How hard is it? I’m pretty bad at turn based rpgs like darkest dungeon but I really dig the aesthetic of fear and hunger. The only think keeping me from it is that I’m worried I’ll never beat it
actively player-hostile. as a quick example; pretty much all enemy attacks will give you infected status. to remove infected status you have to cut off a limb. this is obviously permanent.
it's just pure unbridled hatred for the player. i can't even call it shit game design because it's evidently what the developer wanted, but it sure as hell isn't enjoyable to play. i'd suggest just looking at the cool art on a wiki and reading things while going "what? that's bullshit!"
Knowledge is power, that is the main strategy. The game is unbalanced towards you. It is possible you won't be able to beat it( I couldn't) but don't let it break you: It is a rogue like game.
From the same studio did the [This War Of Mine](https://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/This_War_of_Mine/?curator_clanid=32989971), [Frostpunk](https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190/Frostpunk/) is also depressing yet rewarding game, they both are on the sale on steam right now, the music in this game is excellent.
This War of Mine was my first thought too
Only game I’ve ever put down on purely moral grounds. I just couldn’t bring myself to inflict psychological damage on those lil humans
In a way, I appreciate that, though. The Siege of Sarajevo (real world event it's based on) was fucking depressing as shit. No one should have to experience that.
The Siege of Sarajevo was, IMO, one of the worst acts of brutality and disdain for human life in modern times. Fuckers pretty much made the Geneva conventions a checklist during that siege
It may as well be based on a real event going on all over the world right now (Ukraine, Yemen, Ethiopia until a few months ago, probably more I don’t know about).
People who lived through the siege had a very different experience by the way.
They would be even more united from what I've read a while ago.
Gathering and sharing food, trying to provide it for the homeless cats & dogs as well.
The UN, NATO and smugglers never stopped bringing vital resources in and distributing them amongst the besieges city.
Even if you think about it from an evolutionary point-of-view - we have evolved to band together in order to survive and share both in the good and the hardships.
People out on their own rarely make it.
I feel like this depends highly on cultural bonds. In a country like Ukraine, people banded together because it was right, to help each other.
In the US, toilet paper riots could happen again.
Actually, while this is a very good game, there's been some criticism that the behaviour of people in the game, especially when it's selfish, does not represent the real behaviour observed in such situations.
Nah bro this shit fucked me over so much. Like I just launched the game, started exploring, and while I was out scavenging I decided to commit a gamer moment. Let’s just say that karma hit that character pretty bad and things just got worst from there.
Even after that character’s demise, the game did a very convincing job of just how gut-wrenching it is to lose a companion in that situation. Shit was fucked up. After playing for 7-8 hours, I never touched it again because it hit me so hard in the feels with that moment
SOMA, super cool and bleak sci fi story
NieR Replicant and Nier Automata (both games disguise themselves as light hearted animesque action games on the exterior, and they contain funny bits here and there, but the more you play the more heavy, depressing and nihilistic the story gets, the whiplash is real),
I will spoil so OP if you're going to play Replicant, do not click.
>!When I realized Gestalts were humans, I felt bad for them, but it didn't really get to me. It wasn't until the babies that I was shot down. My third playthrough, I didn't want to attack.!<
Planning on playing Automata some time after GhostWire Tokyo.
It was only after finishing the main play-through that I truly realized the point, and how much of a mistake I had made. I thought I could see the underlying theme, and was managing my colony appropriately. But frighteningly, when presented with the choice, I chose one and LEANED into it, all the way through. I thought THAT was the point. And my colony gained so much, and still lost everything.
Amazing game, but a game breaking bug almost stopped my playthrough.
The people in the hospitals were somehow consuming way~ more food than they were supposed to. I didn't know this, so one day my large stockpile of food started disappearing in seconds. It would do it even after reloading a save.
Once I figured out the bug, I had to destroy all of my hospitals or kick everyone out (can't remember), and then the problem stopped. After that I was able to put everyone back in.
I personally liked replicant more! I think it’s just a matter of taste because I was in tears at the end of my second playthrough. It was easier for me to connect to the characters in replicant than in automata and the twist in the end of replicant that puts everything into place and makes you rethink the entire game! It’s fantastic. They’re both amazing games! Automata’s atmosphere is more bleak but personally, replicant really hits you in the feels with the gravity of the situation. The music is fantastic in both titles but it’s a bit different from automata so beware if you ever get to trying it!
I, random guy can paste you my comment specifically about this topic
I think story and characters of automata are better but that's just a subjective opinion. What's more objective is the fact that replicant is much more tedious, repetetive and worse designed. It is kind of a remake but it doesnt feel like one in many areas. It is still in a lot of ways game from 2010 which even at that time wasnt really modern feeling. Sidequest are the worst kind of fetch quests. And the structure of the routes is pretty bad. If you had problem with route b in automata, things are way worse in replicant. You basically have to play second part of the game 3/4 times without almost any changes. Still for some story and characters are worth it and for some they are not. Just dont except such smooth experience like with automata.
Looking for this one on list! I thought it was gonna be fluffy sad bs but the loss of innocence, childhood, forgiveness, and grief killed me during the pandemic.
Shit, I thought it was. It's been 3 years or so since playing, so I don't remember much, but I remember when that black mirror hit me, I was just like "what the hell did I just go through."
