There can't be many things as depressing as going back to work after the Christmas holidays.
That heavy feeling of peeling yourself out of bed, your eyes rolling back in their sockets like reluctant conkers, spending the day dragging yourself beneath the fog of Christmas-lag, knowing you can't just eat and drink your way through the day...
Rest assured, we're right there with you. Still, you can at least console yourself with the fact that it could be worse; you could go back work and read a list of the most depressing video games of all time. Oh... oh, Henry!
That heavy feeling of peeling yourself out of bed, your eyes rolling back in their sockets like reluctant conkers, spending the day dragging yourself beneath the fog of Christmas-lag, knowing you can't just eat and drink your way through the day...
Rest assured, we're right there with you. Still, you can at least console yourself with the fact that it could be worse; you could go back work and read a list of the most depressing video games of all time. Oh... oh, Henry!
DEPRESSION QUEST
Obviously, you'd expect a game dealing with the subject of depression to be in a list of depressing games... but that's not entirely why Depression Quest makes an appearance here.
Doing what it says on the tin, Depression Quest is a work of woefully basic interactive fiction, dealing with what it feels to be depressed, supposedly. Alas, it's rendered in a lo-fi/amateurish fashion, that plays more like scrolling through a random series of Twitter posts from an angst-ridden teenager, than an actual game. Without wishing to decry the sincere intentions of its creators, it regrettably has the effect of making legitimate depression sufferers come across like a bunch of whiny babies.
However, what really earns Depression Quest its place in this list is its ubiquity with the genesis of Gamergate. We can't be doing with restating it all again here, but we're sure you can look it up.
Doing what it says on the tin, Depression Quest is a work of woefully basic interactive fiction, dealing with what it feels to be depressed, supposedly. Alas, it's rendered in a lo-fi/amateurish fashion, that plays more like scrolling through a random series of Twitter posts from an angst-ridden teenager, than an actual game. Without wishing to decry the sincere intentions of its creators, it regrettably has the effect of making legitimate depression sufferers come across like a bunch of whiny babies.
However, what really earns Depression Quest its place in this list is its ubiquity with the genesis of Gamergate. We can't be doing with restating it all again here, but we're sure you can look it up.
THIS WAR OF MINE
War is hell, and This War of Mine examines that from the point of view of regular people. Inspired by the real-life Siege of Sarajevo, which lasted four years from 1992, it's relentlessly, hopelessly, bleak.
The game finds you controlling a group of survivors - juggling resources, to avoid starvation, disease, and snipers. Certainly, it's all very worthy and well put together, but it's not actually much fun to play. And as if that isn't bad enough, there's new edition due for release this month - This War of Mine: The Little Ones throws children into the mix...
The game finds you controlling a group of survivors - juggling resources, to avoid starvation, disease, and snipers. Certainly, it's all very worthy and well put together, but it's not actually much fun to play. And as if that isn't bad enough, there's new edition due for release this month - This War of Mine: The Little Ones throws children into the mix...
SPEC OPS: THE LINE
Looking at war again, this time from its effects on the combatants, Spec Ops: The Line appears - at first appearance - to be yet another gung-ho shoot 'em up. Gradually, however, your character's psyche disintegrates beneath the horror which surrounds him, and the twist ending has three possible final scenes, each more desolate and gloomy than the last.
Unfairly overlooked upon its release, it is the perfect antidote to the neocon recruitment nonsense typically offered by the Call of Duty franchise. And by "antidote" we mean "cyanide pill".
Unfairly overlooked upon its release, it is the perfect antidote to the neocon recruitment nonsense typically offered by the Call of Duty franchise. And by "antidote" we mean "cyanide pill".
HEAVY RAIN
Inspired by 70s noir, Heavy Rain features four characters whose paths intersect with a serial murderer nicknamed the Origami Killer. Keeping things whimsical, lead character Ethan Mars is suffering from depression and blackouts following the death of his son, and the breakdown of his marriage.
The rain-soaked setting and deliberately laboured pace ensure that playing the game feels like wading through a montage of your worst ever days. There is the possibility of a semi-happy-ish ending, but make the wrong choices and you'll be treated to the sight of Ethan hanging himself in prison, while the Origami Killer escapes without charge.
