What is your ideal length for a single player campaign?

I noticed nowadays that single player games have gotten a bit long, and in many cases, have padding. But there was once a time when you can get a very satisfying single player experience with a shorter length. For me, that’s the 10-15 hour range. But I also miss when we used to get 10-15 single player campaigns along with a multiplayer mode. Give me those two back, please! How about you, SW? What’s your ideal length for a single player campaign?

40+ hours padded with cutscenes and mini games like Rebirth.😎

I think all my favourite games are between 7-9 hours and perfectly paced.

Replayed Bioshock recently and it took me 12 hours, I felt the end dragged on a bit and didn't offer anything new or exciting. You're stuck with the same roster of weapons and enemies. So yeah could've been shorter.

Don't think many people would be interested in paying 70-80 dollars for a 7-9 hour game anymore though. Eventhough this was the norm in the 80s-90s.

The shorter games can be priced lower. Considering the majority of gamers don't come close to finishing games, they should be pushing for shorter games with quality content and good pacing. Not the generic over bloated shit they pack into the big games.

I want Embracer to *ahem embrace shorter games now that they own all these smaller studios.

Instead of pouring it all together for one mega project.

10-15hrs. Somewhere in between may be nice as well, but the most important thing for me is the game having high replay value.

10-15 hrs. or at most 20 hrs. after that game get dragged.

At 15 hours for action game. I think Uncharted games hit the perfect spot for this. RE4 Remaster do it well as well never outstayed their welcome.

For turn based JRPG 30 hours is optimal. FF6-10, Suikoden 2, DQ3, SMT Digital Devil Saga and many more classics usually not that long.

I like games that can last me anywhere from 15 minutes to over 150 hours. I can be happy with that 15 minutes and feel like it is enough, I can also be happy with 150 hours and wish there was more in some cases. It can also depend on if I want to rush through or take my time.

It varies and there's no one figure that can cover all games.

I'm 80 hours through SMT V on hard mode. I'm up to the last level, however most of the time spent was probably grinding.

Try not to have any fixed time limits on games in general myself. Entirely depends on the type of game as well. Probably wouldn’t be interested in playing through a 40+ hour beat ‘em up. 😅

Anyway just kind of leave that up to the individual game and the experience that I had with it.

Assuming it's a full priced game: around 35-40 hours is grand. Most games, once i start hitting that mark the ol brain starts thinking "hey...lets try another game". Then I inevitably forget about the first game.

If the developer can stretch it out without it feeling like a grind then that's fine too. I have put 100+ hours into Xenoblade games. But there does come a point where the exploring is done and i just want to go and a have a friendly chat with the final boss.

With longer games though, one thing I think that helps with longer engagement is having a good mixture of stuff that needs a longer session combined with other stuff that can be done in a quick sitting. So like shorter (but still interesting) side quests for play during the week and longer main story stuff for the weekends.

20 hours like a dragon ishin was perfect for me.

15 hours is perfect... Tack on another 10 or so with completionist content and we're good!

It honestly depends on the game.

I've got thousands of hours in Factorio, Cities: Skylines, Satisfactory, and other sandbox games.

But at the same time, I honestly struggle to finish most linear, story-based games if they're longer than 20 hours. I'm currently playing Horizon: Forbidden West and just got to the 12-hour mark and I'm already kind of tired of it.

So I guess 10-20 hours is the ideal length for me. It might not make sense but I use the "is this longer than three movies and more fun" rational when it comes to game length. At 60-70 dollars, did I a.) get more than three movies' worth of time out of it, and b.) did that time feel well spent?

If yes to both, then no regret.

Yup, that sounds like the sweet spot. 15-hour core experience, with 10+ in side quests or other content.

That's why when they said the Space Marine 2 campaign was only 12 hours I was like "Eh, that's fine" lol. I'm not worried about that part.

Yup, more one-and-done games.

I've said it multiple times and I'll say it again: I want to see more "pilot projects"; throw a small team, a modest budget, and a reasonable timelines and give them full creativity over it and see what they come up with. It'd be like non-indie indie games.

Games don't need to cost tens of millions of dollars to develop or take 3+ years. Not every game has to be a "banger" or some epic experience; sometimes "good enough" is exactly that: good enough.

10+ is a great start as I think it's the best length for a SP game. 6 - 8+ is a bit short but that all depends on the game. Witcher 3 as an example, the length game is around 50/56 hours on the main game and depends on how you play it. For me, it took me 3 months just to beat the game when it came out. I really had a blast playing that long of a game and it's still the only longest game I ever played and enjoyed from start to finish. Truly got my money's worth on how long it took me to complete. More hours mean more worth my money/time when it comes to purchasing an SP game.

The Order: 1886 comes to mind. A 4-hour game that was full price of $60 and the length that was ridiculously short, gamers were upset paying full price for a short game The Order: 1886, I actually like the game, but it wasn't worth replaying nor had replay value. Had it been just $20/$30, it would have been acceptable back then.

The Order: 1886 was a very short game and you're asking gamers pushing for a short game like 1886? Yeah right.

