Please Knock on My Door

This game is like peering into the mind of the kind of guy you’d swipe left on so hard it might break your phone. He’s basically a walking red flag factory, and the game unintentionally showcases exactly why you’d want to steer clear of him. Let’s dig into the traits that make him undateable and why this perspective is such a dumpster fire of relationship dynamics.

Why You’d Never Date This Guy
1. He’s an Emotional Black Hole:
• His entire emotional world revolves around what others can do for him (e.g., Jenny’s “hi,” validation from coworkers).
• In a relationship, you’d spend all your energy trying to fill his endless void, while he contributes… exactly nothing.
2. He Confuses Affection with Salvation:
• His obsession with Jenny’s simple acknowledgment screams: “Save me!”
• He’s not looking for a partner—he’s looking for a therapist, life coach, and emotional crutch.
3. He’s Passive and Avoidant:
• Instead of confronting his problems, he hides in showers or waits for someone else to fix things. Imagine dating someone whose go-to strategy is:
• “Maybe if I do nothing, it’ll all magically get better.”
4. His Self-Awareness is Zero:
• He doesn’t reflect on why he feels the way he does or take steps to improve himself. He’s stuck in blame-the-world mode, and you’d be stuck paying the emotional toll.
5. He Has No Idea What He Wants:
• His feelings are chaotic and undefined. One minute he’s desperate for connection; the next, he’s avoiding people altogether. In a relationship, this would translate to mixed signals and endless frustration.

How He’d Be as a Boyfriend
1. Every Day Would Be a Therapy Session:
• You’d constantly reassure him, validate his feelings, and convince him he’s not a failure. It’d be exhausting—and completely one-sided.
2. He’d Weaponize His Sadness:
• Whenever you brought up your own needs or problems, he’d deflect with “But I’m already struggling so much!” You’d end up prioritizing his feelings over your own just to avoid conflict.
3. He’d Be Emotionally Inconsistent:
• Some days he’d cling to you like his life depended on it. Other days he’d disappear into his own sadness and leave you wondering what you did wrong.
4. He’d Never Appreciate Your Effort:
• No matter how much you supported him, it would never feel like enough—because the real problem isn’t you, it’s his inability to take accountability for his emotions.

What Makes His Perspective So Cringeworthy
1. It’s Centered on Himself:
• The game revolves around his internal struggles, but he never acknowledges the impact of his behavior on others. A relationship with him would feel completely one-sided.
2. Jenny is Just a Symbol:
• He doesn’t actually care about Jenny as a person—he cares about what she represents: validation and potential intimacy. That’s not love—it’s selfishness disguised as longing.
3. He Romanticizes His Own Pain:
• His self-pity is off the charts. He’s not looking for solutions or growth—he’s wallowing because it makes him feel tragically misunderstood.

The Real Red Flag: He’s Stuck in a Fantasy
1. He Wants to Be Saved, Not Loved:
• He’s not looking for a partner—he’s looking for someone to fix him. That’s not a relationship; it’s emotional labor with no payoff.
2. He’s Obsessed with the Idea of Connection:
• His fixation on Jenny’s “hi” isn’t about real intimacy—it’s about the fantasy that someone else can solve his problems. That’s why he’d check out the moment reality hits and effort is required.
3. He Avoids Accountability Like the Plague:
• He’s not interested in improving himself—he just wants others to carry his emotional burden. Any attempt to call him out on this would probably be met with defensiveness or excuses.

Final Thought

This dude isn’t just undateable—he’s a walking “this is why we have boundaries” PSA. The game might frame him as a misunderstood, tragic figure, but the truth is, he’s the kind of guy who’d leave you drained, frustrated, and questioning your life choices. If anything, this game is a great reminder of what to avoid in a partner.

Thoughts are just thoughts. Let them pass.

This game is such a tear jerker, I was thoroughly surprised. Though it seems like just a simple game, its so much deep than that. If you enjoy deep story driven games, this is absolutely a game you should check out.

