A Short Hike is a great little platformer you can finish in a couple hours.

Super Mario RPG is a classic and can be squeezed into 10 hours if you rush, but probably closer to 12~15.

Portal?

Journey is a game that has stuck with me for the past ten years. It took me an hour and a half to complete.

I also love short-ish games, so hopefully one of these strikes your fancy. You didn’t specify a preferred genre or other games you liked, so I’m going to just throw some out there:

Adventure/Puzzle

• Stacking - fun adventure puzzle game based on matryoshka dolls
• Little Nightmares - fantastic puzzle game stuff great atmosphere and horror elements; similar to INSIDE and Limbo
• Abzû - underwater exploration with light puzzle mechanics
• Ys 1 and 2 - pretty old, but it’s my favorite Ys game; Ys Origin is a bit newer, but also a bit longer (~11 hours per playthrough, need 3 for full story, but each plays differently)

Puzzle

• Manifold Garden - puzzle game where you manipulate gravity
• Hexlogic - sudoku-like
• SUPERHOT - shooter that plays like a puzzle game
• Magrunner - just ignore the story, the puzzles are pretty good
• Portal - the OG puzzle game, must play if you haven’t; second is about twice as long

ARPG/Souls-like

• Death’s Door - just started, but it’s looking good
• Ittle Dew - Zelda-like with lots of satire about the genre
• Furi - boss rush only
• Titan Souls - boss rush, but both you and the boss has 1HP

Narrative heavy

• Telltale Batman or The Walking Dead - narrative heavy game with walking simulator sections; choices matter (but not a ton); great if you want a decent interactive story
• What Remains of Edith Finch - explore your old home to learn everyone’s secrets
• Oxenfree - explore Island to uncover its secrets; replay value for alternate endings

Metroidvania

• Headlander - Metroidvania where you play as a disembodied head that can attach to other bodies
• Ori and the Blind Forest

Point and Click

• Darkside Detective - point and click with a great sense of humor
• Broken Age - you’re a virgin about to be sacrificed, and you’re not sold on the idea
• Deponia - earth is completely wrecked, and you want off; quite funny

AAA/high production value

• Ryse: Son of Rome - not amazing, but a pretty satisfyingly average experience
• Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - shooter a bit after the US civil war

I have more, just let me know what you like and I can try to give more recs.

I think Bastion is a perfect fit for this

Outer wilds. It can be longer for some but finishing it in a single sitting or two it hits best. A deep emotional experience that you can only ever truly experience truly the first time. So avoid spoilers at all costs.

Also Firewatch

Games of about 10hs from before 2019?

• King of Dragon Pass: Tribe management game/text adventure with illustrations. Felt it was interesting in both mechanics and vibes
• Plants vs Zombies: Addictive comedy-themed tower defense
• Alundra: PS1’s Zelda
• Gris: Atmospheric 2D puzzle platformer
• Celeste: Rewarding 2D platformer with nice music
• The Lion’s Song: Graphic aventure light on gameplay and heavy on story and atmosphere. 4 chapters about early 20th century Austrian artists and scientists with themes like art, gender, identity, memory, society, etc.
• Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You: You play as a government employee tasked with finding people deemed as terrorists by the gov by scouring their social networks. There’s different ways to play it
• Papers, Please: Similar to above but as a border control agent
• The Banner Saga: Tactical RPG bases on viking mythology
• Rebuild: Gangs of Deadville: Management of a group/colony of customizable survivors in a zombie apocalypse. Web game

These are more recent but they should require very low specs:

• Roadwarden: Very well written and immersive text adventure with RPG elements. Low fantasy world, you’re assigned as a roadwarden by a far away nation to a dangerous and sparsely populated wildland.
• Landnama: Viking tribes settling Iceland. Plays like a well designed board game in video game form. Real time with pause.
• Citizen Sleeper: Incredible cyberpunk text-heavy adventure with RPG elements and a narrative focused on being humane in a not so humane world with a not quite humane body

I always check https://howlongtobeat.com/ before starting a new game

I also tend to prefer games that are short.

Here are a couple of my PC recommandations, in no specific order :

Somerville

Jusant

Planet of Lana

Limbo + Inside

Little Nightmares 1 + 2

Cocoon

Solar Ash

Tunic

Cult If The Lamb

Have A Nice Death

Death’s Door

Stray

Trek To Yomi

I have seen it recommended somewhere in the comments but I want to shed some more light on this game: What Remains of Edith Finch. It is a walking simulator that should take about 2 hours and is best played in a single session.

As Edith Finch, you go back to the house where you grew up in your younger years to explore it. The Finch family has an almost genetic trait of bad luck; many of them have died before their time. You explore the house room by room and explore that person’s last moments.

There is no gore or horror of any kind, but there are children that die, so if that is a trigger I would sit this one out. If not, it is currently on sale for less than €5. It is worth it.

Mirror’s Edge - a perfect way to spend 5 hours

Ordered-ish by recommendation:

• SUPERHOT (it’s the most innovative shooter I’ve played in years)
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• Sayonara Wild Hearts
• Carrion
• Planet of Lana
• Jusant
• The Artful Escape
• The Gunk

Return of the Obra Dinn. The 2nd game from the maker of Papers, Please. You’re trying to solve the murders or disappearances of 60 people on a ship, using a watch that can view their moment of death. Insanely unique game, and it’s hard to replicate that feeling of all the pieces of the puzzle falling into place that this game fosters.

Helltaker is a little puzzle game that is free and short and sweet

Lil’ Gator Game can be 100%'d in like 4 hours or less.

The game is basically BOTW but smol.

• Eliza: A visual novel by Zachtronics, took me 10 hours to beat

• Aviary Attorney: A visual novel / detective/ attorney game with music from Camille Saint-Saens and art by J.J. Grandville. Beat it in 7 hours and had a blast.

• Braid: 2D puzzle platformer with time shift mechanic. Finished it in 7 hours.

• Tiny Bang story: wimmelpicture point & click. 7 hours.

• Call of Cthulhu: Horror walking simulator. 7 hours.

• Bastion: Amazing isometric action game by Supergiant Games. Rook me good 6 hours to finish.

• Thomas was alone: 2 D platformer with geometric shapes as characters and great narrator. 6 hours.

• Whispers of a machine: Noir detective story point & click. 5 hours.

• Homefront: USA gets invaded by Korea first person shooter. Good 4 hours.

• INSIDE: Atmospheric 2D puzzler. 4 hours.

• LIMBO: Same as INSIDE, same developer, great game, different story. 4 hours.