Are The ‘We Happy Few’ DLCs Better Than The Main Campaign?

We Happy Few was one of the games that I was the most excited to play in 2018. I loved the style, the colorful imagery and the pitch black story hidden under the rainbows and flower projectile vomiting. However, in that review from a year ago, I was kind of disappointed. There were problems with the game, and the gameplay changing from one lead character to another were more hassle than fun. When the DLC’s were released, I revisited the entire game and played They Came From Below and Lightbearer… and those DLC’s changed EVERYTHING.

Don’t get me wrong, We Happy Few still has a lot of problems. There are bugs galore, and my copy has always had a habit of just shutting off at random moments. During the main game, that was the same, but something DID change… how I played the game. Before I even touched the DLC’s, I replayed We Happy Few, but instead of playing it on normal, I knocked it to the easiest setting. That gave me the chance to focus on the story rather than the gameplay mechanic flaws, and I found myself enjoying it a lot more, becoming a bigger fan of the overall game.

Then I moved on to the first released DLC, They Came From Below. This story focuses on the relationship between Dr. Faraday’s assistants, Roger and James. When Dr. Faraday is finally successful in her portal, she falls through, and these two must figure out where she went. You play as Roger, armed with special guns and tools that he finds in the massive laboratory underneath Wellington Wells. He is not alone down there, as he meets what he thinks are aggressive, murderous robots… but are they? Maybe these robots (and Dr. Faraday) aren’t at all what you think.

I loved the old school alien movie vibes that They Came From Below had. The DLC had the same colorful graphics as the main game, but with added improvements in gameplay. There was a lot of puzzle solving, and the final boss wasn’t that difficult, but it was a lot more fun and a lot less stress than the main game. It was a pretty good sized DLC, offering a few solid hours of gameplay. The next DLC was a strange experience called Lightbearer.

In Lightbearer, you play as the extremely famous Wellington Wells rockstar, Nick Lightbearer. Everything bad for you is good for you, so you take Joy, chicory and alcohol to heal. Your weapon? An electric guitar used to blow people’s minds. You, as Lightbearer, wake up covered in blood, unable to remember what happened. As bodies begin to pile up, and the evidence is mounting against you, you work to find out what in the world is happening. For as silly as this particular We Happy Few DLC is, it is very dark. The gameplay is trippy (you are on a TON of drugs), and the final boss battle is almost too easy. My biggest complaint is just how short Lightbearer is. I would have preferred this one to be as long as They Came From Below since it was just so fun.

Overall, the We Happy Few DLC’s were extremely fun. I didn’t have all of the bug issues in them that I did and still do in the main campaign. They gamemakers maintained and improved on the atmosphere of the main story and changed up the gameplay enough to keep it interesting and not too repetitive. There is one more DLC set for release which I haven’t played yet. and you can buy each DLC individually for $7.99 or get the season pass for $19.99. Do I think they are worth that price? No. I think if the season pass was more like $9.99 or $14.99, it would seem a little more enticing, but for $20, the DLCs are just a bit too short to warrant it, no matter how fun they were. I give the DLC content a solid 4/5, but for the cost vs the quantity of gameplay… 2/5. If they continue to release more content, then I can see that price being more fair. You can play We Happy Few on PS4 , Xbox One and PC.