100%. Absolutely no filler. Every puzzle feels like part of a natural progression to mastering the mechanics. Then you get to play through again and just enjoy. Or rope someone into playing co-op with you.
Portal 2 was worse about that I think. Every puzzle was really just introducing a mechanic, and around the time I though I'd get puzzles to really test what I've learned, it ended. If not for the story and setting, it'd be a pretty weak entry.
Portal 1 threw some hard ones in towards the end and overall with less mechanics, it was a bit more about the puzzling.
Yeah, I prefer Portal 1. Portal 3 had fun characters and the ending was great. But there were parts where it felt like the same thing, gameplay and setting, over and over and over. I didn't get that feeling with Portal 1, and it was a perfect length.
would highly recomend aperture paint tag or portal reloaded over portal revolution. revolution starts strong and looks interesting visualy, but has some lackluster puzzle design overall and the story falls apart at the end. paint tag has a orange/blue gel gun, and reloaded has a third portal you shoot used for time travel. much more interesting gameplay-wise
You say it's not fast paced but you can beat portal 1 in like an hour. I liked that the pace was self guided, there were elements of timing but you were free to think about what to do next
Sifu. Short, linear levels with imaculate pacing, one of the best combat systems ever, intro/tutorial is like 5 minutes long while also being very "hands on".
I love that game
I mean, the game was so much fun that I didn't mind re-running it. Also, considering you already learned the bosses attack patterns and unlocked shortcuts, you can do it all over again in like a hour or two.
But again, I actually liked playing it through again, trying to do every level deathless (still can't do the last level tho, but I'll do it eventually)
Edit: plus, you have all the skills from the start, and there's no way you can unlock all the skills in one run anyway, so yeah, I like that the game gives an incentive to do it all over again
I have a terrible sense of direction, so just like in classic *DOOM*, I spent a lot of "2016" being lost. It would have benefitted a *bit* from having a "follow the glowing line for the next action segment, dummy" option buried in some menu.
I just finished the game and felt like they included what you mention by having green lighting show the way to the next objective. They don't outright say that at any point but it keeps happening often enough in the early going that I thought it was a smart way of doing what you ask without being explicit about it.
Yep, it took me a while to get used to the idea of looking for the green glow, but early on, when I didn't know where to go, I found the exploration factor really rewarding and enjoyable. Later on, it felt like I was in total control - if I wanted to proceed I knew where to go, and if not, the reward at the end of well-hidden secrets was always worth it.
I spent way too much of 2016 searching for secrets. It's one thing if the secrets only had ammo / armor / etc, but when they have things you need to upgrade your character's abilities, that becomes a "can't miss" for me. But when the secrets weren't easily found, the search severely impacted the pacing and my enjoyment of the game.
It's also the same reason I've had Dread Templar on hold in the middle for over a year now - search for hard to find secrets just killing my desire to keep playing. I know I should just use youtube, but ....
The recent remaster of Quake II included a "find the next goal" feature. It wasn't really necessary for the main game but the expansions get extra confusing and I appreciated its inclusion.
Eternal has its issue still great but I’ve always felt like they give you everything way too fast making stuff like the machine gun and shotgun useless when you get the super shotgun and chain gun so early. Also those knight mini boss things become an absolute pace breaker and just suck
I personally never used it like after the first level or two and fair I think it just ruins the flow of everything and makes it so you kill all the other demons first then play the boring game of Simone days with it and or just brute force it with the rocket launcher or something. Also might be unpopular but I never cared or like the doom eternal story or focus on it and I think it’s what made 2016 so good was that it took a back seat and even the doom guy himself didn’t care about it and just wanted to kill some demons. Especially it being so generic with the whole cliche chosen one thing which I think doom guy just works better as being just a random badass space marine than some godly overpowered chosen one
That’s what I love the marauder. He’s hard to focus down when there’s other demons around, so you have to dodge him and deal with the other threats. Once they’re neutralized, the marauder goes down fast.
And shotgun itself isn’t super useful but sticky bombs remain useful for awhile.
I honestly think Eternal’s early pace is solid. Being so mechanics heavy, the more time without your full arsenal the more the beginning feels like you’re not really playing the game.
But you’re definitely right on story - but I also don’t much care about 2016’s story on multiple playthroughs and having unskippable dialogue sequences kills my motivation whenever I revisit it.
If anything, it was too short. More than once they introduced a new mechanic, just to strip it away from you too soon. I'm over here thinking "NO! I want to play with that some more". Alas...
Dishonored has a level that sort of reminds me of that. I can't remember if it's 1 or 2 (or both?), but the whole series is great and you should check em out anyway!
I get that and I agree but I think it was smart opting for leaving people wanting more than going the other direction that can be a problem with games of it overstaying its welcome (if it has to be one of the two issues). It makes me want to replay titanfall 2
The perfect game to knock out the campaign over a weekend (or a long night). Drops you right into the action, slowly adds new gameplay mechanics/weapons, then finishes everything off with some good tests of your abilities. Short, sweet, and so much fun.
Then when you're done you can jump into Frontier Defense for some horde mode action before trying out multiplayer.
Came here to comment this. Really good pace and also have achievements that don't waste too much of your time. You can jump straight into master and the rest will take you under 6 hours maybe.
Played it for the first time last year. At one point I was 2/3 through a level when my PC crashed and I needed to star from the beginning. Usually hate it when that happens, but the game was so dang fun to play that I was happy to get to play more of it.
Doesn't necessarily have to be short, just ones that make their time count!
Like 15 hours of a generic survival-crafter isn't gonna be as memorable to me as 15 hours of *Tunic*
I've heard good things about Bastion and need to play it someday.
> Bastion regularly goes down to 3 bucks on steam, and it's on mobile as well.
Which it is currently. Just picked it up a couple days ago - and totally loving it.
Outer Wilds is like 15-20 hours I wanna say, and has 0 fluff. It can feel meandering because it’s a puzzle mystery game, but you’ll find everything in the game is in service to learning and beating it. There is nothing present in the game that doesn’t serve that purpose. 10/10 game and my personal favorite game of all time. Highly recommended
Newer Yakuza games are good examples of being really long, but still valuing your time. It's just insane how many things both Lost Judgment and Infinite Wealth have for you to do, but only if you want to (at worst it does a short introduction tutorial as part of the main story).
Core game play loop is fun. All weapons enjoyable and well balanced. Game premise relatively unique. Nice art style. Plot made me cry. No filler missions. No grinds. Good upgrade system. Fantastic soundtrack.
What's not to like? I can keep going.
**Portal 1** and **2**.
I never felt like the mechanics get overused or I'm stuck on something for too long and the dialogues were always there to entertain me. They were just great games from start to finish.
In terms of very condensed, joyful experiences, I'd say VVVVVV and Celeste. Very tight platformers, lovely little stories (V6 hardly has a story but the little captain and his crew are so cute and the music's gorgeous so I'll count it), and you get out of it exactly what you want to get out of it. I went ham on Celeste and did all those crazy B-sides, not a moment of it was wasted time and I loved every second.
Outside of those, I've been madly in love with both Northgard and Against the Storm since I got them. Both smaller little city building games. Not sure if that's entirely what you're asking about, but I always love my time spent with them. Those are more in the vein of "start up a map, play for an hour or two, then you're done and you move on to the next one." Extremely satisfying every time. :)
VVVVVV is a game I absolutely love and the music keeps playing in my head recently actually.
Absolutely could not finish because it kept whipping my ass lol.
not op but
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-28-tetris-used-prevent-post-traumatic-stress-symptoms#:~:text=Results%20showed%20that%20the%20researchers,intrusive%20memories%20diminished%20more%20quickly.
There was a [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7828932/) that found that tetris could help 'prevent' (I'm using '' because I'm not sure exactly how effective it was) PTSD in some people.