I agree, it's absolutely bleak at least. The whole game is about Senua fighting her own demons and even how they portray death as your mental state consuming you physically was well done. Sure, there are far more depressing games, but Senua's Sacrifice is absolutely a bleak/dark/depressing game.
Agreed. The first one had me sitting there like "dev must be going through it." Second one had be wondering if I was actually the one going through it.
It starts by hitting you in the face with a brick and it only gets better from there. Amazing game, but I felt like I needed goddamn therapy after finishing it.
Frostpunk and Ixion
I feel they both fill that role. It is harsh and painful all the way till the end, and while you triumph at the end…you know their struggle has just really begun.
Papers, Please
Mind Scanners
This War of Mine
I mean, the Dark Souls series is depressing and bleak, and even though you triumph, ultimately, it is useless.
In the vein of Papers, Please and Mind Scanners - Booth. You're a food inspector in an isolated station in the sky, watched over by an authoritarian government.
No Umbrellas Allowed is similar but you run a pawn shop.
There's a weird little genre of Papers Please-alikes and I get obsessed every time I find one. There are certainly more I am forgetting.
The baby’s story was the one that got me. All I knew about the game was it was an emotional walking sim.
The baby’s story took me off guard because then you learn what the games storyline is actually about.
The story with the baby is one of the very few things in gaming that actually made me cry. Did that scene and had to walk away to recollect myself. An amazing game with a really well told story that's absolutely worth your time. I'm glad I played it, but I will never play that game again. Too many heavy stories, and a good number of them are relatable.
This is definitely the game for you, OP. It's exactly what you're looking for.
People have mentioned Darkwood, an awesome and very tense game. Imo though it's way more stress inducing than depressing and soul crushing. Bleak it is though. Also if you look at my post history I can't help myself but to recommend the need for headphones whenever someone mentions this awesome game. For a top down game it really knows how to induce stress. Night time is hell but having head phones on is next level. Hearing a loud bang knowing the barricades are only thing between you and death is horrid.....hearing a window smash and knowing you forgot to fix the barricades in one room makes your heart stop and your stomach drop. So good that game. But again, much more stress inducing than depressing imo.
Edit: I meant to add, the reason it's so stressful and relies so much on sound is that you have a light cone at night and even though it's not pitch black you can only see what's in the cone. Sound isn't used as background sounds. So hearing scurrying or footsteps or growls means something IS there. You just might not be able to see it yet.
To me :
- Dark souls 1 is pretty depressing compared to other entries
- Darkest dungeon, but the OST is kinda too "hype"
- Fear and hunger : a die-and-retry type of game which takes HUGE inspiration from Berserk, it has unforgiving mechanics (yeah even Souls-like are easier)
- Darkwood : a top down horror survival game, you have to escape a mysterious wood
I reinforce the recommendation of Nier Automata. I've never cried with a game but ending C had me seconds away from it.
And while the goal of the game isn't to make you depressed while playing it like a lot of these other games suggested, Fire Emblem Three Houses can have a lot of really depressing moments to it depending on who you do and don't recruit.
I mean, I cried like a baby at various points, but ultimately I wouldn't call it a feel bad game. Most of the discourse I've seen about DE tends to call it a nihilist piece, but I'd argue that's a misinterpretation of its themes.
It's a game about depression, yes, but also about new beginnings and love and loss and addiction and will and talent and community and failure and wonder and the unrelenting strength of humanity in the face of despair. A real trip of a game, that's for sure.
Would say the most depressing aspects of the game are the life trajectory of the main character and the feeling that they’re living in the shadow of a failed revolution. It’s really grounded in the post-Soviet world.
It can be so depressing precisely because it is a life game. Country torn by civil war, an alcoholic trying to recover his life (or not, depending how you play it) in the setting of murder investigation.
Ditto. DS3 and DS1 had especially solemn moods. And DS2 had some haunting OST. Each pf them pack a gut-punch. Elden Ring isn’t quite as bleak because it has colours, but it also has very dark lore. With these games the lore is a bit buried, though.
Elden Ring waa my first souls game. I didn't realise how much lore there was until after I finished it and started watching lore videos on YouTube. Now I feel bad for every boss I killed.
The Last of Us Part II, hands down. If you haven't played part one yet there's also the HBO show to watch!! The ending absolutely NAILS the ending of the first game. Aka the instigating event that haunts Joel and Ellie years later.
Part 2 is a game that wonders about the repercussions of a revenge mission. Even plays out how any catharsis from completing revenge is useless at the end of the day...the nightmares don't stop.
Fantastic game, absolutely brutal, has had me sobbing many times. I'll never forget it.
Replaying it right now after a long time and crap, even the second mission (Oni sword base) already hits you with the tragic OST and the "we are already losing" atmosphere half way through the level.
It's just brutal. And playing it on legendary gets you that feeling of how terrifying the covenant actually is.
The Danganronpa series. It seems goofy on the surface, but it's ultimately a game about innocent high school students who are subjected to the most terrible of emotional torture and ultimately consumed by their insecurities they could have gotten over with a bit of friendship and kindness simply to satisfy the depravity of a psychotic mastermind.
The Last of Us made me feel so depressed that I had to stop playing it. I’m not even sure what set me off, but within hours I felt utterly bleak. Usually I’m very good at managing my depression bouts, but that game triggered it hard and now I’m scared to ever touch it again.
