Killzone: Shadow Fall is playable after only downloading the first level and menu

Download the digital copy of Killzone: Shadow Fall and you'll be able to start playing the game as soon as its first level and main menu are downloaded.

Sony previously mentioned that you'll be able to play PlayStation 4 games while they're downloading, but this is the first time we've heard more specific details on how little you'll need to have on your hard drive.

"You're going to download a chunk of the game, get the menu and first level, and while you're playing the first level we can start downloading the second in the background," Killzone developer Guerrilla's technical director Michiel van der Leeuw explained in a new developer diary (thanks, OPM). "Then the third and so on."

The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red also previously discussed the feature's inclusion for the PlayStation 4 version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

"There are some technical constraints [and] goals related to this feature," CD Projekt boss Adam Badowski told Eurogamer, "but nothing extraordinary."

What sort of constraints? Well, downloading individual levels for a linear shooter like Killzone: Shadow Fall would logically be easier than downloading the entire map of an open world game, and may allow you to start playing earlier.

There's no detail on how big these chunks might be, too, or what happens if you have a criminally slow internet connection. Would you have to wait for the whole game to load? Or just have to go make a very large cup of tea while waiting for the next level to trickle down the internet pipe?