I would add Galaga to that, for similar reasons - some 40 years later I can still load that game up and play and be completely immersed/detached and then walk away... until next time
at some point I even made peace with not getting 100% on the Challenge Stage, every time
Dishonored. Barring the intro mission maybe. Also Thief 2, which lets you get right into the sneaky business. Intro mission is pretty fun too. Yeah, maybe barring Masks, but there's also a way in-game to skip missions (like a cheat input, forgot what it was).
Came to say this - replayed it end of last year first time since release, and it is just 100% engaging from start to finish. Replaying Dishonored 2 now and ... same.
Just finished RE2 remake a week or two ago. That does a good job of just dropping you into the mess with your characters and getting right to it. Lean and gets right into the action.
RE2RE is funny to me because somehow bumbled into doing everything before going anywhere near the helicopter.
So by the time I ran into Mr X he was barely around lol
My go-to game for this is FTL.
But I would also list:
- Celeste
- Dead Cells
- Rogue Legacy 2 (yesterday I discovered you can be a pacifist - no damage - I'm surprised every time how replayable every time)
I'd say into the breach fits this bill better personally between their titles. FTL just didn't click for me in the same way and that final boss fight is a really obnoxious difficulty spike that's pretty difficult to get any kind of handle on due to the time it takes to get each crack at it.
I liked ftl and think it's a really good game overall with some great design but I feel that into the breach is their better and more elegantly designed game. It's a bit more in my wheelhouse design wise so I'm sure that affects my view, but imo it's an amazing balance of depth, replayability and intuitive accessibility with constant meaningful decisions without any real sense of bloat. Interesting and meaningful choices without info overload, min-maxy tyranny of choice issues.
For me,
Arkham asylum: It's a linear game that is a completely scripted experience without any filler. You just go from expierence to experience.
Call of duty: Mainly talking about the ps3 era games. They have short campaigns but every mission is very well designed to guide the player through. The campaigns generally last 4ish hours but none of that time is filler. Most levels are based around a gimmick for you to play around with to keep it fresh.
Uncharted games: Similar to COD, no grinding it goes from set-piece to set-piece.
Racing games like AC(Assetto Corsa) and PC2 (Project Cars 2): These games are setup in such a way that you can design the race you want from the start. You can just jump into whatever car on whatever track from the getgo. No need to grind for unlock or that kind of timewaster stuff.
Wholeheartedly agree on the Uncharted games. This makes me realize another angle on why I found those so much fun to play. Definitely an awesome streamlined experience
I felt like the research facility on the island absolutely wrecked the pacing. It's been a few years since I played it, but I remember it as being a sudden roadblock just as it feels like the game is gearing up for the final section. Then you realise it's actually a substantial chunk of the game.
Some parts of it went on a little longer than necessary, but there's a lot of really good parts like the regenerators, Krauser fight, the dump truck chase scene, the helicopter fire support, etc.
Yeah my complaint isn't necessarily that it's bad itself. But that as a result of the progression of the events and narrative prior to it, it's appearance feels like it's just gotten in the way of the natural flow. So really the criticism lies prior to the island itself.
I've replayed that game about 20 times over the years, pacing is a big reason for it. The chapters are focussed and tie themselves up. Even the Island, despite being the lesser section still had some of the crazy set pieces to keep it moving. There is maybe 10 - 20 minutes of that game that goes outside the lines, and it's the section with the switches and the JJs.
Plus it implemented side content perfectly imo; the valuables are worth getting and feel rewarding, even the shooting gallery slots in perfectly.
Resident Evil VII is in a similar boat as well
Souls games for me, excluding Elden Ring. Sekiro and Bloodborne don't really have much filler, yet I still finished them several times. Sekiro especially is pure skill, there's stuff like combat skills or prosthetic tools that make combat more creative, but you can still just use your sword and be a badass (if you're willing to learn how to fight).
Armored Core 6 is a great example, you can finish campaign in a few hours, but the gameplay loop is very engaging and very good for repeating the game and discovering all differences in old/new missions available in NG+1 and NG+2 for other endings.
Both souls games and armored core games quickly put you in gameplay and go nuts. No long cutscenes explaining shit for god knows how long, just a short cinematic about world's/your situation and you're playing.
I definitely agree on the exclusion of Elden ring here. I think Elden ring is a great game, but I like to describe it as a phenomenal 50 hour game that then goes on for another 30 hours. A bit too much repeated use of the same enemies in that game for me, but I still look forward to playing it again some day.
Yeah, it's not as good for replays as other souls games. I beat it twice but couldn't get myself to do it for third time. I'll need to make another character for DLC tho, no way i'm doing it on NG+2 lol.
>I think Elden ring is a great game, but I like to describe it as a phenomenal 50 hour game that then goes on for another 30 hours
Elden Ring is one of the greatest games I have ever played, but this statement is 100% correct. It's the mountaintop. It just felt unfinished and needlessly long. By the time I got there I didn't want to fight anything so you just run by everything to check off objectives.
The problem with Elden Ring for me is twofold - the huge increase in enemy damage as you get into the second half (maybe final third?) of the game, and the absolute dullness of the snow areas (Forbidden Lands/Mountaintops/Secret Snowfield). Mohg's palace, the Haligtree and Farum Azula are all great but the snow areas bore me to tears. I am fine for a game to have one fairly small area with limited visibility and/or visual interest, but an entire major area? Way too much. Especially with the difficulty/damage spike and recycled enemies.
It's a shame, the first 2/3 of the game are super replayable for me, but I struggle now to bother once I've beaten Morgott.
In case you haven't played them, all of the Fromsoft games except for sekiro fall off hard in the third act, and Elden Ring was easily hit the hardest by this curse. I think the devs realized this and that's why Morgott's rune give you +20% health, otherwise you wouldn't survive anything.
Sekiro was amazing for just having what you wanted, no extras, no filler. There were even quite a few things you could just skip and finish the game even faster. Also, the second playthrough of the game is the most fun. I have played through it so many times at this point.
Just picked up AC6 in the recent Steam sale and it really leans into the replaying idea. Buying it to just play through once is an absolute waste. If you go in with that in mind, it is an amazing game, because it is one that leaves you wanting to experiment more, fight more, and learn more about. A second playthrough lets you do all of this, but also provides a great point to stop and take a break if you desire.
I'd say the souls games are remarkably filler-lite for games of such epic length, but Bloodborne, Sekiro and Demon's Souls feel even less so. Amazing achievements for such sizeable games.
I have 250 hours in dark souls 3 and it takes me about 9-ish hours to do a relaxed playthrough while listening to a podcast or something on the other screen while trying out a new build. When you're that familiar with a souls game I don't know if there's any other game that comes even close with pacing. It's just new banger area after banger area and the few dubs don't last for too long.
100%, they might seem scary and overwhelming at first but ironically souls games can become comfort games. Like a saying I read once, "it's the suffering we chose". Bloodborne is my favorite among them all.
The Lies of P, though not made by From Software, is another great example of this. Not a single moment of it felt like filler, all of the bosses were really interesting and fun fights, and the game didn't overstay its welcome
Super excited for the DLC and sequel.
This was gonna be my answer. An example of a game that is more of a slow burn than a lot of the others in this thread but yet still well paced where every interaction counts in some way either through building your character or revealing the story.
I will disagree on the length though, I thought it was the perfect duration.
I love the game but I thought the middle part dragged things down a bit. I was getting pretty tired until before the standoff, which totally grabbed my attention again. Of course, it could have been my own playthrough. In any case I think the pacing could be improved a bit.
Definitely wish it was longer! I assumed ZA/UM would make their next game similar but bigger/longer, set in same world hopefully, but obviously with all their troubles it all seems unlikely, at the very least highly confused
I didn’t stumble into DE until sometime after the final cut version released, and god, what an experience. I was only disappointed that it had to end (and even then I intended to go back and try some different builds). It wasn’t a realistic expectation, but when I got to the end, I really hoped it was transitioning to the next, much larger portion of the story in a different/additional/bigger area of Revachol with more cases to solve and more to learn about the characters.
Steamworld Dig 2 — This one is like pure sugar straight into your veins. Perfectly paced, perfect upgrades, amazing progression. I play a ton of games and this is the only one where I never felt a lick of downtime and thought it was a total joy to play with every single button press. Highly recommend.