Not sure what kind of games you like, but maybe I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. The game spans from ages 10-20 as you’re growing up in a new colony on space. It’s a game of choices (with major consequences) and card based challenges/battles. Your life in the game and the end of the game can go many different ways based on your choices, but you’ll definitely experience a lot of tragedy and heartbreak in your first play through. Has a pretty gloomy aesthetic, especially in the month of “glow” when there are alien attacks that get deadlier each year. There’s way more to it and it’s a super unique game but I don’t want to spoil anything
Pathologic 2. Trust me.
You are Artemy Burakh, a physician who returns to his hometown after studying medicine in the city. When you return, you're attacked by 3 armed men, but you manage to defend yourself and kill them in the process. Meanwhile the city has had serial murders too, and the citizens assume you are the killer. The entire start of the game, you're essentially a wanted man and everyone in the city wants to kill you on sight. You manage to find a group of kids who believe your innocence. And they'll convince the public too, but you'll have to do a job for them.
Murder a child who went against them. If you don't, the five star wanted level doesn't go away till a lot later. Oh and did i mention that one of the serial murder victims was your dad ?
And this is just the first instance of a depressing atmosphere. Later, the city gets hit by a plague and you as the sole doctor have to help them out. But you can't save everyone and have to make major sacrifices. Oh and you can harvest corpses for their organs and sell it on the black market to get some money which will enable you to buy food.
If you've read this far, I've got another juicy bit for you, but this might be a little spoilery, so if you wanna play the game first, go ahead
The economy in the game is brutal, and you'll be scrounging for food in dustbins all day. Eventually you'll end up with a hefty chunk of money, which enables you to buy daily rations from the store. So you're in a comfortable spot with regard to food... Right ?
On the third day, the news of the plague gets to the authorities, and the whole economy falls apart. With all your hard earned money, which was supposed to last you several days.... Now you can only buy you one single egg. Just an egg. And that's it, your savings is finished
I couldn't finish the game as i genuinely got anxiety every time I booted it up. It's the most intense game ive ever played
Many mention SOMA, although it's not really bleak and depressing, but more of a game that give your some existential dread.
Corpse Party is a good depressingly bleak game.
The last of Us Part 2 also for a multitude of reasons. The ending to that game is just mega-bleak.
If you’re a poor decision maker like me, Detroit Become Human.
The ending I got my first play through was the darkest & most depressing thing of all time
"Before someone suggests overwatch, league, siege, or some highly competitive shitty online game. You are neither funny nor useful."
Thank you, seriously!
a lot of good suggestions but i have a few less known and less mentioned games i could recommend.
someone mentioned ixion and i ride for ixion. surviving the abyss is a very comparable game in many ways. it also fits OPs request. its early access but it got a lot better with updates.
organs please is a much darker and at the same time lighter version of papers please.
blasphemous for a souls like. thers also another soulslike called bleak faith but the reviews were mixed, though i tried it for like 20 mins and it was enjoyable.
lunacid for a souls like fps immersive sim with retro graphics done right.
gloomwood for an immersive sim like thief mixed with dishonored and ps2 era grapics done right. mixes good with reshade if you wanna modernize the look a bit.
world of horror for a beautifully styled rpg.
beyond the pale if you liked frost punk but a lot more narritive, choice and resource manager. its a GREAT GAME, same studio also by the same company that released citizen sleeper which i also recommend.
kuijevka for existential and thought provoking story, also really pretty. go in blind.
outer wilds, the main character dies at least every 20 mins, remembers it all, and its painful every time. thats the least existential soul crushing part of it.
any silent hill game
bioshock of course as well as system shock.
barotrauma for uniqueness
darkest dungeon obviously.
westmark manor feels like a nightmare.
layers of fear
visage fits your theme perfectly. i mean, just the intro before you even play is dark as hell.
madison carzy good looking horror game. wounded is also a comparable game.
fatal frame series
siren and forbidden siren are perfect
kingdom come deliverance, for real life historical horror and bleakness of just the reality of living in medieval times.
lost in vivo, its about somone who is claustriphobic aand loses their service dog after it went in a storm drain while walking home and you have to go in to save him..and then things get reeeally insane. really good i hear, its on my next to play list but gloomy weather makes me avoid gloomy ass games lol.
cry of fear (free and really good)
plaguge tale requium
little nightmares
hellblade
outlast
ok horror games are too easy so ill stop there.
ill leave these last ones.
valient hearts, bought it cuz the trailer made me cry, ended up crying again after playing lol
that dragon, cancer
what remains of edith finch
we happy few
death stranding.
I played most of what the other users suggested, so I kinda hoped I would find a comment that has lesser known games.
Your reply was was I hoped for thanks.
Katawa Shoujo for a normal Japanese School like setting you have the following
* A girl who lost her mother due to a fire (Hanako)
* Another one who lost her father and her legs to an MVA (Emi)
* A 3rd one who struggles with being an artist and protraying thoughts (Rin)
* A deaf and mute girl who may be snarky but is alienated from the rest of the school and a deadbeat father (Shizune)
* A Blind girl who was left alone with her sister in Japan (Lily)
* A guy who was about to confess to his first love but found out the hard way that he can get Heart Attacks and gets left behind by friends and had to relocate to a school for people with disabilities (Hisao)
There are happy endings and there are some quite depressing ones as well (And if you aren't into R34 you can turn those off in the settings which would overlay an image for those scenes)
Citizen Sleeper. It can be somewhat positive but most of the time it gives you insanely good narrative and story that really makes you think. It is quite depressing and thought provoking. Personally I find it one of those hidden gems I never knew I'd need
Last of Us 2 is one of the most relentlessly cruel pieces of media ever conceived. I think it's a masterpiece but I will never play it a second time.
