@mochaloca85
PARANOIA: HAPPINESS IS MANDATORY (Bigben Interactive/Cyanide/Black Shamrock – Steam – 2019) – Back on April 3, Bigben announced that the great and benevolent Friend Computer tasked the company (via developers Cyanide and Black Shamrock) with bringing tabletop game Paranoia to consoles and PC. The result is Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory, a CRPG due later this year (or, as the announcement put it, “whenever Friend Computer feels like it”).
For the uninitiated, Paranoia is a humorous, dystopian RPG that takes place in Alpha Complex, a city controlled by an AI called “The Computer” (or “Friend Computer”). Players are usually Troubleshooters with Red Clearance (the lowest clearance), entrusted with — often conflicting– missions by Friend Computer to eliminate threats to the “utopian” society from mutants and Communists. Backstabbing is to be expected. And a lot of bureaucracy.
Happiness is Mandatory will follow this basic premise. After “arriving” in Alpha Complex, the very paranoid Friend Computer will have you unearth traitors, while keeping you under constant surveillance to watch whether you commit any acts of treason (such as venturing into a yellow zone when you only have red clearance). If Friend Computer determines you are a threat — you commit enough treasonous acts — you will be punished (possibly by incineration). Though it is a single-player campaign, you will be leading a team of Troubleshooters to accomplish tasks.
According to the game’s Steam page, Happiness is Mandatory will feature enemies such as malfunctioning robots and drink dispensers alongside faulty clones. Players will be able to choose between nine specializations and will still be able to progress when they die (thanks to cloning). No word of whether a multiplayer “co-op” mode will added, though that seems to be the feature most on the Steam community page are asking for.
Based on what we’ve seen in the teaser trailer and the fact that all social media — including the official announcement of the game — are in kayfabe, it shows that Bigben truly has respect for the source material and its dark comedy. Friend Computer tentatively approves.
-Destiny Edwards