While we love to focus on games getting bigger and better with huge worlds and hundreds of hours of content, not all of us have the time for that kind of commitment, and even those of us that do sometimes want a change of pace. That’s why plenty of indie developers seek to make small, refined experiences that only ask for a small chunk of change and a couple of hours to finish.
Despite having limited time, there is still a great variety in these short games, so there’s bound to be something to cater to everyone as we pick out the best video games less than two hours long.
Superliminal
While you can complete Portal in under two hours, you’ve probably already heard of that, so here’s something similar, but different. Superliminal is a mind-bending puzzle game that plays around with perspective to manipulate objects and solve puzzles. Nothing is what it seems and it’s best to go in as blind as possible to allow the game to trick you and play with your expectations at every turn.
Westerado: Double Barrelled
Sprouting from an old Flash game, in Westerado you’re out to get revenge on the cowboy who murdered your family. The catch is that the murderer could be absolutely anyone in the game’s open world. You’ll need to complete challenges and do jobs for people to learn details about their appearance before you can hunt them down.
Intrusion 2
Unpacking
If you’re looking for something a little more chill, then Unpacking is where you want to look. It takes you through a person’s life, unpacking all of their belongings in every new house/apartment they move to through their life. It’s a fun little organization game, but it also uses the environment and objects to tell you a warm story about someone’s life.
Thomas Was Alone
Almost all of Mike Bithell’s games are completable in under two hours – and are all worth playing – but his first game, Thomas Was Alone, is still our favorite. On the one hand this is a great puzzle-platformer where you have to navigate colored rectangles with different abilities through each level. On the other, it’s an adorable story with wonderful narration about AIs learning about the world around them and how they can affect it (in a cute way, not an apocalyptic way).
Hexcells
Hexcells is Minesweeper meets Picross. That’s really all there is to it. If you like small but dense little puzzle games then the Hexcells series is an easy purchase, especially as you can get all three games in the series for less than $5.
A Short Hike
This game is kind enough to tell you it’s short up front. You play as a cute little penguin who can walk, climb, and glide around a small but detailed open world. Your goal is to reach the top of the mountain, but along the way, you can meet all sorts of friendly faces, do a bunch of activities, and enjoy some beautiful terrain.
The Stanley Parable
We’ve already talked about how The Stanely Parable is one of the funniest video games ever, and while it will take a little longer to see absolutely everything it has to offer, you can quite easily spend just a couple of hours with it and have a wonderful time. It plays with both gaming and narrative tropes in a hilarious fashion that mixes clever meta-humor and whacky antics perfectly.
Superhot
Superhot’s levels are all very simple. There are people with weapons coming for you, you have to kill them before they kill you. The gimmick is that time only moves when you move, meaning you can pull off matrix-style bullet dodges as you plan out your moves in a way you never could in a regular gunfight. Plus, there is a VR version that makes you feel even cooler.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
While some of these games you can pick up and play as you wish, to get the most out of Sayonara Wild Hearts, you should play all of this 90-minute game in one sitting. While this is strictly speaking a rhythm game, it’s more about letting the sights and sounds wash over you, as this original pop soundtrack tells a lovely story of overcoming heartbreak.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
