The video argues that space travel in games feels boring not because of space itself, but due to poor design choices that fail to create meaningful interaction and immersion, as seen in games like Starfield. It highlights how titles like No Man’s Sky and Elite Dangerous succeed by focusing on specific aspects of space and reinforcing player engagement through responsive mechanics and atmosphere, suggesting that a clear, focused vision is key to compelling space gameplay.
The video addresses a common criticism in gaming that space travel is inherently boring, often leading developers to skip or simplify space travel in games through fast travel and cutscenes. While some recent games like The Outer Worlds 2 embrace this approach successfully for their RPG style, the video argues that this is not a true solution for space games as a genre. Instead, the issue lies in how space travel is implemented—often as disconnected systems or mere loading screens that fail to engage players or reinforce the fantasy of being in space.
Using Starfield as a key example, the video explains how the game tries to combine many elements like loot, RPG mechanics, base building, and spaceflight but fails to integrate them meaningfully. The space travel mechanics reduce to pointing at a destination, triggering a cutscene, and instantly arriving, which strips away any sense of consequence or immersion. This leads to the misconception that space travel itself is boring, when in reality, it is the lack of meaningful interaction and feedback during travel that causes the problem.
In contrast, games like No Man’s Sky and Elite Dangerous offer valuable lessons on how to make space travel engaging. No Man’s Sky focuses on the feeling of piloting a ship, creating anticipation and curiosity through visual and sensory feedback during travel. Elite Dangerous, after years of criticism for long, uneventful flights, introduced Super Cruise Overdrive, which allows players to ramp up speed and make travel feel dynamic and responsive. These games emphasize “reinforcement,” where the game world acknowledges and reacts to player actions, making space feel alive rather than empty.
The video also highlights that space means different things to different people—ranging from scientific simulation in Kerbal Space Program to the feeling of smallness and isolation in Elite Dangerous, or wonder and mystery in other titles. Successful space games pick a specific feeling or aspect of space to focus on and design their mechanics around that choice. This focused approach contrasts with many AAA titles that try to be everything at once and end up diluting the experience, resulting in space travel feeling empty or meaningless.
Ultimately, the video argues that the problem is not space itself but game design philosophy. Great space games commit to a clear vision of what space means in their world and reinforce that through gameplay, atmosphere, and feedback. Until more big-budget games embrace this approach, the best space experiences will likely continue to come from indie and AA developers who are unafraid to deliver a distinct, emotionally resonant vision of space rather than treating it as a mere backdrop or loading screen.