Best games that can be completed in under ten hours?
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!
I always check https://howlongtobeat.com/ before starting a new game
I also tend to prefer games that are short.
Here are a couple of my PC recommandations, in no specific order :
Somerville
Jusant
Planet of Lana
Limbo + Inside
Little Nightmares 1 + 2
Cocoon
Solar Ash
Tunic
Cult If The Lamb
Have A Nice Death
Death's Door
Stray
Trek To Yomi
The Stanley Parable
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.
Well-reviewed games you can 100% in less than 10hrs:
- Portal
- The Henry Stickmin Collection
- OneShot
- Stray
- Grimm's Hollow
- Any of The Room games
- Pineapple on Pizza
- There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- TOEM
- Finding Paradise
- The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
- CULTIC
- Gorogoa
- The Case of the Golden Idol
Well-reviewed games you can probably beat in around 10hrs, but not quite 100%:
- Portal 2
- Vampire Survivors
- Pizza Tower
- Katana ZERO
- A Hat in Time
- Resident Evil 2
- Hotline Miami
- The Wolf Among Us
- Undertale
- Papers, Please
- Baba Is You
- DUSK
- POSTAL 2
- Outlast
Edit: formatting is pain
Edit 2: I missed the part about low-end hardware, but it sounds like the only ones of these you may not be able to run are Stray and Resident Evil 2
In no particular order:
Metal Gear Rising Revengence
Psychonauts 1
Bladed Fury
Ori and the Blind Forest
Titanfall 2
OneShot
Undertale
Unpacking
Portal/Portal 2
Bastion/Transistor
Any member of the Shadowrun RPG trilogy
Little Inferno
Planetarian
Games of about 10hs from before 2019?
- 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
Portal 2
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.
You absolutely must play Doki Doki Literature Club if you have not. It's free. Do not look up spoilers or be put off by the type of game or the setting. Just play it.
P.S. - "Doki Doki" the way you write the sound of a heart beating in Japanese akin to "lub dub" in English.
Stray
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 think Bastion is a perfect fit for this
Celeste. Not much to say except that it's a fantastic little platformer.
- Firewatch (highly recommend!)
- SUPERHOT
- The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (highly recommend!)
- Frog Fractions (game is best played blind)
- SCP: Containment Breach
Incremental Games: (best played blind)
- Skynet Simulator (highly recommend!)
- A Dark Room
- Crank
- Candy Box!
Stray
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Eliza: A visual novel by Zachtronics, took me 10 hours to beat
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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.
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Braid: 2D puzzle platformer with time shift mechanic. Finished it in 7 hours.
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Tiny Bang story: wimmelpicture point & click. 7 hours.
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Call of Cthulhu: Horror walking simulator. 7 hours.
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Bastion: Amazing isometric action game by Supergiant Games. Rook me good 6 hours to finish.
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Thomas was alone: 2 D platformer with geometric shapes as characters and great narrator. 6 hours.
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Whispers of a machine: Noir detective story point & click. 5 hours.
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Homefront: USA gets invaded by Korea first person shooter. Good 4 hours.
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INSIDE: Atmospheric 2D puzzler. 4 hours.
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LIMBO: Same as INSIDE, same developer, great game, different story. 4 hours.
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I don't think anyone else has mentioned Gunpoint! So.. Gunpoint.
