Games that can be finished in which you put many hours into, and yet never finished?

Are there any large games, say, open worlds as an example, that you've played a lot but never reached the credits in for one reason or another? And do you plan on ever finishing it/them? There aren't many for me, but one that I have in mind right now due to reinstalling it (and I don't know how many times I've taken it off and put it back on the console) would be 2015's Mad Max. I put 30 hours into it, doing as much of the content as I could, but the game ended up being far too repetitive for me to want to keep going. I think what's there plays just fine, but a lack of interesting story as far as I've experienced and again, a lot of repetition, I just couldn't manage to get through it.

Another game for me is Mafia 3. I've probably put the same amount of time into that but got tired of it after a while since I feel like I saw what I wanted out of it and other, more interesting games came along. At this point, I think I'll only finish Mafia 3 if a Mafia 4 is announced. I've been listening to the Fury Road soundtrack recently which got me thinking about the game Mad Max, which is why I'm going to try and get through it now, but that doesn't necessarily mean I will. It'd be cool if it was enhanced on the X... What about all of you?

Oh plenty. AC Origins and Ghost Recon Wildlands are two recent ones. Ubisoft open world bloat and their always forgettable now main plots can't keep me going, even if I get a good amount of time in enjoying their worlds or just mindlessly running through objectives.

God of War, Persona 5, and the last 4 Assassins Creed games come to mind but I'm sure there's more. It just seems the older I get, the less likely I am to finish 30 plus hour long games, although I'll still get through some occasionally.

According to steam I put 33hours into Yakuza 0. I'm guessing at least half of that was spent with mostly karaoke, and a bit of darts, pool etc. I'm not even close to finishing the story. But I also watched the entirety of beast in the east, so it's not like I'm truly missing out.

I have never finished Skyrim but have put at least 200 hours into it between PS3 and PC.

Divinity Original Sin, put around 35h, started almost 2 years ago.

I like the game a lot, but it's hard to be sitting in front of the PC for such a long time. Also overtime I get back to the game it takes a long time to get used to it again.

Dead Cells?

I put a unbelievable amount of time into both Divinity Original Sin 2, and Persona 5. The last act of Divinity Original Sin 2 is such a boring disappointment compared to the rest of the game, that I just couldn’t finish. Same thing with Persona 5, but I still might finish that.

I used to be a big AC fan, so I willl definitely be returning to Assassins Creed Origins. I found Egypt to be an absolute blast to explore, and It’s the most I’ve enjoyed one since AC2.

The biggest one for me is Zelda BOTW. I've put over 130 hours into and never went and beat Ganon. I've thought about going and fighting him, but whenever I do pop into the game again I just keep exploring and hunting down the last few dozen or so shrines I have. I've also thought about starting the game over too. So despite it being one of my favorite games of all time I'm not sure that I will ever beat it.

I also put a bunch of hours into Mafia 3 but never finished it. With that one I just got bored of it. There wasn't enough mission variety or mechanics to engage with. I've thought about going back to it and mainlining the story (man that opening is so good), but I would have to start the game all over again because I lost my save.

I put 40-50ish hours into The Witcher 3 when it first came out. Fell off when searching for Dandelion. But I ended up reading the book series over the past few years and I restarted the game this year, after finally finishing the books. I got further than last time, but put a pin in my game as RDR 2 came out (which I haven't finished yet either). I'm planning on going back and finishing Witcher 3 though...hopefully.

Every open world game ever. I don't really try to finish them either though, because the sole reason I play those kinds of games are to explore their worlds, can't think of a single one where the actual story has engaged me at all.

I usually finish if I put a lot of time into something but my biggest regret is probably Dragon Quest VIII. Put close to 30 hours, which I know is like only a quarter of the way through, but I took too long of a break at one point and ended up dropping it.

hmmm...other than that, last year or the year before I put 10 hours into Pikmin 2 and decided to move on 'cause I just wasn't having fun.

When I was younger I'd get stuck in certain games I just couldn't beat it, even though I put a ton of hours into them. Dragon Quest 1 and 2 come to mind as well as Pokemon clones called Metarot and Monster Race.

Tons of games. I don't remember the numbers anymore for older generations, but just going by Steam the biggest ones for me are:

93 hours into Pillars of Eternity; which is actually across 3 different save files since I restarted whenever I went back to the game. I got to what I think is the final act in one of them, but just couldn't stay motivated.

73 hours in Darkest Dungeon; all in one save file, there's just too much grind.