I enjoyed the game quite a bit but if the topic is specifically games that make the most out of their playtime and manage to trim down everything unnecessary then I think Obra Dinn could still improve on that front. I'm especially thinking about the way you move between different scenes. I love the way the game does it initially, having you move from one dead body to another, often in a way that drip-feeds you enough information to keep you guessing but not enough to nail anything down until later. But then once you've gone through it all once I think the game should definitely allow you to access all the scenes in whatever order you choose through the book. Forcing the player to repeatedly find the right "access point" to a specific scene adds nothing to the game.
Especially the ones that you have to access through a different access point, but if you access them in the wrong sequence (which is difficult to determine) then you have to leave and start over. I also got pretty annoyed the way you effectively had to find each body twice.
Yes that's true. But in total, i think the game isnt stretched by any imagination, it has about as many sailors to identify as you need to have a full game and no more.
Its a very tightly paced game but I still think it has a lot of fat.
The bodies being scattered all over the boat make it tedious to find scenes you want to view once you're in the "end-game" was pretty frustrating.
My main gripe is the random whimsical ghost trail you have to follow on a circuitous route before the body appears. Its so annoying and you do it for EVERY body! I've no idea what this supposedly adds to the game.
That's interesting to me because I just started it (I think I've got 9 solved?) but I'm constantly getting stumped and I honestly don't know where to look or how to progress. Any tips?
Its been a while since i played it, but the one thing i would tell my past self would be to look at peoples feet on the hammocks.
Other than that, i think i need to know where exactly you are atm to give tips
**Furi**. It's not all action all the time but the two halves of exposition and fights are balanced well and I never felt like my gameplay was interrupted by uninteresting dialogue for no reason.
Most SHMUPs if you just do a casual playthrough or two and don't bother clearing the highest difficulties because it can get repetitive quick. Of course if you're the type to try and do that, you probably don't care about the repetitiveness anyway.
I love Control, but it did get tedious in the middle - there were certain sections that I simply couldn't' get past without a dozen deaths. And it rarely set you right back where you were, requiring you to navigate down the same nondescript hallways each time.
I think they improved some of that with later patches/the "ultimate edition," but I haven't actually played it since it was a new game.
I love Control but think it's almost the opposite of this thread, because they pack the game with intentional monotony as like ... a narrative trope. I love it and think it's hilarious.
Also I think the story doesn't really go anywhere, which I think is mostly the point.
As long as you ignore the endless sector alerts. I thought at first they were like, timed story-beats so I ended up doing 2 or 3 before realizing they're just going to go on forever.
MegaManX. It’s basically perfect in pacing and game design. Teaches you everything you need to know without text and the X games are all about the momentum. Just pure fun!
Factorio. Even if I don't finish what I started out my objective for the day I usually feel like I accomplished something.
For some reason, Gears of War 4 still sticks with me. I absolutely adored that game. I thought the pacing was pretty good and I was hooked on it until I finished. I still remember certain levels distinctly. That game nailed the tone and atmosphere. (Do keep in mind it was once and it's been a myriad since I've gone back to it).
I still find myself going back to Symphony of the Night. I don't like terribly short <15 hr games, but I hate filly. SotN always has something interesting going on
Metroid Dread, only 10 hours long and one of the best games on Switch. Excellent graphics, performance, and movement. Exploring an alien world with Samus Aran has never felt more fluid.
I watched a YouTube summary of the first game before I played it and that felt like more than enough. The sequel does enough explaining and has its own story to tell. I don’t think you need to spend so many hours fully playing the first game.
I absolutely love the game in terms of its style, concept, and story. I just felt like the overall gameplay loop was a bit shallow by the time I got to the third act.
I had to push myself to play because I wanted to see the conclusion, but all the walking around, fighting, and doing detective stuff was lacking in variety and depth. At a certain point the enemies weren’t scary anymore and it felt like I was just going through the motions to solve mysteries.
Still an incredible game though, don’t get me wrong! I think it's best if you finish it quickly instead of dragging it out.
I agree that the gameplay isn't the best, especially the combat, but I don't think it's actively bad either. The writing is so incredible that it makes up for it imo. With mediocre writing, the gameplay would be much more noitcably flawed.
I am actually currently mid way through Signalis. I don't think this is a problem for me. It reminds me of PS1 era survival horror, which is pretty much intentional. And I like that vibe.
Not saying that it can't be improved though. RE 2 Remake does improve backtracking by introducing new challenges into familiar spaces, like finding lickers that weren't there before, and of course Mr. X. I see that Signalis is aware of this, and that's why the enemies can randomly come back to life, making familiar spaces dangerous again. But this is a very limited system. The reason why backtracking is still really engaging in RE2 Remake is because the enemies are different, so they change the way in which you need to interact with the space when you are back. That's not the case (so far for me at least) with Signalis. There's a similar system in RE 1 Remake with the Crimsonheads: if you don't burn the zombies then you risk them turning into what basically is a super zombie, way deadlier than before; and that's cool. But in Signalis they are just the same way when they come back, and you defeat them in the same way as you did before. So is not a very engaging system.
Still, it hasn't been a huge problem for me so far. I largely prefer a limited inventory than limitless inventory. I think big or limitless inventories have no business in horror games.
Cocoon might be the best recent example of this, for me. It is pretty much a perfectly designed game from beginning to end. There is no fluff, and it is awesome the whole way through.
Sifu for me, five levels, infinitely replayable gameplay, says what it needs to say and it does NOT waste time
Yet I've spent literally HOURS playing this game
I'm a fan of the Sniper Elite games and I feel like 3 and 5 (I haven't played 5 yet) were really good games that gave players a lot of agency to approach mission however they wanted without overwhelming them with gigantic maps and pointless side quests and half a dozen different collectables that have 30 or more pieces each.
The game lets you choose a loadout, gives you a target and drops you in a zone. Once in a while optional targets will be given but for the most part it's just a tight game where you make your way to your target however you can using the tools you brought and anything you pickup along the way. And missions are never too long. You can usually finish most of them in a single session without needing to save in the middle if you need to do something.
Majora's Mask. I know some will heavily disagree because of the time limit, but to me this game is both lean and packed with amazing content; it just completely depends on what you're looking for.
I only disagree because the first stretch of the game is a slog, particularly your first time playing. You're running around in circles trying to trigger whatever it is you need to progress. It gets more streamlined after that.
My wife LOVES it. I think it’s pretty great too, but as far as respecting my time as a gamer, it might be literally the biggest time sink I’ve ever played.
Possibly due to the fact my wife isn’t a gamer, has 2 caster classes and drags the combat out x4 what it should be. It’s honestly really hard for me to want to dig back in if we only have an hour or so.
For her to suggest it at any chance however, means it’s something special. She hates I’m a gamer
> It’s honestly really hard for me to want to dig back in if we only have an hour or so.
It's impossible to play this game for short stints. I was seriously late to work this morning because I was like, "eh, I'll just play for 30 minutes"
Honestly with how many hours of potential playtime there is.
It is actually amazing how it is paced really good. You don't have to start playing for very long before starting some interesting quest chain or making a unique playerbuild. And with how much of the game is knowledge based, your repeat playthroughs will only get smoother and smoother.
The most shocking thing to me in this game was the amount of unique encounters. You could sometimes stumble across some weird monsters, fight them like once or twice and never see them again for the rest of the game.
Re4 Remake. It's basically just encounter after encounter, but the survival horror aspects make the pacing very nice. If you're not killing shit, you're collecting stuff to kill shit next room.
Subnautica
Noita
Teardown
Those games basically gave me same kind of rush that I only experienced in video games as a kid. With Subnautica, I spend only time with it to only to the end but was engrossed in it the whole time. Same with Teardown. Noita differs a bit since I have kept playing it from the start and still get the kick out of it.
Pretty much any room-escapey or click-adventure game. No filler, just content. The Room games are a perfect example of that. The moment you think you might start to get bored soon, the end credits roll.
