We Happy Few had a hell of a debut at Microsoft’s E3 presser this year, which caught a lot of people’s attention- it then went on to launch on PCs and Xbox One, and went on to garner a lot of acclaim. However, what a lot of people tend to forget is that the game only launched in Early Access (or Xbox Preview).
This means that developers Compulsion Games actually managed to garner quite a bit of feedback for the game’s eventual final release- feedback which they said in a recent interview was very encouraging.
“The people that read literally any preview or storefront, or asked questions on the forums or Twitter, were really happy with the game, and have already contributed a huge amount of helpful feedback (both negative and positive). The people that didn’t read are, perhaps understandably, confused,” said Compulsion Games COO Sam Abbott in an interview with DualShockers.
“That’s difficult – obviously we don’t want anyone unhappy with their purchase. That sucks, and doesn’t help us or the player. Some people act like the game being a survival game is an affront, a direct insult that we have been preparing for years, and they tell us at length. I don’t understand that mentality. The game is a survival game because the entire game is based around surviving…the gameplay supports the lore and story about a world falling apart.
“So…how do we address people who assume that the game is like BioShock and buy without reading? The only solution I can see is to communicate, build the game, make it great with our super supportive community, and deliver the story as promised.”
I have personally noticed a lot of people who were disappointed with the game because they thought it would be like Bioshock, when it was not, so I can definitely see what Abbott is talking about. But I have seen even more people in general be very happy with this game and its atmosphere, so all said and done, I’d say Compulsion have a winner on their hands.