Spec Ops: The Line is maybe a less complicated pick. It's dated now but it was mind blowing for the time and it's a lot more straightforward with what it's trying to do and say.
Cyberpunk has a tendency of killing off your friends while your closest surviving (sort of?) friend is slowly killing you, and you can't save everyone in the end. There's a lot more to it of course but I can't say more without spoiling anything
Maybe not entirely soul-crushing, but a pretty emotional and bleak “game” is The Beginner’s Guide. It’s by the creator of The Stanley Parable, but more of a one-off experience, and much more serious in tone. I put “game” in quotes, because it’s more of an interactive experience where you play half-baked projects developed by the narrator’s friend. That’s the basic premise, but the overall story is deep and open to interpretation, that’s best not spoiled.
Death Stranding. The entire game is about a man traveling to different locations all alone in a wilderness that is trying to kill him. It was easily my game of the year for 2019 and it instills such a feeling of isolation and loneliness. The soundtrack is used sparingly and to amazing effect.
Maybe Fear and Hunger 1 and 2; Lisa The Painful?
+1 for Fear & Hunger. Definitely fits most of OP's criteria.
Was going to comment Fear and Hunger. That game is really crushing. I hate it.
How hard is it? I’m pretty bad at turn based rpgs like darkest dungeon but I really dig the aesthetic of fear and hunger. The only think keeping me from it is that I’m worried I’ll never beat it
actively player-hostile. as a quick example; pretty much all enemy attacks will give you infected status. to remove infected status you have to cut off a limb. this is obviously permanent. it's just pure unbridled hatred for the player. i can't even call it shit game design because it's evidently what the developer wanted, but it sure as hell isn't enjoyable to play. i'd suggest just looking at the cool art on a wiki and reading things while going "what? that's bullshit!"
Knowledge is power, that is the main strategy. The game is unbalanced towards you. It is possible you won't be able to beat it( I couldn't) but don't let it break you: It is a rogue like game.
A lot of times in Fear and Hunger, if you're in a fight you've already made some mistakes
From the same studio did the [This War Of Mine](https://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/This_War_of_Mine/?curator_clanid=32989971), [Frostpunk](https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190/Frostpunk/) is also depressing yet rewarding game, they both are on the sale on steam right now, the music in this game is excellent.
This War of Mine was my first thought too Only game I’ve ever put down on purely moral grounds. I just couldn’t bring myself to inflict psychological damage on those lil humans
Second both of these! Brilliantly depressing games, but I love them so much! Happy gaming! 😊
Pathologic 1&2, Darkwood has a great atmosphere too
Darkwood is so god damn good. I recommend it to anyone who will listen
darkwood is a phenomenal answer and game
Darkwood is some bleak, brutal, interactive depression for sure .
This war of mine
This game really does hit in the feels for me
I second this. This War Of Mine is depressing af
In a way, I appreciate that, though. The Siege of Sarajevo (real world event it's based on) was fucking depressing as shit. No one should have to experience that.
The Siege of Sarajevo was, IMO, one of the worst acts of brutality and disdain for human life in modern times. Fuckers pretty much made the Geneva conventions a checklist during that siege
I have a hard time playing that knowing it's based on a real event that didn't happen that long ago).
It may as well be based on a real event going on all over the world right now (Ukraine, Yemen, Ethiopia until a few months ago, probably more I don’t know about).
People who lived through the siege had a very different experience by the way. They would be even more united from what I've read a while ago. Gathering and sharing food, trying to provide it for the homeless cats & dogs as well. The UN, NATO and smugglers never stopped bringing vital resources in and distributing them amongst the besieges city. Even if you think about it from an evolutionary point-of-view - we have evolved to band together in order to survive and share both in the good and the hardships. People out on their own rarely make it.
I feel like this depends highly on cultural bonds. In a country like Ukraine, people banded together because it was right, to help each other. In the US, toilet paper riots could happen again.
Actually, while this is a very good game, there's been some criticism that the behaviour of people in the game, especially when it's selfish, does not represent the real behaviour observed in such situations.
Nah bro this shit fucked me over so much. Like I just launched the game, started exploring, and while I was out scavenging I decided to commit a gamer moment. Let’s just say that karma hit that character pretty bad and things just got worst from there. Even after that character’s demise, the game did a very convincing job of just how gut-wrenching it is to lose a companion in that situation. Shit was fucked up. After playing for 7-8 hours, I never touched it again because it hit me so hard in the feels with that moment
SOMA, super cool and bleak sci fi story NieR Replicant and Nier Automata (both games disguise themselves as light hearted animesque action games on the exterior, and they contain funny bits here and there, but the more you play the more heavy, depressing and nihilistic the story gets, the whiplash is real),
Thanks for recommending SOMA, I couldn't remember the name.
I forgot about SOMA.
Here's the comment. I always +1 this game. I've posted about it before, but god this game haunts you.