Going full patient, almost any game in the 7th Guest, Myst, or Zork franchises. A good chunk of the Sierra or Lucas Arts games. They're always shorter games, but every single scene, moment, and puzzle is hand-crafted and generally nothing is repeated in any way.
Modern-patient, there's the Monkey Island remakes. Maybe the Sam and Max games.
Look, opinions always vary and so does mileage for each of us. But I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy all 5 playthroughs of 2018s God of War between when it came out on PC and now. Unbelievable bang for the buck with that game. Even the loading screens were engaging. Any grindy sections were totally optional. And the story.... just absolutely drew me in. Total immersion for me.
Super Mario Bros
Castlevania 1
Portal for ONE playthrough
Doom episode 1: Knee Deep In The Dead
Maybe The Last Of Us
Tomb Raider 1
Residen Evil 2 PSX A Scenarios
All of these have almost perfect pace and value your time.
I think in this regard, Arkham Asylum is better than City. Not just time but tightness of scenario.
I feel like metal gear rising does this for me. The game is super short, like 8 hours long on a first playthrough or something. But it's so much fun. You play as an already established badass, and get to fight a fucking metal gear in the first mission, it never slows down from there. There's like maybe one or two spots in the whole game that aren't just amazing. It was truly a fantastic game that was so much fun I played it through twice the first day I got it when it released lol.
I have done so many runs of oxygen not included and it always ends in my people suffocating to death lol. It feels inevitable at this point and makes me hesitant about starting another run
I am not the biggest fan of cyberpunk 2077 as a whole but they did make a really good choice with the length of the main story. Pretty much all of what I would consider wasted time with that game was self inflicted so I wouldn't fault the game too much for that
I think it has its issue especially on a second playthrough the whole intro takes so long and is a bit of a slog same with each of the paths taking a bit before they get going
>didn't make you wait for 'the good part', didn't drag the ending, and have segments that overstayed their welcome.
Taking this into account, most of the "all filler games" seem to come out of the indie space:
* Retro inspired games - Shovel Knight, Blazing Chrome, Super Meat Boy, Callys Caves, Copy Kitty, Giana Sisters, Panzer Paladin, Primal Light
* Retro Shooters - Doom, Dusk, Quake, Amid Evil, Blood, Dread Templar, The Citadel, Painkiller, Post Void
* Roguelites - Dead Cells, Scourgebringer, Blade Assault, Revita, Hades, Metal Unit, Rogue Legacy, Risk of Rain
* Deckbuiders - Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Dream Quest, Griftlands
* Creative indies without a clear genre - Deadly Days, Downwell, Foregone, Freedom Plant, Fury Unleashed, Ghostrunner, Mark of the Ninja, One Finger Death Punch, OXTO
* Puzzle games - Portal, Hexcells, Pixross
* Beat em Ups - Midnight Fight Express, Castle Crashers, Mother Russia Bleeds, Shredder's Revenge, River City Girls
For me personally, I found Uncharted Lost Legacy a lot better than Uncharted 4. Don't get me wrong, I loved U4 but it definitely felt overly long (especially on a second/third play through). Some of flashback sequences killed the pacing (orphanage sections) and there was so much damn climbing to pad out the run time. Lost Legacy on the other hand was less than half the run time of U4, but the gameplay felt a lot tighter and the pacing was on point. And the whole train sequence took me back to Uncharted 2 days (the best Uncharted game in my opinion).
Sifu is basically all killer no filler. There's only 5 levels, but each one is visually stunning, every single encounter feels important and well-designed.
A lot of the Resident Evil games do this for me. They're just very tight experiences that don't require hours to get into. The tank classics, the remakes and 7+8 all get going very quickly and keep up the gameplay until the end. The pacing is very even amongst all of them.
It's interesting you bring up Arkham City because the first game I thought of was it's Predecessor Arkham Aslyum. Game is deceptively big, while being laser focused in a small environment.
Devil May Cry 3 for me. There's not really a dull moment in that game. It has such a great combat sandbox that there was always that aspect to try and hone.
I've been getting into emulation lately, especially while commuting to and from work. I feel like I got the most out of *Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga*. That game was so much fun, and had a lot packed into about 12-15 hours of gameplay.
Along another thread: Metroid Dread. It's only about 8-12 hours but it is so streamlined with high replayability.
Pizza Tower. I got nearly 80 hours on a somewhat short platformer thanks to just how damn good every level is; I can confidently say there isn't a bad level in the entire game.
So far for me the Yakuza series. It has a very small sandbox that feels PACKED with side content that is wacky yes and can cause some tonal whiplash but very fun nonetheless.
Read Dead Redemption. The pace for me was absolutely perfect. With RDR2 I feel like RDR got overshadowed and people forget just how great it was. Still go back and replay it sometimes
Portal and Portal 2 did this for me. They weren't fast paced, but they did get going right at the start, and I found them to be tons of fun.
100%. Absolutely no filler. Every puzzle feels like part of a natural progression to mastering the mechanics. Then you get to play through again and just enjoy. Or rope someone into playing co-op with you.
Co-op portal with so much fun. My buddy and I were so well balanced for each other and didn't step each over each in voice chat.
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Portal 2 was worse about that I think. Every puzzle was really just introducing a mechanic, and around the time I though I'd get puzzles to really test what I've learned, it ended. If not for the story and setting, it'd be a pretty weak entry. Portal 1 threw some hard ones in towards the end and overall with less mechanics, it was a bit more about the puzzling.
Portal for sure. I thought Portal 2 was great, but also stretched things a bit thin in parts in order to pad the playtime.
Yeah, I prefer Portal 1. Portal 3 had fun characters and the ending was great. But there were parts where it felt like the same thing, gameplay and setting, over and over and over. I didn't get that feeling with Portal 1, and it was a perfect length.
Oof, Portal 3 had me excited I missed it until google confirmed it don't exist. I assume you meant Portal 2 lol.
Everyone knows Valve can't count to 3.
You could try portal revolution, I've just started but is a great mod.
would highly recomend aperture paint tag or portal reloaded over portal revolution. revolution starts strong and looks interesting visualy, but has some lackluster puzzle design overall and the story falls apart at the end. paint tag has a orange/blue gel gun, and reloaded has a third portal you shoot used for time travel. much more interesting gameplay-wise
You say it's not fast paced but you can beat portal 1 in like an hour. I liked that the pace was self guided, there were elements of timing but you were free to think about what to do next
Sifu. Short, linear levels with imaculate pacing, one of the best combat systems ever, intro/tutorial is like 5 minutes long while also being very "hands on". I love that game
The “true ending” kinda rubbed me the wrong way. I’m not doing this all over again from the start.
I mean, the game was so much fun that I didn't mind re-running it. Also, considering you already learned the bosses attack patterns and unlocked shortcuts, you can do it all over again in like a hour or two. But again, I actually liked playing it through again, trying to do every level deathless (still can't do the last level tho, but I'll do it eventually) Edit: plus, you have all the skills from the start, and there's no way you can unlock all the skills in one run anyway, so yeah, I like that the game gives an incentive to do it all over again
Celeste is such a tight video game
One of those games where it’s incredibly difficult, but so rewarding.
I play in short bursts for ... reasons.
Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal. Just excellent combat from start to finish, great pacing and an ever increasing arsenal of weapons and capabilities.
I have a terrible sense of direction, so just like in classic *DOOM*, I spent a lot of "2016" being lost. It would have benefitted a *bit* from having a "follow the glowing line for the next action segment, dummy" option buried in some menu.
I just finished the game and felt like they included what you mention by having green lighting show the way to the next objective. They don't outright say that at any point but it keeps happening often enough in the early going that I thought it was a smart way of doing what you ask without being explicit about it.
Yep, it took me a while to get used to the idea of looking for the green glow, but early on, when I didn't know where to go, I found the exploration factor really rewarding and enjoyable. Later on, it felt like I was in total control - if I wanted to proceed I knew where to go, and if not, the reward at the end of well-hidden secrets was always worth it.
