History VideoGame / WeHappyFew

* EatTheDog: ''Not'' PlayedForLaughs. Arthur mentions at one point that many citizens of Wellington Wells were reduced to eating their pets during the war, and are still traumatized.

* AnAesop: Everybody makes mistakes but some are more irreparable than others, and you need to live with the consequences of your actions. Sometimes, the only thing you can do is learn from your mistakes before you repeat them.
** Forgetting about your problems doesn't make them go away.
** Artificial happiness isn't the same as actually being happy.

''We Happy Few'', developed by Creator/CompulsionGames, was released on July 26, 2016 as an early access title for [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows]], [[UsefulNotes/Playstation4 Playstation 4]], [[UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh Mac]], [[UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} Linux]], UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, Website/GOGDotCom, and the [[Creator/HumbleBundle Humble Store]], and an Xbox Game Preview title on UsefulNotes/XboxOne. The full release was planned for April 14, 2018, though this was later pushed back to mid-summer. The game was partly crowdfunded through a Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign, which [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/112359230/we-happy-few-welcome-to-wellington-wells-you-saucy reached its goal]] on June 28, 2015; the campaign ended on July 4. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00JoxSLTV-E It was announced on August 16, 2017 that Gearbox Software would become the game's publisher]].

* LesCollaborateurs: Wells was so scared of the German Empire's occupation that they were willing to do a lot to appease them, from lynching resistance members to [[spoiler: give away their children to be deported.]]

* ForWantOfANail: Most of the story only happens because the article about Arthur and Percy gathering scrap metal ended up on Arthur's desk, and Arthur consequently decides to go off his Joy. Had that not happened, Arthur would have never been chased into the Garden District, wouldn't have had to team up with Ollie to plan how to escape Wellington Wells, [[spoiler: and never would have discovered the tanks were paper mâché. Had the latter discovery not been made, Ollie would have no reason to leave the Garden District to reveal this fact to the executive committee, and so would have never tried to detox Victoria. Had she not been forced off her Joy, Victoria would have never seen the true state of affairs and tried to force everyone off of her Joy.]] The only main character whose story would have been largely unchanged is Sally, as the effect of Arthur getting her the cod liver oil is arguable at best.

"What do you call three Downers at the bottom of the sea? Not enough Downers!"

* ClassicalAntiHero: Arthur Hastings is a meek and scrawny office worker, who has made - and continues to make - incredibly selfish and cowardly choices, Sally is a single mum and a drug dealer, and Ollie is a rude, violent man with memory problems who sees and talks to a hallucination of [[spoiler: who he assumes to be]] his dead daughter.

* DoubleStandard: In one of the letters you can find, a churchgoer asks the vicar why they make jokes about [[AcceptableTargets Downers]] when shouldn't they be praying that the Downers get better instead? The writer says that even though she finds Downer jokes funny, she finds it funny when they're unserious, and since the church is serious, the vicar should hold a standard that everyone should aspire to hold themselves to.

* GameGourmet: Eating and drinking is important in order to survive. What you can feast on include stew, victory meat, grapefruit juice, and various fruits and vegetables. Eating rotten food, though, can give you food poisoning.

* ChokeHolds: Available as a skill that Arthur can learn, while Ollie and Victoria start out able to use it by default. Arthur and Victoria both need to learn a different skill to be able to use it on later-game enemies (Bobbies and Doctors) whilst Ollie can perform it on all enemies by default. This is also how Ollie stops Victoria from running for help when he confronts her in Act III.

** Various achievements/trophies include: "[[VideoGame/BioShock Shocking Biology]]", "[[Film/ApocalypseNow I Love the Smell of Chloroform in the Morning]]", "[[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Not In Kansas Any More]]", "[[Music/TheBeatles Baby You're a Rich Man]]", "[[{{Franchise/Pokemon}} Gotta Catch Them All!]]", "[[Series/BreakingBad Breaking Blackberry]]", "[[Franchise/StarTrek Resistance is Futile]]", "[[VideoGame/YouDontKnowJack You Do Know Jack]]", "[[UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes Remember, Remember]]", "[[Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe The Slaughterer's Apprentice]]", and "The Literature/WyrdSisters".

