Zealous Overreach: Inability to save game and client soft lock

I am playing through Shattered Space for a third time, in this one using Extreme mode. Every time I play these quests I find myself appreciating and enjoying them more.

Inside shadow base epsilon during the rescue of Sahima, I encountered a crushing situation that cost me a lot of time and much frustration. I vaguely remember the issue happening in 2024, but now in 2026 it is still jarring.

I’m able to loot the contraband cache inside the air vent and save, but the sign of impending doom is already there with a long and protracted save.

Moving on to Sahima, and having dispatched all enemies, it is no longer possible to quick save or perform any kind of save on PC Steam client. The action just hangs and the client has to be force closed or simply have it crash to desktop. Also confirmed to happen in XBOX mode. OneDrive active or not makes no difference.

The only recourse is to backtrack to the beginning entrance of the location and exit, then reenter which will invoke a successful autosave.

I did this unusual workaround a few times, first after finally completing the lengthy dialogue with Sahima, and then a few more times during the hostage rescue stage after each Redeemed (hardest enemy to kill so far).

After exiting the building, things once again return to normal.

It’s not important why the game breaking bug happens, just that it does and important to quickly recognize the condition and find a suitable way past the blockage.

This solution worked for me and I’m leaving it here for posterity and hopefully this helps others.