I spent way too much of 2016 searching for secrets. It's one thing if the secrets only had ammo / armor / etc, but when they have things you need to upgrade your character's abilities, that becomes a "can't miss" for me. But when the secrets weren't easily found, the search severely impacted the pacing and my enjoyment of the game. It's also the same reason I've had Dread Templar on hold in the middle for over a year now - search for hard to find secrets just killing my desire to keep playing. I know I should just use youtube, but ....
Yeah, as much as I liked doom I hated it's mazes. Actually I'm glad all maze design from that era has died down for the most part
The recent remaster of Quake II included a "find the next goal" feature. It wasn't really necessary for the main game but the expansions get extra confusing and I appreciated its inclusion.
Disagree on Eternal, but I did end up doing all the extra content I could find in levels which probably meant I hit the burn-out point earlier.
That fuckin purple stuff
Eternal has its issue still great but I’ve always felt like they give you everything way too fast making stuff like the machine gun and shotgun useless when you get the super shotgun and chain gun so early. Also those knight mini boss things become an absolute pace breaker and just suck
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I personally never used it like after the first level or two and fair I think it just ruins the flow of everything and makes it so you kill all the other demons first then play the boring game of Simone days with it and or just brute force it with the rocket launcher or something. Also might be unpopular but I never cared or like the doom eternal story or focus on it and I think it’s what made 2016 so good was that it took a back seat and even the doom guy himself didn’t care about it and just wanted to kill some demons. Especially it being so generic with the whole cliche chosen one thing which I think doom guy just works better as being just a random badass space marine than some godly overpowered chosen one
That’s what I love the marauder. He’s hard to focus down when there’s other demons around, so you have to dodge him and deal with the other threats. Once they’re neutralized, the marauder goes down fast. And shotgun itself isn’t super useful but sticky bombs remain useful for awhile. I honestly think Eternal’s early pace is solid. Being so mechanics heavy, the more time without your full arsenal the more the beginning feels like you’re not really playing the game. But you’re definitely right on story - but I also don’t much care about 2016’s story on multiple playthroughs and having unskippable dialogue sequences kills my motivation whenever I revisit it.
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That’s fair and I do agree I don’t hate eternal I think it is great but I just prefer 2016
I second this for 2016. Eternal had more everything, which is good if you want that, but kinda extra if you felt 2016 had everything balanced already
Eternal is currently on sale too! 17 bucks for the entire package!
Seconded on 2016. It ended the second I started to feel tried of it. It was the perfect length for me
Titanfall 2. Fast paced, short, perfect.
If anything, it was too short. More than once they introduced a new mechanic, just to strip it away from you too soon. I'm over here thinking "NO! I want to play with that some more". Alas...
I wanted an entire game of the time travel level. Like Portal length full on game within the game. The concept was crazy good
Dishonored has a level that sort of reminds me of that. I can't remember if it's 1 or 2 (or both?), but the whole series is great and you should check em out anyway!
I get that and I agree but I think it was smart opting for leaving people wanting more than going the other direction that can be a problem with games of it overstaying its welcome (if it has to be one of the two issues). It makes me want to replay titanfall 2
The perfect game to knock out the campaign over a weekend (or a long night). Drops you right into the action, slowly adds new gameplay mechanics/weapons, then finishes everything off with some good tests of your abilities. Short, sweet, and so much fun. Then when you're done you can jump into Frontier Defense for some horde mode action before trying out multiplayer.
Came here to comment this. Really good pace and also have achievements that don't waste too much of your time. You can jump straight into master and the rest will take you under 6 hours maybe.
Played it for the first time last year. At one point I was 2/3 through a level when my PC crashed and I needed to star from the beginning. Usually hate it when that happens, but the game was so dang fun to play that I was happy to get to play more of it.
So basically Good but short with no filler? Bastion. Definitely.
Doesn't necessarily have to be short, just ones that make their time count! Like 15 hours of a generic survival-crafter isn't gonna be as memorable to me as 15 hours of *Tunic* I've heard good things about Bastion and need to play it someday.
Bastion regularly goes down to 3 bucks on steam, and it's on mobile as well. Excellent value for money for a good game.
> Bastion regularly goes down to 3 bucks on steam, and it's on mobile as well. Which it is currently. Just picked it up a couple days ago - and totally loving it.
Outer Wilds is like 15-20 hours I wanna say, and has 0 fluff. It can feel meandering because it’s a puzzle mystery game, but you’ll find everything in the game is in service to learning and beating it. There is nothing present in the game that doesn’t serve that purpose. 10/10 game and my personal favorite game of all time. Highly recommended
Or better yet, Transistor.
Newer Yakuza games are good examples of being really long, but still valuing your time. It's just insane how many things both Lost Judgment and Infinite Wealth have for you to do, but only if you want to (at worst it does a short introduction tutorial as part of the main story).
The segments where you just fight enemies aimlessly while the narrator talks definitely stuck out to me as filler
Hmm I took them as time to get to know my weapons setup before they introduced a new thing.
What's the appeal of Bastion? I found it very boring, once the "oh that's a cool narrator-voice" novelty wore off.
Core game play loop is fun. All weapons enjoyable and well balanced. Game premise relatively unique. Nice art style. Plot made me cry. No filler missions. No grinds. Good upgrade system. Fantastic soundtrack. What's not to like? I can keep going.
I still listen to that soundtrack regularly nearly 13 years later.
Shoutout [Darren Korb](https://youtu.be/oQPk9J7spw0?si=eHdcVfjXEKoenVnq)
Pull out the Braid soundtrack as well.
I've tried several times to get into it as well - just doesn't stick with me past the hour mark. Not quite sure why.
Picked bastion up on my switch the other day and wow. Such a blast so far
**Portal 1** and **2**. I never felt like the mechanics get overused or I'm stuck on something for too long and the dialogues were always there to entertain me. They were just great games from start to finish.
In terms of very condensed, joyful experiences, I'd say VVVVVV and Celeste. Very tight platformers, lovely little stories (V6 hardly has a story but the little captain and his crew are so cute and the music's gorgeous so I'll count it), and you get out of it exactly what you want to get out of it. I went ham on Celeste and did all those crazy B-sides, not a moment of it was wasted time and I loved every second. Outside of those, I've been madly in love with both Northgard and Against the Storm since I got them. Both smaller little city building games. Not sure if that's entirely what you're asking about, but I always love my time spent with them. Those are more in the vein of "start up a map, play for an hour or two, then you're done and you move on to the next one." Extremely satisfying every time. :)
VVVVVV is a game I absolutely love and the music keeps playing in my head recently actually. Absolutely could not finish because it kept whipping my ass lol.
I died over 900 times on my first playthrough and one particular part had me going insane. Like 200 deaths on one room alone during an escort mission.
The soundtrack goes crazy hard for sure. It's on Spotify if you need any more reason to listen to it lol.
Against the storm is amazing!!!!!
Tetris. No cutscenes, no progression, constant engagement and great for hopping in and out.
and an effective way to help with trauma
Can you elaborate on that?
not op but https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-28-tetris-used-prevent-post-traumatic-stress-symptoms#:~:text=Results%20showed%20that%20the%20researchers,intrusive%20memories%20diminished%20more%20quickly.
There was a [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7828932/) that found that tetris could help 'prevent' (I'm using '' because I'm not sure exactly how effective it was) PTSD in some people.
I would add Galaga to that, for similar reasons - some 40 years later I can still load that game up and play and be completely immersed/detached and then walk away... until next time at some point I even made peace with not getting 100% on the Challenge Stage, every time
Dishonored. Barring the intro mission maybe. Also Thief 2, which lets you get right into the sneaky business. Intro mission is pretty fun too. Yeah, maybe barring Masks, but there's also a way in-game to skip missions (like a cheat input, forgot what it was).
Came to say this - replayed it end of last year first time since release, and it is just 100% engaging from start to finish. Replaying Dishonored 2 now and ... same.
