Great Games You Can Finish in Under 10 Hours
Rank these by what they do with the clock, and vote the order around if yours came out different. Every game here finishes in under ten hours on main story alone, with no collectibles, no side content and no second playthrough, and the longest of the seventeen runs about eight. Short by design is the test, so a hundred-hour game with a brisk critical path did not get in, and neither did anything that is short only for a speedrunner. Neon White was drafted into this list and then cut, because its main campaign comes in at ten. Ordering weights how much of the running time is load-bearing over how well known the game is. Firewatch is the obvious absence and it is deliberate: the story-driven list took it, along with Outer Wilds, Return of the Obra Dinn and Kentucky Route Zero, all of which would sit high here. Undertale went to the 2010s RPG list. Where a game exists as an original and a remake, the original is what gets linked.
Portal 2 is #1 on “Great Games You Can Finish in Under 10 Hours”.
- 1
Portal 2
Valve shipped it on 18 April 2011, and the single-player campaign runs about eight hours if you stop and listen to the Aperture recordings. Down in the old Aperture shafts the propulsion and repulsion gels turn portals into a plumbing problem, and I spent far too long painting a wall orange so I could run faster. Co-op is a separate campaign and does not count toward that eight.
Portal 2 on SteamThe "Perpetual Testing Initiative" has been expanded to allow you to design co-op puzzles for you and your friends!https://store.steampowered.com/app/620/ - 2
What Remains of Edith Finch
Giant Sparrow made it, Annapurna Interactive published it on 25 April 2017, and my first run took a bit over two hours in one sitting. The cannery sequence splits the screen between a girl beheading fish on a line and the daydream she escapes into, and both halves need your hands at once. Two hours, and I still think about Lewis.
Save 75% on What Remains of Edith Finch on SteamWhat Remains of Edith Finch is a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state. As Edith, you’ll explore the colossal Finch house, searching for stories as she explores her family history and tries to figure out why she's the last one in her family left alive.https://store.steampowered.com/app/501300/ - 3
INSIDE
Playdead followed LIMBO with this, debuting on Xbox One on 29 June 2016 and reaching Windows on 7 July, self-published both times. It took me about three and a half hours, with no dialogue and no interface slowing anything down. Shockwave rooms make you time a sprint against a pulse that turns you to paste, and then the last twenty minutes throw out the grammar of the whole game.
INSIDE on SteamHunted and alone, a boy finds himself drawn into the center of a dark project. INSIDE is a dark, narrative-driven platformer combining intense action with challenging puzzles. It has been critically acclaimed for its moody art style, ambient soundtrack and unsettling atmosphere.https://store.steampowered.com/app/304430/ - 4
Celeste
Eight chapters in the base game, roughly eight hours, and somewhere near nine hundred deaths in my case, though the summit run is where it stops being about jumping. Maddy Makes Games released it on 25 January 2018 and shipped Assist Mode so nobody has to bounce off it. Dream blocks in Old Site turn Madeline's own doubt into level geometry. B-sides, C-sides and the free Farewell chapter are extra, and not part of that eight.
Save 75% on Celeste on SteamHelp Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight platformer from the creators of TowerFall. Brave hundreds of hand-crafted challenges, uncover devious secrets, and piece together the mystery of the mountain.https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/ - 5
Titanfall 2
Respawn Entertainment built a six-hour campaign inside a game most people bought for the multiplayer. It launched on 28 October 2016 for PlayStation, Windows and Xbox One, though the Steam listing only dates from 2020. It qualifies here because that campaign is a finished, self-contained story rather than a quick path through a big game. Effect and Cause hands you a wrist device that flips between two eras mid-jump.
Titanfall® 2 on SteamRespawn Entertainment gives you the most advanced titan technology in its new, single player campaign & multiplayer experience. Combine & conquer with new titans & pilots, deadlier weapons, & customization and progression systems that help you and your titan flow as one unstoppable killing force.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1237970/ - 6
Portal
Valve's first go at the idea arrived inside The Orange Box on 10 October 2007, for Windows and Xbox 360, and takes roughly three hours. One chamber hands you the Weighted Companion Cube, lets you get attached, then asks you to incinerate it, and people remember that better than most sixty-hour plots. Momentum carries through the portals; that is the whole physics lesson.
Portal on SteamPortal™ is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games on the horizon and will offer gamers hours of unique gameplay.https://store.steampowered.com/app/400/ - 7
Journey
Thatgamecompany's PlayStation 3 original arrived on 13 March 2012 and did not reach Steam until 11 June 2020, published there by Annapurna Interactive. Two hours, one sitting, and the most affecting thing in it is a chirp, the only sound you can make at the stranger walking beside you, whose name you learn in the credits. Sand-surfing down a dune still gets me.
Save 75% on Journey on SteamExplore the ancient, mysterious world of Journey as you soar above ruins and glide across sands to discover its secrets.https://store.steampowered.com/app/638230/ - 8
Papers, Please
Lucas Pope self-published this through his company 3909 on 8 August 2013, and one run to an ending takes around six hours of squinting at passports. The rulebook cross-check is the whole job: name against permit, weight against photo, city of issue against a list that changed overnight, while the queue builds and your son gets cold. I denied a man his wife.