I keep a spreadsheet literally called "games to play". Ive played about half of these so far, but they all meet your criteria, and all have overall good reviews, here's a selection from it, including my own notes: (pardon the lack of formatting coming from a spreadsheet)
A Hand With Many Fingers - 3 hours - Puzzle - Difficult (use pen and paper for clues) CIA mystery
A Wolf In Autumn - 1 hour - Walking Sim - Girls nightmare
ADR1FT - 6 hours - Puzzle - Space station catastrophe
Anna - Extended Edition - 5 hours - Adventure - Psych horror in sawmill, inventory based puz
Antichamber - 7 hours - Puzzle - MC-Escher-esque open world physics breaking puzzle solving
Aporia: Beyond The Valley - 5 hours - Walking Sim - Walking Sim+ (puzzles), awaken in ancient temple in jungle
Ballads At Midnight - 4 hours - Visual Novel - Story of a bard and a vampire
Beyond: Two Souls - 12 hours - Adventure - Ellen Page / Willem Dafoe,
Blind Spot - 5 hours - Puzzle - Puzzle mystery story
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons - 3 hours - Walking Sim - Heart-wrenching story told with no words
Brukel - 1 hour - Walking Sim - 92yr old grandma retells memories of WWII
Close To The Sun - 6 hours - Walking Sim - Looks like Bioshock, great atmo
Cloud Climber - 1 hour - Walking Sim
Deliver Us The Moon - 5 hours - Adventure - Sci-fi story on moon, some puzzles, some platforming
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald A Whirlwind Heist - 1 hour - Walking Sim - Very short, hilarious game from maker of The Stanley Principle
Draugen - 3 hours - Mystery - American searching for missing sister in 1920s Norway
Goetia - 7 hours - Point-And-Click - Puzzles / adventure in abandoned house, text heavy
Gorogoa - 2 hours - Puzzle - Hand Illustrated puzzle game
Heavy Rain - 10 hours - RPG - Crime thriller / mystery, multiple outcomes, some QTEs
I Hope She's OK - 1 hour - Walking Sim - Short mystery at a nordic cabin, told through instagram-like messages
Jessika - 3 hours - FMV - Solve suicide of Jessika
Journey - 5 hours - Walking Sim - Atmospheric exploration
Knee Deep - 4 hours - Puzzle - Mystery in a swampland / theater production
Kona - 8 hours - Adventure - Detective in eerie Canada town
Manifold Garden - 6 hours - Puzzle - M.C. escher landscape build gravity bend puzzles
Murdered: Sould Suspect - 10 hours - RPG - Solve your own murder
Scanner Sombre - 3 hours - Walking Sim - Trippy cave-explore game
SOMA - 10 hours - RPG - Horror adventure
Tacoma - 4 hours - Walking Sim - Sci-fi space station adventure
The Fidelio Incident - 3 hours - Puzzle - Short story, plane crash in N. Ireland
The Forgotten City - 10 hours - RPG - Time loop in ancient Rome
The House of Da Vinci - 7 hours - Puzzle - Similar to "The Room" series
The Painscreek Killings - 10 hours - Walking Sim + - Murder mystery, find clues and keys
The Secrets of Darkwood - 5 hours - Txt RPG - Descendant of Might and Magic series
The Signifier - 9 hours - Adventure - Dark, tech-noir
The Silent Age - 4 hours - Point-and-click - Short, fairly easy puzzles, time travel post-apocalypse
The Turing Test - 6 hours - Puzzle - Portal/Talos wannabe
The Unfinished Swan - 4 hours - Puzzle - Paint / blob game
To The Moon 4 hours - Walking Sim - Doctors help dying patients relive life
Untitled Goose Game - 6 hours - TP-RPG - You are a horrible goose
Valley - 8 hours - Walking Sim - Actually running/jumping sim
Of these, the standouts that I've played so far are "Scanner Sombre" and "Unfinished Swan" for truly unique gameplay. "SOMA" and "Heavy Rain" for best storytelling. "Painscreek Killings" for best mystery (minus one very out of place sequence). "Forgotten City" for the best standalone Skyrim mod turned into a self contained adventure.
Celeste!
(Unless you want to complete additional levels, which are still canon, then much much more).
Limbo. Good game and it lasts only 2 hours.
Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice
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Citizen Sleeper, it's so good you will likely not put it down until your story ends!
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Thomas Was Alone, amazing narrative platformer and all time favourite.
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Telltale Games, most of not all can be completed in 10 hours and they are all great. TWAU is the best one.
