Marvel’s Midnight Suns – good, but very long (pic: 2K)

Readers discuss what it takes to play a game all the way to the end, from open world title like Zelda to ultra hard ones such as Sekiro.

This week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader TheTruthSoul (PSN ID), who asked what it is that inspires you to finish some games and not others? Are there common elements which influence your decision, or does it depend purely on the quality of the game and external factors?

Most people tried to beat at least the story campaign of any game they played, while admitting they don’t always have time and could easily get distracted… often by other games.

The one that got away
I’m currently on the last few fights of Marvel’s Midnight Suns and as much as I have enjoyed the game, and especially the story, I’m ready for it to be over (mainly because I won’t let myself play God Of War 2 until I’ve finished this game). I seem to complete a game about once a month or two.

I used to enjoy 100%ing games but I’ve found that as a consequence I usually end up making the main story quests too easy, as I’ve become overpowered from doing all the side quests. So I just try and do the main story now.

The only game I regret not completing was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I got to the last boss and had about 20 goes on it but I couldn’t be arsed. I know I could of completed it with another 50 goes but I wanted a new game so traded it in.
TommyFatFingers

Perfect length
Although I do always try to complete games I’m playing I find the most frustrating ones are those that are simply too long. I have a friend that cannot understand this position, and seem to think that every game should be as long as possible in order to justify the price. For me though, I can think of many games that were simply too long, either because the story ran out of steam (Alien Isolation), it was too full of bloat (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla) or both (The Last Of Us Part 2).

It’s all about finding the perfect length to tell your story and to make sure your gameplay doesn’t start to get old. That’s why 300 hours on Zelda: Breath Of The Wild still leaves you wanting more but something like Dead Space gets old well before the end, despite being much shorter.
Tosh

Fear of missing out
I don’t think I complete a lot of the games I play these days and haven’t for a while. But of the ones I have completed, I’d say there are three things that determine it:

1. Is it any good? Can I dip into it for a quick blast of awesome arcade action, like Mario Kart? Or if it’s story-based like The Witcher 3, Mass Effect, Pentiment and so on, that story and the characters are going to be doing some heavy lifting to keep me involved.

2. Am I juggling multiple games? I struggle to chop and change between some games. If I’m in the middle of one of those aforementioned story-heavy games, I’m probably going to have to go all in on that or I’ll forget where I’m up to. Likewise, if I find the controls complex, they’ll get pushed out of my brain if I start something else – I haven’t finished Star Wars Squadrons yet for this reason.

3. How big is the game? I can’t really dip and out of a story-based game so if I know it’s going to suck up a lot of my time and it’s not good (see #1), I’m less likely to persevere. If I look at the map and see how much more I have to discover it can be disheartening. I stopped playing Zelda: Breath Of The Wild for this reason, although I want to get Tears Of The Kingdom!

I always have a pang of regret and FOMO when I don’t finish a game, unless it just wasn’t any good.
FoximusPrime81 (gamertag/NN ID/Twitter)

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Minimum completion
I feel like I might be in the minority here, but I complete the vast majority of games I play. Well, at least if we count ‘complete’ as beat the campaign, depends on how much I enjoy it if I will do post-game stuff or go for 100%. And my god do I play some terrible games.

Most recently I played the Quantum Of Solace tie-in game, which, yeah… has some interesting ideas but by no means is it good. Many a time as I played it, despite being just six hours long, I was questioning why I was even playing it. And yet, I kept playing and I’m glad I did.

There’s a moment towards the end of the game that perfectly mirrors the ending to Casino Royale, with everything crumbling around you, and I guess just as a massive fan of Craig’s Bond it was just special for me to have some way of experiencing that moment from the film myself.

Of course, there are some games that I never finish just because I lose interest, I guess the stories and gameplay just aren’t interesting enough, but this is rare and I do usually get to the credits of most games I play.
Sunny

One at a time
I tend to finish most games that I start playing, often before moving on to another game. To define ‘finish’ I mean play through the single-player mode from start to finish, not necessarily completing every part of it, such as side quests or obtaining all platform features such as every trophy or achievement.

This has bled into how I buy and play games, with me not buying a new game or stopping playing a game if I’m midway through it, if a game is released I want to play. I simply wait until I have finished the game I’m playing and then buy a new game based on what I fancy playing at the time, which is usually something different to the game I’ve just played to completion.

The exception to this habit is dedicated handheld consoles, since I tend to buy games for them as and when I see them (due to them now being out of print). So, I’ll buy an interesting looking Nintendo DS or 3DS game when I see it, even if I’m in the middle of playing a game on that format. An example being I’m playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3D at the moment but got Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land still, especially since it’ll be tens of hours getting through that gargantuan game!

Employing this system does mean I get to play through most of the games I buy and it’s not like I stick to it too rigidly, as I will sometimes buy one game on one format (Sonic Frontiers on PlayStation 5) but buy and play a game on another at the same time (Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope), especially since Switch can be played on the go.
Paul Conry

Completely Nintendo
The games I most reliably totally 100%, are Nintendo games. Going back to 96 on Super Mario World and completing Zelda: A Link To The Past with max hearts.

Through the GameCube, Wii, and Wii U, I followed the same approach and continued to beat quite a few.

When I got a 3DS, I started a ‘policy’ that I would only play one ‘deeper’ game until I fully clocked the previous.

This let me fully 100% all the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games that came out for it.

I always had a second console each gen, either Sega, PlayStation, or Xbox. But these were more for jump in and out mess about gaming.

I have an Xbox Series X and an S with Game Pass, so no shortage of games. But Nintendo has always been the games I would stick with until the end.
Anon

Good ending
I rarely play games to the end, and never try to get 100% achievements etc. The reasons vary, but mainly because of lack of time and too many other distractions (work/family), which mean that if I’m not really enjoying a game, I’ll go and do something else.

Also, because for the last few years I’ve been focusing on open world games, which tend to discourage actually finishing (Spider-Man: Miles Morales being an exception, in that you can easily complete it before it becomes a slog).

But recently I’ve been making a concerted effort to finish games that I had started and abandoned – this year I’ve finished The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, Portal 1 and 2, and from this year’s games I’ve finished Storyteller and Excavation Of Hob’s Barrow – more than I’ve finished in the last couple of years.

And I’ve found that I’ve missed good endings – in particular Portal 2 has a great final stage. It’s something lacking from open world games. Compare this to Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, for example (which I finished for the first time by accident while I was trying to do something else) and you really do see what’s missing.

That’s the price you pay for freedom, I suppose, but if there’s one thing that Tears Of The Kingdom has that we don’t know about yet, I hope it’s a good ending. Something as great as Ocarina Of Time? I can only hope.
Mickah

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Readers discuss what it takes to play a game all the way to the end, from open world title like Zelda to ultra hard ones such as Sekiro.