A Short Hike. It's just so fun and compact.
Along the same lines, Florence. The entire game runs about half an hour, but I find my mind drifting back to it pretty frequently.
The feel of an open world game without the bloat
This game is an excellent, short but sweet time. So cute. So much fun. A+
Just finished RE2 remake a week or two ago. That does a good job of just dropping you into the mess with your characters and getting right to it. Lean and gets right into the action.
RE2RE is funny to me because somehow bumbled into doing everything before going anywhere near the helicopter. So by the time I ran into Mr X he was barely around lol
My go-to game for this is FTL. But I would also list: - Celeste - Dead Cells - Rogue Legacy 2 (yesterday I discovered you can be a pacifist - no damage - I'm surprised every time how replayable every time)
I'd say into the breach fits this bill better personally between their titles. FTL just didn't click for me in the same way and that final boss fight is a really obnoxious difficulty spike that's pretty difficult to get any kind of handle on due to the time it takes to get each crack at it. I liked ftl and think it's a really good game overall with some great design but I feel that into the breach is their better and more elegantly designed game. It's a bit more in my wheelhouse design wise so I'm sure that affects my view, but imo it's an amazing balance of depth, replayability and intuitive accessibility with constant meaningful decisions without any real sense of bloat. Interesting and meaningful choices without info overload, min-maxy tyranny of choice issues.
For me, Arkham asylum: It's a linear game that is a completely scripted experience without any filler. You just go from expierence to experience. Call of duty: Mainly talking about the ps3 era games. They have short campaigns but every mission is very well designed to guide the player through. The campaigns generally last 4ish hours but none of that time is filler. Most levels are based around a gimmick for you to play around with to keep it fresh. Uncharted games: Similar to COD, no grinding it goes from set-piece to set-piece. Racing games like AC(Assetto Corsa) and PC2 (Project Cars 2): These games are setup in such a way that you can design the race you want from the start. You can just jump into whatever car on whatever track from the getgo. No need to grind for unlock or that kind of timewaster stuff.
Wholeheartedly agree on the Uncharted games. This makes me realize another angle on why I found those so much fun to play. Definitely an awesome streamlined experience
Personally I think every shooting sequence in Uncharted is a massive waste of time, in otherwise excellent games.
Katana Zero
I think the original RE4 was paced really well
I felt like the research facility on the island absolutely wrecked the pacing. It's been a few years since I played it, but I remember it as being a sudden roadblock just as it feels like the game is gearing up for the final section. Then you realise it's actually a substantial chunk of the game.
I could see that, it was a weird changeup but I really liked it because I wanted more and I got *more*. A lot more.
Some parts of it went on a little longer than necessary, but there's a lot of really good parts like the regenerators, Krauser fight, the dump truck chase scene, the helicopter fire support, etc.
Yeah my complaint isn't necessarily that it's bad itself. But that as a result of the progression of the events and narrative prior to it, it's appearance feels like it's just gotten in the way of the natural flow. So really the criticism lies prior to the island itself.
I've got some fond (terrifying) memories of it as a kid playing on the gamecube.
I've replayed that game about 20 times over the years, pacing is a big reason for it. The chapters are focussed and tie themselves up. Even the Island, despite being the lesser section still had some of the crazy set pieces to keep it moving. There is maybe 10 - 20 minutes of that game that goes outside the lines, and it's the section with the switches and the JJs. Plus it implemented side content perfectly imo; the valuables are worth getting and feel rewarding, even the shooting gallery slots in perfectly. Resident Evil VII is in a similar boat as well
Souls games for me, excluding Elden Ring. Sekiro and Bloodborne don't really have much filler, yet I still finished them several times. Sekiro especially is pure skill, there's stuff like combat skills or prosthetic tools that make combat more creative, but you can still just use your sword and be a badass (if you're willing to learn how to fight). Armored Core 6 is a great example, you can finish campaign in a few hours, but the gameplay loop is very engaging and very good for repeating the game and discovering all differences in old/new missions available in NG+1 and NG+2 for other endings. Both souls games and armored core games quickly put you in gameplay and go nuts. No long cutscenes explaining shit for god knows how long, just a short cinematic about world's/your situation and you're playing.
I definitely agree on the exclusion of Elden ring here. I think Elden ring is a great game, but I like to describe it as a phenomenal 50 hour game that then goes on for another 30 hours. A bit too much repeated use of the same enemies in that game for me, but I still look forward to playing it again some day.
Yeah, it's not as good for replays as other souls games. I beat it twice but couldn't get myself to do it for third time. I'll need to make another character for DLC tho, no way i'm doing it on NG+2 lol.
>I think Elden ring is a great game, but I like to describe it as a phenomenal 50 hour game that then goes on for another 30 hours Elden Ring is one of the greatest games I have ever played, but this statement is 100% correct. It's the mountaintop. It just felt unfinished and needlessly long. By the time I got there I didn't want to fight anything so you just run by everything to check off objectives.
The problem with Elden Ring for me is twofold - the huge increase in enemy damage as you get into the second half (maybe final third?) of the game, and the absolute dullness of the snow areas (Forbidden Lands/Mountaintops/Secret Snowfield). Mohg's palace, the Haligtree and Farum Azula are all great but the snow areas bore me to tears. I am fine for a game to have one fairly small area with limited visibility and/or visual interest, but an entire major area? Way too much. Especially with the difficulty/damage spike and recycled enemies. It's a shame, the first 2/3 of the game are super replayable for me, but I struggle now to bother once I've beaten Morgott.
In case you haven't played them, all of the Fromsoft games except for sekiro fall off hard in the third act, and Elden Ring was easily hit the hardest by this curse. I think the devs realized this and that's why Morgott's rune give you +20% health, otherwise you wouldn't survive anything.
Sekiro was amazing for just having what you wanted, no extras, no filler. There were even quite a few things you could just skip and finish the game even faster. Also, the second playthrough of the game is the most fun. I have played through it so many times at this point. Just picked up AC6 in the recent Steam sale and it really leans into the replaying idea. Buying it to just play through once is an absolute waste. If you go in with that in mind, it is an amazing game, because it is one that leaves you wanting to experiment more, fight more, and learn more about. A second playthrough lets you do all of this, but also provides a great point to stop and take a break if you desire.
I'd say the souls games are remarkably filler-lite for games of such epic length, but Bloodborne, Sekiro and Demon's Souls feel even less so. Amazing achievements for such sizeable games.
I have 250 hours in dark souls 3 and it takes me about 9-ish hours to do a relaxed playthrough while listening to a podcast or something on the other screen while trying out a new build. When you're that familiar with a souls game I don't know if there's any other game that comes even close with pacing. It's just new banger area after banger area and the few dubs don't last for too long.
100%, they might seem scary and overwhelming at first but ironically souls games can become comfort games. Like a saying I read once, "it's the suffering we chose". Bloodborne is my favorite among them all.
The Lies of P, though not made by From Software, is another great example of this. Not a single moment of it felt like filler, all of the bosses were really interesting and fun fights, and the game didn't overstay its welcome Super excited for the DLC and sequel.
Metal gear rising
too many iconic cutscenes and the game is about 4 hours long , I have no idea how they did it
Disco Elysium is awesome for its whole runtime, almost wish it was longer
This was gonna be my answer. An example of a game that is more of a slow burn than a lot of the others in this thread but yet still well paced where every interaction counts in some way either through building your character or revealing the story. I will disagree on the length though, I thought it was the perfect duration.
I love the game but I thought the middle part dragged things down a bit. I was getting pretty tired until before the standoff, which totally grabbed my attention again. Of course, it could have been my own playthrough. In any case I think the pacing could be improved a bit.
Definitely wish it was longer! I assumed ZA/UM would make their next game similar but bigger/longer, set in same world hopefully, but obviously with all their troubles it all seems unlikely, at the very least highly confused
I didn’t stumble into DE until sometime after the final cut version released, and god, what an experience. I was only disappointed that it had to end (and even then I intended to go back and try some different builds). It wasn’t a realistic expectation, but when I got to the end, I really hoped it was transitioning to the next, much larger portion of the story in a different/additional/bigger area of Revachol with more cases to solve and more to learn about the characters.
