Most Depressing Games

SRTie4k

Gawd
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May 22, 2008
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Call me a sadist, but I love games that exude lack of hope and utter despair, either through their stories or their atmosphere. There's something uniquely evocative about games that weigh heavily on your emotions and force you to ponder the games themes long after you've stopped playing.

What are your favorite depressing games, either by theme or atmosphere?

My list (in no particular order)

- I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream
- The Thief games (atmospheric)
- System Shock 2
- The Walking Dead
- Dark Souls
- STALKER games
- Alan Wake (atmospheric)
- Max Payne (the first game mainly)
- Silent Hill
- LIMBO (atmospheric)
- Lone Survivor
- Still Life

And one I have not played yet but want to:
- Pathologic
 
There's something uniquely evocative about games that weigh heavily on your emotions and force you to ponder the games themes long after you've stopped playing.

I loved the walking dead for this. I have yet to play the new one because I want to wait until all episodes are out first.
 
Apparently Spec Ops: The Line is a very "ugly side of war" kind of game. But I've also heard its incredibly cliche. Been meaning to pick it up...but you know.. that 1004325432523623 game backlog.
 
Depressing Games
just play battlefield or any fps game online :D

n3aubs.jpg
 
Apparently Spec Ops: The Line is a very "ugly side of war" kind of game. But I've also heard its incredibly cliche. Been meaning to pick it up...but you know.. that 1004325432523623 game backlog.

The gameplay was kind of "been there, done that" but the atmosphere and story were top notch. Really made you feel kind of like a monster by the end of it.
 
I never really got the emotional response from spec ops that a lot of other people did. Maybe it's because I was in the military myself and kind of felt numb to it's message, or that it's best viewed from the outside looking in, I don't know. All I know is I got to the big reveal at the end and the only thing I felt about it was "saw that coming, sorta messed up...next game."
 
The original Descent: Freespace really nailed the whole feeling that everything was going wrong right up until the very end. And it had very ambient sad sounding music.
 
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth and Condemned: Criminal Origins

Both had depressing atmospheres, but I'm not sure if I can say they weighed heavily on my emotions after I played them. Not like something like The Walking Dead or LIMBO, anyway. Of course, some of the games you listed (Thief, System Shock 2, etc.) didn't leave me dwelling on my emotions either but they were damn fine games in their own right. It's always neat when a game does that, but if the mood and atmosphere are scary/ominous/depressing enough then chances are I'll dig it regardless.

I'll throw Portal into the mix as well, and I've heard that Gone Home really makes you think and touches your emotions (no idea if it's depressing or not; it's still in my backlog).

One game that I've heard that really tugs at your emotions and makes you think is To the Moon. Also in my backlog. I'll get to it at some point.
 
The original Descent: Freespace really nailed the whole feeling that everything was going wrong right up until the very end. And it had very ambient sad sounding music.

Wasn't that the one where the enemy chose to make a star go supernova just to win the war? I can't remember if that is the first one or the second one. I remember at the end you literally fight to the last ship and have no control over the events and still get vaporized while trying to flee.
 
I find Fallout and NewVegas to be very sad and depressing. Walking around DC looking at all the destruction. Seeing that humans finally did it and thrashed the place.
 
Final Fantasy 7 for me for sure. So many good guys you get attached to die. Cities get "bombed." The music. Seems pretty hopeless outside of Gold Saucer.
 
Wasn't that the one where the enemy chose to make a star go supernova just to win the war? I can't remember if that is the first one or the second one. I remember at the end you literally fight to the last ship and have no control over the events and still get vaporized while trying to flee.
That's the end of the second game in Capella. Also great. But the first game had a darker atmosphere with the allies trying to find a way through the Shivan shields (and the whole ancients subplot which is quite similar to the Protheans in Mass Effect).
 
Red Faction Armageddon

It's so damn drab I was constantly pissed off playing it. I had to stop just to get back to normal.
 
Pong.