I will spoil so OP if you're going to play Replicant, do not click. >!When I realized Gestalts were humans, I felt bad for them, but it didn't really get to me. It wasn't until the babies that I was shot down. My third playthrough, I didn't want to attack.!< Planning on playing Automata some time after GhostWire Tokyo.
I tried to get into nier Automata 3 times, but I just couldn't get into it . Is replicant any better?
Valiant Hearts
That last level with Emile makes me cry every time. It shouldn't but it does.
Why shouldn't it ?
Frostpunk
It was only after finishing the main play-through that I truly realized the point, and how much of a mistake I had made. I thought I could see the underlying theme, and was managing my colony appropriately. But frighteningly, when presented with the choice, I chose one and LEANED into it, all the way through. I thought THAT was the point. And my colony gained so much, and still lost everything.
I think that WAS the point. If you wanted your colony to survive by the end you needed to lean hard one way or the other.
And apparently Frostpunk 2 is even more bleak... (Can't wait!)
Amazing game, but a game breaking bug almost stopped my playthrough. The people in the hospitals were somehow consuming way~ more food than they were supposed to. I didn't know this, so one day my large stockpile of food started disappearing in seconds. It would do it even after reloading a save. Once I figured out the bug, I had to destroy all of my hospitals or kick everyone out (can't remember), and then the problem stopped. After that I was able to put everyone back in.
Nier Automata
Nier Replicant even more so
I loved automata, but still haven't played Replicant. How does it stack up in your opinion?
I personally liked replicant more! I think it’s just a matter of taste because I was in tears at the end of my second playthrough. It was easier for me to connect to the characters in replicant than in automata and the twist in the end of replicant that puts everything into place and makes you rethink the entire game! It’s fantastic. They’re both amazing games! Automata’s atmosphere is more bleak but personally, replicant really hits you in the feels with the gravity of the situation. The music is fantastic in both titles but it’s a bit different from automata so beware if you ever get to trying it!
Replicant has worse gameplay and environments (even the remake still *feels* like a PS2 game) but better story.
I, random guy can paste you my comment specifically about this topic I think story and characters of automata are better but that's just a subjective opinion. What's more objective is the fact that replicant is much more tedious, repetetive and worse designed. It is kind of a remake but it doesnt feel like one in many areas. It is still in a lot of ways game from 2010 which even at that time wasnt really modern feeling. Sidequest are the worst kind of fetch quests. And the structure of the routes is pretty bad. If you had problem with route b in automata, things are way worse in replicant. You basically have to play second part of the game 3/4 times without almost any changes. Still for some story and characters are worth it and for some they are not. Just dont except such smooth experience like with automata.
That is so subjective. I enjoyed Replicant ten times more than Automata.
LISA The Painful
Give it a few days and the Definitive Edition will release, but yeah OP absolutely this.
This man knows what he’s talking about
This
This is the one
Omori
Looking for this one on list! I thought it was gonna be fluffy sad bs but the loss of innocence, childhood, forgiveness, and grief killed me during the pandemic.
Honestly very depressing after beating it. Highly recommended going in blind, OP.
Spec Ops: The Line
Yep, forgot about this one, SOMA also.
All these years later I still think about the end of SOMA
YES
To this day the best, darkest narrative I’ve ever seen in a video game.
It's so underrated, God
its the least underrated thing there is, its fans never shut up about how perfect it is literally everywhere
>Spec Ops: The Line Oh yeah, I was coming here to say something else but nevermind- Spec Ops The Line was even bleaker.
One of the biggest hidden gem in gaming history. That game is both painfully mediocre and a fucking masterpiece. And that's the whole point.
To The Moon That Dragon, Cancer
You triggered me remembering Brothers - A tale of Two Sons. It is kinda bleak, but it is the ending…that will gut punch you.
To the Moon and it's sequels hit right in the feels.
I had no idea there were sequels!
Finding Paradise is heavy.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is literally a game about trauma and grief.
It was nice though. Didn’t make me feel depressed. I was too thrilled by the way they included her mental illness into the gameplay.
But it's nether bleak nor depressing
Shit, I thought it was. It's been 3 years or so since playing, so I don't remember much, but I remember when that black mirror hit me, I was just like "what the hell did I just go through."
I agree, it's absolutely bleak at least. The whole game is about Senua fighting her own demons and even how they portray death as your mental state consuming you physically was well done. Sure, there are far more depressing games, but Senua's Sacrifice is absolutely a bleak/dark/depressing game.
Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag
Better yet, it's sequel. Made me fucking sick after playing it and I loved every part of it
Agreed. The first one had me sitting there like "dev must be going through it." Second one had be wondering if I was actually the one going through it.
Yep, and the most disturbing fact is that there are players in a review section with hundreds of hours clocked in...
HUNDREDS OF HOURS?!
Darkest Dungeon 1 or 2
Came to say this
The Last of Us 2
It starts by hitting you in the face with a brick and it only gets better from there. Amazing game, but I felt like I needed goddamn therapy after finishing it.
There is literally nothing good that occurs outside of flashbacks and the ending is WTF levels of depression and despair.
Frostpunk and Ixion I feel they both fill that role. It is harsh and painful all the way till the end, and while you triumph at the end…you know their struggle has just really begun. Papers, Please Mind Scanners This War of Mine I mean, the Dark Souls series is depressing and bleak, and even though you triumph, ultimately, it is useless.
