We Happy Few

While We Happy Few is dragged down by irritating missions, scarce-but-necessary resources, and technical blips from time to time, it’s a fun adventure that combines an eerie atmosphere and a gripping narrative to great effect.

Surely that has happened here to a degree, but it is more than that because of what it attempted and with how brightly it can shine when it is able to get you to ignore the army of issues that surround so much of the game. There are certainly things to like in this game, and once some time has passed and some patches are applied, I’m sure it will be better off. But even then it won’t be much more than a cool concept in a second-rate package.

There's a lot to like about We Happy Few, with its unique psychedelic dystopian setting and well-developed story, but it's the moment-to-moment action that crashes down on you like a bad dose of Joy. So-so survival elements, the lack of mission variety, frame rate issues, prolific bugs, and tedious stealth and combat will make you want to cook up some Joy for yourself, so that maybe you too can forget the bad stuff and remember only the bright side of things.