We happy few 2 xbox one8/16/2023 ![]() Anyone who fails to conform can expect to be beaten to death. When they talk, they speak of trivial, pleasant things. The people wear creepy, smiling masks that hide any sign of distress. Citizens are expected to be high, all the time, on a narcotic called Joy. Order is maintained by a corps of horribly grinning cops (“Bobbies,” in the obsequious English vernacular). Society’s elite inhabit a gaudy Mary Quant-world of swinging parties, fabulous fashions and happy pills. In this version of 1960s England, the people have chosen to throw off the pain of the past, to live entirely in the present. But the world he lives in is hostile to any show of individuality, regret or unhappiness. (One abiding mystery throughout the game is why, or how, Arthur managed to avoid being taken.)Īrthur resolves to escape his dreary little office job, and find his brother. Now, 14-years later, Arthur is painfully ashamed about the loss of Percival. One of them was protagonist Arthur’s beloved brother Percival (those Camelot names are another nod to England’s martial mythology). Following defeat in World War 2, many young people were sent away to victorious Germany. In We Happy Few, England is a sorry shadow of itself. “From this day to the ending of the world … we few, we happy few, we band of brothers For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.” Henry goes on to mock the shameful Englishmen, safe at home, rather than risking their necks for king and country.īrotherhood and an intense aversion to societal shame is at the core of the game’s story. The words “we happy few” are taken from Shakespeare’s Henry V, when the hero exhorts his beleaguered English troops to press on against their more powerful French foes. But it’s hard to fret over its flaws when We Happy Few takes the risk of doing something new. Its missions can feel outlandishly perverse, requiring specific actions or items. Sometimes the game suffers from weird bugs. This marriage of an original story with standard RPG mechanics creates an experience that is both arresting and fulfilling. We are here to escape from our own humiliation. We are not here to crawl dungeons or to save the universe. Along the way, it bolts on all the paraphernalia of role-playing games, such as side-quests, upgrade trees and crafting, but the story goes far beyond the familiar tropes of that genre. We Happy Few’s tale is a gripping mystery that plays out like a highly emotive narrative adventure. Rather, it’s the powerful thematic tensions of shame and social coercion, and how they entwine the story’s characters. Its strangeness isn’t limited to the psychedelic 1960s alternative-history that have garnered the game attention through two years of early access. It is unafraid to confront its players, to be strange - not in the cheeky, playful of way so many of its contemporaries, but in a darker, nastier, more disorienting fashion, delivered with a sharp edge of wit. This is one of those rare games that makes me feel discomforted. I’m about midway through the role-playing adventure, and it’s clear to me that its creators don’t just want me to have a bit of fun. Through a meticulously constructed universe and an outstanding script, this game offers an experience that’s genuinely fresh and confrontational. It’s a story about the amount of effort we put it into performative happiness and the concealment of emptiness. All video games are worlds of facades, but We Happy Few investigates the very idea of phony fronts.
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