Wasted potential

We Happy Few from the young Canadian development studio Compulsion Games had all the necessary elements to become a really good action adventure game. The ingredients were all there: a Brave New World-like dystopia whose inhabitants are all on psychedelic happy pills, called Joy, and thus unwittingly escape the dreariness of reality. A retro-futuristic presentation in the art style of Austin Powers. The cynical British humor of Monty Python, horror elements of the BioShock -kind and protagonist Arthur trying to escape this madness.

In other words: the game had me after the first trailers. Despite the mixed reviews, I bought We We Happy Few, in the hope that I could side with the writers of praise. But after the euphoria of the cool opening, in which Arthur doesn't take his Joy for once and witnesses his colleagues eating a dead rat instead of a candy-filled piñata in a pill-fuelled frenzy, after a few hours I was already out of steam.

I liked the style, the synchro, the story outline and the aesthetics of the whole thing - but unfortunately not the game that went with it. The pill mechanic, which was initially a cool gimmick, became annoying after a short time due to the survival aspect. The looting and crafting seemed contrived and I don't need to explain how I feel about rogue-likes again. In general, I would have preferred the semi-linear narrative of a Dishonored 2 or Thiefs instead of the open world. In addition, there were numerous bugs that allowed you to bypass both the stupid AI and the game world and get into areas that you weren't supposed to visit.

So in the end, I largely satisfied my explorer's instinct by figuring out how to exploit the weaknesses of We Happy Few instead of playing it the way it wanted to be played. Because when a game throws me into a world with the premise that my character is seeing it for the first time without rose-colored glasses, I naturally want to see everything. And when there are artificial barriers, such as crafting limitations, that only serve to force me down the path of the story, it annoys me.

Consequently, We Happy Few ended up on the actually quite small pile of games that I a) bought and b) didn't play through. Call it gamer pride, a deliberate waste of time or defiance: I usually try to finish the food I've started. To continue this metaphor, I couldn't avoid the gag reflex when playing We Happy Few . I wondered if I'd feel the same about the soundtrack?

The score

The OST is by Nicolas Marquis, who has barely made an appearance in the video game soundtrack genre to date. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but he won't make his stamp with We Happy Few either. The fact that this is not necessarily his fault is due to the setting and tone of the game. The overdrawn characters, who eke out an existence in this contrasting world of over-the-top, punch-me-in-the-face-man-I'm-tickled-pink mood and the dark and bitter reality of war, hardly offer any space for the soundtrack to be based on them.

Instead, Marquis does the expected and limits himself to background music and scene accompaniment, but leaves out the motif work. The score transports us back to the 60s, the era of the swinging sixties and the mushroom trip turned into music, only complete with the in-game band The Make Believes, who offer okay 70s surf rock (Dead of WinterThe Make Believes3, Out of the BlueThe Make Believes3, Georgie JoyThe Make Believes4). Anyone with a penchant for electric pianos (House of Curious BehavioursNicolas Marquis4) or shopping mall music (Joy and a Happy FaceNicolas Marquis3) will definitely be able to doze off happily with this.

In addition to these positive tunes, as we know them from Noone Lives Forever or the Sam & Max-Spielen kennen, kommt bei den 48 Tracks natürlich auch der ‚Realitätspart‘ unter. Dieser tritt storybedingt eher am Ende des OST auf und fällt leider unter die Kategorie Nichtssagend. Marquis versucht hier die Atmosphäre eines Thrillers aufkommen zu lassen, wie beispielsweise in Suspect on the LooseNicolas Marquis2 and The Ratholm FogNicolas Marquis2.

'Tries', mind you, because it lacks the highlights, the emotions that break up the suspense like a jumpscare. Hamlyn a Seaside TownNicolas Marquis3, Military CampNicolas Marquis3 and Train StationNicolas Marquis3 are nice, but don't go beyond that. It may have been the composer's intention to make this world as oppressive as possible - if so, he has succeeded. In general, the pieces we hear in the reality setting seem as if we are experiencing them through a pillow.

Consequently, there are also few action tracks, and even pieces like Angry MushroomsNicolas Marquis3 or Last LegsNicolas Marquis3 seem rather tame. I would have liked a little more courage and drama here, because the contrast between pill trip and fight for survival is actually full of potential. And Garry Schyman had already shown eleven years earlier with his work for BioShock how a dystopia with its light and dark sides can be stylishly staged.

Due to the strict focus on the monothematic, good and bad, heaven and hell, the score degenerates into a uniform mishmash. And that's a shame, because the scenario would have offered so much scope for individual highlights to break out of the sea of uniformity and raise the overall composition to a new level. As it is, the music falls short of my expectations, which in turn suits We Happy Few very well. Unfortunately.