The rain-soaked setting and deliberately laboured pace ensure that playing the game feels like wading through a montage of your worst ever days. There is the possibility of a semi-happy-ish ending, but make the wrong choices and you'll be treated to the sight of Ethan hanging himself in prison, while the Origami Killer escapes without charge.
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
Dripping with a mournful, dispiriting atmosphere, Shadow of the Colossus evokes a sense of loneliness like no other game.
Worse than that, however, is how guilty you'll be feeling as you play; the game forces you to kill huge, majestic, giants - several of whom seem no more deserving of having a sword shoved into their brains than a blue whale deserves to have its blowhole bunged up with dynamite.
Worse than that, however, is how guilty you'll be feeling as you play; the game forces you to kill huge, majestic, giants - several of whom seem no more deserving of having a sword shoved into their brains than a blue whale deserves to have its blowhole bunged up with dynamite.
THE WALKING DEAD
Much like the comic and TV series that inspired it, Telltale Games' Walking Dead adventures are an exercise in sheer misery.
There is no happy ending for its characters; simply a series of increasingly traumatic events, which seem to suggest that humans - once stripped of society's constraints and rules - don't deserve to live. As with the source material, zombies are the least of your worries; people are the real monsters.
Oh, and dogs. Dogs are pretty bad too.
There is no happy ending for its characters; simply a series of increasingly traumatic events, which seem to suggest that humans - once stripped of society's constraints and rules - don't deserve to live. As with the source material, zombies are the least of your worries; people are the real monsters.
Oh, and dogs. Dogs are pretty bad too.
PAPERS, PLEASE
Dealing with the emotional and psychological cost of working as an immigration officer for a fictional Cold War dystopia, Papers, Please, somehow succeeds at being both addictive, and genuinely soul-crushing.
The player is confronted with moral dilemmas - regarding the many hard-luck cases who want access to country of Arstotzska - but only gets paid for each person that is successfully processed. Then comes the really awful bit: stretching your meagre earnings on rent, food, heating, and the like for you and your family. It's almost as terrible as real life.
The player is confronted with moral dilemmas - regarding the many hard-luck cases who want access to country of Arstotzska - but only gets paid for each person that is successfully processed. Then comes the really awful bit: stretching your meagre earnings on rent, food, heating, and the like for you and your family. It's almost as terrible as real life.
HALO REACH
So, you spend hours on Halo Reach, only to realise it was all for nothing. The final section of the game finds the player - in the role of Noble Six - fighting a futile last stand, until he is overrun by Covenant forces and goes down fighting.
There is literally nothing the player can do to avoid the character's death, rendered horribly in-game with him dropping to the ground, as his facemask cracks and splinters...
There is literally nothing the player can do to avoid the character's death, rendered horribly in-game with him dropping to the ground, as his facemask cracks and splinters...
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA'S MASK
The time travel gameplay at the core of Majora's Mask means you'll get to watch the world end again and again and again... while its inhabitants continue with their lives, oblivious to the destruction that's about to drop out of the sky onto their heads. Though full of the usual Zelda whimsy, there's a bleak undercurrent to events that makes this the darkest game in the franchise.
TO THE MOON
A traditional RPG set within the memories of a terminally ill man, the player's goal in To The Moon is to find ways to embed pleasant memories into the patient's subconscious. Right at the end, it looks as if you'll be getting a happy ending... and then it pulls the rug out from underneath you, in the most heartbreaking way imaginable.
THE BINDING OF ISAAC
Of all the depressing stories in religious texts, the Hebrew Bible's The Binding of Isaac may be among the most harrowing. This game takes from it to tell the story of an innocent child, whose mother is commanded by God to remove his toys, drawings and clothes in a bid to remove the evil from him... before locking him in his room.
When his mother enters his room, brandishing a large knife, Isaac escapes through a trapdoor. Thus ensues an action-RPG set in procedurally-generated adventure during which Isaac fights monsters, while haunted by his mother's rejection. We've all been there.
When his mother enters his room, brandishing a large knife, Isaac escapes through a trapdoor. Thus ensues an action-RPG set in procedurally-generated adventure during which Isaac fights monsters, while haunted by his mother's rejection. We've all been there.
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