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Games under 20 hours

Eleven games in the twelve-to-twenty hour band — big enough to live in for a couple of weeks, small enough to actually finish.

GameMain story
BioShock

Rapture is still the best-realised place in shooters. Would you kindly play it if you somehow haven't.

~12h
Tunic

A Zelda-shaped secret about reading the manual. Say nothing to anyone who hasn't played it.

~12h
Half-Life 2

Twenty years old and the pacing still embarrasses new releases.

~13h
Doom Eternal

A resource-management puzzle at 200mph. More demanding than 2016, and prouder of it.

~14h
The Last of Us

The giraffe scene works because the twelve hours before it earn it.

~15h
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

The series' best set pieces and its only real character study, in the same game.

~15h
Psychonauts 2

Sixteen years late and worth it. The kindest game ever made about anxiety.

~15h
A Plague Tale: Requiem

Bigger, darker sequel. The rat tornadoes have to be seen.

~16h
Outer Wilds

A solar system on a 22-minute loop. The only progress is what you learn — go in blind.

~17h
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Dark Souls lite with a lightsaber. The Star Wars game that finally trusts you to explore.

~17h
Alan Wake II

A survival horror that turns into a musical for one chapter and gets away with it.

~18h