Elevators, Airlocks, and Small Tunnels
A frequently mentioned example is the elevators in the first Mass Effect. The elevators are infamous for the amount of time spent in them, watching as the characters slightly wiggle in place.
The reason for the long elevator rides is not realism, as if you are actually going up a 50-story building, but another reason: The elevator is a hidden loading screen. As soon as the doors close, the current level section is unloaded and the next area is loaded. This way, they save a traditional loading screen and create the illusion of being in a large, continuous world.
Although Mass Effect is infamous for that, these mechanics have also been used in other games. The first GTA titles had particularly long, monotonous bridges that players had to cross—those were hidden loading screens.
The same applies today to many games where you have to pass through “airlocks” or squeeze your character through a narrow cave, watching your hero struggle through tight rocks after a key press. Almost always, these passages exist only to disguise that the next section of the level is being loaded. And now that you know this, you will never be able to overlook it again. Sorry.