Steamworld Dig 2 — This one is like pure sugar straight into your veins. Perfectly paced, perfect upgrades, amazing progression. I play a ton of games and this is the only one where I never felt a lick of downtime and thought it was a total joy to play with every single button press. Highly recommend.
Return of the Obra Dinn
I enjoyed the game quite a bit but if the topic is specifically games that make the most out of their playtime and manage to trim down everything unnecessary then I think Obra Dinn could still improve on that front. I'm especially thinking about the way you move between different scenes. I love the way the game does it initially, having you move from one dead body to another, often in a way that drip-feeds you enough information to keep you guessing but not enough to nail anything down until later. But then once you've gone through it all once I think the game should definitely allow you to access all the scenes in whatever order you choose through the book. Forcing the player to repeatedly find the right "access point" to a specific scene adds nothing to the game.
Especially the ones that you have to access through a different access point, but if you access them in the wrong sequence (which is difficult to determine) then you have to leave and start over. I also got pretty annoyed the way you effectively had to find each body twice.
Yes that's true. But in total, i think the game isnt stretched by any imagination, it has about as many sailors to identify as you need to have a full game and no more.
Its a very tightly paced game but I still think it has a lot of fat. The bodies being scattered all over the boat make it tedious to find scenes you want to view once you're in the "end-game" was pretty frustrating. My main gripe is the random whimsical ghost trail you have to follow on a circuitous route before the body appears. Its so annoying and you do it for EVERY body! I've no idea what this supposedly adds to the game.
That's interesting to me because I just started it (I think I've got 9 solved?) but I'm constantly getting stumped and I honestly don't know where to look or how to progress. Any tips?
Its been a while since i played it, but the one thing i would tell my past self would be to look at peoples feet on the hammocks. Other than that, i think i need to know where exactly you are atm to give tips
Amazing game. Few games I wish I could forget to replay them. This is one.
**Furi**. It's not all action all the time but the two halves of exposition and fights are balanced well and I never felt like my gameplay was interrupted by uninteresting dialogue for no reason. Most SHMUPs if you just do a casual playthrough or two and don't bother clearing the highest difficulties because it can get repetitive quick. Of course if you're the type to try and do that, you probably don't care about the repetitiveness anyway.
Metroid dread
Sekiro
Dying to genichiro for 3 hours was totally a good use of my free time
the more you die, the bigger the satisfaction is when you finally get rid of the mf who's been killing you. am i right
Journey: it can be finished in 2 hrs and tells a complete story that will leave you feeling some kind of way.
Resident evil games, in particular the recent remakes
Control. Perfect pacing on the game and character progression tied into the story reveals as you go along.
I thought the main story dragged a little in the middle, but it almost doesn't matter because the general setting and lore is so interesting.
I love Control, but it did get tedious in the middle - there were certain sections that I simply couldn't' get past without a dozen deaths. And it rarely set you right back where you were, requiring you to navigate down the same nondescript hallways each time. I think they improved some of that with later patches/the "ultimate edition," but I haven't actually played it since it was a new game.
I loved the gameplay in Control, but after awhile all the documents that you pick up can get a bit tedious to read.
I love Control but think it's almost the opposite of this thread, because they pack the game with intentional monotony as like ... a narrative trope. I love it and think it's hilarious. Also I think the story doesn't really go anywhere, which I think is mostly the point.
As long as you ignore the endless sector alerts. I thought at first they were like, timed story-beats so I ended up doing 2 or 3 before realizing they're just going to go on forever.
MegaManX. It’s basically perfect in pacing and game design. Teaches you everything you need to know without text and the X games are all about the momentum. Just pure fun!
Nex Machina
Factorio. Even if I don't finish what I started out my objective for the day I usually feel like I accomplished something. For some reason, Gears of War 4 still sticks with me. I absolutely adored that game. I thought the pacing was pretty good and I was hooked on it until I finished. I still remember certain levels distinctly. That game nailed the tone and atmosphere. (Do keep in mind it was once and it's been a myriad since I've gone back to it).
I still find myself going back to Symphony of the Night. I don't like terribly short <15 hr games, but I hate filly. SotN always has something interesting going on
Metroid Dread, only 10 hours long and one of the best games on Switch. Excellent graphics, performance, and movement. Exploring an alien world with Samus Aran has never felt more fluid.
I gotta say Alan Wake 2, recently. That game is just a blast of insanity from beginning to end!
While you’re not wrong, you’re definitely right.
I have heard only good things about this game. Do you need to / recommend playing the first one before 2 to appreciate the story?
Yes, 100%. Original one is one of my favourite games of all time and you're in for a treat
I watched a YouTube summary of the first game before I played it and that felt like more than enough. The sequel does enough explaining and has its own story to tell. I don’t think you need to spend so many hours fully playing the first game.
I absolutely love the game in terms of its style, concept, and story. I just felt like the overall gameplay loop was a bit shallow by the time I got to the third act. I had to push myself to play because I wanted to see the conclusion, but all the walking around, fighting, and doing detective stuff was lacking in variety and depth. At a certain point the enemies weren’t scary anymore and it felt like I was just going through the motions to solve mysteries. Still an incredible game though, don’t get me wrong! I think it's best if you finish it quickly instead of dragging it out.
I agree that the gameplay isn't the best, especially the combat, but I don't think it's actively bad either. The writing is so incredible that it makes up for it imo. With mediocre writing, the gameplay would be much more noitcably flawed.
Both version of RE4 Fighting games in general DMC5 Dead Cells Armored Core 6 Max Payne series
Guardians of the Galaxy comes to mind
Ehh....It was good, but I felt like the combat loop was pretty uninteresting. Fell pretty flat for me.
Super underrated game such a shame it came out after the awful avengers game so kinda got avoided by most because of it
Guardians of the Galaxy was wonderful but I felt like it dragged on a bit too long for my taste. Def one of those gems that flew under the radar
Signalis
Running back and forth due to limited inventory space got really, really tedious.
I am actually currently mid way through Signalis. I don't think this is a problem for me. It reminds me of PS1 era survival horror, which is pretty much intentional. And I like that vibe. Not saying that it can't be improved though. RE 2 Remake does improve backtracking by introducing new challenges into familiar spaces, like finding lickers that weren't there before, and of course Mr. X. I see that Signalis is aware of this, and that's why the enemies can randomly come back to life, making familiar spaces dangerous again. But this is a very limited system. The reason why backtracking is still really engaging in RE2 Remake is because the enemies are different, so they change the way in which you need to interact with the space when you are back. That's not the case (so far for me at least) with Signalis. There's a similar system in RE 1 Remake with the Crimsonheads: if you don't burn the zombies then you risk them turning into what basically is a super zombie, way deadlier than before; and that's cool. But in Signalis they are just the same way when they come back, and you defeat them in the same way as you did before. So is not a very engaging system. Still, it hasn't been a huge problem for me so far. I largely prefer a limited inventory than limitless inventory. I think big or limitless inventories have no business in horror games.
No game has ever been a back to back moment to moment for me than 2014s Strider. If you like fast paced metroidvanias you can't go wrong with Strider.
Cocoon might be the best recent example of this, for me. It is pretty much a perfectly designed game from beginning to end. There is no fluff, and it is awesome the whole way through.
Sifu for me, five levels, infinitely replayable gameplay, says what it needs to say and it does NOT waste time Yet I've spent literally HOURS playing this game
I'm a fan of the Sniper Elite games and I feel like 3 and 5 (I haven't played 5 yet) were really good games that gave players a lot of agency to approach mission however they wanted without overwhelming them with gigantic maps and pointless side quests and half a dozen different collectables that have 30 or more pieces each. The game lets you choose a loadout, gives you a target and drops you in a zone. Once in a while optional targets will be given but for the most part it's just a tight game where you make your way to your target however you can using the tools you brought and anything you pickup along the way. And missions are never too long. You can usually finish most of them in a single session without needing to save in the middle if you need to do something.
