10 Horror Video Games BANNED For Being Too Scary
8. We Happy Few
We Happy Few is a survival horror game in which the player tries to stay alive in an alternate history 1960s Britain, a fading dystopia in which the authorities attempt to keep civilians pacified by use of a hallucinogenic drug, Joy, which blinds them to the true tattered state of the nation.
A chilling and relatable vision for these troubled times, for sure, albeit one that apparently hit home a little too hard for the Australian censors, who felt that the player's ability to take Joy in order to make the game easier might also cause players to think that real world drugs were inherently advantageous.
As a result, they refused the game an R18+ rating, while developers Compulsion Games expressed their frustration at the Australian Classification Board's clear ignorance of the game's prevailing thematic.
They said in a statement, "It's a society that is forcing its citizens to take Joy, and the whole point of the game is to reject this programming and fight back."
The ban was eventually overturned two months later by the Australian Ratings Board, but a year later the ban was inexplicably re-instituted, believed to be a result of DLC once again tipping the balance past the Australian government's tolerances.
All this for a game that, very clearly, was a little too clever and "real" for the dunderheaded censors.