Back in the day, we always had a 1/2 minute+ loading screen we had to go through, but now? Now we have a cool animation that totally hides it and you wouldn’t even know. So why don’t we take a look at 6 Creative Ways Developers Hide Loading Screens?
God of War (2018)
In God of War 2018, they hid the loading screens pretty well, but it’s still a little bit noticeable. They hid it by showing Kratos just walking through a tight spot, a tunnel, or while going in a boat the next part of the game loads while you just watch that small little cutscene. It’s a pretty smart way to hide it and in the next game on the list, they make it even more epic and hide it even better.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Just like in god of war, the loading screen in this game is you jumping through a hole, but it’s a blink it and miss it kinda moment, because it’s so quickly that you won’t even know it’s a loading screen 90% of the time. With the special power of the PlayStation 5, it’s being made possible in a lot of games these days that loading screens aren’t even necessary or are being hidden within a 2-second cut-scene like this.
Mass Effect
While the 2 previous games on this list had super quick loading screens, Mass Effects elevators seem to take like forever. It’s clever, but just standing there for 2 minutes while the characters you take with you talk a bit isn’t the most interesting thing to look at while waiting to step back into action.
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland
This game on the list is probably one of the 1st games to not really include a loading screen but cleverly hid it and also used it as a tool to market the game. In Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland to go to a new area or level, you would go through a long and honestly kinda boring tunnel where you could continue doing tricks and transition without you (hopefully) noticing.
Mega Man (1987)
Tunnels and small cracks seem the be a big theme with trying to hide loading screens because just like Tony Hawk, Mega Man took the time to remove loading screens and opt-in for a tunnel you would have to crawl through. Just before each boss fight, you would have to run across a hallway filled with enemies that you would defeat while in the meantime the boss battle would load.
Ratchet and Clank
Of all the games on the list, this loading screen is probably the easiest one to spot because every time you would go to a planet, you would be welcomed with your spaceship shooting across the screen for a while before landing. While this is a pretty clever way to hide the loading, it still has that classic loading screen feel for me personally, but at least it’s not a boring still image you have to look at.
Please let us know what your favorite loading screen or animation is in the comments below or on Twitter/Discord!
