-thought out old-school adverts and television programmes. It’s a similar style of world to Bioshock, filled with undertones of malice, terrible propaganda, and under the false happiness being portrayed, deep social issues and division as a result of living under a brutal regime. However, the game still manages to carve out its own identity, which is impressive.

The visual effects when you take Joy are another highlight – the whole world will change, becoming brighter, more colourful, and the citizens more merry. When you crash afterwards, the effects are similarly profound in the other direction, and it’s a great touch to see both graphical and gameplay effects merge seamlessly.

I wish I could say the same about performance, which is spotty at best, and aggravating at worst. The frame rate seems to target 60/ is unlocked, and in the early tutorial areas, the game will run really smoothly. Pretty much anywhere in the open world, and you’ll struggle to even reach 30fps, with plenty of stuttering and hitching. The game also has a few other oddities – most of the buildings and even the NPCs have been copied and pasted everywhere – there’s very, very little visual variety within areas, and this really stands out compared to pretty much any other game.

The game is voiced pretty well, with plenty of British humour, although ambient dialogue and sound effects all start to portray that this is a small team without the budget to play with of the big boys.

Conclusion:

‘We Happy Few‘ is just too ambitious for its own good. With multiple gameplay styles, three characters to play as with different upgrades, an open world, and a very highly narrative-driven storyline, there’s an awful lot going on. Compulsion just aren’t able to keep up the performance or quality across the board, and the game would have been stronger with a tighter focus, dropping the crafting altogether. As it stands, there’s plenty to like, but equal levels of frustration, and I can see We Happy Few getting lost amongst all the other titles slated for release this autumn.