Bioshock Infinite saving confusion

[CakeMonster]

I bought this game on the Steam summer sale and finally started playing (figured it was wise to wait for a couple of patches and all that). I can't for the life of my figure out the saving system. Is there only one save? I had played for possibly 20minutes ahead of where I started when I loaded up the game now, but there's no track of a save with that progress. The latest seemed to be when I got out into the city which was way before where I had played to. I then made the mistake of trying to load the latest chapter which sent me down into the chambers below the city, even earlier. Now I have to go through that as well. I really want to play this game, but can anyone tell me how much of a PITA saving and loading is going to be? (Also, does the Steam cloud saving make a difference?)

 

[ImpulsE69]

Game uses checkpoints.....

 

[DaveSimmons]

It's a checkpoint system with a single save. An icon flashes onscreen at a checkpoint, but with a SSD it appears so briefly that it's easy to miss. The designers messed that up -- with Borderlands the icon flashes long enough to see regardless of how fast the save happened.

Checkpoints mostly happen at semi-obvious location changes.

 

[CakeMonster]

Aha, the icon might explain it. I can't say I noticed but I guess I'll try looking for it.

Is there any risk of messing up a save so that you are stuck? I'm thinking if the one save you have you have too little ammo or something?

 

[Dankk]

Aha, the icon might explain it. I can't say I noticed but I guess I'll try looking for it.

Is there any risk of messing up a save so that you are stuck? I'm thinking if the one save you have you have too little ammo or something?

I wouldn't worry about it. In the event that you carelessly waste all your ammo and you're facing opposition, you'll always find ammo or a new weapon somewhere in the environment. Elizabeth's also pretty good about bailing you out of tight situations. And of course, optional tears.

 

[2timer]

I wouldn't worry about it. In the event that you carelessly waste all your ammo and you're facing opposition, you'll always find ammo or a new weapon somewhere in the environment. Elizabeth's also pretty good about bailing you out of tight situations. And of course, optional tears.

This.

You can also simply reload the last chapter if you had a really bad checkpoint. This is rare, it happened to me just twice playing in 1999 Mode, Scavenger style.