10 Video Games That Don't Let You Save

In the modern age of gaming, saving is something we almost take for granted. While we've all forgotten to save and lost hours of dutiful work, the option to save is always there, even if it's a long cutscene away.

But there's always exceptions to any rule, and saving is just one of these. Plenty of games come without the possibility of bookmarking your progress - either to purposefully amp the difficulty, or just as an unfortunate accident.

The effect of this can vary massively, too, which can serve to either add fresh life into a game, or to make it a painful slog as you carefully dodge having to permanently restart the whole thing.

While this can be fun, there's a definite hint of masochism in having to play up to a dozen hours of game in one sitting simply because the game itself has refused to let you save.

That said, if you manage to get through one of these games or modes, you can and should officially pat yourself on the back, because you've just managed a great (and rare) feat.

Hercules for the PS1 is simultaneously a very fun game, and one with some frankly surreal decisions behind it.

The majority of the strangeness revolves around its saving and checkpoint mechanics. Firstly, the game hides away letters of Hercules' name in each level - and pretty cleverly hidden away too, so you're gonna need to be on top form to find all of them. Your reward for all of this? A code that lets you start the game again at that level should you die.

While this almost makes sense, there's a key flaw in it; namely, that most people who struggle with the level won't be able to get this code, and thus will have to play other levels again and again in order to try and actually get through this one level, which seems counterintuitive.

Crucially, though, the game does have a saving mechanic. Only... you have to collect vases, which will then offer you a one-time save.

Hilariously, if you've found the Hercules letters in a previous level, you probably would never realise the game also had a (weirdly hidden and inconvenient) save function, meaning you may not find it for a significant portion of the game.