So I am busy playing Sniper Elite 4 on PC, and loving it. I’ve played the franchise since Sniper Elite V2, and it’s only gotten better with every iteration – bigger maps, more challenges, prettier graphics and, of course, more detailed X-Ray kill cams. There’s a lot to like.
However, over time I’ve come to realise that good as they are, none of those are the game’s best feature. They come close, of course – X-ray kill-cams and picking enemies off from the shadows are the reasons I keep coming back for more – but none can top the sheer technical genius of the game’s saving and loading system.
Why, you might ask?
Because it’s just so fast. And that speed is massively appreciated, as for me, getting through the levels requires a lot of trial and error, so the fact that I can hit Quicksave and Quickload and the game is either saved or loaded in less than a second is hugely important.
Yes, you read that right – once the level has loaded, the game saves and loads in less than a second. My hardware isn’t anything special, either, and the game isn’t running on an SSD so it’s not like my rig is doing the heavy lifting here.
Instead, that lightning-fast loading speed comes down to the engine and the cleverness of the programmers responsible for coding the game.
It’s so quick, that other games I’m playing seem positively archaic in comparison. I have started to loathe Halo Wars 2’s loading screens; even Torment: Tides of Numenera is starting to irritate me, even though it doesn’t take nearly as long. And don’t get me started on Watch_Dogs 2’s loading times – those 20 seconds are interminable!
I’m now at the point where I want every game I play to have saving and loading systems as optimised as Sniper Elite 4’s. I mean it’s not like the technicalities of the game aren’t complicated, because they are – SE4 features realistic bullet physics, massive levels, sharp textures and very pretty lighting, not to mention every enemy has a realistic skeleton and destructible internal organs, so there’s (theoretically) a lot to process and load. And yet the game manages it in less than a second. Astounding.
I have to ask, then, what is everyone else’s excuse?
