The games below were selected for their disability representation. (For the purposes of this project, we defined disability as any condition covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act so that we could be inclusive to a wide range of representation.) By including these games, we are not endorsing them as ideal representations, but acknowledging that they contribute to a larger conversation about disability representation within the gaming community.
No two people experience disability exactly the same way, so it is no surprise that some of these games received mixed reviews about whether or not their representation was accurate. That said, there are games with disability representation that we have omitted from this list because a deeper dive revealed that an overwhelming majority of reviewers found said representation to be negative or harmful. While a move toward more inclusive representation in gaming is significant, we also realize that impact is more important than intent.
Learn more about disabilities and gaming
In Night in the Woods, you play from the point of view of Mae, a twenty-year-old woman that has recently dropped out of college to pause and reevaluate her plans. Possum Springs doesn’t feel much like the home she’s left behind. The coal mine has closed, the town’s economy is struggling, and the friends that she was looking forward to seeing again are experiencing hardships of their own. Things pick up pace when Mae witnesses a kidnapping and enlists her friends in some amatuer sleuthing to try to figure out why people from Possum Springs are disappearing. Throughout the game, you witness Mae work through bouts of anxiety and depression.
Eventually, it’s revealed that Mae has been experiencing dissociative episodes (and the social stigma that has resulted from those around her not understanding them). In an article for Games Radar, journalist Heather Wald shared that the game normalized mental health and reminded her that it was “okay not to be okay”. Blogger Chloe Spenser from Kotaku praised the game for highlighting what it’s like to cope with mental illness instead of villainizing those that experience it. The successful and empathetic depiction of mental illness likely stems from the fact that the creators had all experienced their own battles with depression and were writing from an informed place.
View game on Night in the Woods website
In Watch Dogs 2, the hacktivist organization DedSec recruits hacker Marcus Holloway to help reveal the corruption of the cTOS system created by the Blume Corporation. They’ve been guilty of everything from rigging elections to spying into people’s homes. DedSec sees going to war with the Blume Corporation as a means of fighting systemic injustice.
Josh Sauchack, also known as Hawt Sauce, is another member of the hacktivist group. Over the course of game play, it’s revealed that Josh has Aspbergers. He plays a huge role behind the scenes, serving as their strongest programmer and finding holes in the group’s plans.
From what we were able to find online, players mostly agree that Josh Sauchak is a good representation of a man with Aspbergers. Reviews indicate that Josh’s portrayal of stimming and his reactions to certain types of emotional stimuli rang true for reviewers who had similar experiences. An interview of voice actor Jonathan Dubsky revealed that in order to get into Josh's character the actor did considerable research into Asperger's syndrome and Autism-spectrum disorders. He even contributed changes to the character’s dialogue and actions to avoid stereotyping and ableism. That said, one critique of the game is that Ubisoft could have found a voice actor with Aspbergers to portray Josh’s character instead of using a neurotypical actor.
View Game in Ubisoft store
When an orphan named Skulk finds that his home has fallen under attack in Xenoblade Chronicles, he sets out on a path to save the day, armed with a group of friends and a magical weapon. The particular chosen one trope this game uses has gifted Skulk with the ability to see the future, giving players of this RPG a helpful advantage while playing the game.
Arguably, Skulk’s most helpful friend is a character named Dunban. Out of all seven playable characters, he’s capable of one of the highest damage attack moves in the game. He’s also selfless, logical, and a loyal second-in-command. Dunban’s backstory involves a significant battle wound that led to partial paralysis in his right arm. While the paralysis made it impossible for Dunban to continue to use his original weapon of choice, his story arc shows how he adapts and finds new ways to fend off the enemy using his strength and weaponry skills.
View game in Nintendo store
Guild Wars 2 is a massive multiplayer quest-based game set in a fantasy world named Tyria that allows for wildly different storylines based off of player choices. Players are tasked with bringing a disbanded guild back together to collectively fight a group of Elder Dragons that are set on massive destruction. While the character occupation and species you choose influence where the plot will go, the setup provides gamers ample freedom.
One of the characters you interact with in the game is a teenager named Taimi that can often be found putting her genius to use at the College of Synergetics. Fans quickly realized that when Taimi wasn’t using a golem for transportation, she was often shown as limping. A deeper dive into Taimi’s character reveals that she has limited mobility due to a degenerative disease that makes it painful to walk. While some gamers we found felt that the disability representation was groundbreaking, others raised concerns about Taimi's portrayal.
View game on GuildWars2 website
This game begins with Sly Cooper attempting to access his family's wealth by opening the Cooper Vault, which is located on Kaine Island. Unfortunately for Sly, the island has tight security, and he's quickly thwarted by the island's owner. His friends band together to save Sly and help him successfully complete his heist. With their combined talents in demolition, robotics, and combat, his friends are able to save the day.
One of the members of the Cooper Gang is a character named Bentley that the team relies upon for his sharp intellect and suit of specialized skills. After being severely injured in a previous game, Bentley lost the use of his legs through partial paralysis. Not wanting his inability to walk to keep him from assisting with Sly’s criminal enterprise, he created a one-of-a-kind wheelchair using his robotics skills that would allow him to continue to be effective on their covert missions. Instead of moving to erase the disability through magic, or make it temporary as many games do, the game embraces Bentley’s identity — as does the character himself.
