Bethesda is well-known for having developed some of the most popular and beloved large-scale RPGs. These have all been set in enormous open worlds, each in vastly different locations and settings. Take the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises, for instance, two iconic series that have been put on pedestals as benchmarks for the genre. Even still, Bethesda RPGs have typically struggled in a few areas of their design; in particular, astronomical load times. With the release of Starfield, it looks like the developers were listening closer to our pleas than we had imagined. In combination with the arrival of SSD technology, it’s safe to say Starfield load times are a game changer.
Fast Loading Times are Essential in a Bethesda RPG Like Starfield
If you think about a native Bethesda RPG, then you’re imagining vast open worlds and player decisions that will determine the outcome of your relationships and the environment around you. Because of this, you can already imagine all of the cities and towns you’ll be able to go to, the distances you’ll be able to fast-travel across, and the time you’ll be spending doing all of the above. Loading screens tend to stop the game in its tracks and remove any sense of immersion the player feels. Sometimes, those wait windows are so severe that you’ll know it’s your queue for a bathroom break or a chance to make something to eat. This also puts a damper on your frame of reference regarding how long you plan on playing one of their games whenever you sit down in front of your gaming hardware. Fortunately, Bethesda’s reliance on SSD tech has changed that, being able to create several loading instances that are all strung together, lessening loading time when you’re actually moving from location to location.
In Starfield, the game doesn’t just have fast travel, it relies so heavily on it, and for good reason. Bethesda promised a massive open world within the infinite confines of space and was absolutely able to deliver. If you were going to be expected to sit in your ship and slowly travel from star system to star system as you discovered planets along the way, you were mistaken. Bethesda is so aware of this that if they hadn’t made the loading times only a few seconds, players would have given up on playing the game as casually as they would have liked. The fact that many of the quests also ask that you go from planet to planet very often, there’s no doubt that players would have latched onto a gameplay decision that didn’t include fast loading times as a terrible one.
Please, Don’t Keep Us Waiting
Load times aren’t just there to frustrate players; they’re meant to give the game a chance to render and put up all of the program data necessary. Considering Starfield’s size, load times are ideally essential in order to create all of the procedurally generated and generally large-scale areas. This is something that the developers have wanted to implement for as long as it’s been available, but it’s always just been impossible until now. That’s where the loading screen cutscenes take place. If you haven’t noticed, pay attention next time when you dock on another ship or use your grav drive to jump to another star system. A cutscene plays for a few seconds before you see the traditional, circular loading icon on the bottom right of the screen. Instead of having fast load times, Bethesda masked them with cutscenes to make them more interesting and less obvious to players when they see them. This is the power of using an SSD.
These scenes give the impression that the game is just continuing on as it should instead of having an awkward pause while we wait for things to be created. It provides a sense of realism in that doors and vaults don’t take several minutes to open or walk through; they only take a few seconds. The same goes for interstellar system travel in-game. Even though it would take much longer than the few seconds that the game provides in travel time, Bethesda also recognizes that if players aren’t able to get to the places that they want to in ample time, it might be enough of a game breaker for them to put the game down and never pick it back up.
Every Bethesda RPG Should Have Fast Load Times
Having fast load times isn’t just convenient. It provides you with an additional gameplay aspect that you didn’t realize you were missing out on before. If you were to play a Bethesda RPG but avoid using its fast-travel mechanic, you would definitely notice a difference in time spent versus utilizing the system to go from location to location. Actually, if you went back and used the same fast travel feature in any of their games, you’d notice the excruciating load times, really cementing how impossible Starfield would probably be without its requirement. Fast Starfield load times have managed to capture not only space but time as well by providing players QoL accessibility to reach faraway planets and adventure beyond the stars because now, nothing is holding them back.
It is possible to play Starfield without an SSD; however, it will run much slower than you’d prefer and its quality will suffer. Some players have reported consistent stuttering in the dialogue and load times of over a minute, so you might want to consider upgrading to an SSD if you haven’t done so already. We don’t really recommend trying to install the game on an HDD if you want the best Starfield experience.
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Starfield is available for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
