Mental health issues can sometimes be hard to understand. They are also not the easiest thing to implement in a game, but some games show off the protagonist’s psyche in a way that shows how serious mental health is.
While it is nothing new, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice showed the main character’s mental health in an amazing way that brought you into the action. Other games have attempted this same feat, and while not all of them turned out as amazing as Hellblade, they did help to give the world an understanding of mental health issues.
10 Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Senua’s Sacrifice was an amazing game that brought mental health to light in a new way. As you play through the game, you hear voices that help to guide you and warn you of danger. This game has a way of making the player question what is reality and what is in Senua’s mind. With dark entities that prove to be false and realities that are questionable, Senua’s Sacrifice brings psychosis to the forefront of the experience.
9 Depression Quest
Despite Depression Quest only being a text-based adventure, it helps the player to understand depression in a new way. This simple quest tasks the player with juggling their social life, job, and mental state as they make it through the day. Eventually, the mental illness takes over and players are left with singular choices to progress. The lack of control helps players understand what it is like to live with depression. Depression Quest accurately shows the player what depression is like, and how people go through living with it each day.
8 American McGee’s Alice
This is an older game that originally released back in the year 2000. It tells the continued story of Alice in Wonderland. In this adventure, Alice has been placed in an asylum after witnessing the death of her parents. After being in the Asylum for over ten years, Alice returns to Wonderland to find that the Queen of Hearts rule has caused utter disarray. Alice must overcome her own mind to save Wonderland. This tale becomes very dark but shows Alice dealing with her mental illness throughout it. Wonderland can be thought of as a manifestation of her mental illness come to life.
7 Celeste
Many people claim that Celeste is a perfect depiction of anxiety. The player is tasked with climbing a literal mountain due to the main character, Madeline, having a need to feel accomplished in life. This leads her to want to conquer the mountain called Celeste.
Along the way, the character shows her signs of low self-esteem and anxiety through interactions with other characters. Madeline is also tortured throughout her journey by Badeline, a manifestation of Madeline’s anxiety that belittles her. This manifestation goes so far as to alter the levels you are on in an attempt to stop you from completing your journey.
6 Actual Sunlight
Actual Sunlight isn’t a game where things get better, in fact, they don’t progress at all. That shouldn’t make you avoid the game, however, because that is the point of it. The creator wanted to show what it is like to be in another state of mind. This game revolves around the character Evan Winter and his experiences in life. It reflects the negatives of mental illness and the harsh lives that some people endure. This is not a game to take lightly and can be bleaker than many others on this list.
5 Night In The Woods
Night in the Woods sees players taking up the role of Mae, who just dropped out of college and returned to her home town. Mae appears to be disassociated with life which shows through her action in the game. The story itself sees Mae meet tons of characters that help to further the plot, but nothing seems to happen as the game progress. Mae is reclusive, she doesn’t understand her meaning and doesn’t realize how her town has both changed and stayed the same. This is a wonderful tale that is also very relatable to many people and worth trying out.
4 Neverending Nightmares
Neverending Nightmares is another game that shows the darker side of mental illness that draws inspiration from the creator’s own dealings with depression and OCD. While it may not look like much, this game is actually a horror game. Players take up the role of Thomas. They see him awake from a nightmare and fall into another. Players navigate Thomas through these nightmares that progressively get more intense as the game goes on. Each time that Thomas gets harmed, he will wake up in another nightmare.
3 PRY
Pry focuses on the effects of PTSD. It focuses on a character who has returned from the Gulf War and how his memories fail and past and present collide. It is not just a game, however, it is more of an experience.
Your goal is to uncover information about the main character through movies, games, and books. It blends the three types of media together to create an experience that some have said that it gets the experience exactly right.
2 Limbo
Limbo depicts what grief and loss would be if it could be manifested. Throughout the game, you play as a small child in a world devoid of color. Much like when you lose someone close to you, the only direction is forward. While this game has no psychological effects, its themes are heavy enough to show its true nature. You have limited capabilities, but must progress through while getting hurt and possibly dying along the way. It may be tough, but you can reach the end and enter the light.
1 Until Dawn
Until Dawn has made a mark in the world of gaming. It isn’t the typical tale of a killer wanting to get revenge. In fact, you end up getting to see information about Josh while also seeing what he must live with on a daily basis. It helps to show players what mental illness is like. If you play the game right, you will get to see Josh’s diagnosis. This can easily show you that he was misdiagnosed. Along with that, he has stopped taking his medication. Later in the game, you witness the images that he sees and what drives him through the story.
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