Starfield is just a day into its Early Access, but players are already complaining about too many loading scrims. Minor problems are inevitable for the moment, but the amount of loading screens results from the decisions in the development process. Since the game’s most beloved and heavily advertized feature is its exploration, the loading screens are lamented by many as an obstacle to enjoying the game. Not everyone agrees, of course, many Redditors are having their say.
Starfield’s Loading Screens Already Started Annoying Players
The comments are shared under a post by daedelus82, who sums up their Starfield loading screen issues:
- Get in ship (load screen)
- Go to orbit (load screen)
- Select somewhere to jump (load screen)
- There’s no hyperdrive animation or anything to give the feeling of travel, just fades to black and you appear at destination stationary.
- Select place to land (load screen)
- Enter a building (load screen)
- Walk a few rooms in the building (another load screen).
Many Redditors under the post defend the same opinion. Some claim they even refunded the game, and there are serious complaints that the gameplay experience really suffers as a result of loading screen frustration. The original poster also claims that they have a capable PC rig, so the fault isn’t with their hardware but intrinsic to the game’s design.
It’s fair to say that the most likely reason behind the loading screen is probably poor game optimization. The loadings could be fast for some, but it seems that too many resources run simultaneously in Starfield. The game is also available on Xbox Series consoles, which means that there was a great deal of need for console optimization, but perhaps less focus was put on PC. It will be interesting to see what future patches and updates can do to improve PC performance.
