8 Terrible Video Games With AWESOME Stories
7. We Happy Few
I wanted to love We Happy Few so very, very much.
In the run-up to the game's launch, the world was awash with trailers promising an uncanny take on 1960's Britain, of a small town that uses a wonder drug called Joy to make them forget the horrors of what the locals did after The Battle Of Britain in order to get The Germans to leave their little island alone.
Side note. It wasn't rainbow rhythms.
The aesthetics, the attitude and overall creepiness of the setting lent well to a kind of "Bioshock in Blighty" vibe, which resonated with many. It's just a shame that the gameplay itself didn't come close to scratching this very curious itch.
Instead, we got - for the most part - a survival title with all the trappings of an Early Access game aka ropey AI, recycled assets over and over, and a single gameplay loop stretched out to agonizing lengths in order to pad out the runtime.
This truly was a world devoid of Joy, and yet the story was utterly engrossing, enough so that some players saw it through to the end regardless of the grind it put you through. Coming out the other side and learning of the true events that took place in Wellington Wells was rewarding, but the gameplay getting there was most definitely not.