I’d look at Telltale-style games. They’re roughly 10 hours each ( five 2-hour ish episodes) and are almost entirely story driven. The gameplay is usually very simple. You choose dialogue choices to drive the story.

The best Telltale games are in my opinion: The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, The Walking Dead, Batman: The Telltale Series and its sequel, Batman: The Enemy Within. They’re also releasing the first episode of The Expanse (based on the TV show since the character Camina Drummer does not exist in the books) later this month.

Another series that is very much that same style but by different devs is the Life is Strange series. I’ve played the first one and the prequel called Before the Storm. They are very emotionally heavy stories so I’m taking some time before I can go into the sequels but I absolutely love that series and will preach it to anyone who will listen.

10 hours is definitely short but it also helps that they are all done in 2-hour episodes so you can easily take breaks.

I’ll always recommend What Remains of Edith Finch into these sorts of conversations. Absolute one of my favourite shorter experiences.

Stray.

Journey is a game you could easily finish in one sitting. Short but sweet, and very easy to get swept up in the atmosphere.

I haven’t finished Spec Ops: The Line, but I recommend that. It looks like your average American propaganda third person shooter but the story is actually super interesting and thought provoking. Looking at https://howlongtobeat.com/, it’s 6 hours for the main story.

Firewatch is really good.

I’mma do it, I’mma be the one to bring up Undertale this time (estimated 2 hours, worth a few replays), there’s also little nightmares (2-4 hours depending on platforming skills) which is a spooky little game, but not too spooky if you ever play in front of the kids.

• Ori and Ori: Will of the Wisps. These games are beautiful and atmospheric. The story is basic, but it’s a world to get lost in.

• All of the supergiant games (except for maybe Hades). So Bastion, Transistor and Pyre. Dripping with style, Bastion and Transistor have a pretty straightforward story, but it’s well told. Pyre’s story is a bit more complex, with a heavy focus on characters and your choices with them.

Jade Empire - a little older Bioware action RPG, originally for the Xbox, but can be found on GOG. Runs between 12 to 20 hours.

Undertale - my favourite game of all time, easy to play, excellent story, and incredible soundtrack.

Ori and the blind forest is a great platformer that is about 8-10 hours long.

Donut County is a fun little game that takes about 5 hours or less.

Axiom Verge (and 2) is a neat Metroid like game that is around 15 hrs.

Gris. It’s like playing an art piece.

Story-heavy: Uncharted series (between 10 and 16 hours per game), Hellblade (around 8 hours) and - if you can spare another 10 hours or so and Action RPGs are your thing - Nier Automata is really worth it (around 30 hours).
Gris was impactful enough for me that I’ll mention it here, since it was super short (4 hours at most).

Portal and Portal 2 must be on this list. If you’ve never played then, you must. It is that simple.

If you’re cool with visual novels, Doki Doki Literature Club is an incredibly interesting game, not very long. It really stuck with me.

Undertale and Untitled Goose Game though the latter isn’t very story oriented.