Patient Gamers

I enjoyed Stray. It’s pretty short, only got stuck one 1 of the puzzles.

Dredge

Had no idea what to expect going into it. Had only heard that it was a cosmic horror fishing game and decided to give it a try. Ended up loving it!

Not a huge game in terms of scope but feels it nailed every mechanic and the art style and delivery is top notch

Journey

Inside

Adrift

Subnautica

Humanity

Bulletstorm, its stupid, its raunchy, and its hilarious, and it clocks in at about 8 hours.

It's been awhile since I finished if, but if I recall correctly,Abzu was about 5 hours.

Helltaker is a little puzzle game that is free and short and sweet

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance

It has zero filler, it's wall to wall balls to the wall nonstop action

you might exceed the ten hours slightly if you're bad like me and get stuck in the final boss for two hours but otherwise it's perfect

I'm playing through the original metal gear solid and it has a pretty good pacing that keeps things fresh while also being a short game. I think you can beat it in about 10-12 hours depending on how much you call in your codec to get extra dialog if you want.

May I introduce you to the Sega Saturn library. A lot of it is arcade style games, many of which can be beaten in 2 hours or less, but replayed nearly endlessly

Not sure what 'low end' is for you but if you like puzzle games, The Talos Principle (2014) is fairly low end (plays great on my 6 year old PC) and can be completed in about 6-8 hours. Though, because it's a puzzle game, it could take much longer than that. Right now it Is $4.49US ($9.98US for the gold edition) on Steam. Puzzle logic is similar to Portal.

COCOON and Viewfinder are a couple of not-terribly-long puzzle games with super cool mechanics.

I really enjoyed Her Story, if you're into mysteries.

IIRC, Undertale was a pretty short game, and has as deep a story as games three or four times its length.

Brothers

Finished Cult of the Lamb in 6 hours when it released, and I wasn't slacking around. It's a town-building with some roguelike elements, the graphics are cute and nice, while it explores the idea of cult creation, doctrines, sacrifices and all the dark stuff.

The company of myself and its prequel fixation

To the moon and its sequel finding paradise

Firewatch

The LEGO movie (and 2)

Portal (and 2)

Halo (1, 2, and 3)

Force Unleashed (and 2)

• Max Payne
• SW: Republic Commando

VVVVVV

Some randoms that come to mind:

A plague tale innocence and requiem are both pretty short and absolutely wonderful (and heart wrenching).

Technobabylon (and other point and clicks from that dev) is great and short.

CloudPunk is another good short game (more like an interactive novel)

Donut County is good too. Kinda katamari vibes.

The rebooted Tomb Raider series from the late 2010s is also a lot of fun and each one can be completed in at least 20 hrs. I know that’s over your limit but they’re great.

• Praey for the Gods
• The Upturned
• Your Spider

Forgotten Anne is a really good one that took me about 8 hours to complete.

Hyper Light Drifter would be my personal recommendation. My playthrough lengths ranged from like six hours on my first run to like, an hour and a half when I decided to try and beat it quickly? But the game is really gorgeous, and a lot of fun to play

I managed to complete disco elysium in under 25hrs if your up for the challenge you can try and beat my record

Webbed. You play as a peacock spider (with lasers) trying to save your boyfriend. The bug designs are actually really cute.

What remains of Edith Finch, a very emotional and wonderful game, short and bitter sweet.

I'd go so far to even gift it to people. Outer Wilds make you feel small and huge at the same time.

Opus: The Day We Found Earth, another great short one.

Wandersong is the happiest game you could possibly play that I play whenever I am feeling particularly depressed. Hypnospace outlaw is hilarious and fits the time criteria. Both are newer than 5 years but have very non-demanding specs