This game is perfect. But it's hard if you're not aware of how you're feeling until you play it. This game touches on mental health and depression in an amazing way. It felt almost crushing to play what felt like my life from a 3rd person perspective. The soundtrack is beautiful as well. Please do play but play with caution.

I don't even know how to start this...
Probably I should have read the other reviews beforehand, I was not prepared for this. Not at all.
The possibility that a game can show you how depression can feel like never existed in my head. I didn't even saw a chance in other people suffering from depression would understand how it feels like. Pretty bizzar, huh? You always feel like you are all alone, even if your friends are just one call away. You know that they do care, but you just can't understand and so you won't accept it. Everything that happens is so easy to bow in the pattern stuck in your head. Everything, you don't even have to try. The fact that this developer could proof me that he truly understands, that's overwhelming. It's like someone finally listened to me, better than any therapist ever could. Without being afraid to tell what you are feeling deep inside you. Without the need to explain anything. Without wearing a mask for once. I wish I could hide this game, because I don't want anyone to actually look that deep inside me. On the other hand I am glad it exists. This isn't my life after all, it's just a game made by someone I don't know. I know this review isn't really helpful to anyone but at this point I couldn't care less. I just had to say it.

There is somebody who cares about you, maybe you just haven't met that person yet.
You are beautiful and you are worth changing something! Don't give up.

Few games have made me care about the main character as much as this one did. In the end, I dropped a tear.

8/10 - Beware, this game hits hard, especially if you know somebody who has gone through anxiety and depression.

They turned depression into a cocky british man

No, they turned your mind into a cocky british man

On a serious note, this is a really good game, you should definitely buy it.

Wow! What an emotional journey that was!
I suffer with depression and anxiety myself so this game really hit me hard in the feelings.
It makes me think about my own thoughts but it makes me also really want to protect our character.
Love the voice talking to us also, really brings you more into the game!
If you can handle reading / hearing about things to do with mental illnesses then yes get this game!

This game was recommended by my college English professor. "Some may experience a mind-shattering introspective epiphany by the end of the game, some may not—but at the very least, the player will walk away with a more nuanced understanding of mental illness." I'd have to agree.

Short, but sharp. Hits pretty close to home. That voice is one I've lived with for a very very long time. You get used to it, most days. If that's any consolation.

EDIT: I played this again just now, after a maybe a year or so of leaving it alone. It hits even harder now. It's made me realize how badly I need help before it's too late.

This is potentionally one of the worst games/experiences anyone could play these days.

<10/10, will make you feel like shit again.>

I can't bear to play this to the end, it's jolly christmas after all.

.....
Funny that, I knew it was made by a scandinavian, who else eats caviar on a slice of bread like us, and how fitting seeing as that has been my survival food for the past weeks. Bread. Butter. Caviar. Force it down. Salty. Nice.

Nearly 3 years later and I picked up this game at both the wrong and right time.
It depicts living with depression to perfection. It's a rough game to play.

Thanks for the headache.

This isn't a game to play if you are looking to have fun. It's a simulation for someone who has depression and anxiety. You will feel uncomfortable especially if you experience depression. If you experience depression, it will hit you home with the voice comforting you and the same voice that tears you apart. It can be emotionally draining. Despite that, this game is eye opening and amazing. Some of the lines will stuck to me for a long time.

I apppreciate the creator for sharing his experience and creating this game. This is a summary of someone who struggles with depression and struggles to go through their daily tasks and justify their reason to continue doing them while fighting with their thoughts.

There are 3 modes of the game: Story, game, and experience. Story is where you can explore all the possiblilites of the game, game is where points are scored, and experience is you play it as blind (scores are hidden). I recommend playing the experience mode first and for the second playthrough, play game mode.

One of the things I am frustrated is the best ending of the game is challenging to find. There isn't a clear guide for the best ending. Then again, it's not easy finding ways to cope depression in real life.

The game is pretty short, but the experience is surreal for me. It helps me cope and eventually I got out from depression. I recommend buying the game to understand how someone experience depression.