58 hours in AC: Odyssey. I've expect to finish this eventually though; I've taken a few breaks and been able to go back so far.

55 hours in Sunless Sea; great story, too much grind.

50 hours in Valkyria Chronicles; I got near the end, but the battles just stopped being fun at a certain point.

48 hours in Yakuza 0; I only really stopped because I'd already watched the whole story through Beast in the East. Once I finished the nightclub and real estate minigames, there wasn't enough to keep me motivated.

I think the general trend for all these games is that they had fun mechanics and/or stories, which kept me hooked for a while; but there was just too much grind or bloat in them to power through to the end.

It's extremely common for me to basically put games down on the very threshold of it ending.

It's usually not even a matter of not enjoying what I'm doing, but if I'm distracted from a game too long then the opportunity just fades away.

Dead Cells will likely be this for me. I've gotten up to the last boss a number of times now and have gotten him down to about half health but the thought of investing another potential 90 minutes on a wasted run kind of depresses me. I've seen everything the game has to offer at this point, know how every level works, I'm done banging my head against it.

I put like 87 hours into Persona 5 and eventually just gave up. I asked some friends how much I had left and learned that I would have had two more palaces to do.

I liked the game, but I was only playing because I had spent so much time with it already.

The ridiculously slow pacing of that game turned me off completely. Dragging out every. single. story. beat. was mind-numbing.

Took me eight years to finish Red Dead Redemption (Mexico killed me the first time through).

I fell off of Andromeda due to life getting hectic.

My save file got erased at the final boss fight of Final Fantasy.

Too many to count, but one that's been bothering me lately is Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's a decent game, but the endless fetch quests and menial work really tore me down and I stopped playing after putting like 40 hours into it and moved on to the other things. Hearing that a new Dragon Age is in the works, I've wanted to go back and complete it just so I can get an idea of where the story headed. But the prospect of starting up a new save in such a huge game is horrifying. Another RPG I've invested a lot of time into but never finished is Pillars of Eternity. Every time I play that thing, I get sidetracked and end up playing something else. Then when I try to come back and finish it months later, I forget what the hell is going on and have to start up a new game.

Skyrim and Zelda: BOTW. Both games I put tons of hours in and started multiple times, yet never finished. BOTW I am going to finish soon though.

Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain

Played just a tonne of it but did not even get close to finishing the story which was dull as hell.

Fallout 4
Watch_Dogs 2
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Dark Souls II
The Witcher III
Far Cry 3
Dying Light
Borderlands 2
Sleeping Dogs
Grand Theft Auto V
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Mass Effect: Andromeda
The Saboteur

It's less about the games themselves and more about either not having as much time as I'd want to really dig into these games (especially as I'm pushing 30), getting distracted by the side objectives in the case of the RPGs and open world games I mentioned, or just my relatively low attention span since I generally get bored of playing the same thing over the course of a week.

Assassins Creed Odyssey. I put about 60 hours into it but eventually I just got bored and stopped playing it. Now I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it.

There are at least two more, but I forgot one. Another would be Far Cry Primal. I didn't put 30 hours into it, but I put more than enough, and enough to know that I wasn't enjoying myself. Oh, the other is actually Far Cry 2. I like it, but it doesn't go anywhere interesting enough story wise or gameplay mechanic wise as far as I've played to make me want to keep going. I enjoyed the hours I've played of it. I didn't like it at first; it wasn't until a few years after its release that I went back and played it a bunch just scouring the environment for diamonds. That's when I noticed how impressive some of it was, but again, it didn't hold my interest. It's a game I sometimes still think about going back to, however. As for Mad Max, unfortunately, I again couldn't do it. I played for about two or three more hours and just couldn't manage. I lost interest quick.

People are mentioning Assassin's Creed. Origins I did everything in, but it was undeniably repetitive. I liked it fine. Odyssey, on the other hand, I find to be a complete bore in more ways than one. My brother let me borrow it, but I can't manage to get farther than the first island you're on, or even past that as I restarted it as Alexios whereas I had originally started as Kassandra (and then again took it off the console). It'll be the first AC in the mainline series that I don't plan on getting through. It's not a good game to me. I wish I wanted to play it more to see if I just have to get over some lump, where it then starts becoming enjoyable, but I don't want to waste my time.

I’d have to check my game libraries to make sure, but right now I can’t recall any games I would’ve played for +25 hours without finishing the available story.

