How We Actually Test Offline Games

People ask how we decide whether a game is truly offline. The short answer: we switch on airplane mode and see what breaks. If a menu locks up or a 'connect to continue' banner appears, it fails the basic test.

We also test on a couple of older phones. A game can feel smooth on a flagship and crawl on a three-year-old budget device, and most people aren't playing on the latest hardware.

Load times matter a lot for pocket gaming, so we time how fast a game resumes from cold. Anything that takes forty seconds to get back into play loses points, because in real life you often only have a few minutes.

Finally we check the save behavior. We force-close the app mid-session and reopen it. A good offline game should drop you right back where you were, no excuses.