One Five-Hour Game Please

I already wanted to play Jusant. 

It looks pleasant and it's on Game Pass. Two desirable qualities, and almost enough to guarantee that I'd play it. But it wasn't until I learnt that it's only five hours long that it became an absolute must-play.

Actually, I shouldn't say "only" five hours long. It gives the impression that it is somehow lacking, that it's limited in length and therefore, as some people would have you believe, value.

And that would be very silly.

There's only one thing that I love more than a five-hour game, and that's a four-hour game. I can clear a five-hourer in a week. A full and fulfilling experience, all wrapped up before I start fantasizing about the next game that I'm keen to get to. Perfect.

Once I've finished Assassin's Creed Mirage - a fifteen-hour game, which is the same length as three five-hour games - I'll fit in Jusant. It'll be something short and sweet to squeeze in before Alan Wake 2, which I expect will be my final game of the year. Then I'll be writing my Best and Worst of 2023, which is something that we can all look forward to.

Almost nine years ago, I wrote a piss-take about the length of The Order: 1886. The internet was very upset about its five-hour runtime and was struggling to grasp that quantity and quality are not the same things. The Order screamed AAA but its runtime suggested otherwise. It didn't fit the profile of a PlayStation action blockbuster, simply because there wasn't enough of it. 

The worst part of a decade later, and fuck all has changed. The Order discourse has long since ceased, of course, but game length, however, is still a topic of much discussion and disagreement.

"X-hours is too short for a full-priced game" is a common complaint, and one you might hear were you to eavesdrop on a gaggle of gamers. And I get it. We want to know how much game our hard earned cash will buy us - how long it will last before we need to re-open our wallet and find something else. But it's wrong to equate quantity with quality, and in most cases length with value.

Personally, I'm both put off by longer games and attracted to more compact, but complete experiences. I gave up on Persona 5 after the first dungeon, not because I wasn't enjoy it, but because I couldn't see myself committing 100 hours to its completion. The Last of Us 2 had more difficulty knowing when to end than the director's cut of Return of the King; God of War (2018) was too long for its own good, and the middle third of Death Stranding was bloated beyond belief. Going back a few more years, Yakuza 5 is an all-time offender, featuring an entire storyline that took up tens of hours despite being completely superfluous. More recently, Final Fantasy XVI would've been a much sharper and more gratifying experience had it shed several hours.

So many narrative-driven games drag it out, but that of course doesn't mean that long = bad.  I didn't hesitate to pour 120 hours into Elden Ring last year. It earned that runtime, as well as my undivided attention from start to finish. Games must justify their length if they want to impress me.

I realize much of this is a reflection of my personal preferences, and some of it may be generational. Back in my mid-late twenties, during the PS3/360/Wii era, I'd race through a game a week. This wasn't just down to me having more available time, though that was certainly a factor. Rather, it was because most narrative-driven action games - my favourites - clocked in at a very manageable 8-12 hours, which is somewhat of a rarity these days. I'll admit, a lot of those same games were guilty of padding out the package with uninspired multiplayer modes, but I could skip those and get the full single-player experience. I miss those days.

And perhaps the industry does too. Just this year, we've had several high-profile releases that were shorter than we might have expected. Assassin's Creed Mirage is considerably shorter than recent entries, Like a Dragon Gaiden was a similar length, and Resident Evil 4 Remake has a runtime in the teens. I also hear that the latest Spider Man does not outstay its welcome. Even Starfield's main campaign can be finished in under forty hours, which is refreshingly short for a modern, sprawling RPG.

I wanted to share my thoughts on the pacing of modern games, but unfortunately I've fucked mine and already blown my word count. Sorry about that.