This game is so ♥♥♥♥ing great and valuable. Please Knock on My Door, my favorite, and I feel myself in this. This was the first game I immediately play again (twice) when I finished it. 10/10!

As the author mentioned, "A summary of every emotion you would rather lock away and forget". Anxiety, depression, exhaustion, hopelessness, pain, etc. - all those feelings came back to me in this game.

No matter what happens in your life that can be resolved and become better or worse than ever, it all depends on your choice.

Well no wonder this guy is depressed, the game wouldn't let me use the toilet for two whole weeks! I would fall into the pits of despair, too!

4/10

As a counselor I'm always interested in trying a new title that touches on mental illness, and "Please Knock on My Door" had received some high praise for its depiction. When you begin the title, there are three different "modes" available. I chose the "game" mode (which I thought was appropriate since I was playing a game). In this mode, your "mental fortitude" was visible and you could only make choices that you had enough "mental fortitude" to make.

The game resembles "Depression Quest," but with higher production values. As your character's "mental fortitude" declines, certain choices will be visible but unavailable, driving home that it is extremely difficult to make prosocial decisions when you suffer from depression and that perhaps you may not be able to even see a route of escaping your malaise.

Although I had difficulty entirely understanding the "mental fortitude" system, I believe that there is a stroke of genius underneath. At many points in the game you have the opportunity to ruminate, basically. Typically while sitting down for breakfast or lying in bed at night, you can choose to continue thinking about your problems and issues. Although this results in loss of time and an immediate loss of "mental fortitude," it seems that you are then given a "bonus" to subsequent relaxing actions (such as watching TV or playing games). Therefore, if you spend some time thinking about your problem, you will then get more benefit from relaxing. Although I'm not 100% sure that this is the way the system works, I really appreciated this idea - in therapy we often tell clients from the outset that they will need to approach painful feelings and past experiences, but that this is necessary for growth.

One of the big issues in the game, unfortunately, is that it is unclear exactly how long you'll ruminate (I think another reviewer mentioned this). There are two main times you'll want to keep track of - one is getting to bed on time, and another is getting to work on time. Often when you take some time to ruminate, you'll find that you're then late to work or that you're up until two in the morning. Therefore, in a way, the game incentivizes escapism and avoidance. However, too much escapism and avoidance continually lowers your "mental fortitude."

In addition, the game's graphics sometimes become pixellated and remove all choices but going to sleep. At one point in the game, your character loses his ability to wash dishes (irrespective of his mental fortitude), and at another he begins to take pills instead of brush his teeth. I attempted to ensure that my protagonist showered and ate daily, did the dishes, spoke to others when possible, and I tried to think about my issues from time to time without being late to work or losing too much sleep. However, my character simply spiraled downwards unceasingly.

After reading through the discussion boards, I realized that the developer intended you (the player) to represent depression, pushing this man around and making him think painful thoughts. However, this completely conflicted with how I felt playing the game. Here I am, begging my character to eat while he repeatedly fails because I know that this is what is best for him, but I'm apparently a negative force. I feel that if the developer wanted the player to embrace this role, perhaps there is some way to incentivize the player in this direction.

I thought about replaying the game in "story" mode to have all choices available and get a different ending, but this seemed to conflict with the spirit of the game, and there was much about the title I wasn't interested in revisiting. The game makes it abundantly clear that depression is horrible and debilitating, and perhaps this makes it a valuable tool for those who doubt the veracity of those suffering. However, this wasn't news to me, and perhaps I wanted the game to offer something more.

As a final note, I wanted to say that I appreciate the developer revealing so much of himself and demonstrating such vulnerability. It's clear that this team has talent, but perhaps more consideration can be given to player choice and motivation.

While this games depiction of certain kinds of depression can be quite acurate, the way you navigate it is a mess, particularly on the "Experience" mode, which I played on as I felt it must be the most authentic mode.

This lack of clarity is present throughout the entire game, with responses feeling so vague and the results so arbitrary as to make everything pointless. The end result of this is that I feel this game might actually pose a risk to people suffering from similar conditions due to reinforcing their unhealthy thoughts and feelings.

