Save scumming is the act of saving frequently in a game so you can quickly go back if things don’t work out quite the way you want. Some would argue that this is a form of cheating and not in the spirit of the game. Others argue that since these are single-player games, there is nothing wrong with it since you’re just getting one over on the CPU.
Despite the morally ambiguous nature of save scumming, it’s still an act that many players have done at one point in their gaming lives. The following titles, in particular, are known for being magnets to save scummers.
Mass Effect
If there is ever such a thing as ‘ethical save scumming’, then what players do in the original Mass Effect should count. This is because the original version of the game has an awful autosave feature. If you rely on that, you can quickly lose hours of progress after a death. So, the manual save feature has to be used a lot.
9 Games That Can See Your Save Files
Plenty of games let you import your saves directly, but these games like to read your saves to do things a bit more unconventionally.
Now, you could use this sparingly by saving only when you access new areas. However, you can also veer into ‘scum’ territory by saving right before any form of combat. This is particularly useful during the long battle with The Thorian since you can save a lot during that encounter to make it far easier.
Save scumming isn’t just a part of one Football Manager game; it’s something you can do in every entry in the series. The game allows you to save at any point outside of matches. Therefore, it’s common to save right before your team plays a big game. Then, if they lose that game, you can load that save and give your players another chance at glory.
The reason why it’s so tempting is that it’s not like a traditional game, where if you fail, you go back to a previous checkpoint. If you lose, you’re supposed to just take it. And if it is a cup final or a league-deciding match, you’ll have to wait another in-game year at least to get a chance at winning that trophy again. All this pain can be avoided with a simple load.
Disco Elysium
Unlike most RPGs, Disco Elysium is a game with no traditional combat. You settle most encounters through dialogue and skill checks. This can be tricky since you don’t always know the correct thing to say, and there is an RNG element to skill checks. So, while you’re playing the game, you are almost certainly going to have scenes that don’t go the way you desire.
Now, these don’t always end in game overs, so you’re often free to continue regardless of how badly you messed up. Yet, many prefer not to stick by their failures, and instead use a bit of save scumming to get the actual outcome that they wanted. In fairness, this can make for a more complete narrative experience.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a turn-based tactics game that has you taking on dangerous alien forces. Despite the deadly monsters you have to face, your squad follows your instructions and takes the fight to the creatures, not afraid that they may die. And they really may die since there is a permadeath feature in the game, so you can lose any squad member at any time.
Seeing one of your troops go down is a tough sight, especially if you’ve put significant time into levelling them up. However, you can save yourself from that pain by save scumming. You lose some important members of your squad? Just revert to a previous save, and it’s like it never happened.
Kerbal Space Program
Kerbal Space Program is all about building vehicles, most commonly rockets and spacecrafts that you intend to fire into space. The building process is incredibly complex and detailed. You create them piece by piece, hoping they perform as you expect. Yet, there is a reason why becoming a rocket scientist is tough. Spaceships are difficult to build.
Therefore, in Kerbal Space Program, you can easily mess up a small thing, and the whole ship can explode mid-flight. This can mean that all the time and effort you put into building the vehicle was wasted. That is, unless you resort to a bit of save scumming, where you can just go back and make some changes before the ship takes off.
Pokemon Series
The Pokemon series has continually reminded you that you’ve “Gotta Catch ‘Em All.” This means you’ve got to acquire all the Pokemon in each individual game, or at least try to before getting bored and moving on to something else. Getting them all, though, is difficult, particularly when you start trying to acquire legendaries. After all, these impressive Pokemon aren’t always easy to catch.
You can sometimes use all the Poke Balls in your possession to try to catch one and still fail, forcing you to knock it out instead. After you’ve knocked them out, getting another chance typically takes a very long time. Therefore, some people like to resort to a bit of save scumming instead to instantly get another shot. The fact that there is a randomness to the success of Poke Balls means this strategy is understandable.
Hitman: World Of Assassination
Not every stealth game allows you to save scum, but it’s the best genre for it. This is because it typically only takes one bad moment in a stealth game to ruin a whole run. For example, in Hitman: World of Assassination, you can be sneaking around in a disguise until one person recognizes you, the whole area becomes alerted, and your disguise is compromised.
Thankfully, in this game, you can perform manual saves regularly. Therefore, it’s common to save frequently, so when you are seen, you don’t have to pay for your mistakes; you can just load up a save and only lose a few minutes of progress. On top of that, Hitman is a game that gives you great freedom and allows you to try all sorts of things. So, saving, trying something silly, and reloading a save is a fairly common practise for Hitman players.
Baldur’s Gate 3
There are a few reasons why players choose to save scum in Baldur’s Gate 3. For starters, a lot of what happens in this game is based on dice rolls. Even big story moments can depend on the roll of a dice. So, if you don’t want one of your favorite companions turning to the dark side or having a horrible ending, you may need to make use of a bit of save scumming to get the dice roll you want.
Save scumming can also be used to backtrack on deliberate choices you’ve made. After all, it can be hard to predict what the consequences of your decision will be before they happen. Tactical save scumming during long battles is also prevalent among Baldur’s Gate 3 players. Considering all of this, Baldur’s Gate 3 should be referred to as an iconic save-scumming game.
8 Games That Punish You For Saving
These games hate people who save.
