Is Guardians of the Galaxy game too long?
As a hardcore gamer and content creator who has played through countless titles over the years, I feel Guardians of the Galaxy hits the sweet spot with its 17-18 hour main story runtime. This provides enough time to fully explore the characters and world without dragging on and losing player interest.
Completionist Playthrough Lands Around 25-26 Hours
For gamers like myself who love seeking out every last collectible and side objective, Guardians takes about 25-26 hours to fully 100%. Again, this feels like the perfect length to fully immerse in the experience without getting bored by repetition.
Compared to Similar Games, Guardians Lands Right in the Middle
To provide some context, I‘ve created a table below showing the main story and completionist lengths of various comparable story-action games:
| Game | Main Story Length | Completionist Length |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | 17-18 hours | 25-26 hours |
| God of War (2018) | 20 hours | 35 hours |
| Uncharted 4 | 12 hours | 16 hours |
| Elden Ring | 56 hours | 133 hours |
As you can see, Guardians hits right in the middle – not too short yet not painfully long either. God of War and Elden Ring may satisfy players craving an endless epic, but these lengthy adventures can also lead to fatigue and players dropping off before the end.
Meanwhile, Guardians outshines Uncharted 4 with 5+ more hours of exciting content during a single playthrough. Ultimately each game nails its own targeted length, but Guardians strikes me as having the broadest appeal.
Guardians Delivers a Complete Story Experience Without Dragging
Perhaps most importantly, Guardians‘ 17-18 hour runtime allows it to fully develop the characters and deliver a beginning, middle and satisfying end to its narrative. I never felt the pacing drag across the experience‘s 16 chapters and variety of colorful settings.
Just as crucial – there‘s no bloated filler or repetitive grind baked into Guardians‘ structure. Every mission moves the plot forward organically without ever losing steam. Streamlining the experience into a package players can complete in 2-3 standard gaming sessions gives Guardians‘ campaign a cinematic flow other AAA games should emulate.
In summary, as both an expert gamer and amateur game designer myself, I believe Guardians of the Galaxy nails the perfect runtime. It delivers a complete experience fans can fully enjoy without losing interest thanks to padded length. At 17-18 hours, Guardians is lengthy enough to feel substantial yet tight enough to maintain excitement from start to finish.
