Review: We Happy Few — ‘Lightbearer’
We previously reviewed the first We Happy Few DLC ‘They Came from Below’. You can find that review here.
We Happy Few’s newest DLC launched today, July 30th. Lightbearer follows the musical sensation Nick Lightbearer as he tries to sort out what has happened to him after a night of drugs and partying.
The game hits on a lot of standard music stereotypes. Nick feels like he has to be a ‘bad guy’ and seem like a dangerous type. His first marriage fell apart due to his infidelity, and he very much cares about his image and public perception of him. You have to ‘fight’ (you don’t kill enemies, only stun them) groupies and paparazzi as they try to clamor for your attention. Only female characters are acting like the groupies, while only male characters seem to be paparazzi, which peeved me a bit but I guess fits into standard roles in this society.
This DLC had a lot of really interesting locations and mechanics that changed throughout. There is an area where a pill you take makes you small and you have to navigate a house as a very tiny human. I really loved how they transformed the space you had already explored into a totally new area with jumping puzzles. My only wish in this section was that the jumping puzzles were a bit more challenging…it all felt too simple for a cool mechanic they put together. Later in the game, Nick takes a drug that totally changes his awareness and he goes through a bad trip. The graphics and music really set the scene and made this whole section uncomfortable and scary in the best ways possible. Kudos to the team for putting together a very believable ‘bad trip’ moment that keeps the player on the edge of their seats.
The scenery was much more diverse than the last DLC, featuring different zones, buildings, and a fairly expansive hotel to explore with such a small DLC. The detail of the city matched the detail put into the story of the game. While it was a bit predictable, I was really interested in learning more about the characters and felt like the base story gave great information, and the readable notes scattered throughout added even more depth.
I think this DLC is lacking most the diversity of combat that the previous DLC used. Over time, the last DLC introduced new mechanics for fighting enemies and this DLC does the same. Unfortunately, the base mechanic of fighting enemies is pretty dull. If you left click at enemies, you play your guitar and it damages them over time. I felt like I spent a lot of the early game just manically clicking at enemies, and even with new mechanics it still all boiled down to clicking. The final boss fight of the game tried to introduce new fighting mechanics into play, but it felt too little too late. I can imagine it feels even more frustrating on the easier difficulties that may not require use of any of the stun mechanics that are continuously introduced. I rarely used the ranged projectile unless it was required to solve a puzzle.
I’m surprised this DLC costs the same as the last, ‘They Came From Below’ ($7.99 for just the DLC, $19.99 for the Season Pass of all three DLCs). While ‘They Came From Below’ was only 2 hours of playtime, this one was more than 4 hours (and that’s with me not fully reading every note within the game). I do believe that this DLC offers more in terms of story and gameplay, and even with a weaker combat system I can more confidentially say this is worth the money. Based on the quality of the first two DLC, I’d recommend purchasing the Season Pass instead of the individual DLCs. Collusion and Gearbox has put some great work so far into these DLCs and they feel like meaningful additions to the main game.
Disclaimer: Gearbox Publishing provided me with a code to be able to try out We Happy Few and it’s DLC ‘Lightbearer’.
- iLuffhomer — https://twitter.com/iluffhomer
