I accept that the Far Cry 5 gamesave is poor (wish I'd known before I bought it) but this post is just for any advice on how to manage it before I decide whether to continue with the game.
Okay, I quickly discovered that often the save game option is not available and that by moving to another area in the game it was magically restored (often just by stepping back a single step!) So how does one even make any sense of how to deal with that? No forget that question.
What's more important is that last night I was getting tired and wanted to go to bed. I couldn't. I couldn't save the game. No matter where I went (I'm still near the start on the island ((Dutch's Island is it?) I ran all around the island even back into the bunker, but no way to save. After 15 minutes I'm really sleepy so getting desperate. I see an option to Quit Mission. What mission? The missions haven't changed in the journal. Finally I had no choice so, knowing I had saved the game multiple times before and even fairly recently, I clicked Quit Mission, closed down my PS4 and retired for the night. This morning most everything is lost. The only thing preserved was inventory and the one hostage I'd saved. Far as I can see all else is respawned to do all over again. The mother of all checkpoints or what! Strangely, I still had the money I'd taken the day before out of a now newly-sealed bunker! And when I finally got it open again there was no money because hey! I'd already got it.
So, if I understand this aright, on the first Island, everything is one humungous checkpoint and one has to kill every cult member and scavenge everything on the island in one continuous playthrough session or start all over next session? Is that right? And are later such checkpoints even bigger? Like, play all week before it saves?
If you are in a mission, there should be check points inside the missions, and that is the only saves allowed. You are on the first island, so it should be to find a hired hand, clear a mini camp, then find the mini outpost and then clear the radio. Each of these SHOULD have a autosave. Once off the island, you will have free roam and missions. During free roam you can pretty much save anytime you wish, and often the game will also autosave after finding places, freeing outposts, and unlocking quests. If you are on a mission, you are prevented from manual saving and have to rely on the mission autosaves, and they are often fairly reasonable in length, but will vary depending on which mission you are on.
Sorry, had to open a new account to reply. I tried to log in my first account but my web browser automatically pasted in my user name in instead of my email so it was rejected. I then pasted in my correct email and password manually but was asked for my phone number to 'recover' my account, which I can't give.
So, anyway, the game... thanks for your reply but it doesn't fully fit my experience. I opened up the game again this morning and once again, my achievements from yesterday are lost even though I saved. I went all round the island yesterday apart from the central camp which looked a bit tough until I mastered combat better. But I killed cultists at two shrines and opened up the flooded bunker (fourth time now!) This morning that's all lost again.
So... is there no point in doing those things until everyone in the central camp is killed? The main story mission is to liberate the island.Spoiler: Show