A lot of players had their own dose of “We Happy Few” via Early Access, but people were still surprised by the game’s story demo during last year’s E3. Following Compulsion Games’ partnership with Gearbox Publishing, the developer is stepping up the ante and is releasing a full version on April 13, 2018 for Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4.

The worldwide launch next year will include brand new content for the game, which includes a full-length campaign featuring three “moderately terrible” playable characters each having “their own reason for giving up on artificial happiness.” What’s more, players are treated to over 250 new encounters.

‘We Happy Few’: What’s it about?

Compulsion Games’ “We Happy Few” is the story of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial. It’s set in a retro-futuristic, drug-fueled city in 1960s England, where players have to blend in with its other residents. These residents don’t take kindly to people who don’t abide by their rather unconventional rules.

Joy is the name of the drug taken by the residents of “We Happy Few,” convincing them the fascist, post-apocalyptic English townscape is, in fact, a bright and breezy utopia. A video from Compulsion Games shows how swallowing pills of Joy will affect the in-game weather and environments, which you can check out in this video:

One important thing to take note of, for the uninitiated, is that in “We Happy Few,” if you die, that's pretty much it – there is no reloading your save.

Although, the game has two difficulties. The easier one is that when you die, you wake up all willy-nilly and carry on with your business from your sewer home, sans the items from your inventory, of course. The more challenging of the two is the rogue-like difficulty where you have to start all over again with the map all jumbled up, so it’s pretty impossible to remember places since the city changes completely.

Release details

While fans are jovial that the game will be released in full, a caveat is that, a price hike is also to be expected, which in this case has seen the cost double from $30 to $60. Those who purchased the game on the Xbox One Game Preview Programme or Steam Early Access will be receiving the game’s standard edition along with the “Jolly Brolly” parasol weapon preorder bonus absolutely free of charge.

Additionally, pre-orders from GOG, the Microsoft Store, the Humble Store, or Steam will get alpha access.

A limited edition “We Happy Few” Collector’s Set is also up for grabs at $150. Among the goodies included in the set is a Joy alarm clock, a vinyl copy of the soundtrack, a “You Look Smashing” lamp, and more. Have a look at its gameplay trailer below: