Some Games Just Don't Want You to Be Happy
Most games offer some kind of reward for your hard work. You could get a nice attaboy for saving the world or the simple satisfaction of knowing you romanced the right character—either way, it’s a win. But some developers think we've had enough happiness. These are 20 particularly bleak games that'll make you long for the days of Rainbow Road.
1. Pathologic 2
Imagine you’re a doctor in a plague-ridden town where everyone needs your help. Bad enough, right? Well, we forgot to mention that you also don't have enough medicine, food, or time to save them. That's the miserable situation Artemy Burakh faces, where even your closest allies can die while you're attending to someone else. Oh, and the infection spreads regardless of your good intentions, so it doesn’t really matter what you do.
2. This War of Mine
Forget playing a soldier—This War of Mine puts you in charge of ordinary civilians trapped inside a besieged city. You'll spend your nights scavenging buildings for supplies, sometimes having to decide whether stealing food from an elderly couple is worth keeping your own people alive. Watching your survivors become sick, depressed, or consumed by guilt makes victory a lot less satisfying than you'd expect.
3. LISA: The Painful
If you know, you know. If you don’t know why this game rubs people the wrong way, we’re not going to be the ones to tell you. Regardless, Brad’s journey across the wasteland of Olathe begins with a desperate attempt to rescue Buddy, a girl he raised as his daughter. Unfortunately, LISA: The Painful doesn't allow him to accomplish much without suffering. Its absurd humor might get a few laughs, but the underlying story certainly won't.
4. NieR Replicant
At first, NieR Replicant seems to have a fairly straightforward premise. You’re a young man searching for a cure for his sick sister. But once you start unlocking the endings, you'll find that the creatures you've been slaughtering have their own identities, emotions, and horrifying reasons for fighting back. Suddenly, your so-called achievements aren’t achievements at all.
5. Fear & Hunger
The name doesn’t pull any punches here. If you've ever wished a dungeon crawler would punish you for everything, Fear & Hunger has you covered. Exploring its prison means dealing with starvation, infections, injuries, and enemies capable of ending your adventure before you've done much. Even the possibility of ascending to godhood comes with disturbing consequences.
Intricate Explorer on Unsplash
6. Frostpunk
Everyone thinks they’re a leader—and everyone thinks they’re kind—until they’re actually put in charge. Child labor, authoritarian policing, and increasingly severe laws get more and more tempting when temperatures plummet, and your citizens start freezing to death. By the time you've secured enough coal to keep everyone warm, you've just created a society nobody would actually want to live in.
7. Spec Ops: The Line
Captain Walker arrives in a devastated Dubai expecting to conduct a rescue mission, and things deteriorate quicker than you could ever imagine. One particularly disturbing sequence involves using white phosphorus against suspected enemies, only to discover that civilians were caught in the attack. Try living with yourself after that.
Patriot Energy Drink on Unsplash
8. Endling: Extinction is Forever
Controlling a mother fox searching for food for her cubs sounds adorable—but don’t be fooled! Humanity has practically destroyed your environment. This one forces you to navigate polluted landscapes, avoid hunters, and investigate the disappearance of one of your offspring. Every passing night becomes another struggle to keep what’s left of your family alive, and the game's possible outcomes offer little reassurance about the future of wildlife.
9. Papers, Please
No game will expose who you really are quite like Papers, Please. Working as an immigration inspector, you can reject desperate refugees, separate families, and even condemn innocent applicants simply because their paperwork doesn't meet constantly changing requirements. Go ahead, bend the rules…if you’re willing to risk penalties that could leave your own family without food or heat.
10. The Last Of Us Part II
Don’t even talk to us about this game. It hurts just thinking about it. Ellie's pursuit of revenge takes her through Seattle, where we all come to realize that there are two sides to every coin. That’s right, The Last of Us Part II eventually shoves you into different perspectives, forcing you to confront the consequences of both women's decisions.
11. The Cat Lady
Terrifying artwork aside, Susan Ashworth begins The Cat Lady in an extremely vulnerable place, wanting to end her life before supernatural forces interfere. She's then tasked with confronting several dangerous individuals known as Parasites, whose actions expose her to increasingly disturbing examples of human cruelty. Although she can find reasons to keep going, the game's unflinching treatment of loneliness, manipulation, and emotional suffering makes getting there difficult.
Remigiusz Michalski on Wikimedia
12. Darkest Dungeon
Most RPGs allow your favorite heroes to recover from their adventures, but Darkest Dungeon doesn’t. No, this one treats psychological damage as something that can destroy your party. Your recruits develop debilitating afflictions and sometimes die horribly while exploring ruins beneath your estate. Worst of all, the revelations suggest that the horrors you're fighting are connected to something far greater than the monsters roaming those corridors.
13. OMORI
What initially looks like a charming adventure gradually becomes a deeply upsetting examination of childhood trauma. So, that’s fun. As Sunny explores both Headspace and the real world, OMORI reveals how his relationships have deteriorated following the death of his sister. The truth behind that tragedy is especially upsetting, and certain endings only show what happens when guilt and isolation become impossible to overcome.
14. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
If you’ve ever read this story, you know how brutal it is. Humanity has already lost when this point-and-click adventure begins, thanks to a supercomputer named AM that wiped out almost everyone on Earth. But don’t worry—it kept five survivors for the sole purpose of torturing them, and you’re one of them. You can get a “good ending,” but at what cost?
15. The Banner Saga
Leading a caravan of refugees across a collapsing world somehow gets even more miserable when you realize that supplies, morale, and survival are all connected. The Banner Saga regularly asks you to make decisions that affect everyone, so you need to choose wisely. With the sun frozen in the sky and an enormous threat approaching, even reaching your next destination doesn't guarantee safety.
16. Drakengard
You can leave your expectations for a traditional fantasy at the door. Caim's violent obsession, the disturbing behavior of his companions, and the escalating supernatural disasters turn an already troubled kingdom into a hopeless wasteland. Several endings take things even further, introducing catastrophic events that make the original conflict seem almost like a cakewalk.
17. Beholder
It’s simple: you're a government-appointed landlord expected to spy on tenants and report suspicious behavior. Installing cameras and searching apartments can help you complete official assignments, but reporting minor violations might lead to an arrest or worse. Meanwhile, your family's only turn up the pressure cooker, almost demanding that you exploit the very people you're supposed to protect.
18. The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
Born into a society where people's futures are determined by their social standing, you have remarkably little control over your circumstances. You'll navigate an oppressive empire divided into rigid estates, with decisions affecting your family, political loyalties, and chances of surviving violent upheaval. Even when you manage to improve your position, the suffering inflicted is no easy thing to witness.
19. The Walking Dead: Season One
If we can’t talk about Joel, we definitely can’t talk about Lee! Throughout Telltale's adventure, you'll have to decide who receives food, which survivors deserve your trust, and how to handle personal struggles that threaten the group. By the final episode, Lee's relationship with Clem is the emotional center of a story that refuses to reward your efforts with a happy ending.
20. SOMA
Waking up inside the underwater facility is bad enough before you find out what happened to humanity on the surface. Next thing you know, Simon has to battle corrupted machines, abandoned research stations, and consciousness-transfer technology that raises deeply uncomfortable questions about your identity. There’s not even the promise of escape.
