Have Any Games With Depressing Atmosphere Turned You Off?

So, I started playing Hollow Knight recently. I really enjoy the game, but there is a part of me everytime I play it, that becomes bogged down by just how depressing it can be.

Maybe it's because there are alot of negitve and depressing things happening right now, but I just don't know if I have the energy or enthusiasm to engage with that kind of world in a video game right now.

Have any of you felt like this? Every now and again I'll get this way with first person shooters, and not wanting to see that kind of violence up in my face.

Thank you for your time! ^_^

There's something about these drab and depressing atmospheres that I find oddly soothing. I actually enjoy soaking in the Hollow Knight environments.

I've definitely been turned off by atmosphere in games though, even if not much comes immediately to mind. But the reason has never been that's something too depressing. I'm more likely to turn something off for being loud or obnoxious.

It's probably a good thing. It's better than someone like me that tends to gravitate towards depressing games, depressing movies, depressing music. Still, every time I beat a game, I do have to gut check what I'm really in the mood for next. Maybe you're just not in the mood for it? I usually want to go for something much different from what I just played. The worst is when you end up hating a game you'd definitely be into by force playing it. A big part of enjoyment of entertainment, I find, is what you bring to it. Hey, all the happenings in the world are bringing you down, why play something that's going to compound that?

I am sort of going through that right now with Shadow of Mordor. I like the game, but Mordor is a crappy unpleasant place and I don't really enjoy spending time there. I compare that with the vibrant and alove Hyrule from Breath of the Wild where I was eager to start it up to get back into that amazing world.

I think for me, honestly, it is more often that a game with a happy exciting atmosphere draws me in than a depressing game pushing me away. LocoRoco is such a charming happy game that it is a real joy to play.

Hmm seems like something that would occasionally happen to me but I can't think of any video game examples. Movies for sure though, I still haven't been able to finish Grave of the Fireflies.

I played a game called The Cat Lady and though it's a crudely made game, it did not stop being effective enough about dealing with a middle aged woman's depression on top of the game's depressive atmosphere to such an extent that I couldn't play the game after the half way point.

Nope. I really dig depressing atmospheres and aesthetics. Hopeless post-apocalyptic hellscapes dripping with dread are very much my jam.

Different pieces of entertainment effect us all on different levels, I guess the best example for myself would be really wanting to play Life is Strange but avoiding it completely after a particularly rough breakup with an artsy indie chick. Just way too many similarities there.

On the other side of the fence, I loved Hollow Knight's atmosphere and like TobbRobb said I found it somewhat soothing, there's something calming about that one. I think Inside has a much more depressing atmosphere that draws a lot of similarities with the real world and food production, etc that can have a longer lasting post gameplay effect on your psyche.

I really admire Cart Life and what it tries to, and does, accomplish, but I just can't do it. It's way too real.

Every now and then I think about going back to playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Call of Pripyat but the crushing atmosphere deters me. Maybe if I added one of the snow mods I'd go back to it.

I started watching a Let's Play of Outlast 2 since I saw someone play through the whole first game (Patrick? It's been so long I forget if it was him or someone else). But I think I'm probably done watching Outlast 2. It's kinda a 50/50 split on it being more real-life-depressing subject matter, and also being way dumber.

Spoilers, the game's plot is like 95% constant ritual infanticide/nonconsensual abortions, 5% child molestation, and I have two minds about this. If I want to be in "give me the edgiest shit you got" horror game mode, it's like "wow, you went for constant dead babies, that's kind of an easy one." If I want to be in Vinny Caravella "value human lives, actually be a caring and considerate human being" mode, it's a major bummer to think about how much of a horrific atrocity that would be were it to actually happen to like 100% of expecting mothers and mothers of newborns in a weird religious cult. It's lame either way. The game does have a standard warning when it loads up about having graphic violence, gore, sexual whatever, but I feel like it could use a more specific one of "Hey, if you had a miscarriage at some point and it was a pretty rough time in your life, this probably isn't the game for you."

Also, Outlast 2 is just way dumber than the first game. At least in the first game, the spooky bullshit just happened and turned all of the people/test subjects in the asylum into spooky lunatics and they tore the place apart. The weird religious cult village in Outlast 2 is preposterous. It's been like this for months and months, years even, and everyone just kinda saunters around spookily and seems completely insane. Like, who in this community goes out and buys food, or grows food? Everyone seems completely off their rocker and in no way does the community seem self-sufficient. Everyone is in permanent Bloodborne mode, just shouting weird scripture at nobody, or stabbing anything that moves with a pitchfork. Also, the entire community is like Resident Evil 4/7 levels of completely disgusting and full of rotting food and rusted metal. How does everyone not have dysentery and tetanus by now? They're not zombies, they're just messed up (but somehow not horrifically ill/malnourished) people.

