One of the original game designers for Oblivion has explained why he feels a recurring Bethesda design choice is a "necessary evil." Certain design decisions in Bethesda RPGS have been points of contention for a long time, but the recent release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered last week and Starfield in 2023 have highlighted how outdated some practics feel. Other open-world games have abandoned elements like loading screens, but it looks like that particular inclusion is going to stay for future Bethesda titles, regardless of how fans feel.

In an interview with VideoGamer, former Bethesda employee and Oblivion game designer Bruce Nesmith says that loading screens have been “a necessary bane of the existing [sic] of Bethesda since time immemorial," and that future Bethesda games will most likely continue to use loading screens and not have a seamlessly connected world. Nesmith explained that the segmented design and use of loading screens are integral to how Bethesda games work, due to their level of detail and graphics intensity.

Loading Screens Are A Bethesda Standard

Large, Detailed, Segmented Open-Zones

There have been a lot of great open-world RPGs, and many aspects of common design direction were inspired by Oblivion back in 2006. According to Nesmith, while he and Bethesda know fans would like a more seamless world with no load screens, it just isn't feasible. Loading screens allow the games to keep track of item placement and detailed physics that stay put after you leave, which gives players a permanent mark on the world around them.

Bethesda has tried to hide loading screens and make transitions more seamless, but the games took a massive hit to performance. "I can’t have the interiors of all these places loaded at the same time as the exteriors. That’s just not an option,” Nesmith explained."...So you’re actually better off stopping the game briefly, doing a loading screen, and then continuing on.” Some immersive open-world games are very graphically intensive, but the way the player interacts with the world and NPCs might be less demanding, which leads to some open-world games loading more seamlessly than Bethesda games.

Our Take: Loading Screens Are Necessary, For Now

They're Hopefully Quite Short, Though

Loading screens can be immersion-breaking, for sure, and too many of them can lead to players spending more time waiting to play than actually playing. When a game's performance could be compromised without them, however, it's better to have the loading screens. The Oblivion remaster still has its quirks from the original game, including the frequent loading screens. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 tried to have as few loading screens as possible, and Cyberpunk's world is less interactive than a Bethesda game's.

Loading screens do indeed seem like a necessary evil if fans want to enjoy all the detail of the game world and feel like they are having an impact in it. There are, of course, other open-world game design philosophies that prioritize seamless gameplay over loading screens. For now, though, it seems like Bethesda games after The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered will most likely still have loading screens, until there is a big shake-up in technology or game design.

Source: VideoGamer