About 15 hours for the main campaign. I actually enjoy some padding. Sometimes I'm just tired and want to do something a bit mindless and collection activities are good for that.

Let those teams that have been churning out the same franchise for years create something new. Kinda like what Double fine used to do: create these different groups and let them work out their vision. Just fun, small games.

I love The Order 1886. Sure part of it was a graphical showcase and tech demo. But I loved the setting, the firearms and the enemies. Some of the set pieces floored me like when they were abseiling from that blimp.

Always wished Sony would port this game to PC; but the studio has moved on.

And yeah the pushback to that game was strong, so was the reaction to Ryse.

Sub 20

And the majority should be sub 10 with replayability options

Depends on the genre.

FPS ideally 5-9.

And make the cutscenes unskippable to make replayability even more fun and encouraging.😊

@Pedro: I want to say OG Kingdom Hearts had unskippable cutscenes. I recall fighting Ansem and dying a lot, having to rewatch the whole cutscene again. I do not miss those days.

You are correct. It had many if not all cutscenes were unskippable. Trash design.

5 to 10 hours is nice because you can replay game with no major time commitment.

8-10 hours for shooters. For action games, 15. For RPGs, 40

If i'm enjoying the game, then it can be 200hrs. Seems a lot of you have short attention spans and get bored with games easily, are you sure this is the right hobby for you?

I am talking about games that have good pacing and aren't overly long. Games like Half-Life, Metro, Bioshock, SOMA, Portal, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, old school God of War, Jak and Daxter, A Hat in Time, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Rime, Uncharted, Gears of War, Bulletstorm, Journey, ABZU, Inside, Brother: A Tale of Two Sons, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Batman Arkham Asylum, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Max Payne, Beyond Good and Evil, Halo, Killzone, Ori and the Blind Forest, Death's Door, The Forgotten City, Cocoon, etc..

Those games offer satisfying and engaging experiences without the added bloat, grind, and shit that makes you stop playing. You can comfortably pick up any of those games and know that you can finish it in a reasonable amount of time. Long games are intimidating to even start playing because the time investment is a lot to ask of a person.

I think injecting RPG systems into games that don't need them has ruined a lot of games. Too much time wasted in menus, inventories, crafting, etc..

I don't even know anymore. My answer's probably changed 100 times. Depending on the kinda SP, probably ~8-10 for shooter dependent upon a SP campaign, but for an RPG i'm happy with a concise 30-40hrs. At the end of the day, just limit the shitty padding and have a good gameplay loop.

There's no ideal length. A game should be exactly as long as it needs to be.

Don't have one, it all depends on how the game is designed. Don't want a game to end too soon nor overstay it's welcome.

Examples:

Inside could've been a bit longer.

Elden Ring could've been a bit shorter.

Mario 64 is perfect.

There's also a reason why games like AC Valhalla have become 120+ hours, eventhough the gameplay mechanics can only stretch it out to like 40-50 tops.

AAA companies believe that if they can keep a player in their game for longer, he will be more inclined to visit the store and buy skins.

That's why we have live services and 200+ hour RPGs now.

It honestly depends on the TYPE of single player game I'm playing.

if it's a platfrormer/side scroller 10hrs is cool

if it's an action adventure/beat'em up 15hrs is fine

If it's supposed to be an tradidtional RPG, I'll feel ripped off it it's less than 25-30hrs

if it's a CRPG I want 50+hrs

this is a good way to put it.

in the same ballpark, the ideal length for a sp game intro is 2-5 mins. anymore than that and i start to get twitchy. let me play. if they reach 10-15 mins there's a very good chance i bail

Most games fail your 2-5 minute intro. Some are an hour long. In fact, it at times feel like gameplay is secondary in most triple A /modern games.

@Pedro: what's got an hour long intro? i'd be livid lol. i suppose if you count the bullshit faux gameplay you could say tlou2 has

The bold.

@Pedro: in that case yeah there's lots that don't let you off the leash for a long time. far too many. i was talking purely cinematics

Cinematics is generally skippable. Which makes them more tolerable for me personally. However, the unskippable long and boring barely interactable introductions are intolerable for me.

Anything Kojima touches. LOL. ;)

Any rpg's over 40 hours is quite good, shooters atleast 12-15 hours is solid. All minus replaybility or unlocking unlockables.

Around 10-15 for me, depending on the game.

300 hours to complete 💯 if it's a rpg

That's what the Witcher 3 with both dlc took me,and it didn't out stay it's welcome.

The game is a barometer for every single player game for me...the only true 10/10 game.

15-20 hours probably. Unless it's an RPG then it has to be longer (40-100 hours).

263.8 hours

crazy coincidence

For a non RPG i'd say the length of TLOU2. For an RPG it has to be 40+

Chrono Trigger only takes like 25 hours to beat which is pretty short for an RPG but it’s one of the greatest games of all time. It’s all about what is done with the time in the game from beginning to end.

@Archangel3371: I think Chrono trigger is the ideal length for an rpg.

I wish more rgps were 25 hs.

Tyranny was also very short and great.

Xeno Length. (60 hours rush mode, Hundreds of hours completionist)