At least in other American horror movies where some hillbilly family is murdering people, they're usually just sadists/serial killers who are otherwise shown to be competent hunters/farmers/have some unassuming menial job "in town".

Pretty much any game that's draped in brown and grey drab palettes do that for me. I can enjoy dark and gothic stuff, but muddy and drear stuff is a turnoff.

One reason I soured on Twilight Princess. So drab for a Zelda game.

I kinda get the opposite thing where the candy-neon-fluorescent colours of "vibrant" games turn me off pretty quick. Feels super fake, even if done for artsy reasons (looking at you, Wind Waker)

I used to be pretty into games/movies/whatever that go for a downer kind of atmosphere, not because I thought it was edgy but because I just found that stuff compelling.

These days, I still can get pretty into that kinda stuff - Logan is a pretty great movie, you guys - but I've gotta balance it out with something else and it's gotta be pretty well-made. There's gotta be some reason for a downer atmosphere, if you're just being sadistic or something then I'm not interested at all.

That said, I don't recall losing interest in something because it's trying to be dark/depressing/whatever. More likely, I'll just know before starting it that I'm not in the mood for that sort of thing and I'd rather do something else.

@bigsocrates: I would attribute that to Mordor having a mundane art style with very bland world design rather than a depressing atmosphere. Especially when you're using Zelda as the counterpart comparison.

Bioshock 1 I struggled with because of the trapped under water aspect. Add to that the violent scenes you come across and weird ass locals. I loved the game but could only play in small chunks.

Though I've beaten it, the one that immediately comes to mind is Soma. It's a very, very, VERY depressing game, and once you know exactly what is going on, it's just such a fucking downer. I've only beaten it once, and while I still go back to Amnesia, Alien: Isolation, Resident Evil 7, and all of those other horror games I can't think of, I can never go back to Soma just because it depresses me too much. It's bizarre, because their previous game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, had a somewhat more uplifting ending considering the drab atmosphere, horrible subject matters, and other such things in that game.

@giantstalker: that makes me very sad :(

Maybe...but I think the art style was intended to create an oppressive atmopshere. Mordor is under control of the orcs and all the buildings are ruins and the people enslaved. It's a dark, dreary place and the monotony adds to that.

It's one of my favorite things in entertainment. It's interesting because it's not really entertainment.

It's the big reason I'm an advocate for "video games don't have to be fun."

The Last of Us is depressing but it's a masterpiece. I don't find that game very fun, I find it dreadful because of its tone and subject matter...but that's ok. It's art. Excel at what you are. The same thing goes for the Resident Evil remake. That game is slow and has a dreadful, drab atmosphere but that's one of the things that makes that game so effective. Silent Hill 2 is a better example of this. That game is about grief, sexual frustration, and loss...SH2 might be the most depressing video game ever made but it's a fucking masterpiece. I don't find the gameplay all that fun but it tells a riveting story with an engrossing, oppressive backdrop.

If you're not about that and you like all your entertainment to be entertaining and fun, that's ok and I get that. I know some people still see video games as glorified toys but I really think it's another medium to tell interesting experiences artistically. That can be anything.

Oh, man. My brother. Another person who played the Cat Lady. I love that game and how it deals with depression. It is a little burdened by the excessive gore and (dare I say) edginess, but if you can look past that or somehow incorporate it meaningfully into the game's underlying theme, The Cat Lady is a surprisingly thoughtful game. Also it looks great and has a kickass soundtrack.

Watching reviews for "That Dragon, Cancer" made me realise I could never even attempt to play that game.

@captain_insano: It's a depressing subject matter and the game does have those kinda moments but the lighting is beautiful and overall more on the uplifting side.

After E3, I was so hyped about the new Wolfenstein game, then I remembered how brutal the previous one was in depicting the Nazi crimes, then I remembered Blazkowicz now has a wife and kid on the way... I'm not sure I can stomach this game...

I like depressing environments in games, I'm just really into dark, gothic shit so games like bloodborne fascinate me. I love the atmosphere of METRO redux and TLOUR, I think it just adds so much character when done right. Games with actually depressing stories are few and far between, don't think I've played one like that other than bioshock 1

@liquiddragon: yeah it's depressing atmosphere seems to be more story related than the actual lighting/sound etc. with two young kids myself though, I can't bring myself to go through that type of experience in my 'leisure' time.

