Key items will snap back to the place where the player stood when they dropped the item (this was to prevent griefing that could occur by throwing items out of bounds). There are only a couple spots where this behavior does not work as intended and you would be hard pressed to find it if you did not know what you were looking for.

As far as the inventory space goes, I can agree, it is rather limiting on single player, but the trade off is that you typically only need 2 - 3 guns and can frequently drop objective items once they are used or at the door they will be needed in the future which saves you some running around time.

Since you mention 2 Keycards and a set of keys, I will assume you are playing the Last Stop campaign, you only need the keys for a brief period in the basement and the green key card can stay in the basement until you need it for the escape (similar to the boltcutters), that means you only need to carry an occasional fuse and the red keycard for any length of time. Drop off the fuses as you make your way past the basement. For the first part of the level, you really only need 1 gun as there are minimal zombies around.

Also, avoid carrying guns that use the same ammo type, they are almost completely redundant against zombies. Scars are the best auto rifle as well and Aks are the worst (stat wise).

Melee - while Source engine can be janky itself sometimes, most of the issue with using melees is timing. As for the range, it has to do with how the weapons work, proper balancing, etc. Door and walls can be clipped through (again this is Source Engine) so usually best to avoid melee near them. Also avoid melees on uneven surfaces like stairs or bumpy ground - those are asking to miss the head and take an attack even after hitting the zombie.

Some melee are better than others due to their slightly different collision maps and damage ratios. I usually prefer the golf club and sledge but bats work fine as well. Knives and Axes are much more difficult to use consistently without being hit.

Health - some levels have guaranteed health spawns while others do not but aside from those, health items are random just like any other weapon.

For riots, remember you can melee zombies and stun them with your normal guns (check your default binding, but my melee key is 'V'). Riots are basically jokes since the stun update since you can just continuously beat them until they die (just be careful you don't goof up the timing of your hits so they stay stunned).

Lastly, save function - there is no quick save function for the middle of a level. I have no idea if such a thing would even be feasible with this engine (I imagine probably not). The campaign has checkpoint like saving similar to L4D safe rooms. Practically, it's not a highly demanded feature due to the structure of the game.

although i only played this game for 10 hours total, literally your 2nd point about melee, seems impossible to kill all zombies without taking damage with melee only in solo unlike No more room in hell. You are able to have more ammo but guns are required when dealing with a horde

Originally posted by LivingLitch:

Ive tried playing solo a few times. My 3 biggest complaints are as follows
1. Low inventory space - It makes sense when playing multiplayer but playing solo it feels so slow and horrible to carry 1 weapon, 2 keycards, and only 1 set of keys. Suddenly I cant pick up 1 small fuse but if I put all 3 of the key items down, suddenly I can pick up a shot gun and 2 different assault riffles. It would be nice to have an extra inventory spot or two when going solo. G for dropping items throws them and not always where I am. One key card went flying several feet forward, one pair of keys somehow got stuck a few stairs back. Its inconsistent and I can see myself losing a level because I tossed a key item to make room for another key item.
2. Melee weapons seem to have a shorter range to attack with then zombies without weapons. Often times zombies hit me before I should even be within range of them in melee and some of them even hit me through doors. Why does a zombie with their arms out streched have a large range then someone weilding a fire axe or a sledgehammer?
Which brings me to 3.
3. Lack of healing. I cleared up to the alarm section of the first level without seeing any healing items. I had taken a few hits trying out melee weapons. I was down to 1 hit left. I ran by a swat zombie that I couldn't kill with guns and it hit me to take away my last bit of health. I never once saw a healing item and I was running through the game.

Is there some sort of save function? It seems odd that I would need to complete a solo level all in one go.

you forgot to add lack off stamina and a lot more

I'm in the Last Stop - Mansion level, playing solo. I'm playing many hours trying to find the damn colored keys to pass this level. Trying to find some minuscule keys in a giant map, with a small inventory. It is not fun...

they shouldve do some kind of backpack thing where you keep small items like cards and keys and fuse when you play Solo - or hell even playing with my buddy - the two of us still have a hard time managing the items we find

it would hurt to make the game more friendly to solo players or small teams of 2 or 3 people

Originally posted by One death guy:

they shouldve do some kind of backpack thing where you keep small items like cards and keys and fuse when you play Solo - or hell even playing with my buddy - the two of us still have a hard time managing the items we find

it would hurt to make the game more friendly to solo players or small teams of 2 or 3 people

If you are playing solo, the objective itens should be doubled or tripled. The colored keys on the Mansion _ Last Stop should have use a single slot only.

Originally posted by Niômon:

Originally posted by One death guy:

they shouldve do some kind of backpack thing where you keep small items like cards and keys and fuse when you play Solo - or hell even playing with my buddy - the two of us still have a hard time managing the items we find

it would hurt to make the game more friendly to solo players or small teams of 2 or 3 people

If you are playing solo, the objective itens should be doubled or tripled. The colored keys on the Mansion _ Last Stop should have use a single slot only.

this amount of objective items is not an issue - the issue is the game item slot is designed to coop of many players and totaly a nightmare for solo or even 2 players

Agree with everything. I wish the devs would adjust the gameplay for solo play.