10 Deliberate Gameplay Features That Ruin Your Immersion

10. Mouse Cursor Menus

Immersion in gaming is affected a lot by a game's pacing. Fast or slow, it has to stick to what it's trying to achieve, otherwise you're either going to be left for dust or lulled to sleep right in the middle of your playthrough.

And in the case of a fast-paced action game, the last thing you need is a cumbersome menu you've got only a sluggish cursor to trawl your way through with.

This is something that works perfectly for PC games, obviously, as the mouse and keyboard setup is what free-roaming cursors are made for. But it really doesn't translate well to direction buttons and analog sticks. When you could be scrolling easily down a list of highlightable options, games like Destiny, No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 insist on making you drag your little icon from one corner of the screen to the other.

It's all time you could be spending playing the game and actually, you know, getting into it. And the more you have to navigate these achingly slow menu screens, the more detached from the game you're inevitably going to feel.