No, I love depressing atmospheres in games.

No. Although I haven't, and probably will never play, Never-ending Nightmares. It is also because of some of the more violent stuff and it being a horror game. It's a combination of that art style, with what actually happens with that game. In general, I don't mind playing bleak games.

I enjoy it most of the time. The Last Of Us would probably be my personal example of a game like that, which I enjoy a lot.

But there were a handful of moments in Night In The Woods, that didn't turn me off from playing the game, but were still more effective than anything else I can remember experiencing in a video game.

Silent Hill 2 almost did. I was somewhat stuck in that game and kept wandering through that abandoned hospital. At some point I kind of felt depressed too, because of the mood in that game. But I pressed on and overcame that feeling when I progressed. I never thought a game could influence my feelings that much..

It's still one of my favourite games to date.

For me, it depends on the characters. If the characters can generally maintain an optimistic attitude, I can deal with pretty much any amount of depressing atmosphere, background story, world design, etc. But if all the characters are beatdown and weary, then it often becomes too much for me.

And I generally don't play survival horror games where there are no other characters (or might as well not be, considering how little you see them), so that doesn't even come up.

The Binding of Issac. There are a lot of things about that game that make it look like I would love it, and then there's the art style and theme. No thank you.

That's not to say that it's "bad" art. It's actually very effective, but a little too depressing for me.

Shadow of Mordor setting is so drab and boring that it makes the game unbearable for me when taking the empty spaces and repetitive natures of tasks into account. By the time I got to the second area that actually looked potentially interesting, I had to walk away from the game. Couldn't play it anymore.

Kane & Lynch 2's whole atmosphere was depressing. I enjoyed my playthrough of the game, but jeez, those characters never seemed to be able to catch a break. And just near the end, when it seems like after all the bloodshed that there's an opportunity to get out? One of them fucks it up because he's really pissed off.

Sometimes I don't enjoy it, yes.

One thing for me is I like variable tone. I think some games lack nuance or just choose to go all dark with no levity or life or color and that can be real boring.

I don't know that "depressing" is the right word, but I couldn't stomach GTA IV because I found the thing to be so mean spirited. All GTAs have a a degree of biting satire on the modern world, but you're always kind of laughing along with them. GTA IV was different in that it was far more aggressive about it than other games in the series. A couple hours in and I was pretty much done with that game's sense of "humor."

I say that Persona started at 3, but every day's great at your Junes.

Usually it's not something on my mind, but yeah, sometimes, especially with FPS, I'll feel "not in the mood" for shooting people in the face. Crazy, I know!

Yeah, every game with a depressing atmosphere.

I generally love a good dark atmosphere (e.g. Soul games, Fallout) but the sense of impending doom in Shadow of the Colossus stopped me from playing it. Destroying the colossi was so clearly a bad idea that I just felt bad after doing it a few times and stopped.

I couldn't play Final Fantasy VIII because it bummed me out with all the brown landscapes. I felt that game was incredibly dull with its visuals.

@peacebrother: I have owned Cart Life for 3 years. I have read about Cart Life. I have heard respected critical minds speak about Cart Life. I have Cart Life installed right now.

As someone who lives with the reality of debt despite 2 jobs, I have never managed to open and play Cart Life. Not proud of that, and hopefully I can tough it out someday, but man... too familiar.

My This War of Mine sims always being weepy and lame on top of grinding out their dumb need bars every day contributed to ending all interest I had in the game.

I tend to avoid depressing stuff for the most part. I'm glad it exists, but in general I'm less likely to play games that have a more depressing tone. I've certainly enjoyed some, though, and I'm fully intending to play NieR Automata soon despite being a little put-off by everyone saying, "It's great if you like being sad." I steered away from stuff like Life is Strange because of their tone, however - I can totally appreciate why that game gets the love it does, but it's not something I want to deal with most of the time.

Being affected by well realized environment and the act of existing in that environment is a unique strength of videogames, and usually that is accomplished best in horror games, or otherwise depressing ones. Hence, I feel like these types of games are usually the ones I end up seeking out, so I haven't hit my wall yet. Pathologic came closest, I think. You get real, real stressed out playing that game, but I loved every minute of it.

Yes, League of Legends :D

Absolutely. It varies wildly, but sometimes I just can't play something that is super dark, or even too difficult. I love the newer XCom's and beat them multiple times, but I have had to stop playing them at times because the stress is just unenjoyable after a long day. In terms of just tone, I couldn't play something like Paper's Please at the drop of a hat; it's a game I really need to be in the right mood to touch.