Papers, Please on SteamCongratulations. The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled. For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint. An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling.https://store.steampowered.com/app/239030/ - 9
Katana ZERO
Askiisoft's one-hit-kill action game came out through Devolver Digital on 18 April 2019 and took me five hours, most of them spent in the same three rooms. Every death rewinds with a tape hiss, because the assassin is narrating a plan he has not carried out yet, so failure is part of the fiction. Dialogue lets you interrupt people mid-sentence, which I did constantly.
Katana ZERO on SteamKatana ZERO is a stylish neo-noir, action-platformer featuring breakneck action and instant-death combat. Slash, dash, and manipulate time to unravel your past in a beautifully brutal acrobatic display.https://store.steampowered.com/app/460950/ - 10
LIMBO
Xbox 360 owners got it first, on 21 July 2010 through Microsoft Game Studios, and the Windows release followed on 2 August 2011 from Playdead. Three or four hours in monochrome, and the spider in the forest is why a generation flinches at silhouettes. Dying is the teaching method, and being killed by a trap you could not have seen never once felt cheap.
LIMBO on SteamUncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters LIMBOhttps://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/ - 11
Hotline Miami
Dennaton Games and Devolver Digital put this out on 23 October 2012, and I cleared it in roughly four hours across several hundred restarts, which is rather the point. Animal masks picked before each floor change what you start holding and how the building hears you, and the instant respawn means a botched room costs one second. Then the second half asks what you thought you were doing.
Hotline Miami on SteamHotline Miami is a high-octane action game overflowing with raw brutality, hard-boiled gunplay and skull crushing close combat.https://store.steampowered.com/app/219150/ - 12
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
Starbreeze Studios built the control scheme first: left stick moves the older boy, right stick the younger, both at once on one pad. Published by 505 Games, it reached Xbox 360 on 7 August 2013, and Steam dates the PC version 3 September 2013. Three hours later that scheme does something in the closing minutes no cutscene could manage. Skip the remake SKU; the remakes list can have that one.
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons on SteamGuide two brothers on an epic fairy tale journey from visionary Swedish film director, Josef Fares and top-tier developer Starbreeze Studios. Control both brothers at once as you experience co-op play in single player mode, like never before.https://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/ - 13
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Blade Mode slows everything so you can draw the cut yourself, at any angle, then tear the spine out of whatever you sliced to refill your health. PlatinumGames developed it and Konami published it on 19 February 2013 in North America for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with the PC version arriving 9 January 2014. Six or seven hours, and the Senator Armstrong fight justifies all of them.
METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE on SteamDeveloped by Kojima Productions and PlatinumGames, METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE takes the renowned METAL GEAR franchise into exciting new territory with an all-new action experience. The game seamlessly melds pure action and epic story-telling that surrounds Raiden – a child soldier transformed into a half-human, half-cyborg ninja who...https://store.steampowered.com/app/235460/ - 14
SUPERHOT
Time moves only when you move, so a room full of bullets becomes a chess problem you solve while standing perfectly still. SUPERHOT Team both developed and published it, releasing on 25 February 2016. Two hours to finish, and what stuck was throwing a pistol at a man's face to stagger him, then catching the gun he dropped. The framing story is obnoxious and I enjoyed it.
SUPERHOT on SteamSUPERHOT is the smash-hit FPS where time moves only when you move. No regenerating health bars. No conveniently placed ammo drops. It's you, alone, outnumbered and outgunned. Snatch weapons from fallen enemies to shoot, slice and dodge through a truly cinematic hurricane of slow-motion bullets.https://store.steampowered.com/app/322500/ - 15
Gone Home
Fullbright's first game, released on 15 August 2013 and now co-published on Steam with Serenity Forge, is a two-hour walk around an empty Oregon house during a thunderstorm. Sam's journal entries unlock off objects you happen to pick up, so the order you find the story in is yours. Plenty of people decided nothing happens in it. Plenty happens; you have to open drawers.
Gone Home on SteamJune 7th, 1995. 1:15 AM. You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something's not right. Where is everyone? And what's happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself in Gone Home, a story exploration game from The Fullbright Company.https://store.steampowered.com/app/232430/ - 16
Oxenfree
Dialogue never stops for you here: characters keep walking and talking while your three options float overhead, and saying nothing is a choice the game records. Night School Studio self-published it on 15 January 2016. Tuning the handheld radio to the right frequency in the right spot opens things that should have stayed shut. Five hours, one island, and a second run that remembers.
Oxenfree on SteamOxenfree is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift. You are Alex, and you’ve just brought your new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight island party gone horribly wrong.https://store.steampowered.com/app/388880/ - 17
A Short Hike
Golden feathers are the whole progression: each one you find buys another flap of climbing stamina, and Hawk Peak stops being a wall once you have a handful. Adam Robinson-Yu, working as adamgryu, released it on 30 July 2019. Ninety minutes if you head straight up, three hours if you keep getting distracted by fishing and a beach volleyball game. I got distracted.
A Short Hike on SteamHike, climb, and soar through the peaceful mountainside landscapes of Hawk Peak Provincial Park as you make your way to the summit.https://store.steampowered.com/app/1055540/
How this list was ranked
Readers rank this list by voting items up and down. Items are ordered by reader votes.