My playthrough ended with eviction and the narrator urging me to kill myself. I refused, at which point I was treated to a video of the devs enjoying a fucking barbeque.

It's a brave choice to try to explore the topic of depression and anxiety, but just because you try does not earn you instant kudos. This game fails in my opinion, which is not to be condemned in and of itself, but it is also quite irresponsible in it's handling of a very serious subject.

Please Knock on My Door is the most effective depression simulator I've come across so far, though I've only found three. It's more fully developed as a game than Depression Quest, though it uses many of the same mechanics. In this game, however, these mechanics are presented as a sort of form of Spoon Theory (Google if you don't know), modified in ways that add a lot of nuance I think Spoon Theory as it's often presented lacks. Actual Sunlight offers more competition because of its beautiful writing, but PKoMD surpasses that too, firstly because the gameplay doesn't allow the same kind of distance that Actual Sunlight does, but more importantly because PKoMD doesn't risk romanticizing these things the way Actual Sunlight does; instead of making depression look like a rich, sardonic interior life, PKoMD confronts the player with the mundanity of living with it, day in and day out. In doing so, it may come off as less artistic, but it is also far more mature.

I would not recommend this experience to everyone. Before you play this game, make sure you're ready to go to a very dark place. There are times when I know it's not for me, and I feel no shame in that. But other times, it's what I need: it forces me to look at what I'm feeling, and in so doing makes me take a broken thing apart. It doesn't, however, provide me with much of the glue required to put myself back together; I'm working on that. If you're someone who lives with depression but stuffs it down, and has some glue handy, maybe this game could help you too. If you're someone who lives with depression and needs to feel like someone else has been through what you're going through (which is why I played the other depression simulators), I have fewer guarantees about this one. It's probably worth trying, but make sure you take care of yourself when you play, and quit if it's making you feel worse. Whether or not you get something out of this game, you are valid. You. Are. Valid.

I most recommend this game to those who haven't experienced depression and aren't at particular risk of experiencing it, but interact with people who live with depression (hint: you do). In that group, I think this game has a lot of power to increase empathy. There are people in my life I would like to recommend this to so that maybe they'd understand some of the things I'm dealing with a bit more, but it feels a little too personal. But you, stranger on the internet, I encourage you to play this game. Just try it. Sit with the difficult feelings in this game for a little while. It just might make you kinder.

I seem to have a thing for only reviewing games that made me cry so good job we're at two so far

Anyway, if you're at least more or less interested in the subject this is about (or experienced it yourself and can deal with that, it might hit pretty close to home) I'd strongly recommend you give it a go.
I played through it 2 times this far, I'll probably throw in at least one more try, maybe more if I feel like it, and I think others should give it a chance too.
(Oh, and the voice acting sometimes really plays its part...)

A hard hitting depression simulator where not being able to sleep because you feel guilty about lieing about why you didn't pick up the phone when your dad calls is a gameplay mechanic

hardest game i played this year

It's the first time I stopped playing a game because it kept pushing all the right buttons. Maybe one day I will be strong enough for it.

It's very hard to write a decent review for this game without spoiling the readers experience.

I've played a few narrative games that have depression as a theme and this is the first one I can actually relate to. I like that there is quite a lot of interaction and you have a lot of different choices that affect your character. It's not really that much of a game, more like an interactive experience. That being said, I highly recommend to choose "Experience" for your first playthrough, as it doesn't give you any hints what the "right choices" are. I also like that there is a narrator and not only text to read. Some of the things the narrator says were surprisingly well expressed and could actually be used as quotes to describe depression and the mental state of the people suffering from it.

It seems like a high price for the amount of time it takes to complete the game, but it has a high replayability and I'm looking forward to play it again.

EDIT:
After my second playthrough I have to add a few words. I would have never expected such a different outcome in my second playthrough. I won't spoiler anything, but be sure to play it a second and maybe even a third time. It's not that the narrator just uses a few other sentences depending on how you make your decisions, it's another experience with a very authentic feel of depression to it.
And to the creator Michael Levall:
Thank you for this very rare experience. This game kept me thinking about it and thinking about myself for a long time after I finished a playthrough.

