Are games too short?

There’s a lot of buzz about the PlayStation 4 exclusive The Order: 1886 having a rather short run time.

The game, which was released a couple of days ago, suffered an unfortunate early leak online when a YouTuber uploaded a full walk-through of the title.

According to the leak, The Order’s main quest can be completed in about 5 hours – half of which is apparently taken up by cutscenes and quick time events. Yeowch.

After the first critic reviews came streaming in, it appeared the initial leak wasn’t far off, with most reviewers clocking in around 6 or 7 hours of play time.

This has led to some backlash and criticism from gamers, who say that a 5-7 hour game selling at full price is unacceptable.

But is this sort of game length anything new?

We took a look at some game titles over the years that fall into the same sort of range as The Order leak, and found a fair share of big titles that ran between 5 and 7 hours of game time.

Resident Evil (PSOne)
Resident Evil 2 (PSOne)
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (PSOne)
Medal of Honor: Warfighter (PC)
Call of Duty: Ghosts (PC)
FEAR (PC)
FEAR 2 (PC)
FEAR 3 (PC)
Max Payne 2 (PC)
Spec Ops: The Line (Xbox 360, PS3)
The Darkness II (Xbox 360, PS3)
Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Devil May Cry (PS2)
Devil May Cry 2 (PS2)
Mirror’s Edge (PS3)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Xbox 360, PS3)
Ryse: Son of Rome (Xbox One)
Most Call of Duty games

So The Order’s game time really isn’t that uncommon. It should be noted, though, that a lot of these titles offer something in the way of replayability and extras – something which The Order lacks, according to reviews.

The Order 1886: pretty, but short lived?

PlayStation 4 titles

Perhaps a better comparison would be to look at PlayStation 4 releases, and what games on the platform currently offer in the way of play time.

When compared to other releases on the PlayStation 4, The Order’s purported run-time certainly seems to fall on the lower half of the spectrum.

Aside from indies, the game only sits ahead of Metal Gear Solid V’s paid-for demo Ground Zeroes, which charged half-price for one and a half hours of game time.

Game	Game time (main story)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes	1.5 hours
The Order: 1886	5 hours
Murdered: Soul Suspect	6.5 hours
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare	7 hours
Killzone: Shadow Fall	10 hours
Thief	10 hours
Knack	10.5 hours
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor	14 hours
The Last of Us: Remastered	15 hours
Assassin’s Creed Unity	16 hours
Alien: Isolation	18 hours
Grand Theft Auto V	30.5 hours
Dragon Age: Inquisition	41.5 hours

Previously, Ready At Dawn’s chief technical officer Andrea Pessino waved off the 5-hour run-time speculation, saying at “a normal pace and difficulty level, you can finish the game in a window between eight and ten hours”.

Ready At Dawn founder and CEO Ru Weerasuriya also weighed in on the matter of game length, telling Eurogamer that the studio is focused on quality over quantity.

“Game length is important…Every game has to take its own time to tell its story. Some games can be short. Some games can be long.”