As Star Wars Outlaws 'no-loading' screens come under scrutiny, its director already reminded us that having seamless planetary flying would've been lots of work for little payoff

Star Wars Outlaws hides loading screens with an animation of the player's ship flying through clouds, a decision made to avoid the technical complexity of allowing free flight above planets, which the developers deemed too resource-intensive for minimal payoff.

Star Wars Outlaws' hidden loading screens have proven to be quite controversial online - as all things now are - but the game's director had already reminded folks that letting players freely fly into planets would create lots more hassle for the developers in exchange for very little pay-off.  

Instead of overtly cutting to a loading screen when you descend onto a planet - like Starfield, let's say - Star Wars Outlaws plays a little animation that has our ship flying through thick clouds until the game's loaded what it needs to. It's a nifty trick to distract you while the game loads a Tatooine's worth of data, but the below clip that shows off the landing sequence has caused a minor social media stir. 

The landing sequences in #StarWarsOutlaws is definitely not a hidden loading screen! pic.twitter.com/0nKTVEQXiXAugust 27, 2024

Speaking to Edge Magazine in its 387th issue, Star Wars Outlaws game director Julian Gerighty previously explained that developer Massive Entertainment (famous for The Division) hadn't implemented vehicles into its games before working on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and its new Far, Far Away romp. "In wrapping our heads around the different gameplay possibilities of speeders and spaceships, we've had to embrace the limitations and constraints of each one," Gerighty explained.

"Flying [freely] above the planet was something that we chose not to do," the director continued - implying that landing on the planet without the cloudy, sometimes lengthy sequence was possible - but "it was going to take us a huge amount of effort for very little payoff."

Games pull all sorts of tricks to shroud their loading screens in smoke. In Mass Effect, the game loads while you're making idle elevator chat with your alien friendos. In God of War, loading happens while you squeeze through crawl spaces with a snail's glacial pace. Star Wars Outlaws' trick is, personally, a pretty cool way to obfuscate what's actually happening under-the-hood without detracting from other parts of the open-world game.

Be sure to check out our Star Wars Outlaws review to find out if the new open-world romp is one of the best Star Wars games.