There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Best sub-20 hour games?

I have been on a kick lately with short games. Because I’m a parent with a hectic job, it’s really nice to be able to beat a game in just a few days.

I’ve played both Plague Tale games (10 & 20 hours respectively), Stray (7 hours), and Alan Wake (10 hours). All great stories, very atmospheric, and felt like just the right length for what they were.

Any other good story-heavy games that are pretty short? Throw any and all recommendations at me!

Noit ,

Portal and Portal 2 must be on this list. If you’ve never played then, you must. It is that simple.

98codes ,

Firewatch comes to mind

smegforbrains ,

Stray.

TheKracken ,

Ori and the blind forest is a great platformer that is about 8-10 hours long.

Donut County is a fun little game that takes about 5 hours or less.

Axiom Verge (and 2) is a neat Metroid like game that is around 15 hrs.

any1th3r3 ,

Story-heavy: Uncharted series (between 10 and 16 hours per game), Hellblade (around 8 hours) and - if you can spare another 10 hours or so and Action RPGs are your thing - Nier Automata is really worth it (around 30 hours).
Gris was impactful enough for me that I’ll mention it here, since it was super short (4 hours at most).

nlm ,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Hellblade is amazing! Needs to be played with headphones on for the beat experience! The sound design is incredible

Oneeightnine ,
@Oneeightnine@feddit.uk avatar

I’ll always recommend What Remains of Edith Finch into these sorts of conversations. Absolute one of my favourite shorter experiences.

Crankpork ,

Journey is a game you could easily finish in one sitting. Short but sweet, and very easy to get swept up in the atmosphere.

all-knight-party ,
@all-knight-party@fedia.io avatar

If you're cool with visual novels, Doki Doki Literature Club is an incredibly interesting game, not very long. It really stuck with me.

nlm ,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Pretty important to go in blind with this one! It’s a great game!

Plus_a_Grain_of_Salt ,

Hey Op don’t play it in front of the kids, you’ll thank me later.

nlm ,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

True!

It’s not a horror game though. It’s more of a creepy tension. And some bloody bits. Overall it’s for the atmosphere you play it, you really get sucked into the mind of the protagonist.

Plus_a_Grain_of_Salt ,

See, you get my worry. The tension’s not bad, just a lot for the kids.

nlm ,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Very true. :)

There’s a bit of gore in there too, not much, but still.

IcedCoffeeBitch ,

I haven’t finished Spec Ops: The Line, but I recommend that. It looks like your average American propaganda third person shooter but the story is actually super interesting and thought provoking. Looking at howlongtobeat.com, it’s 6 hours for the main story.

CatBusBand ,

Have you tried What Remains of Edith Finch? It’s a good story heavy game that’s pretty short. Return of the Obra Dinn is a deduction puzzle game that can be done in short sessions. Celeste is also good for short sessions if platformers are more of your thing.

Segab ,

I’m usually way more into short arcadey yet narrative games like Hotline Miami, but based on your list I’d wholeheartedly recommend What Remains of Edith Finch. It’s a bunch of very short story vignettes, so even if you only have 30 minutes you know you’ll complete one.

Night in the Woods might also interest you. I would always play one in-game day (which is about 1 hour each) to relax before going to bed.

lvl13charlatan ,

Undertale and Untitled Goose Game though the latter isn’t very story oriented.

abir_vandergriff ,

Depending on your puzzle solving abilities, Outer Wilds (not Outer Worlds!) should only take around 15-20 hours.

Extra bonus, it can be played in very short sessions very easily and has a great in-game log of events in case you have to put it down for a little while.

CraigeryTheKid ,

I just want to say that I also keep hearing about this game, but then can’t remember which one strangers told me to play.

abir_vandergriff ,

Oh man, it’s so good. It’s my favorite game in recent memory and it’s only competition is probably Hollow Knight.

Don’t look anything up, this game is super easy to spoil because of the way the exploratory puzzles are set up.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • [email protected]
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •