Things have sort of come full circle for me. When I was younger, I recall playing a copy of Super Mario Bros 3 on Game Boy Advance and never being able to complete it (in fairness I eventually got to the final world). This was the case for a lot of games for me; essentially they’d have infinite replayability.
As I got a bit older I was exposed to more games with linear single player campaigns. Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 spring to mind. At the time, I couldn’t afford to buy that many games so I’d find myself doing a mission here and there, and focusing most of my attention on the multiplayer. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to play the campaigns, but rather than I felt like I needed to savour them. Sure, I could just blast through it in the space of a weekend - but then it would feel like I’ve blown all that money on something short-lived.
This mindset stuck with me as single player games became longer and longer. GTA IV, Red Dead and Skyrim for example took me months to get through, as I’d just play the occasional mission as a treat.
But nowadays I don’t have as much spare time as I once did. And it feels like the number of games in my backlog is growing each day.
I actually replayed GTA IV and its DLCs last year, and really enjoyed the experience. But only recently did I work out why it was more enjoyable than my first playthrough all those years ago – and I think it’s because I didn’t eke out the missions. The story felt a lot more coherent because it was fresh in my mind. The characters that appeared at the start of the game no longer elicit that ‘wait who were they?’ response when they turn up in the second act. And I was able to better understand the ways in which the three stories cleverly intertwined.
Recently I got the gamepass-style subscription on Playstation (‘PS Plus Extra’) which includes a bunch of older games I’ve been meaning to get through. And the fact that there’s an artificial time limit to playing them (i.e. I don’t want to pay for this tier of subscription any longer than I need to) has helped me to avoid wasting time.
Just to be clear, I’m not advocating for speedrunning single player games and missing all the side content. On the contrary, I’ve just platinumed Ratchet and Clank: RA, but did so in half the time than it would have taken me before. Previously I might have thought ‘I’ll just do the one mission’, and this was often an excuse to get distracted by crap on my phone for the subsequent 30 minutes. I feel like I now have a reason to focus for games for a little longer instead of wasting time. And as a result, I’ve enjoyed my time with them so much more recently.
So perhaps if you’re struggling with your backlog, try to set yourself a realistic time limit for each game. And don’t treat games like a treat – if you have the time, play them now!
I recently went and replayed the DLCs of AC3 and Odyssey, which I'd quit for various reasons. Particularly in the case of Odyssey, Open World Fatigue played a role: I couldn't be arsed to explore everything anymore, but neither could I bear to leave anything open.
I decided to just go for the missions, to not worry about over optimising my choices, to not worry about cleaning out every little question mark and chest and finishing every location. I finished them, enjoyed my time and found new freedom in not having to draw out the maximum amount of game time for my money.
I think that's a fair way to play a game like that. I like to explore as much as possible, but when there's a ridiculous amount of side content don't feel guilty for playing the bits that interest you most. The game was probably designed assuming most people would skip the majority of the extras.