All of us have certain points in life where we have less time to enjoy some games. If you have a full-time job, kids, or any other time-consuming activities, these are best short and cheap games that you will be able to finish in just a couple of hours.
Important! All the prices are taken from the official PlayStation Store. There are often discounts on many of the titles during various promos. You might be able to buy any or all of these games below half of the official price.
Short Games and Cheap Games Overview
Here are the best short Games but also the best cheap Games that you can finish in Under 5 hours.
All Telltale Games or Life is Strange Games
- Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch. Some of the games are even available on iOS, Android, or PS Vita. Not every single game is available on all these platforms, but most of them are.
- Length: About 2-3 hours per episode
- Price: About $15
Credit: Telltale Games
To get the obvious things out of the way, let’s take a quick look at all of these short and cheap games.
You could make a list of any of the Telltale Games or Life is Strange series. They are episodic adventures, in the style of 3D Point and Click games. They are often much longer than 5 hours, but they are smartly divided into episodes that don’t last that long. You can play this game part by part and all of these games are worth their price.
You can often buy them in bundles or on sales. Most of these games contain between 3 to 6 episodes, most often 5.
There are plenty of series within the Telltale Games, from brilliant The Walking Dead, through Guardians of the Galaxy, Game of Thrones, or even Minecraft.
Oxenfree
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and iOS
- Length: About 4 hours
- Price: About $10
Credit: Night School Studio
It is the game that I put on a shelf many times, before finally getting to play it. It was a huge mistake.
It’s a brilliant game with an original graphical style and the best dialogues of all time in my opinion. The game is fairly simple with its presentation and all you do basically is walk and talk, but the talking part is something that makes this game so memorable.
You go on an island with your friends, everything goes south like in many thrillers, and you need to solve the mystery of what is going on with your friends and the island itself.
You have the ability to use your radio to track different sound waves. It can help you solve puzzles or listen to some interesting pieces of information about the island, its inhabitants, and events from the past.
What Remains of Edith Finch
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch
- Length: About 3 hours
- Price: About $20
Credit: Giant Sparrow
What Remains of Edith Finch is one of these games where you are just curious about everything around you.
It is a first-person walking simulator more or less, but you get to experience the fate of many of your family members.
You will be able to find various clues, books, notes, etc., to help yourself figure what happened to every last one of them.
It is a beautiful adventure that gives you many new gameplay mechanics to break out the walking stagnation. For example, you get to be a cat and jump on the branches or an owl and hunt at night.
It all just plays perfectly together and is definitely worth checking out.
The Little Acre
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android
- Length: About 2 hours
- Price: About $15
Credit: Pewter Games Studios
The Little Acre is the shortest game on the list and one that I have not seen on any other similar list.
It is a gorgeous little adventure, where you get to play as two siblings in the search of your father. It is a more classical point-and-click game but with a couple of twists in its presentation.
The most memorable aspect is the dog that is just the cutest and the funniest aspect of the whole thing. It is very well-written and the humor is spot-on.
In less than two hours, you can easily sympathize with the characters and get invested in the story.
Kentucky Road Zero
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch
- Length: About 2 hours per episode
- Price: About $23
Credit: Cardboard Computer
That is an odd one. The whole game is longer, at about 10 hours, but it is divided into 5 episodes that came out over 7 years, starting in 2013 and ending in 2020.
It is a game that is often a parody of many common mechanics, with interesting and twisted stories that should keep your eyes peeled.
There are a lot of various mechanics to play around with while exploring the story and embarking on adventures and mysteries that lay ahead.
Kentucky Road Zero is a one-of-a-kind game that can create an atmosphere like no other game.
Firewatch
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch
- Length: About 4 hours
- Price: About $20
Credit: Campo Santo
One of my favorite games of all time must be Firewatch.
It is simple in the graphical presentation, but compelling and immersive in the world and the story. You start as a simple forest ranger and your only friend is a voice in your walkie-talkie. During the game, you built a relationship with her, uncover some weird events in the woods.
It is another walking simulator, but you always feel that the place you are walking to has a meaning. Different caves and landscapes can make you interesting in what is inside or who was there before you. These are the questions you will keep asking yourself all the time.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch
- Length: About 4 hours
- Price: About $19
Credit: The Astronauts
Set in a semi-open world with many mysteries. It is a great thriller, a little horror-adventure-type game that allows the player to roam around the beautiful landscapes, tracks, woods, and more to uncover mysteries hidden under the surface.
You will need to reassemble the chronology and timeline of events that happened. Your main character has an ability to see some paranormal activities and use his instincts to sense objects important to the story and solving the mysteries.
Gone Home
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch
- Length: About 2 hours
- Price: About $20
Credit: The Fullbright Company
Gone Home is a game that allows you to relive the past relationship of a girl returning home. The place of the story is your childhood home where you had many memories. You will find letters, pictures and uncover hidden rooms inside the house. The more you play, the more you get sucked into the story and your character's past.
It is worth noting that the game can be beaten within 1 minute. There is an achievement for doing so. But don’t let it distract you from exploring, because it is a beautiful story about love, that will stay in your heart for a long time.
Interactive Movie Games
- Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. Not every game is available on every platform but most of them are.
- Length: About 3 hours each
- Price: About $15 each
Credit: Flavourworks
This is an interesting genre by itself.
These are games but without any created graphic.
Visual presentations are simply movies put together in such a way that it creates a feeling of immersion.
Most of these games have different choices and consequences.
Similar to Life is Strange and all the Telltale Titles, there are plenty of games to talk about.
I will list some of the best out there and briefly describe them in one entry.
- Her Story – You become a detective that tries to solve an old case from 1994 about Hannah and her husband. We get to see Hannah’s interviews and try to solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearance.
- Late Shift – We follow the fate of a student named Matt. One night he becomes a witness to a car robbery. Then he gets involved in a theft in a British auction house. You need to prove your innocence.
- Shapeshifting Detective – It is a game about a detective that is sent to a small town in order to help solve the murder of a young girl. Some people doing tarot cards are somehow involved. It is your job to solve the mystery… or not.
- Telling Lies – You are a woman, who is a detective, and based on various videos on your computer, you need to place the pieces together. The most important thing is to get to the bottom of what happened, why it happened, and in what order. We use keywords to search for videos that might help us in solving the mystery.
- Erica - A story about a girl who lost her parents. She had a terrible past and one day is contacted by an old friend who says that she can help solve a murder and a key to that are her memories. It is not that simple, however, because she also gets involved with the murderer. It is your job to make sense of all that’s happening.
Best Short Games and Cheap Games Summary
We don’t always have time to play countless hours or games with massive open worlds.
Games like these are for these moments, and they are often overlooked by other people due to the popularity of obvious AAA titles.
All it takes is a couple of hours to change your perspective and even influence your real life, based on the adventures you have been through.
All games mentioned are out now.
For more lists check out this article about the 5 Best DLCs of the Last 10 Years.