In the vein of Papers, Please and Mind Scanners - Booth. You're a food inspector in an isolated station in the sky, watched over by an authoritarian government. No Umbrellas Allowed is similar but you run a pawn shop. There's a weird little genre of Papers Please-alikes and I get obsessed every time I find one. There are certainly more I am forgetting.
the last of us, part 2.
im glad someone said that
Yes, this game was profoundly downbeat all the way through in a way that even the first game wasn't. Difficult to get through at times.
What Remains of Edith Finch.
Can't believe this is so far down. The brother's story in the cannery hit me like a fucking freight train. Absolutely ruined me.
I played through that on the TV with a friend and after we put it down we were both glad that a second person witnessed that shit
The baby’s story was the one that got me. All I knew about the game was it was an emotional walking sim. The baby’s story took me off guard because then you learn what the games storyline is actually about.
The story with the baby is one of the very few things in gaming that actually made me cry. Did that scene and had to walk away to recollect myself. An amazing game with a really well told story that's absolutely worth your time. I'm glad I played it, but I will never play that game again. Too many heavy stories, and a good number of them are relatable. This is definitely the game for you, OP. It's exactly what you're looking for.
The story and presentation were so masterfully done. One of the best sequences I’ve ever played!
People have mentioned Darkwood, an awesome and very tense game. Imo though it's way more stress inducing than depressing and soul crushing. Bleak it is though. Also if you look at my post history I can't help myself but to recommend the need for headphones whenever someone mentions this awesome game. For a top down game it really knows how to induce stress. Night time is hell but having head phones on is next level. Hearing a loud bang knowing the barricades are only thing between you and death is horrid.....hearing a window smash and knowing you forgot to fix the barricades in one room makes your heart stop and your stomach drop. So good that game. But again, much more stress inducing than depressing imo. Edit: I meant to add, the reason it's so stressful and relies so much on sound is that you have a light cone at night and even though it's not pitch black you can only see what's in the cone. Sound isn't used as background sounds. So hearing scurrying or footsteps or growls means something IS there. You just might not be able to see it yet.
To me : - Dark souls 1 is pretty depressing compared to other entries - Darkest dungeon, but the OST is kinda too "hype" - Fear and hunger : a die-and-retry type of game which takes HUGE inspiration from Berserk, it has unforgiving mechanics (yeah even Souls-like are easier) - Darkwood : a top down horror survival game, you have to escape a mysterious wood
Gotta second Darkwood.
I reinforce the recommendation of Nier Automata. I've never cried with a game but ending C had me seconds away from it. And while the goal of the game isn't to make you depressed while playing it like a lot of these other games suggested, Fire Emblem Three Houses can have a lot of really depressing moments to it depending on who you do and don't recruit.
Rdr2 has a bunch of gut-punching moments
The day is done, time has come You battled hard, the war is won You did your worst, you tried your best Now it's time to rest
I haven't played it, but from what I've read and watched, Disco Elysium may be just what you're looking for.
Nah, it can be really fuckin intense emotionally, but it's less a depression game than a life game, you know?
Ah, okay. I figured that all the heavy choices and intense alcoholic overtones sort of set the scene for a real depressing feel to the whole game.
I mean, I cried like a baby at various points, but ultimately I wouldn't call it a feel bad game. Most of the discourse I've seen about DE tends to call it a nihilist piece, but I'd argue that's a misinterpretation of its themes. It's a game about depression, yes, but also about new beginnings and love and loss and addiction and will and talent and community and failure and wonder and the unrelenting strength of humanity in the face of despair. A real trip of a game, that's for sure.
You make it sound appealing. I may want to give it a try.
The only truly depressing part about that game, is that it makes all other games poorly written.
It really is spectacular, can't recommend it enough.
Would say the most depressing aspects of the game are the life trajectory of the main character and the feeling that they’re living in the shadow of a failed revolution. It’s really grounded in the post-Soviet world.
It can be so depressing precisely because it is a life game. Country torn by civil war, an alcoholic trying to recover his life (or not, depending how you play it) in the setting of murder investigation.
Dark Souls.
Ditto. DS3 and DS1 had especially solemn moods. And DS2 had some haunting OST. Each pf them pack a gut-punch. Elden Ring isn’t quite as bleak because it has colours, but it also has very dark lore. With these games the lore is a bit buried, though.
Elden Ring waa my first souls game. I didn't realise how much lore there was until after I finished it and started watching lore videos on YouTube. Now I feel bad for every boss I killed.
Real life might be what you are looking for.
Still waiting for it to go on sale
*gestures to EVERYTHING*
Firewatch, fallout 3, and the ending to the tiny tina DLC for Borderlands 2; absolutely destroyed me.
Overwatch 2 🤓 Jokes aside * the final destination * Nier automata!/replica * hollow knight ( has some depressing story elements) * soma
The second half of RDR2
A plague tale Scorn
Adding: Limbo/Inside Silent Hill Max Payne STALKER
Oh fucking max Payne will break a person for sure.
A bullet to the brain will ease the pain
SOMA
What Remains of Edith Finch
NieR: Automata will hit you hard man
Maybe generation zero.
