For all of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt‘s scope and grandeur, many fans have wondered how the fantasy sequel will perform on launch day outside of the selective, glossy trailers that have been released thus far. Resolution and framerate have already been deliberated, but one enticing facet revealed via GameSpot has perked the ears of fans of the franchise: Wild Hunt won’t feature any load screens in the traditional sense.
There is a caveat to that statement, however, as CD Projekt RED’s Jonas Mattsson noted that the game will only have players staring passively at the screen during fast travel, with the remainder of the experience offering up a seamless open-world for gamers to lose themselves in. Here’s what Mattson had to say about the design decision:
“Exactly. Kaer Morhen [a region to the north]. That’s a separate small level as well there. But on the full open world, there’s no loading time. You can travel and roam around as you wish. No, there’s no loading times. Only when you actually start the game, when die and load the game, or when you fast travel. That fast travel loading time depends on how far you have to travel of course. If you just fast travel a little bit, it’s a really short loading time,” he said.
“For us, that was really important. I think we achieved that because, as you said, just going in and out of a building, there’s no loading time. Nothing. It’s just creates this really nice experience.”
So, aside from booting up the title, dying, and fast travelling, players are essentially free from the shackles of load screens when it comes to The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. It’s a tantalizing addition to the formula, as those RPG fans who persevered through the loading screens with Skyrim or, more recently, Bloodborne, will welcome the streamlined experience.
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt will offer up a largely uninterrupted experience when it arrives for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on May 19.