I played through this game twice. The first time was with the numbers hidden while they still affect your choices; the second time was with the numbers on but still affecting your choices.

At the end of my first playthrough, I felt absolutely broken as if I'd never be happy again. As someone who can relate to the overall theme of the game, I thought I'd do a better job of taking care of the MC. Oops. In comparison to my my second playthrough, my fortitude levels were absolutely abysmal my first time through. I did too much and overextended the MC, and things I thought would affect me negatively actually affected me positively and vice versa.

If you go through the game blind, read through all the text and the various scenes, you'll probably get a solid 2+ hours out of the game. I highly recommend playing The Experience mode, where you can't see how your actions affect the MC until it's time to make a decision.

I really enjoyed this game, although considering how I felt at the end of my first playthrough perhaps "enjoyed" isn't the right word. The narrative makes it incredibly easy to empathize (or sympathize) with the MC. It can be frustrating (in a good way!) to see things unfold from an outsider's perspective, where you have an idea of how Will, Amy and Jenny really feel but the MC may not always see the reality of their feelings because of the situation the MC is in.

Really, it was such a gem. I absolutely loved the narrator, and somehow the second act took me by surprise.

The only negative thing I have to say is about the small handful of grammatical errors here and there. Their presence sometimes pulled me out of the game for a moment or two, but it wasn't anything absolutely terrible. One more readthrough of the game's script by the dev probably wouldn't hurt, though.

tl;dr I went in expecting to play a game with a depressed MC knowing how it would probably end, tried to make good choices, ended up making bad choices but loved every minute of the game anyway!

Great plot with a some thrilling twists and turns. I strongly recommend playing "The Game" and not "The Story" as your first playthrough, as The Game offers more of a challenge and perhaps the more real experience. I played The Story afterwards to skip the restrictions. I did not try "The Experience" yet.

Gameplay is a bit like Sims but more mundane IN A GOOD WAY, if that makes sense. You have to min/max your choices and will often have to choose the lesser evil. It's a lot about figuring out what's the right way to go about a problem, and what gameplay strategy you have (long term good health for better late game or feel good now to have a good day at work, but probably feel bad at late game?)

Never been depressed myself but lived with someone who was, and I recognize a lot of the feelings and arguments in the game. I think everyone should try stepping in the shoes of someone being down, which this game does a great job of.

Pros
-Excellent voice work and music
-Engaging story with a (sometimes) rewarding climax
-Fun gameplay while being about a serious topic
-Great replayability

Cons
-"The Story"-mode might be misleading as first playthrough
-No chapter select (Try different answer at the end = replay game)

I strongly recommend this game to everyone, great work.

I don't usually review games, but Please Knock on My Door, to some degree, compels me to.

I will preface this by saying that I did two playthroughs of the game with both playthroughs having very different "stories" and "endings". If you are someone that has suffered anxiety, stress, depression, or a mental illness in general you are going to have a deep connection to this game. As somone who has suffered from depression and anxiety for a very long time I can say that this game hits home...it hit's home in a way that is deep, raw, and unfiltered. It's a summary of what it is like to deal with these issues on a day to day basis. Some of the struggles, the energy that is needed to accomplish tasks, loss, nagging thoughts/emotions, and the frailty of it all. It is a game that is going to make you feel. Cough cough I ugly cried cough cough.

The controls are simple walking around. Left, right, up, and down. Some clicking here and there. There isn't a lot of "gameplay". You are along for the story.

If you have played other story rich indie games like Night in the Woods or The Beginners Guide this is in the same vein.

Would I recommend Please Knock on My Door? I've played through it twice and plan to keep playing for quite a bit more. I would absolutely recommend it


Edit: I think the best way to play this game the first time is "The experience", after that probably "The Story", and then "The Game". Really "The Experience" feels more like a sim where as the others just give you a bit too much information via "stats"