We Happy Few was an early access flop, but it's finally brilliant

“Wait, it’s a survival game?” That was the prevailing question surrounding We Happy Few when it launched in early access in 2016. Having lowered jaws industry-wide with the rich world and narrative clout it demonstrated in previews beforehand, it felt almost like a bait-and-switch that Compulsion’s hype magnet was not, in fact, from the Bioshock mold, but more of a DayZ-alike in Andrew Ryan’s clothing. Here was a game pulled straight from the sort of books you'd expect to find on Ken Levine's bedside table: Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984, novels rich in social allegory and poetic resonance, distinct from the pulp of Tom Clancy or Warhammer that other games unduly lean upon. It had found a genuinely fresh setting in alt-history 1960s Britain, where everyone takes psychoactive drugs to suppress the terrible reality that would otherwise confront and consume them. Continue reading We Happy Few was an early access flop, but it's finally brilliant MORE FROM PCGAMESN: We Happy Few review, Best horror games, Best survival games

Jun 23, 2025 - 22:20

We Happy Few was an early access flop, but it's finally brilliant

“Wait, it’s a survival game?” That was the prevailing question surrounding We Happy Few when it launched in early access in 2016. Having lowered jaws industry-wide with the rich world and narrative clout it demonstrated in previews beforehand, it felt almost like a bait-and-switch that Compulsion’s hype magnet was not, in fact, from the Bioshock mold, but more of a DayZ-alike in Andrew Ryan’s clothing.

Here was a game pulled straight from the sort of books you'd expect to find on Ken Levine's bedside table: Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984, novels rich in social allegory and poetic resonance, distinct from the pulp of Tom Clancy or Warhammer that other games unduly lean upon. It had found a genuinely fresh setting in alt-history 1960s Britain, where everyone takes psychoactive drugs to suppress the terrible reality that would otherwise confront and consume them.

Continue reading We Happy Few was an early access flop, but it's finally brilliant

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: We Happy Few review, Best horror games, Best survival games