[Rant] Dead Island and its broken save system

[DDY]

I've already had a rant about Metro 2033's save system and today I'm venting my frustration at Dead Island having only played it for a few hours.

I'll start with the problem of Dead Island's checkpoints where my character will return after loading a game, checkpoints are not frequent and by that I mean they seem to only ever be where quest objectives are - which for an open world RPG mean save points can literally be miles apart. This is made worse by the fact vehicles aren't saved. e.g. I won't get my car back when I load, it could mean a long walk.

While still on checkpoints, there's no way of telling where I'll end up (i.e. which checkpoint) when I load, sometimes the checkpoint is where I'd expect it, other times it can be half a quest or even many quests ago, when this happens I lose my quest progress back to that checkpoint, although my character's level and inventory are saved.

No option to save manually of course, instead the game auto-saves when I quit, although I have to keep my fingers crossed and hope that my last checkpoint wasn't too far away because there's no way to force a save at the nearest check point.

So that's it for me, no more Dead Island, no more frustration.

[stilkun]

The auto-save or checkpoint does annoy me as well when I load the saves, it loads you to safe location rather than the last location where you expect to be. There are fast map travels which I use to move to safe location that is nearest to quest objectives.

I hate when the cars disappears on you when you enter a portal to different location, for me it was the hotel when I tried to get more alcohol for motolovs, and end up having to either walking long distance to a map or load the checkpoint hoping to be a nearest safe place.

I am on Act II so I am enjoying the game so far.

[=assassin=]

What are the saves like in co-op? I'll be giving that a go at some point in the future....

[joeee353]

I completely agree with you on this, there is nothing worse than playing most of a section and dying just before a checkpoint, so you have to play like 30 minutes all over again! This is why I never got Dead Island Riptide, but is this issue fixed in that game?

[jimbouk]

Are people playing single player then? I don't remember actually dying very often when in a team, generally someone can help you out or you can just call 'run away!' In fact single player when I was kitting up and doing side missions I think there was a fair amount of running away...

I will admit the car issues were annoying though rarely affected gameplay.

A minor bug but otherwise enjoyable

[stilkun]

What are the saves like in co-op? I'll be giving that a go at some point in the future....

The game save are same either way when you are complete objective or important area just game so you can either continue in internet mode or single player mode. You cannot join a player who has advance further chapter than you but you can join others who are in a chapter below yours. Not sure if you are able to retake the quest again.

Are people playing single player then? I don't remember actually dying very often when in a team, generally someone can help you out or you can just call 'run away!' In fact single player when I was kitting up and doing side missions I think there was a fair amount of running away...

I will admit the car issues were annoying though rarely affected gameplay.

A minor bug but otherwise enjoyable

I play internet mode however I sometimes make my slots private to have a break from playing with random players on public. Playing on your own is good but yeah it is good idea to play with another player to assist in some hard missions you having difficulty with or make sure you are fully kitted up with medkits and lots of motolovs.

[chuckskull]

Only played single, but agreed, I got a couple of really awkward ones and pretty much just quit the game over it. Classic case of devs trying to balance a game using the save system which is like trying to add drama to a book with a bookmark. Utterly pointless and stupid. Shame because otherwise it seemed like a great game, first bit of genuine survival horror I'd played in a while.

Back to the point, let me save whenever I want and have all major actions/objectives autosave on completion. It's nothing to do with balance or making the game to easy. It's just that I'm not 8 anymore. Which means A) My time is a finite resource. B) I will often, suddenly and unexpectedly have to go do a grown up things. If that penalises me ingame to an extent whereby I have to invest time to redo things I've already done. Your game will be uninstalled no matter how good otherwise and I probably won't buy the next one or your other titles. I wouldn't bother reading a book that made me go re-read a few chapters every time I put it down and I'd have some choice words for the author.

The whole point of the save system is to let me continue where I left off, end of.