Video Game Hell Isn't Nearly Agonizing Enough

"Game About Inescapable Hellscape Really Resonating With People Now For Some Reason," a recent headline from the satirical video game news site Hard Drive read. The story was referencing Hades, Supergiant Games' hit action game in which Zagreus, prince of the underworld, tries repeatedly in vain to escape his father's realm. Every attempt--even the ones where you beat the final opponent standing in your way--ends in Zagreus' death. This is how I've tried to relax in recent weeks, with a controller in my hand and hell on my mind. "We live in hell" is a common internet rejoinder (social media flattens rhetoric as well as discourse), a mantra for our choose-your-own-disaster era wielded by those privileged enough to comment on it.