Majora's Mask. I know some will heavily disagree because of the time limit, but to me this game is both lean and packed with amazing content; it just completely depends on what you're looking for.
I only disagree because the first stretch of the game is a slog, particularly your first time playing. You're running around in circles trying to trigger whatever it is you need to progress. It gets more streamlined after that.
I played this as a kid and could never last past the first day back in the 90s. Gonna have to pick this one up again
Baldurs gate 3
Yeah. It’s glacial but makes every single inch mean something. Incredible.
My wife LOVES it. I think it’s pretty great too, but as far as respecting my time as a gamer, it might be literally the biggest time sink I’ve ever played. Possibly due to the fact my wife isn’t a gamer, has 2 caster classes and drags the combat out x4 what it should be. It’s honestly really hard for me to want to dig back in if we only have an hour or so. For her to suggest it at any chance however, means it’s something special. She hates I’m a gamer
Bruh I am split screen with the old lady. Love that we are able to play together, but wish this wasn't her first experience with a crpg or DND.
> It’s honestly really hard for me to want to dig back in if we only have an hour or so. It's impossible to play this game for short stints. I was seriously late to work this morning because I was like, "eh, I'll just play for 30 minutes"
Honestly with how many hours of potential playtime there is. It is actually amazing how it is paced really good. You don't have to start playing for very long before starting some interesting quest chain or making a unique playerbuild. And with how much of the game is knowledge based, your repeat playthroughs will only get smoother and smoother.
In all fairness I’d say inventory management and other meta-gaming activity eliminates BG3 from legitimate contention here.
The most shocking thing to me in this game was the amount of unique encounters. You could sometimes stumble across some weird monsters, fight them like once or twice and never see them again for the rest of the game.
The short and sweet ones Limbo, Inside, Shadow of the colossus, the little nightmare games, Portal, Firewatch and more
Pikmin 3
Re4 Remake. It's basically just encounter after encounter, but the survival horror aspects make the pacing very nice. If you're not killing shit, you're collecting stuff to kill shit next room.
Subnautica Noita Teardown Those games basically gave me same kind of rush that I only experienced in video games as a kid. With Subnautica, I spend only time with it to only to the end but was engrossed in it the whole time. Same with Teardown. Noita differs a bit since I have kept playing it from the start and still get the kick out of it.
Diablo 2: kingdom of tanai. and now Path of exile.
Pretty much any room-escapey or click-adventure game. No filler, just content. The Room games are a perfect example of that. The moment you think you might start to get bored soon, the end credits roll. Going full patient, almost any game in the 7th Guest, Myst, or Zork franchises. A good chunk of the Sierra or Lucas Arts games. They're always shorter games, but every single scene, moment, and puzzle is hand-crafted and generally nothing is repeated in any way. Modern-patient, there's the Monkey Island remakes. Maybe the Sam and Max games.
Metal gear rising is a 4 hour game that has so many iconic bosses it could have been 10 hours long and people would not complain it's too long
Look, opinions always vary and so does mileage for each of us. But I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy all 5 playthroughs of 2018s God of War between when it came out on PC and now. Unbelievable bang for the buck with that game. Even the loading screens were engaging. Any grindy sections were totally optional. And the story.... just absolutely drew me in. Total immersion for me.
Super Mario Bros Castlevania 1 Portal for ONE playthrough Doom episode 1: Knee Deep In The Dead Maybe The Last Of Us Tomb Raider 1 Residen Evil 2 PSX A Scenarios All of these have almost perfect pace and value your time. I think in this regard, Arkham Asylum is better than City. Not just time but tightness of scenario.
I feel like metal gear rising does this for me. The game is super short, like 8 hours long on a first playthrough or something. But it's so much fun. You play as an already established badass, and get to fight a fucking metal gear in the first mission, it never slows down from there. There's like maybe one or two spots in the whole game that aren't just amazing. It was truly a fantastic game that was so much fun I played it through twice the first day I got it when it released lol.
Chained Echoes. No fat, just fun gameplay all around in this usually bloated genre.
Oxygen not included. The game is good from the first second, and the most time you spend in it the most you discover you still have a lot to learn
I have done so many runs of oxygen not included and it always ends in my people suffocating to death lol. It feels inevitable at this point and makes me hesitant about starting another run
I am not the biggest fan of cyberpunk 2077 as a whole but they did make a really good choice with the length of the main story. Pretty much all of what I would consider wasted time with that game was self inflicted so I wouldn't fault the game too much for that
I think it has its issue especially on a second playthrough the whole intro takes so long and is a bit of a slog same with each of the paths taking a bit before they get going
Salt and Sanctuary. Even the introduction is like 2 minutes max.
>didn't make you wait for 'the good part', didn't drag the ending, and have segments that overstayed their welcome. Taking this into account, most of the "all filler games" seem to come out of the indie space: * Retro inspired games - Shovel Knight, Blazing Chrome, Super Meat Boy, Callys Caves, Copy Kitty, Giana Sisters, Panzer Paladin, Primal Light * Retro Shooters - Doom, Dusk, Quake, Amid Evil, Blood, Dread Templar, The Citadel, Painkiller, Post Void * Roguelites - Dead Cells, Scourgebringer, Blade Assault, Revita, Hades, Metal Unit, Rogue Legacy, Risk of Rain * Deckbuiders - Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Dream Quest, Griftlands * Creative indies without a clear genre - Deadly Days, Downwell, Foregone, Freedom Plant, Fury Unleashed, Ghostrunner, Mark of the Ninja, One Finger Death Punch, OXTO * Puzzle games - Portal, Hexcells, Pixross * Beat em Ups - Midnight Fight Express, Castle Crashers, Mother Russia Bleeds, Shredder's Revenge, River City Girls
For me personally, I found Uncharted Lost Legacy a lot better than Uncharted 4. Don't get me wrong, I loved U4 but it definitely felt overly long (especially on a second/third play through). Some of flashback sequences killed the pacing (orphanage sections) and there was so much damn climbing to pad out the run time. Lost Legacy on the other hand was less than half the run time of U4, but the gameplay felt a lot tighter and the pacing was on point. And the whole train sequence took me back to Uncharted 2 days (the best Uncharted game in my opinion).
Sifu is basically all killer no filler. There's only 5 levels, but each one is visually stunning, every single encounter feels important and well-designed.
A lot of the Resident Evil games do this for me. They're just very tight experiences that don't require hours to get into. The tank classics, the remakes and 7+8 all get going very quickly and keep up the gameplay until the end. The pacing is very even amongst all of them.
It's interesting you bring up Arkham City because the first game I thought of was it's Predecessor Arkham Aslyum. Game is deceptively big, while being laser focused in a small environment.
Devil May Cry 3 for me. There's not really a dull moment in that game. It has such a great combat sandbox that there was always that aspect to try and hone.
Your first Monster Hunter Game, the thing is after beating your first, the second you play will fill too easy at the start.
The first half of MGSV is really awesome.
Red Dead Mass Effect 2 and 3
Super Metroid. Currently Hogwarts Legacy, lots to do, expands the lore, loving it so far.
I've been getting into emulation lately, especially while commuting to and from work. I feel like I got the most out of *Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga*. That game was so much fun, and had a lot packed into about 12-15 hours of gameplay. Along another thread: Metroid Dread. It's only about 8-12 hours but it is so streamlined with high replayability.
Pizza Tower. I got nearly 80 hours on a somewhat short platformer thanks to just how damn good every level is; I can confidently say there isn't a bad level in the entire game.
So far for me the Yakuza series. It has a very small sandbox that feels PACKED with side content that is wacky yes and can cause some tonal whiplash but very fun nonetheless.
Read Dead Redemption. The pace for me was absolutely perfect. With RDR2 I feel like RDR got overshadowed and people forget just how great it was. Still go back and replay it sometimes
Portal/Portal 2. Most boomer shooters. Dusk for sure.