I used to like open world games that would take 50+ hours to beat but I feel like as I get older these games can be intimidating to even start and I often get sidetracked with other games frequently only getting half to three quarters of the way through.
Vanquish took me about six hours to beat and I think that’s what I’m looking for these days. I like games that I can beat in one weekend. Eight hours I think is perfect for me.
It’s led me to playing some GB© and NES games because they often feel a bit more finite.
I don’t think I have a minimum. Little Misfortune and Bright Infinite Memory only took me about three hours to beat but I enjoyed the ride. If a game took under half an hour to beat, like some indie games, I might not be as invested or impacted enough to think about it much afterwards.
Edit: I’m not looking for a definitive answer. Just a ballpark.
These days (I’m 37) its not about the time taken but whether a game just feels like work.
I know that would be different for everyone. But I pumped 140+ hours into Eldenring. Loved every battle and experience. But most other games after a few hours if it feels more like work than fun then I give up. Time is too precious and I’m already overworked.
I can see why easy mode exists now, I want a sense of fulfilment and experience but I dont want a game to create unnecessary work
Similar for me. I get maybe 2 hours on a good day that I can actually play games. I’m not wasting that grinding levels or hunting down 200 feathers. I also don’t like games that spoonfeed advancement way to slowly in the beginning, I don’t want to spend 15 hours in a game just to get to the point where the combat system is actually fleshed out fully.
I don’t have a minimum, and my maximum is negotiable. I’ve played <5 hour games that felt too long, and >50 hour games that felt too short.
I generally shoot for 20-30 hours, but that’s because it seems like a sweet spot where most games with tons of filler are longer. I actually have a category for short games, because sometimes the 2-3 hour experience is what I’m looking for.
I actually have a category for short games, because sometimes the 2-3 hour experience is what I’m looking for.
Can you provide an example?
Some that I’ve played:
- Gorogoa
- Raven’s Hike
- Klocki
- A Juggler’s Tale
- Donut County
- Chronology
- Golf Club Wasteland
- Portal
- Aer
- Oxenfree
- Titan Souls
- Ittle Dew
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- Thoth
- Nuts
- 140
- Limbo
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- INSIDE
Those were all around 5 hours or less, in rough order from shorter to longer (just pulled up my Steam games by playtime). I have a few more on my list that I haven’t played yet but are likely about that length if you want more. :)
Journey and A Short Hike should go on that list too
Yup, both are on my list of games to play.
Thanks for the list. I was recently playing Limbo because it’s on the PS Vita and I know Doki Doki Literature Club is as well so maybe I’ll play that next. I also heard good things about Oxenfree before so maybe I’ll pick that up at some point.
I am definitely saving this for later.
Wholly dependent on the game. Lots of Indies feel like decent, self contained games ranging from 3-8 hours of gameplay. Gris, Inside, Abzu, Thomas Was Alone, etc.
Really depends on the game. A linear story game is not going to be very long. Then there’s sandbox games where you can have hundreds to thousands of hours.
That user name is fantastic
It really depends on the type of game and how it presents itself.
Some games have a very long and complex story but others might have a shorter story told more indirectly, then there are also multi-ending games which might take longer than a regular story game since you have to replay them. Then there are sandbox games which don’t necessarily have a limit on how long they can be since it’s dependent on how much you want to put into them.
Ultimately in my opinion there’s not really a required amount of time for completion, the thing that I think is most important is whether the games are fun and enjoyable. In the case of story games they can be as long or short as needed depending on how they tell a story.
then there are also multi-ending games which might take longer than a regular story game since you have to replay them.
That’s something I have a hard time doing depending on the game. Sometimes you can get a wildly different experience like in Fallout NV and see your actions having consequences while you play but a lot of the games I have been playing only are linear up until the ending cut scene.
Yeah a lot of times the multi-ending ones don’t offer many unique experiences.
Though there was this one game I played that largely did, it was a Horror RPGmaker game called Red Haze, by far one of the more expansive multi-ending games (so much so that it’s actually not finished, there’s supposed to be 26, possibly 27 endings but only about 3/4 of them are there) the endings might be short or require a lot of steps, and some changes propagate into later playthroughs, some of the endings also require you to have done other endings for them to work.
It’s a very interesting concept but unfortunately not many games implement multi-ending in this way since it takes a lot more work to do.
Some games like Ultrakill are short and sweet, but others like Factorio can keep you busy for weeks. Both of them felt right for me, but then again I have quite a bit of free time.
If you like shooters, check out anything from New Blood, Turbo Overkill and Postal brain danaged. Those games are segmented into individual levels, which is great for when you just have half an hour.
Theres one way to make ultrakill last forever
Number of hours doesn’t really come into it these days compared with how fun the game is for me. I’m nearly 40, and whether or not a game is engaging is most important. I’ve got about 50hrs into Avernum: Escape from the Pit (a retro style isometric RPG), but I’ve got nearly 80hrs into Teslapunk, my favourite Shmup(completing the game takes about an hour).I Iove Dark Souls 1 and 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, but eventually got bored of Elden Ring and its open world.
Ultimately how fun a game is combined with how painless it is to get started is what I’m most interested in these days. I don’t have enough free time to be worrying if there are enough hours of gameplay.
I like a game I can keep playing forever. I just want to disappear in it.
Beware of Factorio
Mmm i dont think its at all a static number. What matters is trimming it down to whats important. If you can keep bringing in new game mechanics, or exploring existing ones in new and interesting contexts, or keeping me engrossed in the story, it can go as long as it wants. Like, Chrono Trigger is considered a pretty short jrpg, because its very condensed for how broad of a scope it has, but boy is it a great game. Mario Odyssey got some criticism for how many moons are in the game, but i loved getting each and every one.