Trapped as a white dot bouncing between two vertical white lines until one of the lines misses, sending the dot into black oblivion.

The horror... the horror...
 
I thought Little Inferno was super depressing both in atmosphere and the underlying story.

Worth playing IMHO.
 
I find Fallout and NewVegas to be very sad and depressing. Walking around DC looking at all the destruction. Seeing that humans finally did it and thrashed the place.

Fallout 3 was definitely depressing for me, partially because of the destruction that is everywhere and the drab color palette but I think it was mainly the lack of vegetation. It didn't make sense to me that there wasn't any vegetation either, a nuclear bomb might kill most of the plants in the blast zone but radioactive fallout doesn't prevent plants from growing and the wind would carry new seeds in from areas that weren't hit. New Vegas wasn't depressing to me at all and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it actually has some vegetation, the color palette was bit less drab as well.

I would say that the most depressing game I've played is To The Moon but they tried so hard to make it that way that it crossed over into cheesy.
 
Spec Ops: The Line. fuck me that was a downer.

last of Us

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
 
Brothers: A Tale or Two Sons

Very sad...

Love the unique game play (controlling the 2 bothers with 1 controller) and the music. Anything else out there like it?
 
I second this, plus the sequel (if not for the wonky camera and controls). Alice's story is rather depressing.

Alan Wake is not entirely depressing but makes you think a lot especially that ending.

Yeah, Alan Wake would be on the bottom of my list. I think it got on the list however because of the loneliness through the majority of the game, the fantastically dark world, and the fact that despite his best efforts, Alan is doomed to failure.
 
Brothers: A Tale or Two Sons
To the Moon (more bittersweet kind of ending)
Metal Gear Solid 3 - fight with boss :'(
Heavy Rain
The Walking Dead
Fallout 3
Half-Life 2 Ep. 2 - dat ending!
Spec Ops: The Line - Shows the ugly side of war
Shadow of the Colossus - love the game but felt kind of bad killing each Colossus
Braid - unexpected ending
Dark Souls series - the whole atmosphere
Red Dead Redemption
 
Brothers: A Tale or Two Sons

Very sad...

Love the unique game play (controlling the 2 bothers with 1 controller) and the music. Anything else out there like it?

Ever tried Trine 2? It's a puzzle sidescroller where you control 3 different characters at once, switching between the 3 whenever you want, based on the need for completing a puzzle. I sunk about 15 or so hours into it, was pretty good.
 
Ever tried Trine 2? It's a puzzle sidescroller where you control 3 different characters at once, switching between the 3 whenever you want, based on the need for completing a puzzle. I sunk about 15 or so hours into it, was pretty good.
Actually, I have! I'd casually jump into it here and there until I got to that first snake. Didn't get past it and got distracted with other things. I think a revisit is in order.
 
Actually, I have! I'd casually jump into it here and there until I got to that first snake. Didn't get past it and got distracted with other things. I think a revisit is in order.

Yeah I haven't played it in awhile and I found myself doing the same thing. Thanks for reminding me of it as well :D
 
So stop playing them or feel free to create something unique and free of bugs.
 
The Stanley Parable looks like it would be depressing, but maybe not as I've never played it.
 
I second this, plus the sequel (if not for the wonky camera and controls). Alice's story is rather depressing.

Alan Wake is not entirely depressing but makes you think a lot especially that ending.

Alice was awesome.

Alan Wake just pissed me off. Infinite respawning enemies with limited ammo is not fun.


The Stanley Parable looks like it would be depressing, but maybe not as I've never played it.

Nope, it's hysterical.
 
Any MOBA. Somehow they are teaching otherwise functional people to become autistic. It's incredible, and I don't know how they discovered they could make a congenital dysfunction a learned or conditioned one, but I hope some medical journals pick it up soon and someone performs a study.
 
Been wanting to revisit Alone in the Dark (the original). As I recall, it was frustratingly difficult. Can anyone confirm that it is indeed very hard?
 
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