We Happy Few

The reviewers weren't impressed on release, but this is a game it is easy to love. I have fallen head over heels for it after being chased through a derelict village by locals who disapprove of the rubber catsuit I am wearing.

this game has a deep deep special place in my heart. The colors, art style, setting, and story are entertaining and unique with a psychedelic twist a brilliant 1984'esque social commentary. Lots of fun side missions, crafting, and exploration.

I really tried to finish this game but its quite impossible for me because it feels like a chore... lots off performance and bug issues, side content is repetitive 80% of the time... wor the story i think world is to big... isn`t quite good story teller, altuough i really like the story concept and idea, aesthetics and vibes are great to... and in the end i dont know why it turned up to be like this, i was looking to completing it but bro... not for casual gamers if you ask me... especially looking at its current price, maybe for fanatics that are really striving for this kind of thing that can look trough hands on its bad qualites.. Maybe one day il finish it... but for now let it collect dust P.S I really feel bad when i ` Have ` to give negative review but it is what it is...

Стильная обёртка, внутри — пустота. Игра уныло однообразна и душевно пуста. Еле домучил первый акт. Трейлер рисует динамичный экшен, а на деле — скучная история, к которой совершенно не цепляешься, и примитивные квесты «сходи-принеси». Побочные задания нелепы, диалоги нудны и откровенно тупы. Британцы славятся чёрным юмором, но здесь один лишь кринж. Твёрдая 10/10 по шкале тоски.

tan todos re consumidos por el fentanilo y yo soy un tipazo que curto mi mambo tranqui piola sin berretin y me quieren fletar a la mierda, me escapo porque soy re picante y fin del jueguito