View game in Playstation store
Content warning: Veterans may be sensitive to Gulf War flashback scenes
In the game PRY, you play the role of a Gulf War Veteran named James that is grappling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In the game, you can opt to interact with the world around you or do a deep dive into James’ subconscious and the memories of his experiences in active duty. The more time you invest in the game, the more limited your options become. Through James’ lens, you find that it can be difficult to engage with your surroundings when past traumas compete for your energy and attention.
While the immersive storytelling in PRY may cause the flashback scenes to be triggering for veterans, it also goes a long way in raising awareness about the realities of PTSD. A blogger from the mental health resources website CheckPoint went as far as to call PRY “the gold standard for representing a mental health condition."
View game on Tender Claws website
That Dragon, Cancer was created by Ryan and Amy Green after they lost their four-year-old son Joel to cancer. Through the game, you see glimpses of what a family might experience as their child goes through treatment. There’s the beautiful sound of a child’s laugh in brighter moments, difficult discussions with doctors, and decisions to be made about radiation.
While the majority of the games curated here are played from the perspective of the individual living with a disability, this game is mostly played from the point of view of the child’s father. In researching player reactions to the game, it quickly became clear that this game helped other parents process through the pain of losing a child.
View game on That Dragon, Cancer website
In this game, players take on the role of Senua, a warrior on a quest to save her lover’s soul from a goddess named Hela that oversees the realm of the dead. To get to Hela, she must overcome external roadblocks along the way while also warring with herself.
Throughout your journey, you witness Senua’s struggles with psychosis, which are often depicted through delusions and hallucinations. While the horror genre has a history of framing mental illness in an insensitive light, the game’s creator made sure to involve members of the mental health community in his planning process to ensure the game wouldn’t further contribute to the stigma around severe and persistant mental illness. While Hellblade received rave reviews from the gaming community, it looks like the feedback from the disability community is a bit more mixed.
View game on Ninja Theory website
Depression Quest is an interactive text-based game that explores what it means to live with mental illness. As you play the role of the unnamed protagonist, you’re offered a series of choices that unfurl into a story that evolves as you go, which made the format remind me of the choose-your-own adventure books I read as a child but with substantially heavier content. The decisions you make dictate whether your character will be productive or give into lethargy, if they’ll connect with their support circle or isolate themselves from social interaction, and if they’ll get the help they need or continue to deny themselves access to resources like therapy and medication. Each decision has consequences that impact the character’s quality of life and state of mind. It quickly becomes evident that Zoe Quinn, the game’s creator, didn’t want to shy away from being frank about the toll depression can take on one’s relationships, career, and overall sense of self.
There are moments where the game is bleak. The Depression Quest website states the following: “This game is not meant to be a fun or lighthearted experience. If you are currently suffering from the illness and are easily triggered, please be aware that this game uses stark depictions of people in very dark places. If you are suicidal, please stop playing this game and visit this link to talk to someone.” In addition to the trigger warning, the page also carries a disclaimer that the way depression is portrayed in the game might be different from the way depression manifests itself in someone else’s lived experience, as depression can show up in a lot of different ways. As someone living with depression, one reviewer was appreciative of how thoughtful Quinn’s messaging was about the disability representation in her game. More than that, this reviewer appreciated how much she has shared in interviews (like this one in The New Yorker) about how her own experiences with depression informed the content of the game.
The overall reaction to Depression Quest from the gaming community has been mixed. Since its release, Quinn has been doxed and harrassed by players that felt the content of the game was too dark and that format wasn’t entertaining enough to receive media attention or be released on Steam. Other players have reported feeling seen or being inspired to seek treatment as a result of the game.
The game can be played for free. Should you choose to pay, some of the proceeds will be sent to the National Suicide Hotline.
Moss is an action-adventure puzzle game game for VR (including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, and the PSVR). Players enjoy the game in the first-person perspective and the third-person perspective, guiding the main character, a mouse named Quill, through the fantasy based story line.
A feature that makes Moss unique is that Quill is able to communicate with the player through American Sign Language (ASL). The game's developers were looking for ways to have Quill be able to provide hints and clues to the player on how to proceed through the game. They began by having the mouse offer encouraging squeaks and pantomime actions, but eventually landed on the idea of having her sign instructions to the players as well. A tweet by an animator on the team demonstrating this functionality quickly gained traction and widespread support from the gaming community and in particular deaf and hard of hearing players who were pleased to see this type of representation in a game.
Quill doesn’t provide any lengthy exposition or narration in ASL. It shows up, rather, in the form of puzzle hints, reactions, and emotional responses. Nevertheless, its inclusion is a great way to connect with deaf/HoH and autistic players who use ASL regularly and also serves to teach non-ASL fluent players some basic sign language.
Read a review of the game from a deaf/hard of hearing player here.
It should be noted that this isn’t the first commercially available game to feature ASL: the game Tacoma, released about a year before Moss, also features some finger spelling throughout as a mechanism for password input by the main character.
View game on Steam
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