Video games are created to induce fun and entertainment for long hours and can sometimes even extend to several days, depending on the type of game you’re playing. Most video games tend to take around a day or two to complete if you intend to finish it in just one sitting. 

However, some of the fastest video games you can finish in just a few hours. Most of these video games tend to dip in quality with their fast-paced gameplay and rushed storylines; however, some genuinely excel when the video game unfolds quickly. Here are the fastest video game titles to finish.

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Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: Metal Gear Informer

Assassin’s Creed Rogue

Clocking at only ten hours of game time on the first playthrough, Assassin’s Creed Rogue was released back in November of 2014 and was the seventh installment of the series. The game was set between Assassin Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III. 

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: Steam

The game was also released together with another Assassin’s Creed game called Unity. Players follow Shay Patrick Cormac as he hunts down former members of the Brotherhood in the mid-18th Century during the Seven Years’ War. Assassin’s Creed Rogue is played much like its predecessor with land-based exploration through jumping off walls, roofs, and cliffs. 

Naval exploration can also be done in this game. With all the features similar to other Assassin’s Creed games and both naval and land-based exploration, you would think Rogue would be a challenging game to play. In the end, it only takes a few hours to get the hang of the game’s mechanics and follow the storyline making it one of the easiest and fastest Assassin’s Creed games to finish.

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Just Cause 2

A decade ago, Just Cause 2 was touted as a game with the largest open-world during its release. 

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: WIRED

The game still holds the title up to this very day; however, you would imagine a game that features a vast open-world would mean a lot of game time for exploration and discovery. However, the game’s seven missions are generally bland and would usually be completed around ten hours

The game is better off being played without following the missions and just exploring every corner of the luscious island of Panau.

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Darkwatch

Imagine a shooter game with cowboys, vampires, and other supernatural creatures. It is a perfect recipe for a riveting shooter game. On the surface, Darkwatch seemed like one of those shooter video games that you want to play for hours and hours until you drop from exhaustion or dizziness. 

While the game does fulfill its Western horror steampunk fantasy, players would soon be frustrated with the game’s lack of longevity in-game time. A player that plays Darkwatch on moderate difficulty could finish the game in roughly six hours

That’s not a lot of gaming hours to scratch the itch of playing such a fantastic game. While Darkwatch does offer some features like the competitive multiplayer mode that can match up to 16 players at once, it is still not enough to satisfy our fantasy.

Braid

Braid is one of the OG games that started the wave of Indie games that received mainstream attention. It was well worth it for a game that offers a simple premise with Tim, the protagonist, who goes on a journey to save a princess from a monster.

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: GQ

However, as the game progresses, more and more complex mechanics are being added and unlocked, making it even more challenging to play. The game’s premise might be simple, but the depth of the story, especially near the end, is quite compelling. 

Players need to watch out for some clues that will uncover the twist at the end. With all this said, Braid continues to be one of those games that you can play over and over because of its short playtime of around five hours.

Mortal Kombat X

No one would anticipate that a fighting game such as Mortal Kombat X would be on this list. Fighting games tend to have the highest replayability out of all types of games.

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: The Guardian

However, if you do play Mortal Kombat X for its storyline, you’ll end up feeling like you’re watching some action masterpiece with all the non-stop brutal fighting. 

The Mortal Kombat franchise has always been about violent fatalities and excessive blood and gore, but Mortal Kombat X completes the entire experience in just five hours of playtime. After that, you can quickly head back to the game’s arcade modes, where you can challenge other players in a fight to the death.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a love letter to the 80s action movies with its art style and characters. As a spin-off to the widely popular Far Cry series, Blood Dragon had a ridiculous premise, but that is part of the charm that draws a lot of love from the fans of the series.

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: Behance

A visually pleasing game with some of the best open-world settings in any video game, Blood Dragon’s neon-filled setting is by far one of the most unique. 

The action in the game does not disappoint. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon soon became a fan favorite game even with its short runtime of four hours. The game might be short and sweet but worth playing.

Inside

Inside is a dark and disturbing puzzle adventure game best played in just one sitting. The game is perfect for those who want to have the best experience playing a game in the shortest time possible. Inside follows a nameless boy as he tries to evade the people that want to imprison him. 

Soon after, he discovers the reason why people are mind-controlled like zombies. The game features a dark and grizzly take on a future where people have lost their will to live, the freedom to choose, and have submitted themselves to the whims of scientists willing to experiment on them. 

The mature storyline and the surprising twist, in the end, leave a lot of players baffled but interestingly drawn into the theories about the Huddle. Needless to say, players would immediately want to finish the game to discover the ending and perhaps an alternate ending. Inside can be played from start to finish in just three and a half hours.

Portal

Everyone knows this modern classic for its well-designed gameplay. Portal is a mixture of an adventure and puzzle game rolled into one.

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: PC Gamer

The story is also relatively easy to follow, with players taking the role of a prisoner who is given a gun that creates portals. He must escape the Aperture Science Center by jumping in and out of rooms while also solving different puzzles. 

Honestly, a video game masterpiece, you’d want to play Portal over and over even though its run time lasts only about three hours.

Virginia

Virginia plays like a murder mystery novel where players take the role of an FBI investigator as she searches for clues on a boy’s disappearance, which leads to a more compelling mystery inspired by an episode on the hit TV show X-Files.

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: Polygon

What makes the game unique is there are no dialogues, and the video game trusts that you understand everything that’s presented to you even without a word being said. It’s a risk that pays off in the end when players finally solve the mystery. 

Virginia is a game that does not need to explain itself through lengthy narrative exposition. It never takes a player’s intellect for granted and instead relies on solving the central mystery. With that said, Virginia does have a very short playtime taking only around two hours to finish.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

When you think of Metal Gear, your mind would immediately think about long hours of trying to infiltrate a facility as you dodge in and out of combat. Anyone familiar with the franchise knows that the games are far more enjoyable when it takes a lot of time to play them.

Discover The Fastest Video Game Titles To Finish
Image Source: Fan Bolt

However, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes takes that concept and takes the opposite approach by having it as one small single mission game. With its ridiculous plotting and unsurprisingly lackluster approach to gameplay and combat, players could quickly finish the game within an hour

There are a few side quests here and there, and the game feels like it is supposed to be a DLC from a previous or upcoming game instead of a full-blown standalone game.

Conclusion

Short runtime does not always mean that a video game is terrible. Some games may turn out to be a total snoozefest, but there are also some of the fastest video games to play that are truly worth playing. 

These games may have a very short runtime, but they stay on our list of favorite games to play over and over for a very long time.