10 GENIUS Ways Video Games Hide Load Times
3. Chalice Dungeon Lifts - Bloodborne (2015)
Pretty much every FromSoftware game, from Demon's Souls to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, features long elevators that eliminate the need to stop and load the next area. But one place you really notice this impressive transition is in Bloodborne's polarising procedural tombs, the Chalice Dungeons.
If you can look past the dull grind that most of these dungeons consist of, you may just begin to appreciate the fact that you can get from start to finish without seeing a single loading screen.
The deepest Chalice Dungeons can contain four levels, each separated by a lift at the end of the boss arena. These levels are loaded in real time, and the time it takes to descend on the lift is just long enough for the lower level to load in without so much as a hiccup.
Want to see something really impressive? If you come across a wide-open room with creaking wooden bridges stretching across it, falling off the edge can sometimes result in you plummeting straight down to a lower part of the dungeon, which it will notify you of just as the "YOU DIED" text appears.
Love them or hate them, the Chalice Dungeons are huge environments, and for them to exist without stopping to load once is no small thing at all.