i want to preface this review by saying that despite its flaws, this is one of my favourite games of all time, if not literally THE favourite. i love it to pieces. i credit my adoration mainly to the environment and world design. WHF has one of my favourite aesthetics of all time - one that i have yet to find in any other piece of media. a cheerful, psychedelic, and rainbow dystopia is jolly enough, but one that's predicated on 60's propaganda post-WW2? ive found peak and i fear i won't find it again. so much of this game is built through visual storytelling, through ambient dialogue or graffiti on walls, and its 'show don't tell' approach to the worldbuilding makes it so much more nuanced. keen players could likely discern all the major issues plaguing wellington wells in the first hour or so. its truly such an immersive environment and i adore the designs of the various structures in this game. in particular, the Village is such a treat, with rainbow roads and old english buildings. exploration is never dull when i find the environment to be beautiful. on top of that, the actual worldbuilding and plot are very compelling. i played through my first playthrough completely unaware of like, at least half of the major issues affecting wellington wells, (only discovering them afterwards when i read the wiki), but still loved it all the same. its unique & detailed, executed relatively well imo (good voice acting, good cutscenes) and really just the greatest strength of this game. and of course the plot is fuelled by its characters. in an epidemic of TikTok appropriating the term "morally grey" to any Bad Boy™ with a conscience, the characters of WHF (in particular, Arthur & Sally) are a breath of fresh air. complex, unreliable narrators that, despite all their flaws, draw in emotional investment from the player. theyre also just so full of personality. you can really see that emphasized in the differences b/w the journals/notes they keep and their dialogue. just really well-written. with that being said, i do have a few gripes with the plot. Act I is clearly more fleshed out than the other two. not only does it have a greater abundance of side quests, (most of them of higher quality as well), the main quest is a lot longer and a lot more compelling. it really feels like arthur gets to shine but the other two were somewhat rushed as a consequence. so i wish we had more development regarding the other two acts. on top of that, i wish we had more hand-crafted side quests, like the butcher one in arthurs playthrough. it just really would pump a lot more life into the world and make up for the lack of npc models and such. regarding the criticism levied that it feels like a "walking simulator" or "tedious", i think this is honestly in part an attention span issue on account of the players. with a market oversatured with fast-paced overstimulating fun, (which has its own place!), whf does take a slower approach that doesnt land well with everyone. for some of the people here it gets to a point though. like complaining that the initial arc with arthur and the hardy boys was "too long" is a bit absurd when it takes like, 1-2 minutes tops to walk there and thats the basic introduction to how the game works.... i personally didnt find my initial playthrough a chore at all, but thats because i thoroughly enjoyed the world and loved looting it. (ie. i voluntarily unlocked all the hatches and cleared all the fog i could from my map). obviously not everyones going to do that, but im of the opinion that running between locations wasn't that bad at all, especially since there is a fast travel system in game. THAT BEING SAID i understand when people say the fetch quests feel tedious. i think they were necessary bc they fleshed out the world so much more, and im unsure of what else they could've done other than just Walk On Out of Wellington Wells. but the derailment of the main quests could definitely get frustrating when theres such little signs of progress towards the main plot. tl;dr i thought the fetch quests were fun and the payoff was more than worth it, but for somebody that primarily cares about reaching the ending, i can definitely see it getting annoying. regarding combat and survival mechanics. i thought they were okay. i initially played whf when i was Really Bad At Video Games, so i appreciated the more simple combat system that still lent itself to being fun. very beginner-friendly. stealth was cool. i like strangling people. not much else to say there. the main issue here is how easy it is to cheese. you can literally outrun everyone and just hide in a trash can until they all deaggro. it is so so easy, even on hard mode with permadeath. nothing poses a threat when theres a way out in every single alley. and survival truly had zero consequences. i think they tried to reach a balance here between people who enjoy looting and people who dont, but all that ended up creating was a mediocre, low-stakes system. a better option here would be to toggle off survival mechanics for those who don't want them. otherwise, theres very little penalty for running low. the only time survival mechanics were ever an issue was in sandbox at the start of the game with thirst. none of this was bad per se, like the game absolutely does not need a complicated combat system when thats NOT WHAT YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING, its only that it could be a lot better. stealth was super fun though. i enjoy the approach where youre punished for engaging in combat, which makes sense for such a social-focused game like whf, where youre supposed to blend in. sneaking around buildings is deeply entertaining and only ruined by the occasional buggy npc that somehow sees you when theyre not supposed to. really not gamebreaking. like, a lot of the stuff about bugs was made by earlier players. much of it has been fixed now (AT LEAST TO MY KNOWLEDGE) and i didnt personally run into anything bad. just a few npcs sitting the wrong way and maybe poorly procedurally generated worlds partially blocking entrances, which was rare. and the social mechanics were cool. joy, blending in by choosing the right clothes and actions, suspicion meters, etc, are all super interesting feature. the main problem comes from the fact that they werent implemented enough. i wish joy had a bigger factor in this game. while taking it, everything becomes more saturated, and thats it. i wish it was instead something akin to arthurs intro pinata scene or victoria watching the couple eat charcoal in the dlc. wellington wells should be a lot more ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up when youre off your joy. not in terms of gore or graphics, but little things that more obviously indicate something is terribly wrong. also joy is genuinely optional in playthrus so what's up w that?? make it harder. joy detectors, doctors, and headmistresses are not a threat when you can walk past 2/3 without fully aggroing them, and run past 3/3. or just literally walk on the other side of the street from a doctor and they dont detect you at all. zero punishment in gameplay. but alright. concept cool, execution falls flat. honestly the procedurally generated worlds are fine. like yeah itd be better if it was ENTIRELY handcrafted but also the generation brings it own unique charm n upsides. i think most of the complaints could just be solved with more personalized/handcraft side/main quest experiences instead of overhauling the whole system. outside of a few bugs it can even be very enjoyable. tl;dr i would never pay this full price for any game in the world but if you see a few clips of whf, dont need constant action, and like how it looks, its totally worth it on sale! beautiful environmental storytelling, great characters, and compelling plot! gameplay is decent, though some of the mechanics are lackluster. fun times overall!

