Best games that can be completed in under ten hours?
So this isn’t directly related to patientgaming but my hardware and personal tastes kind of filter me to playing games no newer than five years old.
I’m looking for some recommendations for games that can be completed within ten hours. I’ve realized recently that this is the sweet spot how much I enjoy playing a game before I get bored of it. I’m open to all types of games. Thanks in advance!
King of Dragon Pass: Tribe management game/text adventure with illustrations. Felt it was interesting in both mechanics and vibes
Plants vs Zombies: Addictive comedy-themed tower defense
Alundra: PS1’s Zelda
Gris: Atmospheric 2D puzzle platformer
Celeste: Rewarding 2D platformer with nice music
The Lion’s Song: Graphic aventure light on gameplay and heavy on story and atmosphere. 4 chapters about early 20th century Austrian artists and scientists with themes like art, gender, identity, memory, society, etc.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You: You play as a government employee tasked with finding people deemed as terrorists by the gov by scouring their social networks. There’s different ways to play it
Papers, Please: Similar to above but as a border control agent
The Banner Saga: Tactical RPG bases on viking mythology
Rebuild: Gangs of Deadville: Management of a group/colony of customizable survivors in a zombie apocalypse. Web game
These are more recent but they should require very low specs:
Roadwarden: Very well written and immersive text adventure with RPG elements. Low fantasy world, you’re assigned as a roadwarden by a far away nation to a dangerous and sparsely populated wildland.
Landnama: Viking tribes settling Iceland. Plays like a well designed board game in video game form. Real time with pause.
Citizen Sleeper: Incredible cyberpunk text-heavy adventure with RPG elements and a narrative focused on being humane in a not so humane world with a not quite humane body
Eliza: A visual novel by Zachtronics, took me 10 hours to beat
Aviary Attorney: A visual novel / detective/ attorney game with music from Camille Saint-Saens and art by J.J. Grandville. Beat it in 7 hours and had a blast.
Braid: 2D puzzle platformer with time shift mechanic. Finished it in 7 hours.
Tiny Bang story: wimmelpicture point & click. 7 hours.
Call of Cthulhu: Horror walking simulator. 7 hours.
Bastion: Amazing isometric action game by Supergiant Games. Rook me good 6 hours to finish.
Thomas was alone: 2 D platformer with geometric shapes as characters and great narrator. 6 hours.
Whispers of a machine: Noir detective story point & click. 5 hours.
Homefront: USA gets invaded by Korea first person shooter. Good 4 hours.
INSIDE: Atmospheric 2D puzzler. 4 hours.
LIMBO: Same as INSIDE, same developer, great game, different story. 4 hours.
I have seen it recommended somewhere in the comments but I want to shed some more light on this game: What Remains of Edith Finch. It is a walking simulator that should take about 2 hours and is best played in a single session.
As Edith Finch, you go back to the house where you grew up in your younger years to explore it. The Finch family has an almost genetic trait of bad luck; many of them have died before their time. You explore the house room by room and explore that person’s last moments.
There is no gore or horror of any kind, but there are children that die, so if that is a trigger I would sit this one out. If not, it is currently on sale for less than €5. It is worth it.
I also love short-ish games, so hopefully one of these strikes your fancy. You didn’t specify a preferred genre or other games you liked, so I’m going to just throw some out there:
Adventure/Puzzle
Stacking - fun adventure puzzle game based on matryoshka dolls
Little Nightmares - fantastic puzzle game stuff great atmosphere and horror elements; similar to INSIDE and Limbo
Abzû - underwater exploration with light puzzle mechanics
Ys 1 and 2 - pretty old, but it’s my favorite Ys game; Ys Origin is a bit newer, but also a bit longer (~11 hours per playthrough, need 3 for full story, but each plays differently)
Puzzle
Manifold Garden - puzzle game where you manipulate gravity
Hexlogic - sudoku-like
SUPERHOT - shooter that plays like a puzzle game
Magrunner - just ignore the story, the puzzles are pretty good
Portal - the OG puzzle game, must play if you haven’t; second is about twice as long
ARPG/Souls-like
Death’s Door - just started, but it’s looking good
Ittle Dew - Zelda-like with lots of satire about the genre
Furi - boss rush only
Titan Souls - boss rush, but both you and the boss has 1HP
Narrative heavy
Telltale Batman or The Walking Dead - narrative heavy game with walking simulator sections; choices matter (but not a ton); great if you want a decent interactive story
What Remains of Edith Finch - explore your old home to learn everyone’s secrets
Oxenfree - explore Island to uncover its secrets; replay value for alternate endings
Metroidvania
Headlander - Metroidvania where you play as a disembodied head that can attach to other bodies
Ori and the Blind Forest
Point and Click
Darkside Detective - point and click with a great sense of humor
Broken Age - you’re a virgin about to be sacrificed, and you’re not sold on the idea
Deponia - earth is completely wrecked, and you want off; quite funny
AAA/high production value
Ryse: Son of Rome - not amazing, but a pretty satisfyingly average experience
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - shooter a bit after the US civil war
I have more, just let me know what you like and I can try to give more recs.
Return of the Obra Dinn. The 2nd game from the maker of Papers, Please. You're trying to solve the murders or disappearances of 60 people on a ship, using a watch that can view their moment of death. Insanely unique game, and it's hard to replicate that feeling of all the pieces of the puzzle falling into place that this game fosters.
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