this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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I keep a spreadsheet literally called "games to play". Ive played about half of these so far, but they all meet your criteria, and all have overall good reviews, here's a selection from it, including my own notes: (pardon the lack of formatting coming from a spreadsheet)
A Hand With Many Fingers - 3 hours - Puzzle - Difficult (use pen and paper for clues) CIA mystery
A Wolf In Autumn - 1 hour - Walking Sim - Girls nightmare
ADR1FT - 6 hours - Puzzle - Space station catastrophe
Anna - Extended Edition - 5 hours - Adventure - Psych horror in sawmill, inventory based puz
Antichamber - 7 hours - Puzzle - MC-Escher-esque open world physics breaking puzzle solving
Aporia: Beyond The Valley - 5 hours - Walking Sim - Walking Sim+ (puzzles), awaken in ancient temple in jungle
Ballads At Midnight - 4 hours - Visual Novel - Story of a bard and a vampire
Beyond: Two Souls - 12 hours - Adventure - Ellen Page / Willem Dafoe,
Blind Spot - 5 hours - Puzzle - Puzzle mystery story
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons - 3 hours - Walking Sim - Heart-wrenching story told with no words
Brukel - 1 hour - Walking Sim - 92yr old grandma retells memories of WWII
Close To The Sun - 6 hours - Walking Sim - Looks like Bioshock, great atmo
Cloud Climber - 1 hour - Walking Sim
Deliver Us The Moon - 5 hours - Adventure - Sci-fi story on moon, some puzzles, some platforming
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald A Whirlwind Heist - 1 hour - Walking Sim - Very short, hilarious game from maker of The Stanley Principle
Draugen - 3 hours - Mystery - American searching for missing sister in 1920s Norway
Goetia - 7 hours - Point-And-Click - Puzzles / adventure in abandoned house, text heavy
Gorogoa - 2 hours - Puzzle - Hand Illustrated puzzle game
Heavy Rain - 10 hours - RPG - Crime thriller / mystery, multiple outcomes, some QTEs
I Hope She's OK - 1 hour - Walking Sim - Short mystery at a nordic cabin, told through instagram-like messages
Jessika - 3 hours - FMV - Solve suicide of Jessika
Journey - 5 hours - Walking Sim - Atmospheric exploration
Knee Deep - 4 hours - Puzzle - Mystery in a swampland / theater production
Kona - 8 hours - Adventure - Detective in eerie Canada town
Manifold Garden - 6 hours - Puzzle - M.C. escher landscape build gravity bend puzzles
Murdered: Sould Suspect - 10 hours - RPG - Solve your own murder
Scanner Sombre - 3 hours - Walking Sim - Trippy cave-explore game
SOMA - 10 hours - RPG - Horror adventure
Tacoma - 4 hours - Walking Sim - Sci-fi space station adventure
The Fidelio Incident - 3 hours - Puzzle - Short story, plane crash in N. Ireland
The Forgotten City - 10 hours - RPG - Time loop in ancient Rome
The House of Da Vinci - 7 hours - Puzzle - Similar to "The Room" series
The Painscreek Killings - 10 hours - Walking Sim + - Murder mystery, find clues and keys
The Secrets of Darkwood - 5 hours - Txt RPG - Descendant of Might and Magic series
The Signifier - 9 hours - Adventure - Dark, tech-noir
The Silent Age - 4 hours - Point-and-click - Short, fairly easy puzzles, time travel post-apocalypse
The Turing Test - 6 hours - Puzzle - Portal/Talos wannabe
The Unfinished Swan - 4 hours - Puzzle - Paint / blob game
To The Moon 4 hours - Walking Sim - Doctors help dying patients relive life
Untitled Goose Game - 6 hours - TP-RPG - You are a horrible goose
Valley - 8 hours - Walking Sim - Actually running/jumping sim
Of these, the standouts that I've played so far are "Scanner Sombre" and "Unfinished Swan" for truly unique gameplay. "SOMA" and "Heavy Rain" for best storytelling. "Painscreek Killings" for best mystery (minus one very out of place sequence). "Forgotten City" for the best standalone Skyrim mod turned into a self contained adventure.
That's the kind of quality content that needs to be stickied for further reference or something!
To the Moon is a very short must play.