History Main / CheckpointStarvation

** ''Advanced Warfighter'' can have rather long times between checkpoints, along with some of the levels being [[MarathonLevel very long in themselves]]. This is especially painful on Hard difficulty, where nearly all enemy shots are a OneHitKill to the player.

** ''Future Soldier'' has checkpoints that, while perfectly fine for the lower difficulties, are spaced out just far enough to make things potentially tedious for those playing on Elite difficulty, especially if the level has a tactical challenge that requires playing on Elite. Unlocking the "Fixed Stock" attachment for singleplayer, one of the best attachments in the game, is considered one of the hardest things to do in the game, mostly because you have to [[StealthBasedMission go through nearly all of the final mission without being detected]] on Elite difficulty, with only one or two checkpoints to fall back on if you screw up at any point during it.

** The beginning of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' requires a lengthy cutscene, a non-controlled battle, another lengthy cutscene, some wandering around, ''another'' lengthy cutscene, and finally the prologue before being able to save.

** The sequel, ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'', averts this with checkpoints being much more common as well as more safe houses for you to regularly save. However, it's still played straight when playing the game on [[NintendoHard Classic Mode]]. There, the autosave function has been disabled completely and you're only allowed to save 7 times throughout the whole game.

* Autosaves in ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' mostly occur after you've made a lot of progress in a level or before a boss fight. While some gamers consider this an AntiFrustrationFeature, given the game's difficulty, it still requires you to be extra careful with managing your ammo and health so you won't have to start over from the previous checkpoint. Plus, the only way to manually save the game is through the abandoned morgue which can only be accessed through mirror portals that appear ''randomly'' throughout the game.
* The sequel, ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'', averts this with checkpoints being much more common as well as more safe houses for you to regularly save. However, it's still played straight when playing the game on [[NintendoHard Classic Mode]]. There, the autosave function has been disabled completely and you're only allowed to save 7 times throughout the whole game.

* ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' had Pro Jobs, before they were removed with "Hoxton's Housewarming Party" in October 2016. They'd give increased payment and experience from normal heists, but with the caveat that failing ''any'' day of the heist kicked you back out to the lobby to select a new heist.

** In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', entering a new area within a world counts as a checkpoint, so it's normally not an issue. However, in Hideout Helm, because there are no indoor areas, you'll be sent to the beginning if you lose a life anywhere outside the Battle Arena. The time limit (which will be determined depending on how many blueprints were collected over the course of the game) further complicates this, because if you do lose a life the time limit will ''not'' reset; and if it runs out it will not only send the player back to the start as well, but also will reset all the progress done. The trope only stops being an issue after you complete the world's mission, as it will eliminate the time limit and, after a bit more progress, you'll finally find a warp panel to connect it to the one from the start and thus enable the world's only shortcut.

* The entire final section of ''VideoGame/{{Ico}}'' has to be played in a single sitting, [[spoiler:since the save mechanic depends on Yorda and Ico holding hands, and Yorda has been petrified and spirited away by the Queen]]. This actually adds a marvelous sense of fear and urgency to the already dark and eerie sequence, [[spoiler:and makes the player that much more desperate to find her again]].

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** Losing a life in a standard level mission in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' will kick you back to that level's entrance in Delfino Plaza. However, the game makes an exception with the obstacle courses (including those of the Sky & Sea variety): You can retry them as many times as lives you have left without needing to re-enter the mission where they're located, let alone having to reach them again. Another exception is made with the final battle (which comes off as a huge relief, considering the very difficult path in Corona Mountain).

* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' is downright ''brutal'' with bonfire (checkpoint) placement at times.
** You generally only get one or two per level, and some levels have none at all. While you can usually open up shortcuts on subsequent runs through areas and minibosses don't respawn, getting to some bosses can be incredibly difficult. Then after that, most bosses can kill you in one or two hits.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls2'':

* ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'' doesn't let you manually save, and only creates permanent autosaves at three areas: The start of a chapter, the intermission in the middle, and at the end right before the boss battle. The interval between the start, intermission and end gets longer in later chapters. It can really get demoralizing if you lose a battle right before the midpoint intermission and are sent back to the start, which may cost you 20-30 minutes worth of gameplay, maybe more. However it does create a quicksave if you quit in the middle of the game. The quicksave however is deleted right after it is loaded.

* ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'' doesn't let you manually save, and only creates permanent autosaves at three areas: The start of a chapter, the intermission in the middle, and at the end right before the boss battle. The interval between the start, intermission and end gets longer in later chapters. It can really get demoralizing if you lose a battle right before the midpoint intermission and are sent back to the start, which may cost you 20-30 minutes worth of gameplay, maybe more.

* This is the most common complaint with ''[[VideoGame/JakIIRenegade Jak II]]'' and probably the most contributing factor to [[NintendoHard its difficulty]]. Most if not all of city missions just have to be done in one go, and platforming segments have unholy distance between respawn points as well.
* ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'': The only difference between difficulty levels is how far apart the save points are. "Impossible" mode requires you to beat the entire game without save points.[[note]]There actually ''is'' a way to save on Impossible. The "evil" save point (a ChestMonster) that appears near the end of the game is still there on Impossible, and due to a glitch you have exactly ''one frame'' of animation to save on it after its death.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' games - well, the first two - were ''terrible'' about this. Say you just got done fighting one of the game's most exhaustive battles, not counting the ten that came before it, and you're sure you're near the boss - then you get called away for dinner and shut down the game. It has no manual save feature, but that must mean it saves your progress on its own, right? [[TemptingFate I-it wouldn't be so cruel as to make you start from the very beginning of the level again, right? R-right guys?]]
* ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'' has this, not in the story levels, but some community levels only contain a few checkpoints, or sometimes just one Infinite Check Point at the beginning.

** ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'': In the HD versions of the game, one mission involves getting to the end of Eggmanland, a NintendoHard stage that is by far the longest in the game, with the time limit for the first Hot Dog trial being 75 minutes. It has to be done '''THREE TIMES''' in order to get the [[BraggingRightsReward trophy/achievement]]. '''WITH''' the [[TimedMission time limit]] decreasing after each [[DifficultySpike succession]] up to ''45 minutes''. Did we mention that you get no checkpoints at all and dying at any point forces you to restart from the beginning?

** The [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Northern Crater]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has no save points, but it does have a lot of tough enemies, the FinalBoss and a long cutscene. It gives the party one unique item that can create a save point, but the item is glitched and can make the dungeon {{unwinnable|ByMistake}}, so it's just best to ignore it. Earlier, the whirlwind maze: After the save point, you have a timing puzzle, a few long cutscenes, and a FMV before the next save. There's nothing particularly dangerous in-game there, but this area had a high crash rate in [[PortingDisaster the PC version]].

* ''VideoGame/GettingOverItWithBennettFoddy'' has no checkpoints; if you fall, you fall, and must climb back up again from however far you fell - potentially as far as the very beginning of the game. At the very least, the game saves whenever you exit the game. That said, it also saves if you fall, too.

* In the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon of ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} V'', you have to fight three [[ThatOneBoss very tough]] bosses, with no save points in between. Unlike previous games where you could save anywhere, this one only allows you to save at inns in town.

* ''VideoGame/FarCry''
** The original game features large, open levels with checkpoint saves and ''nothing'' else. Worse, if you wander off the beaten path or take a route other than the one the developers expected you to take, then it is entirely possible to miss the save point. The game contains a DummiedOut quicksave feature, presumably as a developer tool, which can be modded back in with a one-line config file tweak. Doing so (and using it) makes it very obvious how tightly the levels are tuned and paced around the save points, and [[GameBreaker completely changes the game balance]], so the starvation is likely intentional even if it is annoying.

* Enforced with the Iron Skull from ''{{Franchise/Halo}}''. It's an EasterEgg that, if activated, forces the player to start the whole level over if they die, or sometimes just at when you last received a new directive. This holds true still for co-op mode, which normally respawns a dead player at his partner's location, but with Iron on forces them both to restart.