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Oh yes, the townspeople are [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon all friendly, totally cheery and oh so polite... and they will rip you a new one if you merely let your guard down for one brief moment.]]

"Sally's Story" focuses on Sally Boyle, mother to the only child born in Wellington Wells since The Very Bad Thing... which is not good, since one of the effects of Joy use is homicidal mania towards pregnant women and children. Whilst she has been able to use her skills as a chemist to escape attention so far, particularly in the creation of Blackberry Joy for the police force, she is desperate to flee to safety with her daughter beyond the reach of the "Wellies".

"Ollie's Story" focuses on Oliver "Ollie" Starkey, a half-crazed and violently temperamental Scottish soldier who has decided that he ''has'' to find out just what the true history of Wellington Wells is and why nobody seems to be doing anything to fix this place.

"Roger & James in: They Came From Below!" is a GenreShift to an AlienInvasion, as scientists (and secretly gay lovers) Roger Bacon and James Maxwell, assistants to the MadScientist Dr. Helen Faraday, find themselves at the forefront of an invasion of Wellington Wells by mysterious alien robots.

"Lightbearer" focuses on Nick Lightbearer, a major rock star in Wellington Wells who fears that he may have been murdering people as the infamous "Foggy Jack" whilst in drugged out hallucinations. The DLC focuses on his quest to sober up, learn the truth, and get out of Wellington Wells, before his crazed fans kill him for being a Downer.

"We All Fall Down" is the final DLC, taking place in the last days of Wellington Wells. With its population too addled by Joy to undertake the basic necessities of growing food or repairing damaged infrastructure, and all contact cut off with the outside world, Wellington Wells is on its last legs. Starvation and plague run rampant, and the Wellies still cling to their Joy even as they die. The last sane survivor in the entire city, [[spoiler:Victoria Byng]], decides that enough is enough and she has to cut off the flow of Joy to the Wellies before they starve.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Arthur Hastings, the player character, is a meek, timid man whose character model is absolutely scrawny in comparison with everyone else, his tone of voice makes him sound like he's constantly on the verge of a panic attack, and even when he's (as far as his peers are aware) still on his Joy, his so-called "friends" clearly still dominate him, as seen in the intro regarding the power core for the censorship machine. The odd thing is that he is often not panicky and is often pretty brazen. He fights better than almost anyone else. He can lie so convincingly that he can get into places he really shouldn't belong. He even improvisers an entire speech to get into the police station that is just beaming with confidence. It's unknown how much of his story is embellishment and how much is self-deprecating.

** Ollie Starkey [[spoiler: hallucinates Margret Worthing as his companion]] throughout the entirety of his act; he also seems incapable of recognizing Arthur when they first meet in game as well believing him to be another wastrel (no matter what you're wearing).

*** A quest involving World War II soldiers is called "Band of Brothers," which also comes from ''Henry V'', specifically the line, "We few, '''we happy few''', we band of brothers." The HBO series ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' also shares the title and is about a group of soldiers in WW2.

** Ollie Starkey [[spoiler: hallucinates Margret Worthing as his companion]] throughout the entirety of his act; he also seems incapable of recognizing Arthur when they first meet in game as well believing him to be another wastrel (no matter what your wearing)

*** A quest involving World War II soldiers is called "Band of Brothers," which also comes from ''Henry V'', specifically the line, "We few, '''we happy few''', we band of brothers." The HBO series'Band of Brothers' also shares the title and is about a group of soldiers in WW2.

* This also applies to the DLC characters. Roger Bacon (Fighter) has a powerful ray gun that can transform into a melee weapon, and is immune from several survival gameplay aspects. Nick Lightbearer (Mage) can stun or charm his opponents with his guitar, and drugs make him recover health and sanity instead of losing them. Finally, Victoria Byng (Thief) can jump around using her whip, and later gains an electrified dart gun.