We Happy Few, a psychedelic riff on BioShock with survival game hooks, is one of 2018's biggest disappointments. It exits two years of early access development on Steam and Xbox One this week, alongside a launch on PlayStation 4. If you, like me, found yourself desperate for anything to scratch that BioShock itch, it's best to keep waiting. You're more likely to be frustrated by We Happy Few, a game flirting with interesting ideas, but whose cumbersome gameplay prevents it from doing much with them.
The nearly-five minute teaserâ depicting a British dystopia where censorship is rampant, people pop pills to forget real-life, and everyoneâs wearing weird, horrific masksâwas stylish as all hell
i think the reaction of most people was actually âthis looks ugly, tedious and predictableâ
i went back on SSRIs a week ago after trying for 2 years off them, and itâs been positive. while there are definitely discussions to be had about the efficacy and ramifications of medication, these people and their sneering mess can fuck off. thanks
Yeah thereâs been shockingly little serious discussion of the way this game portrays antidepressants and so many outlets are just talking about âhappy pillsâ without considering what that means in the slightest. The developers are on record talking about how this is in response to âprescription drug cultureâ and relying on pills for happiness so like, come the fuck on.
I do wish this article went harder on those details, but I guess if we generously ignore the developersâ statements being like right there, this seems fair:
On the other hand:
Philosophically and functionally, this game seems like a fuckin toilet so I donât know what promise Mr Klepek is seeing here.
This game is a hot mess of nonsense. Itâs to the point I canât even be mad at it, even though I should be, because it actually got this far in development without anyone asking themselves âwait what are we doing againâ
I remember when this started as an indie game with a new piece of promo art that instantly lost my attention through the realization that it had tons of survival bars and then it had one really good E3 showing and I cared for a few minutes before realizing I had no idea what the game even was anymore and then it got a publisher and all interest I had just withered away until this very moment where I was finally explained just what this game was actually about and my brain nearly caved in upon itself from the shocking levels of ignorance on display.
It may be hard to believe but not only do I not want more Bioshock Infinite, I donât want more sociology-101 ass Bioshock. The downright insulting treatment of mental health by We Happy Few seems pretty consistent with Bioshockâs âlibertarianism as set-dressingâ approach to social commentary and if it had been hit with a bigger production stick a lot people who should know better would be singing its praises.
Itâs amusing to me how much We Happy Few actually does resemble a Bioshock game. I found myself similarly drawn to it for the imagery and compelling art design, only to find examples of really troubling ideologies holding the whole thing together. The depiction of antidepressants and prescription drugs is completely ignorant and bridges on offensive. It really feels like its coming from a place of privilege. From folks that donât have to worry about debilitating depression, anxiety, etc or have to worry about being denied access to healthcare (of any sort, not simply medication) to help you function.
Itâs a shame because as others have said, there is totally room to talk about the failings of healthcare or prescription drugs in a capitalist society. Even in an allegoric sense through the lens of a dystopia or what have you. But clearly these are not the folks I would trust with writing that.
what really pains me is the thought that the whole development team thought that âdamn drugs are pretty fucked up huhâ was a fresh and exciting narrative frontier
If youâre curious about the details of the story and are wondering if maybe itâs not as bad as it seems, check out this twitter thread. Itâs actually way worse than you might think!
Itâs shocking that a group of people could make such an intensely dark & traumatizing event the basis of their story, then decide the message of their game is that antidepressant medication is bad actually cause itâs important to be able to be sad.
I think the genre would definitely be in a way better place if its most popular entry hadnât been the super lavish anti-ideology game. Pretty much every vent-crawler since has pitched itself of being an âideology/political issue + player choiceâ game theyâve all fallen flat on their faces with the possible exception of Prey. The developers of these games consistently try to make the most complex and detailed games on the market that also make sophisticated political statements because Bioshock, basically. You couldnât set yourself up for failure better if you tried.
If thatâs the kind of thinking thatâs keeping the genre alive, then maybe it should go away for a while.
Iâm always confused when people talk about the âdeep and engagingâ story in Bioshock because I always assumed the appeal of that game was less about being Babyâs First Fountainhead and more about having a hand that shoots bees.
LISA gets points for actually focusing on drug addiction and abuse, not the vague notion that it is bad people with serious mental issues get medication required to function somewhat properly because sadness = good therefore depression = good.
LISA was a great trilogy of games that actually tried to understand concepts alien to the developer (the guy was inspired by a conversation with his ex about past abuse and how it had affected her). It felt very human and moved me a lot because its commentary was centered around trying to understand why humans do what they do and finding the pathos in that.
These morons are just spouting their own ignorance with a cool looking art style and people will mistake it for somehow meaningful political narrative because look, 1960s British funk colors!
The issue is that Objectivism is such an easy target and laughably awful in its very design. If anything, Rapture isnât half as creepy as Ayn Randâs own ideas of what her utopia actually looks like. Thereâs a mother in Galtâs Gultch who basically has to negotiate mothering her kids in exchange for them providing her a service in return, the whole place is full of tortured capitalism as relationships.
It isnât that âgames targeting ideologiesâ canât work, itâs that Bioshock picked the easiest one and didnât need that much work to pull it off. This is why its sequels and imitators always come off so half-assed.
Also Iâd argue last yearâs Tacoma did a pretty good job making a dystopia out of tech bro capitalism. I didnât love that game, but its vision of the future was cutting and fantastic.
A bit of a tangential thought I suppose but Iâm realizing now the way two schools of thought donât gel in common misconceptions about mental health:
Pills that make you feel better are bad
Not being depressed makes you a bad creative
The romanticization of depression and rejection of happiness as a result is hurtful and lame and it bums me out.
