Some of 2024’s best games were only as long as movies

digitaltrends.com:

Video games have gotten big. Really big. As budgets have ballooned, so has the scale of a full-priced game. It’s very rare these days to play a big-budget game that you can finish in under 10 hours. If you wanted to play a story-driven game in 2024, that likely meant setting aside up to 80 hours for something likeMetaphor: ReFantazio or Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. That’s great for those who want the most bang from their buck, but it makes gaming even more difficult in terms of the time commitment.

Not all developers follow that trend, though. The independent scene has long been rich with more concise experiences that don’t waste a second of their precious runtime, and 2024 showed how that mentality can pay off. Some of the year’s best — or at least most interesting — games were no longer than a feature-length film. Thank Goodness You’re Here packed an uproariously funny slapstick comedy into under three hours. Clickolding only keeps players captive for an unforgettable (and uncomfortable) 45 minutes. Mouthwashing does what many horror games could only dream of pulling off in just a few short hours.

These games, and more, helped dispel the myth that a game’s quality is tied to how much content is packed into it. Sometimes a more compact experience can stick with players long after the credits roll, much like an impactful movie. For the developers behind 2024’s best hidden gems, determining the perfect video game runtime isn’t about creating arbitrary value; it’s about trimming the fat to more effectively tell a great story.

• The best Xbox games of 2024: Indiana Jones, Hellblade 2, and more
• The best Nintendo Switch games of 2024: Zelda, Mario Party, and more
• The 10 best video games of 2024

Cutting content

Trying to figure out the perfect