We Happy Few demonstrates its dystopian world with a bloody piñata

Kickstarter-backed indie game We Happy Few has showed off a brand new E3 trailer that introduces the premise and some gameplay for its unsettling take on 1960s England.

Like literature pieces 1984 and Brave New World, We Happy Few‘s universe is a dystopia — a seemingly perfect reality that has a darker underlying message. The inhabitants take a drug called “Joy” to forget the troubles in their lives, much like the “Soma” drug used in Brave New World. When the protagonist decides to not take the Joy, he begins to see some disturbing changes to his world. 

The world goes from this…

…to this. Oh dear.

So what’s this about a bloody piñata?

Well in the trailer, one of Arthur’s coworkers excitedly mentions how he should join them later in trying the fun party custom. After a nervous walk around his workplace sans Joy, Arthur finds his coworker again with some other friends looking expectantly at a piñata on the table. His coworker encourages him to smack it for the candy, and Arthur obliges. But instead of candy and paper shavings, blood spurts out. Suddenly horrific reality sets in — the pinata is actually an animal, and his coworkers are eating its carcass.

Mmm, soooo tasty!

The game does not have an official release date as of yet, but We Happy Few will be on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access on July 26th. For the full sequence and more details, check out the E3 trailer here:

For more titles of the quirky and bizarre, check out the “Top 5 Strange and Unique Games Coming Out in 2016” here at GameSkinny!

What are your thoughts or interpretations of We Happy Few‘s trailer? Let us know in the comments below!