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One of the frontrunners for Game of the Year 2024 is Astro Bot, a family-friendly platformer that takes no more than 20 hours to unlock all of its content.
It’s a breath of fresh air in a world where games seem to be growing longer by the minute, and it’s a reminder short adventures can be just as good as 100-hour time sinks. Here’s why I love games that embrace the less-is-more mentality.
Bloated Video Games Are Tedious
To be fair, not all video games would excel as short-and-sweet experiences. The Witcher 3 is a sprawling RPG with deep character development and a nuanced story. Reducing its playtime would do it a disservice. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open-world adventure that lets you play however you see fit — if you want to roam around its mountains for 100 hours collecting gear and tackling side quests, the game has no problem enabling your passions.
However, too many video games succumb to bloat. That is, they pad their runtime with boring quests or uninspired side quests to increase their playtime numbers. Titles like Dying Light 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Far Cry 6 all come to mind, as they’re loaded with fetch quests, dull collectibles, and side missions that fall far short of the excitement offered by their main campaign.
And while we’re likely at thepeak of live service games, some of them are starting to churn out middling updates that don’t do enough to keep players engaged.
These titles aren’t necessarily bad, but their bloated content slows down the pace of the game and detracts from the (more exciting) core experience. If these games were shorter and eschewed tacked-on extras, they’d likely benefit from their reduced run times.
Shorter Games Get Straight to the Action
Shorter games don’t beat around the bush. Within minutes of picking up Astro Bot, you’re already jumping around planets, rescuing your crewmates, and battling against its many enemies. The same goes for A Short Hike, which is an indie game that gives you the freedom to explore a non-linear world packed with meaningful encounters. Each area of the game was thoughtfully handcrafted, ensuring every new experience is worthy of your time.
Compare the small world of A Short Hike and Astro Bot to something like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. While the virtual world of Valhalla has much more content to explore, I find the smaller worlds of A Short Hike and Astro Bot to be more engaging from start to finish.
Instead of repeating a fetch quest or performing the same task ad nauseam, you’re given new quests that keep you in the meat of the action from the time you launch the game to the moment the credits roll.
It’s the old story of “quality over quantity,” and in this case, quality reigns supreme.
Not Everyone Has Time for a 100-Hour Epic
Anyone with heaps of free time doesn’t worry about the length of the games they buy. In fact, a long runtime might be an advantage to these players, giving them plenty of value for their dollar. But as I’ve grown older, I simply don’t have the same time to sit down and play games as I did in college. This has given me a new appreciation for shorter runtimes, allowing me to experience everything a game has to offer without it feeling like a second job.
That’s not to say I won’t plop down on the weekends and sink hours into Diablo IV or Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s always nice to have a bite-sized adventure that doesn’t ask for all my free time.
There are dozens of incredible titles released every year, and as an increasing number of them ask for massive time commitments, I’m less inclined to add them all to my library. Instead, I find myselfplaying retro games on Nintendo Switch, many of which are bite-sized experiences that don’t clog up my calendar.
Not everything has to be a 100-hour quest to save the world, and many titles could benefit from cutting the bloat. Short and sweet gaming experiences are becoming few and far between, but I’m hopeful developers will see their merits and bring them back into the spotlight.
