Summary
- Strategy games like XCOM 2, Dead Cells, and Slay the Spire aren't the longest, but they trap players with addictive gameplay.
- XCOM 2's tension from game mechanics makes players restart campaigns repeatedly.
- Games like Stardew Valley and Civilization 6 offer small goals that lead to larger accomplishments, making them hard to put down.
There are games that players boot up for a few minutes before bed. And then there are games that say they’ll only take a minute, then laugh as the sun starts rising. Whether it's creeping toward a tactical victory, pushing for one more floor, or farming just until the next season, these games have the kind of hypnotic momentum that turns a short session into an accidental all-nighter.
“Just one more turn” isn’t a suggestion here; it’s a trap, a lifestyle, a warning sign. These aren’t necessarily the hardest games or the longest ones, but they are the most dangerous when played “just for a bit,” some more than others.
6 XCOM 2
One More Turn Before My Whole Squad Dies
XCOM 2
- Released
- February 5, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Blood, Use of Tobacco, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Firaxis Games
- Genre(s)
- Strategy, RPG
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Strategy games can be chill. XCOM 2 is not. Every single turn feels like defusing a bomb while blindfolded and being yelled at by an angry alien general. It’s addictive, but for all the wrong reasons. The player can’t stop because their squad is in too deep. One more turn might save the sniper. One more turn might get the evac. One more turn might be the one where the RNG stops punishing them.
The beauty of XCOM 2 is how every system is wound tight like a clock that’s always threatening to explode. Resource management, tech trees, squad loadouts; none of it matters if one bad flank ruins an entire campaign. And somehow, that tension makes players restart again and again, convinced that this time they won’t screw it up. They always do. But they always come back.
5 Dead Cells
One More Door, One More Death
Dead Cells
- Released
- August 7, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood and Gore, Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Motion Twin
- Genre(s)
- Roguelike
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Every time players feel like they’re ready to put the controller down in Dead Cells, the game throws a new blueprint at them. A hidden path. A cursed chest. A new biome. And the worst part? They don’t even need to beat the game to stay hooked; they just need to do a little better than last time.
There’s a tactile pleasure to every dodge roll, every parry, every wall climb. Movement feels like a reward in itself, and the combat is snappy enough to make each mistake feel fair. But it’s the breadcrumb trail of progression that keeps players coming back. Even failed runs inch forward. Cells are banked. Runes are discovered. And when everything clicks, and a run really pops off, it’s borderline euphoric. Why stop now?
4 Slay the Spire
Deckbuilding Is a Gateway Drug
Slay the Spire
- Released
- January 23, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Tobacco Reference
- Developer(s)
- Mega Crit
- Genre(s)
- Roguelike, Deckbuilding
- Platform(s)
- Android, iOS, PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
What starts as a quick climb up a mysterious tower turns into a multi-hour gauntlet of min-maxing and card hoarding in Slay the Spire. Players who love to play tactically get stuck in a loop of rerouting their path for optimal relics, tweaking their decks mid-run, and crossing their fingers that their fragile house of cards doesn’t crumble in the next elite battle.
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The real problem is that each run takes maybe 40 minutes. But winning unlocks new cards. New cards change everything. New synergies open up. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a lunch break has spiraled into a full evening of building and rebuilding until a perfect poison-based Silent deck finally clicks. And then it’s time to start over again with Ironclad.
3 Civilization 6
You Will Not Sleep Through This War
Sid Meier's Civilization 6
- Released
- October 21, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
There is no stronger "just one more turn" energy in gaming than Civilization 6. It is the original, the blueprint, the devil in disguise. One turn leads to a science boost, which leads to unlocking artillery, which leads to a full-scale war with Gandhi, and now suddenly it’s 3 a.m. And the player is trying to race Brazil to a cultural victory while suppressing a rebellion in Amsterdam.
But what makes it genuinely dangerous is the slow-burn pacing. A full match can take dozens of hours, but every single turn feels like a carefully measured hit of strategy dopamine. The UI updates just enough to suggest that something important is about to happen, even when it isn’t. And when it is? That’s a hundred more turns, minimum.
2 Stardew Valley
Five More Minutes Until Spring, I Swear
Stardew Valley
- Released
- February 26, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
Anyone who’s ever said they’d log off after “just one more day” in Stardew Valley knows they’ve lied to themselves. The game is pure, distilled cozy addiction. Every morning brings a new task, a new crop, a new heart event, and before anyone realizes it, they’ve bulldozed through three in-game weeks just to see if that stupid blue chicken finally shows up.
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The brilliance of Stardew Valley lies in how small goals bloom into bigger ones. Trying to upgrade a watering can casually leads to mining for iridium, which leads to befriending a wizard, which somehow results in marrying an emo musician and unlocking a teleporting obelisk. It's wholesome, sure, but that loop of micro-accomplishments keeps players firmly glued to their farms like they’re running a rural cult of productivity.
1 Risk Of Rain
Drenched in Loot, Starving for Closure
Risk of Rain
- Released
- November 8, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E 10+ // Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Alcohol Reference, Mild Language
- Developer(s)
- Hopoo Games
- Platform(s)
- PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, macOS, Linux
There’s something deeply chaotic about Risk of Rain that makes it impossible to put down once things get rolling. It’s that snowball feeling. One run starts with a couple of dinky drones and a rusty pistol, and a few chests later, it’s raining missiles, the cooldowns don’t even exist anymore, and the screen looks like a low-budget fireworks finale.
But what keeps players locked in isn’t just the dopamine rush of stacking items; it’s how the difficulty timer keeps climbing, silently daring them to keep going just a little longer. The longer they stay, the more absurdly difficult everything gets. The game never tells them to stop. In fact, it silently taunts them into pushing their luck until it all collapses in a single bad decision. And that collapse? That’s exactly when the next run sounds like a great idea.
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