Since it came to Games with Gold back in April, I have been slowly picking my way through Insomniac’s colorful apocalypse simulator, Sunset Overdrive. From what I can tell it’s not a particularly long game, with the website How Long to Beat clocking it at about 31 hours for full completion. But here I am, a month and a half since I first booted the game up, and I’m still not finished with even the main storyline. It’s not that I dislike the game, as I keep coming back to it. No, the reason that Sunset Overdrive is taking me so long to beat is because it’s been the perfect game to play in short bursts.

Seeing as the game is an Xbox One exclusive, I suppose it would be helpful to explain what Sunset Overdrive is exactly. Basically the game is set in an open world where the main character is given extraordinary abilities and armaments which they use to slay energy drink-fueled monsters. Think Crackdown meets Saints Row and you’ll have a good idea of what I’m talking about. The game also features an irreverent tone and plenty of fourth-wall breaking jokes that acknowledge the video game artifice holding up the proceedings. While the gameplay is responsive and satisfying, most of the dialog and jokes have a trying-too-hard quality. The soundtrack isn’t much better, with a punk vibe that feels at odds with a corporate nature of this large and polished project. Still, the core of grinding and bouncing through the city while slaughtering waves of enemies with inventive guns remains consistently fun. But more so than being just a decent game, Sunset Overdrive shines brightest in quick sessions.

I don’t think I’ve had a session with Sunset Overdrive go longer than an hour. It’s typically been played as a palette cleanser for when I’m in the middle of other games. Uncharted 4’s middle chapters starting to drag? Off to defend my Amps while they cook. Need to come down off an adrenaline high after a level of Doom? Time to run some traversal challenges. The difficulty level in Sunset Overdrive can be best described as breezy once you get the hang of its mechanics, and they’re easy enough to pick back up if you haven’t played it for a few weeks. After only 10-15 minutes of playing, I feel like I've accomplished an objective, leveled up my abilities, or knocked out a mission. Combine that with a story that I stopped caring about pretty early on and the game makes a compelling case as a backup when I need a break from games that I’m “really” playing.

I’m starting to appreciate games that require shorter time commitments more and more. Part of it is the typical “I’m an adult with limited time” shtick, but I also think that advances in technology and game design have helped these types of games thrive. The introduction of suspend mode on both the Playstation 4 and Xbox One has reduced the hurdle to simply start a session. There’s been countless times that I was able to sneak in a Forza 6 race or a round of Rocket League before work due to this. In addition, the rise of SSDs have significantly reduced load times so I can more impulsively jump into games like Stardew Valley when the mood strikes. And I need not mention the behemoth that is mobile and tablet games providing entertaining quick hits as I wait for Halo 5 matches to connect. Certainly, long-form experiences continue to exist and provide value to me, but being able to quickly fire up a game to reset myself has proven invaluable in keeping me interested in those longer games and in preventing burnout.

For the short-time games themselves there’s also value in brief play sessions. I suspect that with the repetitive nature of Sunset Overdrive’s gameplay I would have become bored with it after a few 3-5 hour chunks. Instead, by spreading a 3-5 hour play session over a week, the game remains novel and interesting. I'm not sure if this was Insomniac’s actual intent but it works wonderfully to keep the game in my rotation and on my mind for so long. That’s quite an accomplishment considering that I typically juggle a half dozen games each month.

Short-time games are certainly not a new thing. I recall going through races in Mario Kart as I waited for the next Rainbow Six 3 match to start. But the intervening years of advancing game design and technology have allowed for these types of games to really flourish and add richness to our gaming experience. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got about 30 minutes to squeeze in some monster destruction.