There are some incredible sci-fi games with rich lore and interesting characters that are perfect for sinking hours into: Mass Effect, Alien: Isolation, and Outer Wilds, for example. However, sometimes players want something short and sweet, a game they can start and finish in one happy (and perhaps creepy) evening.
The following games are all short enough to finish in one playthrough. Some are only a couple of hours long, while others can be extended if players want to collect everything, with a main story that can be completed in one go.
7 Portal
Kicking off this list with a classic, Portal comes in at around 3–4 hours if players only focus on the main story. Admittedly, to experience everything takes around 9-9.5 hours (which would be a very long evening). Still, if players want to enjoy the story, they can settle down for a few enjoyable hours of wit and puzzle-solving.
The sequel is 8 ½ hours in total, satisfying gamers who would have preferred a longer runtime. There's a definite upside to the length of the first game for players with limited time, and while it's over in one evening, there's enough in the story to ruminate over.
6 Oxenfree
Oxenfree's story is incredible and worth investigating without spoilers. But to give new players a quick overview, it follows a teenage girl, Alex, as she navigates through a local island following a series of supernatural events. The story takes some interesting turns, taking the traditional coming-of-age story and giving it a supernatural twist.
The main story is around 4 hours long, perfect for settling down for a (slightly creepy) game night. However, if players want to collect everything, they're looking at around 13 hours. In our opinion, players can enjoy the story of Oxenfree without chasing every single collectible, and the story is compulsively playable, making it very difficult to put down without finishing it.
5 Tacoma
Tacoma is a shorter game at around 2–5 hours, depending on how good players are at solving puzzles. In this narrative-driven game, it's the players' task to investigate six crew members on the space station Tacoma, to find out what happened to them. It's deeply absorbing, with the kind of characters that players are left wondering about after they finish playing.
The main character, Amy, can review conversations from these crew members, rewinding and fast-forwarding them as often as she needs. These conversations help to uncover clues, which allow the player to move on to the next stage. Tacoma's world is compelling and worth settling down to spend a few hours with.
4 Lifeline
Like Tacoma, Lifeline is a narrative-heavy game with branching paths by writer Dave Justus. It's an interactive story following Taylor, a lone explorer, in the aftermath of a crash-landing on an unknown moon. What's interesting about Lifeline is that it plays out in real-time, giving players a constant feeling of time pressure as Taylor tries to survive.
Lifeline has many possible endings, so it's a good one to revisit over several evenings to see if events will play out differently. However, the main runtime comes in at 2.5 hours. It's the perfect sci-fi narrative game to settle down with if players love the feeling of experiencing a compelling story in one sitting.
3 Neo Cab
Neo Cab is an interesting game at 3–4 hours. It's a visual novel set in a fully automated world, and the player steps into the role of Lina, the last ever human cab driver. When Lina's best friend disappears, it's up to the player to figure out what happened to her by quizzing their cab passengers.
It's an interesting game with a lot to say about how to hold onto humanity in an AI-driven world. Lina will lose her job if she abandons her customers to chase a lead. Instead, she must pick up new passengers and try to keep them happy to get a 5-star rating. Along the way, players will be able to see Lina's emotions in the bracelet that tracks her feelings, and if Lina is too angry or upset, she may not be able to ask certain questions. It's a game that players can pick up more than once to see if they can unlock new dialogue options.
2 Decrypt
Decrypt by Crux Game Studios is a bite-sized sci-fi-horror snack at around an hour long. Just enough to manage the level of tension, this hour is packed with horrors. The player has to investigate the ISS Travan after it is discovered way off course. The crew is missing, and the belief is that they abandoned the ship. However, the truth is far, far worse.
It's a horror survival game with some excellent jump scares, and the story unfolds via a series of encrypted memos found on the abandoned ship. It builds tension brilliantly in a short amount of time.
1 Don't Enter the Forest! by PhilterPhil
A short and tense game, Don't Enter the Forest! by PhilterPhil is free to play on Itch.io. It's a sci-fi game and can be finished in 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the player's choices. When his car breaks down, a man searches for help but quickly becomes lost in a forest. The player must try to guide him to safety, but that's not easy.
As the sun goes down, the main character starts to panic. Everywhere he turns, there is a dead end, and the woods become progressively creepier as the night descends. When the player stumbles upon a strange, scorched area of the woods, they start to realize that these are no ordinary woods. A fun, old-school pixel-art game that builds a feeling of dread, with multiple endings depending on the player's decisions.