Depression Quest 1.0

Video games and exploring mental health problems have gone hand in hand for a while. The Silent Hill franchise is completely based around exploring the mental health of its various protagonists and even something as simple as the Call of Duty series has touched on soldiers having PTSD. However, depression is one condition that games rarely touch with a 10-foot pole because of how hard it is to talk about. Depression Quest aims to change that.

To install Depression Quest, make sure you have Steam installed. Once that's done, go to this link to install it.

There are a couple of things to note about this game. The first thing to note is that it acknowledges that everybody's depression is different, and if you're a depressed person, you may find that it misses the mark for you personally. The solutions that it offers to help with depression will likely not work for everybody. The last thing to note is that it is frankly not too fun to play on purpose. If you're looking for a fun game to play, this is not it.

In the beginning, most productive options are crossed out, simulating how depressed people often don't want to or can't do things that you know is good for you. However, this can easily feel like it's railroading you and further stop you from immersing yourself fully into the setting.

Overall, Depression Quest has a couple of good ideas and is a great starting point, but falls short in a lot of areas.