10 Video Games That Deal With Difficult Themes
Disco Elysium is one of the most important games of all time.
As painfully obvious as it may seem, the reason we feel such a distinct emotional connection to characters in video games is due to gameplay and interactivity. Obviously we can't feel that exact experience, but perhaps a facsimile of it. We feel things we couldn't possibly in real life.
We can be a gangster. We can be a cowboy. A marine.
So surely we can also feel depression. Loneliness. Addiction. Grief.
It doesn't exactly seem unreasonable.
For anyone wondering where games like Actual Sunlight, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Celeste, Gone Home or Firewatch are on here, they've been covered in an earlier article, and it felt like it would be something of disservice to cover them here when It'd mostly just be repeated words. I'm also very sure I've forgotten plenty of others that deserve to be on here.
Also, before we begin, I'd just like to to say: I don't know why you're here, but I'm really glad you are.
10. Flower
We'll start this off with a game that doesn't so much deal with a difficult issue rather than help those who have had to suffer through some of the ordeals that will be detailed later on.
There's not a ton to say in regards to gameplay with Flower. You guide gliding flower petals between trees and rocks and other 'obstacles' - for lack of a better word - as music swells and rises alongside the petals that gently glide by your hand.
Speaking personally, as someone who, frankly, can only be described as a catalogue of mental illness, there is a sense of peace and serenity achieved in the world of Flower that few other games accomplish, bar perhaps Journey. A sense of peace and serenity that is often needed by many of us for myriad reasons.
I'll be the first to admit that there's often a lot of catharsis to be found in blasting demons and monsters, but if you find yourself in a state of panic or sadness or anxiety - and I hope you don't - then I can't recommend playing Flower enough and letting the goodness bloom forth from your life once more...yeah, I regret that pun too.