Saved games unable to be loaded (Patch 2.0)

System information.

OS: Windows 8.1

x64

RAM: 8GB

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

Intel(R) HD graphics 5500

NVIDIA GeForce 840M

Game version: v2.0f9

The problem.

Right, with the specs out of the way, the problem is as follows: having bought the game during patch 1.6 (Underlord edition), I was able to play without problems until the Undergames update, but the update itself doesn't seem to have been the cause of the breakdown. While playing through the campaign (playing on Master-difficulty as Volta), I experienced a few of the other logged bugs (UI glitches, odd drops in performance) but was able to play without significant impediment until I reached Volta's lv7. After playing for 1:28 hours on that map, I saved the game and quit to the desktop shortly afterwards. In a persistent issue, the game crashed while trying to close and thus I believe I used task manager to kill the program. Since this incident, I have been unable to successfully load either my recent saves or the older ones pre-dating that day. While the rest of the game plays fine, the loss of my progress (especially with my Master-difficulty campaign) is frustrating and it is becoming impossible to play the game due to the loss of the loading function.

Details and steps taken.

While attempting to resolve the issue, I backed up my save folder and reinstalled the entire game. However, all this seems to have done is reset my progress in the Undergames (due to Steam's cloud-save function having run out of space, which in itself wasn't causing any problems prior to that day) while the load function remains out of commission. While attempting to load a game, the game's load bar will reach exactly the halfway point but will not load beyond this point under any observed circumstances.

It is important to note that the game neither freezes or crashes during these load attempts, but simply idles indefinitely as the load process seems to fail to complete for whatever reason.

It is fully possible to save as normal, as I have been able to save games, just not load them.

I have access to a subsequent day's log (where I quit after another failed attempt to load a game) and a screenshot of the loading bar should they prove helpful.