Vicarious Reviews: Depression Quest

Title image of Depression Quest, a game by Zoё Quinn

October 13, 2023

Annie Newman, Journalism Club Member

For those not in English 383 with Stephen Grandchamp, the Video Games and Identity class explores video games as a medium for expressing identity, which the class has divided into three units: neurodiversity, gender/sexuality, and race. The first video game that we studied, and that I’ll be reviewing, is Depression Quest.

Depression Quest is a second-person narrative text adventure, where you play as a nameless person struggling with depression and continue the narrative by clicking on choices. As the protagonist, you have to juggle your relationship, your job, going to therapy, and having a life while having depression. Some of the choices that are offered, depending on your level of depression, have been crossed out in red and you cannot choose them. This is supposed to create a sense that these would be sensible options to a person without depression, but they’re not available to a person with depression. There’s a cat that you get the chance to adopt, and most people adopt it, but even if you don’t, it still goes to a good home.

Screen capture from Depression Quest

The developer, Zoё Quinn, wanted the game to be educational to give neurotypical people a sense of what having depression is like, although it obviously doesn’t represent everyone with depression. They warn that the game isn’t supposed to be fun, and many complaints come from people who didn’t heed their warning. Quinn also says not to play it if you’re suicidal and to get help instead; however, as far as I can tell, there’s no danger of anything graphically triggering.

Overall, I give the game 4 out of 5 stars. I thought the game was pretty immersive and educational, although if you pick certain choices that make you more depressed, it can be near impossible to “redeem” yourself and get better. Whether that’s purely a game mechanic or part of the narrative, it’s hard to determine.