I have a confession to make. Of the top 10 games we picked for 2017, I have finished exactly one of them. That is to say, I have survived a round of PUBG. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the games; I just have a hard time willing myself to play something past the 30-hour mark. Blame it on the stress of life, maybe, or a shorter attention span, more likely. 2017 was a great year for games, and that made it very easy to pick up the next Shiny New Thing without finishing the current one.

I still crave the chance to play a game from beginning to end — a game that both has something to say and that I can start and finish in the span of the weekend.

So with that mind, I’ve collected my picks — mostly from our full top 50 but also a few that were tragically left off — for 2017’s best games you can experience in full in about five hours or less.

Linux , Mac , PlayStation 4 , Windows

This one is weird to recommend under the constraints because it’s not a game you should rush through at all. But because of the auto-play mode, this is something you can actively play when you want, and then disengage and have on in the background like a Netflix show. It’s an experience as much as it is anything.

Time to finish: Give yourself a couple hours at first, then go into auto-play and don’t worry about it.

Linux, Mac, Windows, Xbox One

What starts as a simple rescue mission turns into something more. But whereas Fullbright’s first game Gone Home centers on one family, Tacoma weaves multiple personal narratives into your investigation of what happened on an abandoned space stations, using some clever flashback mechanics, resulting in something that’s both intriguing and intimate.

Time to finish: around 4 hours

PlayStation 4, Windows

From our Game of the Year feature:

... Last Day of June is also an object lesson in how creative indie developers are shaping worlds that feel like interactive works of art. It’s like stepping into a Renoir, mixed with a 1950s paperback love story.

Time to finish: about 4 hours

iOS , PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One

Playdead’s follow-up to Limbo manages to be even creepier than its predecessor. It’s the kind of story that’s best to go into blind, and then check the internet for theories about what the hell it all means.

Time to beat: about 4 hours

Linux, Mac, Windows

Designer Brianna Lei’s visual novel is, to quote this website, “about gay asian girls playing baseball and falling in love.” The artwork is engaging, the story is deep, and there are some earnestly funny moments.

Time to finish: about 3-4 hours, give or take

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows

Similar to Inside, the world of Little Nightmares is at once cartoonish and horrific. But what’s truly special is the audio. If your sound setup at home is less than ideal, consider wearing headphones for this one.

Time to finish: about 3-4 hours

Please Knock On My Door (GOTY #39)

Windows

Probably the most emotionally taxing game on this list (in a good way), Please Knock On My Door is an exploration in what it feels like to deal with depression and anxiety. It’s also short enough that you can play through it multiple times in a weekend, which given how your choices can affect the narrative, is worth the extra effort.

Time to finish: about 1-3 hours per playthrough

PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One

From our Game of the Year feature:

There’s something thrillingly voyeuristic in exploring an old house, and in turn, people’s memories and diaries. Each room spurs flashbacks to its previous owner, the objective tied to a specific (typically tragic) moment in their life. You fly a kite on a stormy shore, take photos on a nature hike or pass a tedious workday with daydreams. It lulls the player with the mundanity of life, and just as in real life, the most shocking moments arrive without warning. Edith Finch is one of the most existential walking sims out there, examining life and death with humor, grace and sincerity.

Time to finish: around 3 hours

Emily is Away Too (GOTY #26)

Linux, Mac, Windows

Honor AIM’s passing with this tale told entirely through chatrooms in a style reminiscent of an internet long gone. The messages here are painfully relatable. From our Game of the Year feature:

You lie about things that don’t matter, because you’re so hungry to be understood by the right people — to have them see you, even if the you that you’re presenting is painfully self-conscious and tries too hard to say the right thing. You want to be the person who says the right thing. Emily Is Away Too puts you back in those shoes. And more importantly, it doesn’t judge you for it.

Time to finish: about 2-3 hours + another hour to check out the first Emily is Away

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows

From our review:

The truth Blackwood Crossing finds is unforgettable and emotionally wrenching. Its palette of feelings - love, loss, anger, belonging - are beyond the scope of all but the best narrative games, and Blackwood Crossing is one of the most beautiful and best I have ever played. It explores the meaning of childhood, without falling into a soup of schmaltz. It dares to investigate the mutual incomprehensibility of adulthood and childhood, and to explore the different landscapes we and our offspring inhabit.

Time to finish: about 2 hours

Another Lost Phone (GOTY #34)

Android , iOS, Windows

Both Another Lost Phone and its predecessor, A Normal Lost Phone, use the voyeuristic premise of going through a stranger’s unlocked phone to tell a story using not just messages but also photos, calendars ... all the things that make up the digital footprint of our lives.

Time to finish: about 1-3 hours, depending on how involved you want to get; expect about the same amount of time to go through the first Lost Phone, as well.

iOS, Nintendo Switch , Windows

Seven years. It’s been seven years since Jason Roberts first started working on this game — in fact, we first covered it back in 2013, when Polygon was itself less than a year old. But the wait is worth it: Gorogoa is a game meant to be played mobile, reclined on a couch, headphones in.

Time to beat: about 1-2 hours — best to play it all in one sitting

Mac, Windows

From our Game of the Year feature:

The staying power of A Mortician’s Tale stems from its moment-to-moment play. You clean, massage, empty, beautify and dispatch dead bodies. And then you provide a shoulder to loved one — or simply bear witness to a corpse when no one else will. The video game industry is built on the destruction of bodies of all kinds. How refreshing to play a game that asks you to care for them, even after their life has left.

Time to finish: about 1.5 hours

iOS

With Monument Valley 2, Ustwo increases the complexity of its puzzles in a satisfying way while making that new dynamic — of two characters that both search for one another, as well as something more — equal parts game mechanic and narrative drive. It’s one of the few games here that I wish I had more time with.

Time to finish: less than 2 hours; if you haven’t played the first Monument Valley, give that a shot, too.