Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory

I do wish Paranoia: Happiness Is Mandatory had been a bit more daring in the attempt.

Happiness is mandatory, the Computer is your friend, and this game is mediocre at best.

The game is an interesting experience purely for its world and general atmosphere, but ultimately it fails to come together due to the lack of depth in its mechanics, character development, and world lore.

Conclusively Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory is a great adaption of the Paranoia RPG.

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory (P:HM) is a 3D top-down camera game that can be played with a controller or POINT & CLICK actions. During the entire game, you have control of your character and, on missions, of other 3 teammates, each one with a different set of skills. The game happens around the Friend Computer, responsible for assigning the main missions. You will interact, shot and choose what to say to NPCs. To feel involved with the game a fair amount of READING is necessary. P:HM has much more of ACTION than of RPG as you can play the game by only mastering its mechanics. Even though the RPG elements can make missions easier, they have low influence on the gameplay results.

Overall though, if you’re a fan of RPGs, loads of dialog, cheezy yet well thought out retorts and just some good old fashioned fire fights between clones and robots? Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory is worth looking into and remember, trust no one. Report everything. But most importantly, remain happy. Happiness is mandatory.

In contrast to its source material, Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory is a bland RPG that is as slow as it is forgettable.

Paranoia Happiness Is Mandatory offers a fun-to-read game with some action based gameplay tossed-in. The fate of your clone character is interesting especially as you delve-deeper into the darker corners of Alpha Complex. The combat feels like the weakest part of the experience as it lacks the complexity required to fully engage the player. That said, if you can stomach some odd design choices then this game might appeal. With a bit of tinkering though it could be much-better, unfortunately it’s not and becomes a bit of an acquired taste for fans of the cult role-playing game.

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory has its moments of fun and wit, but a lot more could have been done better.

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory is an isometric RPG set in a dystopian future, but the real dystopia is the game itself.