Silent Hill Heaven

Maybe I don't understand it. I have a notification of saving each 10 or 30 seconds. But, when I exit the game, I always end up way back from where I was when I quit.

How does this work? I have just finished the library. My last save was when I left some house I visited. Let's say it was around 7h30 this evening. I decide to go see the guy from the radio station. I enter the building at around 7h40. I am inside for a good hour and a half. I check my last save game, still the one from 7h30. But, is must have saved 10 or 20 times when I was inside the building. I finally get out and I see that my new "last" save is around 9h00pm.

The way I understand it, the game saves your progress only when you leave a building. What are the other saves for? Checkpoints? If so, this is one stupid save system.

Please tell me I'm wrong and explain. Thanks!
Great game besides that by the way.

I believe you're right; when you enter and leave significant areas, there is a real save. The constant (and identical) saves in-between appear to be checkpoints that won't stick around if you turn off the console.

It's a flawed system. What I've been doing is checking the "load" screen to see when my last "hard-save" occurred whenever I'm exiting the game. It's a silly flaw in a game that I am otherwise loving.

I didn't really notice the issue and it never caused me any problems. I'll keep it in mind the next time I play and see if I just overlooked it though.

They seem to just be temporary checkpoints. Regardless, it is annoying to see the word "saving" appear constantly. Often it will save literally every few steps taken. And of course it usually makes the game stutter. Ugh.

Well, I think the system is flawed. I don't want to worry about "getting" to a major area while I am playing. It breaks the flow of the game.

I found another flaw in the save system, the developers locked saved game data. I started playing the game on my boyfriends ps3 so I brought my USB over so I can play the game on my ps3. Then I found out the only way I could copy and save the file was to purchase a playstation plus account. Now im stuck playing on his ps3 untill I give $50 to sony. This new system is relatively new because I can still copy and save my skyrim files on the USB.

I believe the save system is definitely a weak in this game. I say bring back the old save system.

Thinking more, I was a little annoyed there weren't save points. The auto-save probably would've been fine for strictly the check points but it was a little tiring trying to find the next actual save spot so I could turn the game off for the night.

xoxsnoof wrote:Thinking more, I was a little annoyed there weren't save points. The auto-save probably would've been fine for strictly the check points but it was a little tiring trying to find the next actual save spot so I could turn the game off for the night.

I totally agree with you.

I have had almost no issue whatsoever with the saving, I only remember one time when I felt like I wanted to quit but I hadn't reached a save spot in a while. My natural inclination is usually to quit right after a big section anyway, for instance I was drained last night and wasn't feeling like starting an overworld section, and luckily that was exactly when the game saved.

I didn't really mind the save system. Maybe I'm just lucky, but when I booted the game up I was either right where I left off, or maybe five minutes behind.

I also think the save system in Downpour is poorly implemented. Why they couldn't implement a manual save system that's been in every other SH game is beyond me.

I am enjoying the game, though.

Well, I finally got used to it. If I want a quick save, I enter a building and leave it right away. Kind of stupid, but it works.

I concur that the save system in this game is a bit awkward. I also found it to cause a brief bit of stuttering in my game whenever a checkpoint or autosave occurs, which can be a bit jarring. I'd have been fine with the old manual save system, or even Shattered Memories' system of saving through the menu. I am playing the playstation 3 version.

I actually like the save system quite a bit. It's a lot like playing a PC game like Half-Life 2 where the game saves periodically, and gives you the choice of taking a step back if you missed something, or you feel you could have gone through an area using less supplies. My only gripe with the system is that with the auto-saves, comes lag.

The save system is nothing like Half life 2. Half life 2 has manual saves and much more consistent checkpoints that don't make you go "wait fuck have I hit a checkpoint yet because I don't want to redo stuff".

Should've just stuck with little red notes on the wall, Vatra.

I really wish this game wasn't completely auto-save. Oh well. I guess it's better than searching constantly for Save Points. I still kind of miss them, though...

I don't see a "Saving" icon pop up every few seconds like some on here say. Does it really do that and I'm just not noticing?
I don't know. I notice that it saves whenever I enter/exit a building, do something in a sidequest, or when anything major happens.
I'm not against the auto-saving; but I really do miss the standard save-points. The exploration feels like SH1 to me, so I wish it had save-points throughout in a similar manner to SH1 as well as an auto-save feature for certain situations. That'd be awesome.
I am pretty disappointed with the lag. I wonder if the save-system is to blame? If not, then what?
Nevertheless I'm having fun with Downpour. Imo it's a really weird installment, kind of weird in the way that SH4 was, only not so drastic. It's not a bad thing... just different. Alien at times.
I'm about to go play!

^Same with mine. I only have an icon show up when I complete a quest or go into a certain building or something.

So.. Im pretty drunk so please exuse my spelling errors.

I had a friend over tonight and he was excited to play donwpour and he got about 10% in,played for quite a bit.

After he left I went to load my own game file to play for a bit (funny I know but playing the game while pretty intoxicated is pretty good fun)and it turns out the game only has one save file..

Because of the way the auto save feature works, it saves over any current game file you have, and apparanlty once it gets to 5 or so saves it repeats.

Maybe this is obvious news to a person who regularly plays a 360, but for me it was something I did not expect, and now because of that I have to start my game over from the beginning... which I don't think I'll do for quite a while. =(