11 Long-Arse Video Games You Can Play To While Away The Summer
Summer is here, and like any normal person, I plan to spend it staying cool indoors and playing video games. But not just any video games. I’m into single-player narrative games that last a long, long time. These stand in contrast to narrative-free (or narrative-lite) video games that you can basically play forever, like Stardew Valley. No, these are games that reward you for the effort you put in with a story at least a satisfying as reading a book, but with more quick-action button press sequences.
Here are 11 super-long, super-great single player games that have seen me and others through various warm summers. They are listed in order of shortest to longest*.
*Calculating the “length” of a video game is more difficult than it seems. We all play at different speeds, and whether you “finished” a game really depends on your own definition of the word. So I took the time it takes players to complete the main plot (scraped from howlongtobeat.com) and averaged it with the time it takes to complete everything for a rough estimate of “game length.” This is more maths than I am comfortable with.
Desert Bus VR (2017) 16 hours
Desert Bus VR’s 16 hour play-time might make it seem like it doesn’t belong on this list, but time is relative, man, and when the only action in a game is driving a bus between Tucson and Las Vegas and back in real time, 16 hours feels like an eternity. The road is straight. There are no enemies to distract you, and no plot. You can’t just leave it running either, because the bus pulls slightly to one side. Crash and you’re towed back to the start, in real time. You can, listen to the radio, though.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (2020) 99 hours
To fully complete Valhalla, you’ll spend around 140 hours pillaging the European countryside as a mighty Viking warrior. If you ask me, that’s not enough time. I want this game to be longer, please. If you want to rush through it, you’ll be in Viking mode for 60 hours.
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Google Stadia, Microsoft Windows, Amazon Luna
Fallout: New Vegas (2010) 91 hours
If the world of New Vegas were real, you’d want to leave after 10 minutes, and you’d be dead in 20. But as a video game, the nuke-scarred hellscape that used to be Las Vegas is endlessly entertaining. The main story lasts about 36 hours, and a do-everything run can be finished in 150, give or take.
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Stardew Valley (2016) 102 hours
It’s easy to forget this leisurely, gentle game even has a plot, but it does, and it will take you around 52 hours to complete it. If you want to do everything in the valley, you’ll be putting in around 153 hours, because there are a lot of crops to grow, friends to meet, and fish to catch.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Android, PlayStation 4, macOS, Xbox One, iOS, Windows
Final Fantasy XII (2006) 110 hours
The Final Fantasy games have never been my thing, so I asked a friend about this entry in the series. He said, “It’s really great, but the first 20 hours or so is pretty boring.” Yeah, that’s me out, but if you like the unique vibe of these games, there’s a lot of vibe here. The main story alone will take 61 hours of your life, and you’ll need 100 more hours than that if you want to complete everything.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), 112 hours
This is the best video game on this list and probably the best video game ever made. It’s so good, riding a horse from one place to another — how you’ll spend the majority of the 50 hours or so it takes to finish the main story — never gets boring. It’s so good, when you beat it, you’ll think it was too short. Anyway, to collect all the collectibles, complete all the side quests, and play all the mini games will take around 175 hours. It takes 12 hours to speedrun Red Dead 2!
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) 117 hours
How much sword and sorcery gameplay is enough for you? How about nearly 70 hours worth? Not enough? How about 70 hours of main story plus 77 hours of side-quests, loot collection, and whatnot? That’s what you get with this epic, top-down fantasy, action RPG.
Platforms: Android, Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) 119 hours
Breath of the Wild immediately grabs your attention and forces whimsy and wonder deep into your delight gland until you give in and devote your life to it. The next thing you know, a week has gone by and your family moved. You could play through BOTW story in about 50 hours, but you’ll want to take some serious time with this one. A full “do everything and collect all the Korok seeds” run should take around 189 hours. That’s over a month at a full time job! The average between them is a mere 119 hours. You can polish that off by March!
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Wii U
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) 123 hours
Widely regarded as among the best RPGs ever made, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt could easily become your life. Its open world, do-whatever-you-want style is reminiscent of pen-and-paper RPGs, except you don’t have to do any maths or deal with other humans. Just completing the main plot takes around 55 hours, but a full, kill-every-monster and collect-every-weapon, run will take nearly 200 hours, if you’re playing the Game of the Year edition.
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011): 133 hours
All the Elder Scrolls games are big, but Skyrim is the biggest (arguably.) While the main story of this epic RPG can be completed in “only” 34 hours, the real draw is everything else. Skyrim feels like a full world, and like the actual world, there’s a lot of pointless things to do — 233 hours worth, if you do literally everything.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox 360, Windows
Persona 5 (2016) 135 hours
Persona 5 is the perfect game to escape into if you prefer being a stylish-but-deadly Japanese teenager over whatever your actual life is. This RPG is massive. You’ll need nearly 100 hours to finish the main story alone, and around 173 hours if you want to complete everything — everything includes working a shitty virtual job, reading novels, and way, way more.
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
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