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!
I went on my steam profile (note these are all PC games, but some are on console) and looked at all the games I finished in under 20 hours at least once and enjoyed so I’ll just list them here. It’s in descending order from most (20.1 hours) to least (68 minutes):
I put a star next to the ones I’d recommend in a heartbeat even without the 20 hour limit.
- Mirror’s Edge ★
- The Stanley Parable ★ (although may take you at least 20 to find all endings / easter eggs / secrets)
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided ★ (due to the fact that it’s the middle game in an incomplete trilogy, also recommend Deus Ex: Human Revolution but that’s more than 20)
- Hotline Miami ★
- Little Inferno
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
- Dishonored ★
- Myst
- DOOM (2016) ★
- Wolfenstein: The New Order ★
- Portals 1 & 2 ★
- Return of the Obra Dinn ★ (beat twice in 9 hours)
- Kentucky Route Zero ★
- The Henry Stickmin Collection ★
- FAR: Lone Sails
- Titanfall 2
- DUSK ★
- COD: Modern Warfare 2
- Ghostrunner (didn’t like this but it seemed most people who weren’t me did so i’m putting it here)
- Thomas Was Alone
- Jazzpunk: Director’s Cut ★
- Gunpoint ★
- Orwell
- Firewatch
- Superliminal ★
- Observer_ ★
- SUPERHOT ★
- The Beginner’s Guide
- BattleBlock Theater
- INSIDE ★
- EDGE
- Quadrilateral Cowboy
- Journey ★
edit: saw u said “story heavy” so i removed some of the arcadey ones. Some of these aren’t exactly “story heavy” depending on ur definition but they at least have a story
Nice list! I’d really like to highlight Dusk as an amazing Boomer shooter with excellent thematic and also add Ctrl alt ego as an awesome immersive sim like the Deus Ex series.
Thank you so much for this list!!!
I’m pretty upset tf|2 doesn’t have a star. Explain yourself.
i didn’t like the multiplayer
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.
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.
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.
It is my favorite game of all time.
If you can shoot stuff, you’re playing the wrong one (although Outer Worlds is also a well reviewed game I believe). But Outer Wilds man, I still think about that game and listen to the soundtrack, just rediculous that it exists.
Andrew Prahlow’s soundtrack was one of my top albums last year, I still sometimes get the theme song in my head out of nowhere.
spoiler
The combining of the different instruments near the end is just mindbogglingly beautiful, just such a perfect combination of music and story and… aaah!
I’m like 30 hours in and totally stuck
Portal and Portal 2 must be on this list. If you’ve never played then, you must. It is that simple.
I’ve never played them. I’ll add them to my list!!
You’re in for a fun ride! Plus the Portal games are dirt cheap right now with the Steam summer sale.
I’ll always recommend What Remains of Edith Finch into these sorts of conversations. Absolute one of my favourite shorter experiences.
Gris. It’s like playing an art piece.
Similar vein, but I replay Journey often, as well.
Yes, this game was gorgeous.
Returnal, Resident Evil REmakes, most Giant Bomb games, Firewatch, Hellblade…
If you liked Alan Wake, definitely give the RE remakes and Hellblade a shot, and don’t sleep on Firewatch. In fact, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is probably one of the most thoughtful and atmospheric experiences in gaming (at least in the field of 3rd person, pseudo action games).
I second Resident Evil games. But, they have multiple ends that require replay the games or a large portion of them. You can watch the endings on YouTube though. But iirc, RE VII, has a whole different portion of game influenced by a choice you make, than make you replay that whole part and it can be long.
Hellblade is the best overall game I’ve played in awhile. And it’s definitely something you can get through pretty fast. I got all the lore stones and it was still only about 9ish hours.
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.
So far multiple people have recommended What Remains of Edith Finch, so I am definitely going to check it out!
Firewatch comes to mind
Journey is a game you could easily finish in one sitting. Short but sweet, and very easy to get swept up in the atmosphere.
I’d recommend Transistor. The game has an awesome sound and level design as well as solid and quite unique gameplay.
Undertale and Untitled Goose Game though the latter isn’t very story oriented.
Bastion or Transistor, both early Supergiant games.
Titanfall 2.
It’s a scifi military story about the bromance between a boy and his giant robot
Firewatch is really good.
Stray.