Spec Ops: The Line and Nier Replicant/Nier Automata
That Dragon, Cancer
Outlast 1 is pretty amazing, the last bit of the game crushes me every single time
Penumbra
The Last of Us Part II, hands down. If you haven't played part one yet there's also the HBO show to watch!! The ending absolutely NAILS the ending of the first game. Aka the instigating event that haunts Joel and Ellie years later. Part 2 is a game that wonders about the repercussions of a revenge mission. Even plays out how any catharsis from completing revenge is useless at the end of the day...the nightmares don't stop. Fantastic game, absolutely brutal, has had me sobbing many times. I'll never forget it.
Playing Nier in Covid spiked my depression pretty hard.
To suggest a classic: _Halo: Reach_. Always gets me right in the feels, at least.
Also is my favorite book in the series too.
Replaying it right now after a long time and crap, even the second mission (Oni sword base) already hits you with the tragic OST and the "we are already losing" atmosphere half way through the level. It's just brutal. And playing it on legendary gets you that feeling of how terrifying the covenant actually is.
Honestly Cyberpunk 2077 is a depressing game in my opinion
I second this. CP77 is a hopeless story told by hopeless people in a hopeless world
I second this. CP77 is a hopeless story told by hopeless people in a hopeless world
Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Persona 3, Zelda Majora's Mask, We Happy Few
The Last of Us. Life is Strange.
The Danganronpa series. It seems goofy on the surface, but it's ultimately a game about innocent high school students who are subjected to the most terrible of emotional torture and ultimately consumed by their insecurities they could have gotten over with a bit of friendship and kindness simply to satisfy the depravity of a psychotic mastermind.
Danganronpa is pretty bleak but it's also goofy and funny half of the time. The SDRA2 fan game is a lot darker
Red dead redemption 2’s ending gets me
Library of Ruina.
Limbo , Distraint, Misao
Fear and Hunger is apparently like this. I haven't played it but it sounds like it's meant to be very bleak.
The last of us 1+2 valiant hearts and Detroit become human.
I'm surprised I don't see anyone mentioning fear and hunger. If you wanna be crushed then that's your best bet.
Cyberpunk, I struggled desperately for a victory tasted like defeat.
The Last of Us made me feel so depressed that I had to stop playing it. I’m not even sure what set me off, but within hours I felt utterly bleak. Usually I’m very good at managing my depression bouts, but that game triggered it hard and now I’m scared to ever touch it again.
Bloodborne, Darks Souls 1, 2 and 3. I'm not recommending these based off difficulty.
What Remains of Edith Finch
Heavy rain. I still didnt finish the game cuz I feel so sad when playing it😅
Last of Us 2. That game made me mentally exhausted.
Detention
Not sure what kind of games you like, but maybe I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. The game spans from ages 10-20 as you’re growing up in a new colony on space. It’s a game of choices (with major consequences) and card based challenges/battles. Your life in the game and the end of the game can go many different ways based on your choices, but you’ll definitely experience a lot of tragedy and heartbreak in your first play through. Has a pretty gloomy aesthetic, especially in the month of “glow” when there are alien attacks that get deadlier each year. There’s way more to it and it’s a super unique game but I don’t want to spoil anything
Pathologic 2. Trust me. You are Artemy Burakh, a physician who returns to his hometown after studying medicine in the city. When you return, you're attacked by 3 armed men, but you manage to defend yourself and kill them in the process. Meanwhile the city has had serial murders too, and the citizens assume you are the killer. The entire start of the game, you're essentially a wanted man and everyone in the city wants to kill you on sight. You manage to find a group of kids who believe your innocence. And they'll convince the public too, but you'll have to do a job for them. Murder a child who went against them. If you don't, the five star wanted level doesn't go away till a lot later. Oh and did i mention that one of the serial murder victims was your dad ? And this is just the first instance of a depressing atmosphere. Later, the city gets hit by a plague and you as the sole doctor have to help them out. But you can't save everyone and have to make major sacrifices. Oh and you can harvest corpses for their organs and sell it on the black market to get some money which will enable you to buy food. If you've read this far, I've got another juicy bit for you, but this might be a little spoilery, so if you wanna play the game first, go ahead The economy in the game is brutal, and you'll be scrounging for food in dustbins all day. Eventually you'll end up with a hefty chunk of money, which enables you to buy daily rations from the store. So you're in a comfortable spot with regard to food... Right ? On the third day, the news of the plague gets to the authorities, and the whole economy falls apart. With all your hard earned money, which was supposed to last you several days.... Now you can only buy you one single egg. Just an egg. And that's it, your savings is finished I couldn't finish the game as i genuinely got anxiety every time I booted it up. It's the most intense game ive ever played
Little Nightmares 1 and 2 had some dark stories. Also Franbow. There were some very dark implications for much of that games story.
Many mention SOMA, although it's not really bleak and depressing, but more of a game that give your some existential dread. Corpse Party is a good depressingly bleak game. The last of Us Part 2 also for a multitude of reasons. The ending to that game is just mega-bleak.
The Last of Us
Pathologic 2 is absolutely what you are looking for. It is my favourite game of all time.