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Titanfall 2, one of the greatest campaigns.
You can finish a lot in 10 hours.
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I enjoyed Stray. It’s pretty short, only got stuck one 1 of the puzzles.
Dredge
Had no idea what to expect going into it. Had only heard that it was a cosmic horror fishing game and decided to give it a try. Ended up loving it!
Not a huge game in terms of scope but feels it nailed every mechanic and the art style and delivery is top notch
May I introduce you to the Sega Saturn library. A lot of it is arcade style games, many of which can be beaten in 2 hours or less, but replayed nearly endlessly
The Curse of the Golden Idol was released in 2022, but could probably run on my microwave. It's a brilliant little detective game inspired by The Return of the Obra Dinn. Highly recommended.
Another detective game from 2022 I loved that's similarly untaxing on hardware was Strange Horticulture. You run a horticulture shop in a Victorian-y fantasy land where strange things are happening...
Both under 8 hours to complete.
Helltaker is a little puzzle game that is free and short and sweet
IIRC, Undertale was a pretty short game, and has as deep a story as games three or four times its length.
Finished Cult of the Lamb in 6 hours when it released, and I wasn't slacking around. It's a town-building with some roguelike elements, the graphics are cute and nice, while it explores the idea of cult creation, doctrines, sacrifices and all the dark stuff.
- Max Payne
- SW: Republic Commando
COCOON and Viewfinder are a couple of not-terribly-long puzzle games with super cool mechanics.
Some randoms that come to mind:
A plague tale innocence and requiem are both pretty short and absolutely wonderful (and heart wrenching).
Technobabylon (and other point and clicks from that dev) is great and short.
CloudPunk is another good short game (more like an interactive novel)
Donut County is good too. Kinda katamari vibes.
The rebooted Tomb Raider series from the late 2010s is also a lot of fun and each one can be completed in at least 20 hrs. I know that’s over your limit but they’re great.
If you’re looking for a little bit different and unique experience, you can try Katamari Damacy and it’s sequel, We Love Katamari
Instead of shooting enemies or run into the end of the stage, these games main gameplay is to roll a extremely adhesive ball (using both of the controller analog stick) to collect various random objects and junk and make it grow bigger in size. Each of the levels has a different objectives and size requirements that need to be completed for advancing to the next level. The game main campaign also has a very light storytelling too, typically involves around the protagonist and his abusive father who always command him to roll stuff up. The graphics are really minimalist and colorful, plus the soundtrack are the absolute fire, covering the multiple genres such as J-Pop, Scatting Jazz, Hip Hop Disco, and even Bossa Nova
Both games main campaign can be completed in less than 10 hours and runs great even on the low end hardware
Not sure what 'low end' is for you but if you like puzzle games, The Talos Principle (2014) is fairly low end (plays great on my 6 year old PC) and can be completed in about 6-8 hours. Though, because it's a puzzle game, it could take much longer than that. Right now it Is $4.49US ($9.98US for the gold edition) on Steam. Puzzle logic is similar to Portal.
I really enjoyed Her Story, if you're into mysteries.
Wandersong is the happiest game you could possibly play that I play whenever I am feeling particularly depressed. Hypnospace outlaw is hilarious and fits the time criteria. Both are newer than 5 years but have very non-demanding specs
VVVVVV
I managed to complete disco elysium in under 25hrs if your up for the challenge you can try and beat my record
What remains of Edith Finch, a very emotional and wonderful game, short and bitter sweet.
I'd go so far to even gift it to people. Outer Wilds make you feel small and huge at the same time.
Opus: The Day We Found Earth, another great short one.
Dishonored 1 and 2.
Stray
Superliminal.
Webbed. You play as a peacock spider (with lasers) trying to save your boyfriend. The bug designs are actually really cute.
Digital - A Love Story and its not so close successor Hate Plus. These are digital novels. The former is a story set in a cozy 80s BBS network and the other in an archeological space ship retelling stories related to old Korea. Both touched me very much.
