Game Lengths - Past to Present

[NewYears1978]

I don't know how it is that I have been gaming for nearly 25 years and never even though of this before...but isn't it amazing how far not only the technology has come with game creation, but also the lengths of the games?

This came to me when I Downloaded KQ1 from ADGI yesterday (at work)..and just played it on my hour lunch break and completed the whole game.. Then I think about games I recently played which lasted 30-40 hours or so..and how big those games are and was just amazed.

KQ1 is just a few small screen blocks worth of a game...and as you progress each game gets larger.. quite a cool thing to think about.

What if gamers still today made games the length of games of our early days Could you imagine playing a zelda game that just lasted about an hour and only had a few screens ?

[pbpb33]

Games like Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island were also VERY short. QFG2 and LSL3 were both longer, so I don't think age of game always has relates directly to game length. Hmmm... what is the longest adventure any of you have played? I'd be interested to know what games have been the longest.

[MusicallyInspired]

The Longest Journey?

[Broomie]

I didn't think Curse was that short, thought it was a reasonable length for an adventure game.

Grim Fandango is a pretty long adventure game. And it's my favourite game at that!

[Lambonius]

I think it's more the nature of adventure games than all games in general. Even the first Zelda, for example, was quite a long game, especially if you wanted to find all the secrets yourself, without Nintendo Power. Role-playing games in particular tended to be quite long, even back in the day.

[DrJones]

It all depends on the game, if you play La-Mulana, you will be playing for weeks. But if you play "You have to burn the rope" (either the original or the de-make) you'll finish pretty soon.