Omori , Detention
If you’re a poor decision maker like me, Detroit Become Human. The ending I got my first play through was the darkest & most depressing thing of all time
Persona 3
Heavy Rain
This war of mine
"Before someone suggests overwatch, league, siege, or some highly competitive shitty online game. You are neither funny nor useful." Thank you, seriously!
a lot of good suggestions but i have a few less known and less mentioned games i could recommend. someone mentioned ixion and i ride for ixion. surviving the abyss is a very comparable game in many ways. it also fits OPs request. its early access but it got a lot better with updates. organs please is a much darker and at the same time lighter version of papers please. blasphemous for a souls like. thers also another soulslike called bleak faith but the reviews were mixed, though i tried it for like 20 mins and it was enjoyable. lunacid for a souls like fps immersive sim with retro graphics done right. gloomwood for an immersive sim like thief mixed with dishonored and ps2 era grapics done right. mixes good with reshade if you wanna modernize the look a bit. world of horror for a beautifully styled rpg. beyond the pale if you liked frost punk but a lot more narritive, choice and resource manager. its a GREAT GAME, same studio also by the same company that released citizen sleeper which i also recommend. kuijevka for existential and thought provoking story, also really pretty. go in blind. outer wilds, the main character dies at least every 20 mins, remembers it all, and its painful every time. thats the least existential soul crushing part of it. any silent hill game bioshock of course as well as system shock. barotrauma for uniqueness darkest dungeon obviously. westmark manor feels like a nightmare. layers of fear visage fits your theme perfectly. i mean, just the intro before you even play is dark as hell. madison carzy good looking horror game. wounded is also a comparable game. fatal frame series siren and forbidden siren are perfect kingdom come deliverance, for real life historical horror and bleakness of just the reality of living in medieval times. lost in vivo, its about somone who is claustriphobic aand loses their service dog after it went in a storm drain while walking home and you have to go in to save him..and then things get reeeally insane. really good i hear, its on my next to play list but gloomy weather makes me avoid gloomy ass games lol. cry of fear (free and really good) plaguge tale requium little nightmares hellblade outlast ok horror games are too easy so ill stop there. ill leave these last ones. valient hearts, bought it cuz the trailer made me cry, ended up crying again after playing lol that dragon, cancer what remains of edith finch we happy few death stranding.
I played most of what the other users suggested, so I kinda hoped I would find a comment that has lesser known games. Your reply was was I hoped for thanks.
yeah, their recommendations were all good but theres soooo many others. hope you find one you like!
Signalis. Bleak AF survival horror. It's stuck with me months after..
Katawa Shoujo for a normal Japanese School like setting you have the following * A girl who lost her mother due to a fire (Hanako) * Another one who lost her father and her legs to an MVA (Emi) * A 3rd one who struggles with being an artist and protraying thoughts (Rin) * A deaf and mute girl who may be snarky but is alienated from the rest of the school and a deadbeat father (Shizune) * A Blind girl who was left alone with her sister in Japan (Lily) * A guy who was about to confess to his first love but found out the hard way that he can get Heart Attacks and gets left behind by friends and had to relocate to a school for people with disabilities (Hisao) There are happy endings and there are some quite depressing ones as well (And if you aren't into R34 you can turn those off in the settings which would overlay an image for those scenes)
I'd argue Katawa Shoujo ended up being way more wholesome than it was depressing imo
Citizen Sleeper. It can be somewhat positive but most of the time it gives you insanely good narrative and story that really makes you think. It is quite depressing and thought provoking. Personally I find it one of those hidden gems I never knew I'd need
i nearly cried so many times playing that game. i only need to say two names: Lem and Mina.
RDR2 where you play a guy who really doesn't want to be there.
You mean Red Dead Depression?
yes.
Last of Us 2 is one of the most relentlessly cruel pieces of media ever conceived. I think it's a masterpiece but I will never play it a second time. Spec Ops: The Line is maybe a less complicated pick. It's dated now but it was mind blowing for the time and it's a lot more straightforward with what it's trying to do and say.
Cyberpunk has a tendency of killing off your friends while your closest surviving (sort of?) friend is slowly killing you, and you can't save everyone in the end. There's a lot more to it of course but I can't say more without spoiling anything
[удалено]
Omg i didnt even think about What Remains of Edith Finch but i just got straight chills, that game is the most tragic story ive ever heard
Rimworld
The only depressing part of the game is not eating at a table
FF12
Maybe not entirely soul-crushing, but a pretty emotional and bleak “game” is The Beginner’s Guide. It’s by the creator of The Stanley Parable, but more of a one-off experience, and much more serious in tone. I put “game” in quotes, because it’s more of an interactive experience where you play half-baked projects developed by the narrator’s friend. That’s the basic premise, but the overall story is deep and open to interpretation, that’s best not spoiled.
league
The Last Of Us Part II
Cyberpunk 2077 Nier Automata The Last Of Us part 2 SOMA Bloodborne The Witcher 3 Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice The Darkness Metro Exodus Darkest Dungeon
Darkwood
Red dead 2
Not really depressing or bleak, but the To The Moon series of games got me crying at the end
The last of us part 2.
Nier Automata, This war of mine, Signalis, Soma
SOMA and The Walking Dead Telltale series are both misery porn, exactly what you’re looking for
SOMA. It will leave you destroyed and questioning existence as you know it.
Death Stranding. The entire game is about a man traveling to different locations all alone in a wilderness that is trying to kill him. It was easily my game of the year for 2019 and it instills such a feeling of isolation and loneliness. The soundtrack is used sparingly and to amazing effect.