The main game has some bad parts, because they wanted to create a survival / crafting game with procedural world generation. If the main game was shorter and had a "hand designed world" instead of procedural generation, it would probably be a lot better, the survival and crafting parts aren't really bad. The DLC is amazing though, very focused, linear and discarded the elements that made the game boring like having less survival and crafting and also having a fixed world generation for the DLC and not being afraid of changing the gameplay to fit the DLC context. The achievements are one of the really bad parts on this game, because there are tons of achievements where you punish yourself by playing in a certain way that don't really allow you to explore the game freely. The Saint achievement where you can't kill people removes 90% of the weapons from the game, and limits your gameplay. Same for the achievement where you need to beat the DLC without upgrading. This game also has tons of missable achievements, which actually hurt the experience, things like doing things in a specific way with no way to backtrack to that place after finishing it. Talking about missable achievements, the DLC doesn't give you the option to save manually, so if you get through one part without getting all the achievement progress in that area, you will be locked out of them. Other achievements that are bad are the Uncle Jack show ones, because they are totally randomized fitted inside time slots so you can have like 5 hours + trying to get the last show to show up and it might not even show on your save, because your world seed might never roll the last remaining show. It's a good game with tons of bad design choices that hurt the player experience or make it boring, the gameplay loop can also be said to be weak, sadly it seems to be a common problem with this developer. Please do buy the DLC if you enjoyed the main game, because the DLC contains something that could be called the True Ending, while also having three good storylines with changed gameplay compared to the main game.

Edit: I've edited my review as I wrote it after playing the first Act (which took 20+ hours). My opinion was that I recommended it, despite it being a confusing mash of ideas that don't always work. I nearly didn't play the the other 2 acts, nor the DLC, and that would have been a terrible mistake, because they are so much better than Act 1 in almost every way, I honestly wish Arthur's story was excised from the campaign, and his gameplay reserved for the Arcade mode (which is open world, but at least you can tailor the experience). I've added and revised my pros and cons below. + Interesting story set in post WWII England where everybody is forced to take a drug that keeps them happy, and forget the horrible things they had to do in the past. This is taken to its extreme, and after 20 years, the country is crumbling. + Acts 2 and 3 build on the backstory, interesting characters, and give you vital direction in what to do, and WHY you're doing it. not to mention the protagonists are much much more interesting than downer Arthur. + Fascinating seeing the world change as you consume Joy, or go through withdrawal, and again as you play through the other acts, revisiting old areas changed by the story. + Stealth sections work well, but this is largely down to NPCs being extremely stupid. Once you get used to the NPC's detection routines you can have a lot of fun running rings around them. Level design is certainly upped for the DLC with areas introducing more vertical progression and actual alternate routes. + Variety of game play styles on offer from Act 2 onwards. You'll either have responsibilities to fulfil as you play, which add a little challenge, but also keep you hooked in playing. + The first 2 DLCs don't add anything to the story, and are more fun "what ifs" set in the same universe. All the DLC is worth playing however, and each change up the game play in very interesting ways. + After getting killed, you'll wake up on a park bench or in a bunker without much or any penalty, which is a relief. + Decent length for a singleplayer FPS. The first Act took me ~20 hours, Act 2 and 3 took a further 10, and the DLCs took me about 8 hours in total. + With the right settings it plays very well on the Steam Deck (a mix of Medium and Highs), but is one of those games that uses AA to soften and blur shadows, so that needs to stay high despite being such a strain on the handheld, or you'll get some horrid banding everywhere, particularly noticeable on characters' faces. + Plenty of dark humour. - Randomly generated open world setting. Who cares? Are you going to replay it to see the difference? Of course not. But now, because everything is randomly put together, it takes extra time to get everywhere. The devs are clear fans of Bioshock, and this game would have worked better are a series of interconnected levels, rather than being so open. Probably 1/3 shorter, too. The mistake in using an open world are compounded as you play Act 2 and 3, and revisit old landmarks to find they are in a completely different parts of the world! Dr Faraday's lab went from The Garden District, to the Village! It's not just confusing, due to the heavy use of gaslighting by the government in-game, it left me wondering if I had misremembered it. It's just not consistent. And the alternate routes of escape offered in the random world usually lead to dead ends so often aren't worth trying. - Objectives set miles apart, with not a lot interesting in between. This does improve in Act2 and 3 for the most part (though A2 had me travel 1 mile to a waypoint, certainly the furthest I had noted), and fixed completely in the DLC. It's such a waste of time considering the meagre rewards on offer. - Loot and weapons are pretty crappy. I found one decent weapon 10 hours in and stuck to it. You'll probably find your favourite and stick with it. Loot is just scrap for crafting, and ... - Crafting is just terrible. You have to collect recipes to make anything, work benches have to be upgraded individually (and I still don't really know why), the scrap just ends up weighing you down until you can find a place to put it all. And when you do eventually get rid of it all, you'll come across a mission that needs a specific piece of crap, so fast travel back to your stash, then walk/run back to the mission. The inventory and crafting system is as wide as the ocean, and as deep as a puddle, and I'm sure I didn't construct everything. In fact I know there were things I could have made in Act 2, but never actually found the components for. - All NPC seem to share the same AI bulletin board. So if you run from the Bobbies to get to the Garden District, the Downers of the Garden District will also pick a fight with you, even though they are 2 opposing factions. - The atmosphere of paranoia really takes a knock once you realise most NPCs do very little damage, and dying can take ages, but is still quicker than running and hiding. This is improved in Act 2 and 3, maybe because I was bored by the end of Act 1, so was quite happy slipping in to a bit of the ol' ultraviolence. Honestly, with the protagonists' motivation in Acts 2 and 3, I was highly uninterested in not hurting people who got in my way. - The Joy and Curfew mechanics are probably responsible for 5-6 hours total in delaying me from my destination or objective. Basically you have be high so people don't think there's anything wrong with you, and you have to do this in daylight hours, but there's no away to accelerate time outside of a bed. Both are nice ideas, but fumbled. This can be avoided by buying the last in a line of skills that some how make people not care you're out late. - Skill points take ages to accumulate in Act 1, but thankfully the devs drown you with them in the later Acts and DLC, making for a much more fun experience. - Dying usually isn't always a problem, but if you have people chasing you, the autosave will not trigger, even if you've entered an area requiring a Loading screen. This caught me out a few times, so be aware. - Possible to fail a couple of missions, thus locking you out of a hideout to rest at. Meaning you can fast travel back to the last hideout, but then all your objectives will be 600m+ away. - End of Act 3 was a cheap sucker punch, and the protagonist deserved better. - Arthur wavers between such a wet blanket, or a complete knob. Whining he doesn't want to murder people (after you've just murdered a bunch), and even blaming a girl for his dad abusing her as a child. Lovely chap. I know this is set in the 60s, but we are meant to like him aren't we? I cannot over state how much his act nearly put me off playing the rest of the game. Its such a nuanced setting, I'd recommend giving it a play based on that, but there are many, many issues, and thankfully most are in the first Act. If you can get through that (and I appreciate it'll be around 20 hours), you'll get some first rate FPS borrowing from a variety of really cracking games like No One Lives Forever and Dishonoured, Dead Island.