But if we’re counting 10-15 hours, then there’s a lot. Ni No Kuni 2 is the most recent example, that I must’ve played at least over ten hours before calling it quits.

Skyrim is my go-to example for this. Heck, I barely even *touched* the main story. I basically have made no progress in that game despite over a hundred hours played.

I suppose I can say the same of New Vegas and Morrowind, though I did at least interact with the plot in those.

I, uh, I’m not going to play any more Bethesda games.

Fallout 4 was probably the first one of those where I just didn't have the strength to power through anymore. Typically I make it a point to finish every game I buy purely out of principle, but other stuff came along and I finally broke the rule.

Thought I'd have a gigantic list, but going through I can't really find any that I've spent a long time with and never gone back to finish eventually.

I'm about halfway through Octopath Traveler and likely won't touch it again for a long time, but the structure of that game's narrative makes me feel pretty comfortable about slipping back in whenever I get around to it. The only other big outlier I can think of is Drakengard 3, which is more of an "I don't have the energy to sit down and do this final boss and never will" situation.

I think I might have more games I play for long stretches, fall off, and then come back months or years later to wrap up. Final Fantasy 4 and 10, basically every game in the Tales and Yakuza franchises, Witcher 3, Divinity: Original Sin (and its sequel), and I just today went back and put a bow on the final episode of Dreamfall Chapters after a year of inactivity. Not really out of any sense of obligation. If I put extensive time into a game it means I genuinely enjoyed it, and will eventually want to experience more of it.

The Witcher 3 is probably the most common one for many, including me. When I put it down I wasn't exhausted with the game or mad at it, I actually still loved what I played of it. However, when I stopped it to play a newer game and thought about coming back to it, I was like "Nah, I'm good". Can't really explain why.

Dead Cells for me. I’ve put about 18 hours in the game and have not beaten the final boss (nor gotten to him yet). But I still go back to it once in a while.

Also for fighting games, Smash Bros Ultimate and Dragon Ball FighterZ. Though I don’t think people find single player content in fighting games mandatory to beat before their best game lists right?

So funny story, I was reading this opening post and I was typing up about the most recent example being Dark Souls 3. Then pretty much as I was typing it up I glanced at my copy of DS3 and said "Aw screw it," then popped in the game and finished the final boss. I can't tell you how hilarious it was to see that I had like 70 hours up to that point, jump in and think "I barely remember how to be good at this or anything about this game for that matter." What's more I had all this dope ass equipment and all the best spells for my end game sage caster. Special thanks to past-Me for setting me up for success.

Now I have to think much harder about this. I'm pretty good about finishing stuff I put a significant amount of time into. Yeah I'm a regular game-play-ologist.... I recall playing a hefty chunk of Dragon Quest VIII and hitting a wall with the Dhoulmagus fight. It made me feel like I SHOULD be grinding much more than I already was, therefore I stopped playing and never went back to it. I will say I never finished the final boss encounters of Yakuza 1 or 2. Those games are probably only about 20 hours in length each if that so I probably stopped some time before then. It's kind of terrific that Kiwami exists should I ever go back to it because loading into every combat encounter really borks the pacing of those earlier games.

@humanity: Same thing happened to me with Fallout 4.

Xenoblade Chronicles X. Spent like 85ish hours playing it, got to chapter 12 (which is basically the end of the game), and never picked it back up. Just couldn't do it. Something about the combat balance and exploration in that game after you gain access to mechs and flying just killed it for me.

Red Dead Redemption 2. Spent 80 hours playing it, loved it, finished chapter 6 and only got an hour into the epilogue before I dropped it. No motivation to go back and wrap it up. Just felt like the story was done for me. Chapter 6 finishes so strongly that I just didn't care to keep going.

Witcher 3: Blood & Wine. Played through Witcher 3 and Hearts of Stone for countless hours, probably one of my favourite games ever made, never finished what is supposed to be the ending to Geralt's story. Maybe one day I'll get to it.

Doom 2016, for some reason. I enjoyed it, but I guess I wasn't sufficiently invested, so when I got distracted I kinda abandoned it. I feel like I'd probably need to start from scratch if I returned to it. On the other hand, I finished Dishonored 2 twice in the same era, once without powers, which, given the relative critical reception of the two Bethesda games, probably says something about my preferences.

I just finished Far Cry 2 yesterday, which is a game that feel like I rationally should've abandoned. It's an incredible game in so many ways, but also a jarring and demoralizing slog that I got through by sheer stubborn willpower alone, and feel unsettled having finished.