Guild of Darksteel is a medieval-fantasy Metroidvania with an interesting, almost rhythm-game-esque combat system. It has a compelling story, but it’s short enough that it doesn’t wear out its welcome.
So how long is Guild of Darksteel?
According to Steam, I completed Guild of Darksteel in 4.1 hours. Note that I didn’t complete absolutely everything — I ended with 10 of 13 achievements unlocked. On the other hand, there were a few sections where I ended up dying more than I’d like to admit, which meant I had to repeat long sections of the game. I do think the checkpoints in the second half of the game are spaced out a little too far apart, so I probably won’t be the only person who encounters this slowdown. The game also crashed on me one time, and I lost a bit of progress because of that (though not more than ten minutes or so).
I definitely think it’s feasible to beat this in two and a half hours, though I bet you could stretch out your playtime to five or six hours if you wanted to do a completionist run. There were some secrets I didn’t uncover, and there were a few optional puzzles that I never ended up going back for (some of them would have required a pretty fair amount of backtracking).
So Guild of Darksteel isn’t a long game, but I don’t think it needed to be. In fact, it feels like the right length for what it is, and it’s brisk enough that I’m thinking about starting a second playthrough.
