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Take The Joy Or Else. Join We Happy Few's Dystopia
As part of its spotlight on indie games, Microsoft showed off more of We Happy Few from Compulsion Games.
The demo starts off with protagonist, Arthur Hastings, at work. The bureaucrat at city hall is looking through an archival Restoration Machine when he comes across a newspaper clipping about a prize he and his brother Percy won when they were kids.
The player is then confronted with a choice: Remember the events or take the Joy. The joy is a pill that citizens of the world take to repress themselves and make them compliant. Later on Arthur leaves his office and comes across a co-worker being forcibly medicated. Later on he joins some colleagues who have gathered in the conference room to celebrate a birthday. They're clearly all on The Joy, and upon busting open the pinata, blood splatters everywhere, and Arthur's co-workers dig into the remains of a dead rodent.
Arthur, who hasn't taken The Joy, is horrified. His colleagues discover he's not on the drug, and call the authorities because they have a "Downer" amongst them.
Arthur runs off, chased for not joining the masses.
The demo showed events in the first person, and through the game you'll craft items and survive the procedurally generated world of Wellington Wells.
The game comes first to Xbox One, and will be on the Xbox game preview program on July 26.
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