Ive noticed a few games recently that do not have instant save, but also dont have difficulty levels. this is ridiculous imo. if you have a checkpoint system that forces you to kill the same 19 guys over and over again because the 20th guy kills you…arghh!!…sucks all the fun out. at least with a difficulty level people who are having trouble can lower, AND, heres the thing, people who find the game to easy can RAISE it. surely everyone is happy then?.
Sleeping dogs for eg. a great game, but the fun is sucked out by the ridiculous checkpoints and no difficulty level. The police missions were so easy I would have liked to raise the difficulty, but I found the melee combat frustrating and I died a lot, so Id like to lower it.
I prefer instant save, its voluntary, you dont HAVE to use it, I can put up with lack of instant save if there are difficulty levels, but I would like to save in the middle of missions if I have to turn my console off….again, this doesnt happen in some games, quit out and youve got to start it again.

I’ve been playing PC games for over 15 years and I’ve got to say…there’s just no reason to not save whenever you want. The insane DRM schemes that have cropped up lately have taken away enough of our freedoms from hassles with games. After 15 years and fighting everything fromDOS to game killing bugs amd never pirating a game I can tell you I like the ability to at least save anywhere I want. Checkpoint only gives you only the one option, save anywhere gives you choice(save or not) and when is more choice ever a bad thing? I finish almost all the games I play and I must say the few I didn’t were almost all because of bad saves. I know I walk away happier finishing a game then leaving a game undone because I couldn’t finish it. In today’s times not being able to finish most games is like getting to the last chapter of a good book and finding the last page missing. Besides if I don’t care if you don’t save , why should you care if I do?

Luke, this more than the other flaws in Far Cry 2 is what ruined it for me.
I am still playing the game despite it’s flaws but I would totally love a save anywhere feature. This is one of those things that Fallout 3 did really well.

@ Matt`:

Yep, save anywhere with good checkpoints is probably the best solution available.

Though if you save in an unwindable place then it’s your own damn fault. Also, if you are overwriting your old saves with the new ones you are just asking for trouble. :P

@ Zel:

Save & Quit would be a great compromise for games that absolutely refuse to do Save Anywhere. I’d love that feature to be in Assassin’s Creed for example.

Save-anywhere doesn’t work for strategy-RPGs – typically the random number generator plays a big part in how it unfolds, so save-anywhere leads to randomizer abuse.

But you’re basically right, for 90% of games save-anywhere works.

Most DS games have a function called “Save & Quit” which is basically save anywhere with only one reload allowed (the save is deleted once the game is loaded). I think it would be a great compromise between having the checkpoint based challenge/thrills and being able to stop playing anytime they want.

If I had to choose, I would go with save anywhere, but I tend to abuse it : I’ll hit the quicksave key every 10 seconds or so if things are not 100% safe. Checkpoints based games are okay as long as checkpoints are numerous enough (once every 5 minutes or so) and they actually deliver some scary situations. Being able to save only when safe is another one I’ve seen (in Mass Effect) that could lead to good results.

Zadok001 wrote:

The order of preference is something like this:
1. Good checkpoints.
2. Save anywhere w/ checkpoints.
3. Save anywhere w/o checkpoints.
4. Bad checkpoints.

I would insert 0. Save anywhere w/ good checkpoints.

I’m thinking of the Half-Life way of doing things – checkpoints are numerous and well placed, so you don’t need to think about saving when you’re just going along normally (a few exceptions to that, but generally speaking dying won’t toss you back any further than the beginning of the challenge at hand) but there’s also save-anywhere for when you need to stop playing.

While I agree with your argument in general, I think you’ve skipped right over a critical point in favor of checkpoints. Specifically, most of us are ready to *murder* people who design games without them. “Forgot to save” syndrome is an absolute *bitch*.

My opinion? The order of preference is something like this:

1. Good checkpoints.
2. Save anywhere w/ checkpoints.
3. Save anywhere w/o checkpoints.
4. Bad checkpoints.

Everyone knows how that last one works. It’s the Resident Evil approach, and it drives everyone bat-shit insane, even though it’s contextually acceptable within the concept of survival horror. It’s still annoying as hell.

Save anywhere is obviously best when there’s some kind of checkpoint/autosave system already in place. Ideally that system should be configurable (an on/off toggle at a minimum), but it’s pretty much just straight better than the save anywhere system on its own.

Then there’s the truly ideal system, in my mind, which is “Good checkpoints.” Good checkpoints can only really be done in certain types of games, but where it’s possible, it’s perfect. It lets you put the whole “Save game” concept completely out of your head, and immerse yourself in the game completely. If you haven’t yet, take a look at Batman: Arkham Asylum. Observe the “save” system. It saves with incredible frequency (about every 2-4 minutes), invisibly. It never puts you in a gamestate where you can’t win. And you never have to think about it, it just happens.

Save anywhere is a great idea, but really, I think it is neither necessary nor ideal. It is, instead, a stop gap on the way to games that simply take care of that for us. Right now, bad checkpoint systems have left us sour on the whole idea, but good checkpoints are actually better than save anywhere, simply because they do *exactly* the same thing (save right when you want to/should), but don’t require the mind space.

Look at Batman. Look at Braid. Save anywhere is not necessary all the time.