A bit old, but gold: Fate (the dungeon crawler one). It's a bit low-poly by today's standards, but it's so fun and has killer music, lots of spells and weapons, tons of interesting enemies and can be beaten in like 6 hours.
Ratchet and Clank (into the) nexus on ps3 is like a 5 hour game. It also nicely ties into the latest game if you've yet to play that
Most point and click adventures take about 6-10 hours in my experience. My favorites are the Monkey Island and Deponia games.
Resident Evil 7 & 8. Seven sets a new protagonist in a series reboot sort of way, so you might miss some Easter eggs and callbacks but playing the previous games AT ALL. Its meant to be an entry point in the series.
I think Cocoon will fit in 10 hours. It did for me.
Ori
Inscryption
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Small saga
Obvious choice, but, Portal 1&2
INSIDE is one of my favorite games of any length
Stranded Sails can't have been much longer than that.
Braid is deffo under ten.
Cultic!
I think it will be longer eventually when more chapters get added, but right now it clocks in at about 6 hours I think. Well worth the money.
If you're good enough, Vanquish.
Spec Ops: The Line is $6 on steam right now, it's one of the few games I would call a masterpiece. I was able to finish it in two sittings, it's the perfect length and it's so damn good
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is another masterpiece, $4.50 on steam right now, an absolute crime that a game as beautiful as that is that cheap. You gotta make sure you're wearing headphones when you play it
Take a look at Contrast, a 5 hours narrative platforming game with pretty visuals an concept
Neon beats is a really short that can be finished in much under 10 hours. I love it and replay it every now and then
SANABI
This game absolutely blew me away.
Journey is one of my favourite short games.
Here are some short games that I enjoyed: Untitled Goose Game, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, Donut County, Firewatch, Tangle Tower, Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise, What Remains of Edith Finch, Spectrum Retreat, Dust: An Elysian Tale
I just played through the entirety of Storyteller in one sitting but had a riot of a time with a few friends. I think I spent about 2-3 hours finishing the campaign and will probably spend about another hour finishing the last of the achievements when I next take a crack at it.
Brothers - Tale of Two Sons https://store.steampowered.com/app/2153350/Brothers_A_Tale_of_Two_Sons_Remake/
Gamepad required, but pretty dope and short puzzle-ish fantasy adventure about 2 brothers who go on an adventure to get medicine for their father. Bit of a tear jerker. Few hours at most for length. If you're not into somewhat somber (or downright depressive) subjects, steer clear.
Catquest https://store.steampowered.com/app/593280/Cat_Quest/
Kinda like topdown zelda-game, but with cats and obscene amounts of cat puns. About 6 hours ish, give or take.
Gunpoint https://store.steampowered.com/app/206190/Gunpoint/
Scifi-noir puzzle platformer, ish. Basically you infiltrate, steal info, try not to be seen, get out. You climb walls/ceilings, tap into buildings circuits to control doors/lamps/elevaters/whatever to lock/smack guards to avoid detection or downright down them. Absolutely banger electronic/jazzy soundtrack. Bit janky with resolution as it is 2d game, wouldn't recommend using anything above 720p.
Perspective https://store.steampowered.com/app/1109410/Perspective/ (free!)
Another puzzle platformer, but the platformer character is separate character from "you". You move in "fps", and depending on how you leave the "camera", that forms the path for the 2d platformer dude. Difficult to explain in brief, but if you check the gameplay video it should clear it up.
What Remains of Edith Finch is a game in this category that really left an impression. Would definitely recommend a playthrough.
Brothers: A tale of two sons is pretty spectacular and can be finished within a few hours.
Portal, Hyperbolica
World of goo
Super Mario RPG can be wolluped in 20. If you go hard, I bet you can do it in 10.
Pretty fun and rather full of Easter eggs if you want to keep at it.