How we test whether a game is really offline

Plenty of games call themselves offline and then quietly fall apart the moment you lose signal. We built a simple routine to catch them, and it starts with the most obvious step everyone forgets: turn airplane mode on before you play.

We install the game with a connection, do the first-time setup, then cut the network entirely. From there we play as normal for at least an hour. If a menu hangs, a level won't load, or a 'reconnect' banner appears, that's a strike.

We also check what happens when you relaunch offline. Some games load fine once but demand a check-in on the next cold start. That's a sneaky failure mode, so we always kill the app and reopen it in airplane mode too.

Finally we look at saves. A proper offline game keeps your progress on the device. If closing the app in a dead zone loses your last hour of play, it doesn't earn a recommendation from us, no matter how good it looked.

None of this is complicated, but it's the difference between a game that works on the underground and one that leaves you staring at a spinner between stations.