Support NeoGAF

[Audioboxer]

I've noticed IMO that in most games these days the theme or protagonist tends to be positive or leads to a happy conclusion. I guess on the protagonist side of things publishers find it easier to sell "the good guy".

In games that do offer moral choice quite a lot of them reward being extreme, either picking up daisies, stroking cat singing happiness. Or just being a complete dick and psycho.

What gaming experiences have you had that maturely and/or realistically tackle the themes in the title?

I'll start with a few of my own, Nier, Shadow of the Colossus, Silent Hill 2, Bioshock Infinite.

I've heard Spec Ops is a good shout, need to play it.

 

[SolsticeZero]

Limbo
To the Moon
Half Life 2 is pretty grim, when you think about it.

 

[Gonzo The Great]

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

 

[Sentenza]

Planescape: Torment.

Also, Dark Souls and Demon's Souls.

 

[A Sentient Keyboard]

Spec Ops: the Line
The Walking Dead
To the Moon

 

[AkuMifune]

Heavy Rain, Metro 2033.

Singularity has an awesome "bad" ending.

 

[Zia]

Limbo, Braid, Shadow of the Colossus, BioShock Infinite, Hotline Miami, Red Dead Redemption and Pac-Man: Championship Edition.

 

[DukeBobby]

The Darkness.

 

[Ingueferroque]

Siren: Blood Curse

 

[Robin64]

Conker's Bad Fur Day. Seriously, that ending..

 

[NotLiquid]

Twisted Metal Black and Twisted Metal 2012.

The game play is so ridiculous and over the top that it'd be hilarious if out of context. But it's almost so grim to the point that it causes that sinking feeling of disconnect.

Conker's Bad Fur Day. Seriously, that ending..

This too.

I honestly didn't expect it. Up to that point it all felt like just a wacky Rare platformer but the ending caught me off guard and just kind of made me look back at those past few hours and made me think "wow, this entire game was just fucked up".

 

[RoboPlato]

Telltale's Walking Dead
Spec Ops

 

[oVerde]

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Everything start wrong and they went to a point of no return full of shit.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Maiden Astraea fight was the boss fight of the generation for me.

 

[ironcreed]

King's Field: The Ancient City. About as melancholic as it gets. For that matter, Demon's Souls as well.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Demons Souls (the natural answer for a lot of questions posted here, it seems... )

Damn it. Beaten twice...

 

[Prophet Steve]

NieR, The Walking Dead and Spec Ops were the most depressing for me.

 

[Miroku129]

Fragile dreams: Farewell ruins of the moon: The Thread

 

[Krusenstern]

Metro 2033. The atmosphere gives a depressing feel.

 

[Hodders]

Great thread, its reminding me that i really should start my copy of Spec Ops very soon!

 

[Messofanego]

Depression Quest (short and free text adventure, most nuanced exploration of what depression feels like; imo does depression better than any movie or novel I've come across)

Spec Ops: The Line

Alice: Madness Returns

Darkness 1 and 2

Kane and Lynch

Hotline Miami

Metro 2033

Condemned 1, Amnesia, and many good horror games.

 

[The Boat]

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Twilight Princess is pretty damn grim too.

 

[wildfire]

If you are looking for soul crushing experiences and a slim chance at uplifting redemption.

They game is free. You can buy extra features if you want to support it.

[edit] GT review

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/ghw0m0/cart-life-review

 

[Kung Fu Grip]

Fallout 3

 

[The Horror the horror]

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Machinarium
Fallout

 

[Jawmuncher]

Hope we get some more games listed.
A lot of the stuff posted fits but seems to be the already pretty known stuff. There's gotta be more out there especially on PC

Speaking of Which

 

[Danlord]

Grand Theft Auto: IV

The dark, grimy appearance of the game with the character and environments, colour palette altogether just breeds a depressing game. Some aspects can look a bit more colourful but ultimately it's just depressing.


Eeek, didn't properly read the OP, but still I sort of stand by it. The game does handle the nasty and criminal side of society, I suppose it's complemented by the dark and grimy aesthetics but the game does side-step the issue of consequence when you're free-roaming. Not as deep as Spec Ops: The Line or Limbo handles things

 

[aravuus]

Subscribed instantly. I love stories that make you feel like shit.

Playing The Walking Dead right now and it's soo good

 

[Chocolate & Vanilla]

Max Payne. The whole drug induced hallucination re-enacting his Wife and Kid's murder. Dark as fuck

 

[aparisi2274]

papa y yo

 

[Ra1den]

Valkyrie Profile. Every town you visit is having some sort of terrible hardship, and depressing(but awesome) music amplifies the effect nicely. It's actually a really cool kind of depressing feeling, hard to describe. Melancholic, I guess.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Lone Survivor

 

[Lerozz]

Going with Telltale's The Walking Dead as well. So many depressing moments.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Nier, multiple endings and not a rainbow flavoured unicorn in any of them.

Worst part is when you've beat the game a couple of times and on the next playthough you get a scene showing what each boss was doing before you got there

 

[Raticus79]

One Chance (spoilers in the second half of the article)

 

[ScOULaris]

Silent Hill 2 and 3 are the most altogether grim and depressing games that come to mind. They alter your mood even hours after you've taken a break from playing. They are so oppressive and tense that it's hard to play them for more than 30 minutes at a time.

 

[antitrop]

 

[Tenrius]

The Marionette. It's a short indie adventure game, which is also freeware. Second time I recommend it on GAF, it seems to be very obscure. Its website: http://themarionette.game-host.org/

Scratches, too, although this game is not that obscure.

 

[Professor Renegade]

Fallout 3

I'd say that New Vegas is a lot more sad and dark thanks to it's stronger storytelling and character development. For example, The Lonesome Road was just one big depressing atmosphere once you learn what the Courier did.

 

[Cornbread78]

Alright, I'll say it..

Final Fantasy VII

 

[Lonely1]

Amnesia.

 

[Deband]

This thread was made for The Binding of Isaac.

 

[Alebrije]

Enslaved, specially the final chapters including the ending

 

[antitrop]

This thread was made for The Binding of Isaac.

Ya, I was not prepared for that at all when I downloaded that game. Had no idea what it was about, very very surprising.

 

[Audioboxer]

Depression Quest (short and free text adventure, most nuanced exploration of what depression feels like; imo does depression better than any movie or novel I've come across)

Very interesting!

 

[Jackl]

I've noticed IMO that in most games these days the theme or protagonist tends to be positive or leads to a happy conclusion. I guess on the protagonist side of things publishers find it easier to sell "the good guy".

Maybe it's just me but I have had the opposite experience, need some happy sunshine fest in my playlist for awhile.

 

[AstroZombie]

STALKER

 

[Taruranto]

A lot of Survival Horror, Silent Hill, Siren, Rule of Rose, Shattered Memories, etc.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Rule of Rose

I was thinking about the game (and the final 'level'/reveal) for weeks after I beat it.
Your main character is essentially dealing with

Spoiler

an extremely traumatic childhood experience and working through repressed memories

through the entire game. What that experience ultimately ended up being haunted me for a while.


Just somber and depressing as hell, but fascinating and so well designed.
It's a shame the gameplay was so mediocre that most people seemed to pass on it.

One of my top 5 favorite games of the PS2 library.
I wish Sony would toss it up on the PSN so more people could experience it.

 

[Syril]

Iji.