Based on the renowned Tabletop Game Paranoia, Paranoia: Happiness Is Mandatory is a Strategy RPG developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Nacon. The game was infamous for its Troubled Production, being initially released in 2019 before being quickly delisted for sale with no explanation. Tabletop creators Costikyan and Goldberg later explained that they filed legal action against the publishers
for trying to release an unfinished product, until the game suddenly reappeared in late December 2023.
Paranoia is an RPG that takes place in humanity's last idyllic refuge, Alpha Complex, which is controlled by Friend Computer. All citizens enjoy a life of joy, cheerfulness and cleanliness. The game revolves around a team of Secret Police known as Troubleshooters tasked with finding trouble and shooting it. Friend Computer monitors your every move, alert for any sign of treason, and will undoubtedly reward you for prompt and heroic action in defense of Alpha Complex – or punish treasonable acts, possibly by assigning you to be used as reactor shielding.
This game includes examples of:
- The Computer Is Your Friend: As the Trope Namer, Friend Computer is a barely-functional lunatic as a result of limitations in its programming preventing it from properly fulfilling its duty as a Benevolent A.I., making it act more like an unstable dictator.
- Crapsaccharine World: Like the tabletop before it, Happiness Is Mandatory combines a bright zeerust aesthetic with a totalitarian dystopia.
- Death Is Cheap: The Player Characters are a series of expendable clones that are simply remade every time they're killed. In fact, death is actually a benefit as the successive clone is even stronger.
