Game News Open worlds are good, but an hour or two video game is better
Published on 08/14/2022 at 09:05
I prefer short, concise games that I can finish in an evening to large open worlds.
A story of perspective
This article is an opinion piece, it is by nature subjective. The opinion of the author is personal and is not representative of that of the rest of JV’s editorial staff.
When we enter working life and take on a full-time job by choice or out of spite, our hobbies must be carefully selected to best fit into short evening or weekend time slots. . And if I come home from a long day at work and waste what little time I have left starting movies without being able to finish them or looking for my next game in vain, I consider the evening wasted. I like to make money better. And in this sense, short games, those that I can finish in an evening or two, seem to me to be ideal alternatives during the week. Obviously, it is also a question of very personal tastes and issues. The vertiginous lifespan of a J-RPG has always put me off: considering the possibility that it may be impossible for me to complete the game for lack of time or lack of desire to continue discourages me in advance. Spending entire weeks on the same game interests me too little.
A free one-hour nugget to discover
If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers is a point n’click released last year that follows the journey of four characters who evolve in the late 1920s. From his luxurious hotel room, Carlo impatiently awaits the arrival of her secret lover Patrick. Lady Winterbourne, newly widowed, receives letters at her mansion from new claimants to her fortune. Dr. Jordan Samuels, constantly belittled by his colleagues, takes refuge in the occult sciences. Finally, Laylah, tired of her routine, goes once morest her bosses’ orders.
Download If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers for free at itch.io
The right linear game
After closing Journey in a short evening, I had the feeling of having not only done something with my evening, but also of having added a new title to my library of knowledge and above all of having discovered a fabulous work. The game is barely two hours long, but its poetry is exceptionally rich and gave me a multiplayer experience out of this world. In another register, I loved looping A Short Hike for a short morning. Calmly climbing a nice bird on the top of a cliff while tasting my sandwiches left me with a more imperishable memory than my long horseback rides in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey wandering aimlessly.. Too many indicators, interface elements and information that confuses me instead of motivating me; an opinion also shared by Aubin in a post he had baptized “Zelda BOTW ruined every other open world for me” : “The NPCs are constantly requisitioning us and like many Ubisoft productions in the open world, the biggest fear of the title is that the player will be bored there. So he keeps adding goals to him and asking him“Completing a long quest knowing that a dozen other unrelated tasks are waiting behind me is not for me. I’d rather know where I’m going directly.
Come to think of it, most of my favorite games last well under ten hours: Mutazione, What Remains of Edith Finch, Firewatch, Sayonara Wild Hearts. Very often, these are narrative games. There is a very present difference between concise narrative games that know how to save unnecessary lengths and narrative games that are too hasty. There are many games too short: those who have not been able to exploit their entire narrative potential or who have not managed to correctly treat all of their plots. I rather like experiences that go straight to the point to deliver their message. In three and a half hours, Alba : A Wildlife Adventure delivered a nice story regarding ecology by offering a most relaxing adventure. In two and a half hours What Remains of Edith Finch offered such masterful staging that it will remain etched in the annals. These games are relatively linear. In fact, I might almost have named this post: “I prefer linear games to big open world games“, the correlation being so quickly made. If the narrative thread is well put together, I have no problem following it conscientiously.
To complete this short post, here is a non-exhaustive list of some short games (-10h) that I loved:
- Mutationa “mutant soap opera” with superb dialogues in which we follow the young Kai, who comes to the bedside of Nonno, her ailing grandfather on a very atypical island.
- What Remains of Edith Fincha little jewel of staging that traces the adventures of a cursed family in Washington State.
- Journeypoetic experience of a very ethereal initiatory journey.
- Sayonara Wild Heartsa sort of absolutely enjoyable interactive pop album.
- Solar Asha game that oscillates between platforms and exploration and that immerses us in a particular universe in the skin of Rei, a “Void Runner” with a rather incredible design
- The Artful Escapea short musical stroll that traces the quest for identity of a certain Francis Vendetti.
- Her Storya cult FMV game where you have to navigate through a search engine linked to a criminal file.
- Mirror’s Edgemonument of parkour where you embody the charismatic Faith.
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carteradventure game where you play a detective with strange powers, gone in search of a missing boy.
- Everybody’s Gone to the Rapturewalking sim in which you try to understand what happened to the inhabitants of a deserted town.
