Star Wars Outlaws' Hidden Loading Screens Are Great, Actually

Debates about ‘immersion’ in video games have raged on as long as the modern definition oftriple-Ahas existed, and I’ve always found it a little silly because nobody can agree on what ‘immersion’ really means. There isn’t one static definition, as different people value different things in video games, and the word often refers to entirely different mechanics when used to describe different game features. It could mean visuals, music, gameplay mechanics, or some other thing entirely. It cannot be pinned down.

When it comes to loading screens, though, people usually mean that the game doesn’t make you give up control even when it has to load stuff. The game doesn’t ‘break your immersion’ by forcing you to look at a loading screen. In practice, this usually means that you have to see pre-made animations of your ship landing, or your character squeezing through a crack in the wall, as we’ve seen in countless games (God of War, anyone?). Sometimes, the screen will just go black for a little bit.

But still more people don’t even want to have to watch an animation of a character squeezing through narrow areas, because theyknowit’s a loading screen that the developer has made an effort to hide from them. In reality, people want fully seamless games and instantaneous load times, because they don’t want to be reminded that they’re playing a video game with technical limitations.

To complain about having to wait for things to load and then also complain about games not being sufficiently optimised is wild to me, because those things are inherently at odds.

Truly Seamless Open Worlds Are Out Of Reach, For Now

That’s why, while I didn’t likeStarfieldat all, I didn’t really understand why players werecomplaining so much about its loading screens. In their eyes, having this much fast travel and so many barriers meant it wasn’t a true open-world game because it isn’t seamless, but that’s not really thepointof the genre.

Open-world games let you explore and discover things off the beaten path, allowing you to play in a less linear way. They arenotcompletely seamless, as much as people may want them to be – it’s really more about flexibility than anything, which is another area Starfield failed in. With triple-A games getting bigger and more complicated, it’s getting increasingly difficult to provide even a semblance of that technical power, especially while also providing those big open spaces, interesting side quests, and graphical fidelity that playersalsowant.

The closest that video games have gotten to truly instantaneous load times is probablyMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, whichallows you to move anywhere on the map almost immediately. That was considered a huge technical feat, practically unheard of.No Man’s Skyalso doesn’t have traditional loading screens and allows you to interact with planets you land on in real time, but this feature only came after years of development and players begging for its implementation.

For most games to have these incredibly short loading times and near-seamlessness, a lot of time (and therefore money) has to be poured into making that possible. Is it really worth it for a marginal increase in the nebulous concept of ‘immersion’? Or is that money and time better put towards creating a more fleshed out world with meaningful things to do?

The latter. Obviously.

Star Wars Outlaws Does What Starfield Couldn’t

And now we come toStar Wars Outlaws. If you’ve played it, you’ve doubtless noticed that it has hidden loading screens, but not a lot of people are complaining about it, which makes it very different from the uproar over Starfield.

Substantially, there isn’t that much difference in load time between these two games, and both wrest control from you the moment you decide to land on a new planet. Starfield has you choose where on a planet you want to land from a map. You press a button to initiate landing, which brings you to a loading screen, then you see an animation of your ship landing on a landing pad, and you’re brought back to your character’s point of view. Outlaws lets you choose to land from space and hides the loading screen by showing you the ship flying into the planet’s clouds, then gives you a landing animation, and then cuts to Kay getting up from her seat and going to the exit.

So why were there so many complaints about Starfield, and not Outlaws? Well, the latter does a better job of hiding it, for one. Players want to feel like the developer is at least trying to hide the game’s technical limitations, which I still think is silly, but whatever floats your boat. More importantly, though, Outlaws is a Star Wars game.

Massive Entertainment’s title leans heavily into the aesthetics of classic Star Wars in everything from its environments, to its menus, to its mini-games. That comes with the IP – the game has to feel like Star Wars, especially because it eschews putting the iconic Jedi front and centre. There isn’t much it can do about having Kay squeeze through gaps, but space flight is undoubtedly Star Wars-y.

I can’t help but think about how Outlaws handles hyperspace travel when Kay is flying the Trailblazer from planet to planet. Star Wars depicts this as zooming through space so fast that the stars all streak and blur together to create a big swirling tunnel of light that disappears once you slow down on the other side. Outlaws does the same, mimicking the movies that we all know and love, which serves to remind you that you aren’t just travelling through space, you’re travelling through space inStar Wars. It makes you feel like you’re in the movies, trading one form of immersion (instant load times) for another (you’re part of the galaxy far, far away).

Yet another example of how immersion doesn’t really mean anything!

Landing on a planet in Outlaws also feels much better than in Starfield because you’re not looking at a loading screen, even if it’s just a disguise. The UI present as you pilot your ship through space doesn’t disappear as you fly into a planet’s clouds, and only vanishes as your landing spot comes into view. At the same time, the aspect ratio shifts to make the game look more cinematic and frames your ship landing from afar, reminding you again of that delicious Star Wars movie flavour. It’s a very smart way of leaning on the game’s IP roots by referencing, over and over, the movies that the universe originated from.

While Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t reinvent the triple-A RPG genre in any way, its strengths largely lie in how it pays homage to its source material. The hidden loading screens are part of that, and while I still don’t think loading times should matter all that much, the game is a masterclass in tricking players into enjoying their waiting time instead of letting what could be generic stay generic. If Massive did anything right with Outlaws, it’s that everything about it feels like Star Wars – even landing your ship.