Ця гра часами бісила мене, але я не можу її не любити) З мінусів - місцями криві механіки, деякі баги, в тому числі з квестами - присутні З плюсів - сюжет, шикарна музика, що 100% підходить створеному світу і дає +100500 до атмосфери, дизайн загалом дуже віддає атмосферою Оруела 1984 Якщо проходити гру зі всіма доповненнями ви отримаєте одночасно схожі та дуже різні, цікаві, трагічні та заплутані історії, з купою філософських, етичних питань і проблем, які подаються через світосприйняття та долі кількох дуже різних персонажів. Мені гра сподобалась дуже Рекомендую людям, для яких глибокий сюжет може перекрити деякі незручності, недосконалості гри, бо, нажаль, вони тут присутні

This is one of the verry few games that have managed to immerse me into it's world , as a person that abused drugs till a switch flipped and can no longer do so I feel understood by this game it presents a real problem with drugs and the after effect of doing too much, the music is amazing the way it makes you feel like you are a part of the world not the center piece of it something about the garden district atmosphere music is just too soothing don't go into we happy few expecting a dopamine rush this game is to be taken slowly I've had breaks between chapters so I don't burn out and the game keeps giving content has good replayability and is verry enjoyable now in terms of bugs the game make sure to save frequently and don't push the game too far.