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A troubled action horror | The Callisto Protocol Review

2K View2022-12-03

The heir apparent to the Dead Space series is now here. The Callisto Protocol is a great game and a worthy spiritual successor to the Dead Space series, but it's sadly disappointing to have such major performance issues on PC. With the full remake of the original Dead Space looming on the horizon, its now or never for The Callisto Protocol to impress us.

The Callisto Protocol starts off piling cliches upon cliches of typical action and sci-fi tropes. You play as the typical menial pilot turned wrongfully accused prisoner — caught in the middle of a viral outbreak on a colony on Europa’s Moon, Callisto. A stellar premise to start, setting the stage for the game.

Callisto Protocol immediately sets the tone right from the start. With a brooding atmosphere, cheap jump scare, and an introduction to its gruesome melee combat. During the first few bits of the game, The melee combat is given its own spotlight, and this is where Callisto Protocol is at its best as a survival horror game. Later on in the game, you will get traditional ranged weaponry with guns that you can upgrade, and eventually a gravity bending tool called Grip.

Compared to Dead Space, the melee combat in Callisto Protocol is given more emphasis and is highly encouraged. Aside from conserving ammunition, there is a satisfying pay off when risking melee combat over guns. Consecutive melee combos allows you to do auto aimed critical gunshot hits to quickly finish off enemies. There is also a bit of a semi-complex two directional dodge system: dodge left or right like boxer, then counter attack with a melee strike, which is pretty satisfying and gratifying to perform.

That's now to say the controls itself are without its issues. While the dodges empower you with a greater sense of control, there are some frustrations brought forth by very slow weapons switching or reloading animations that don't exactly line up well with the relentless enemy attacks you are up against. Leading to unnecessary do-overs of actions you want to perform or worse, a do-over of the entire segment by dying. You also tend to have problems when dealing with multiple enemies at once and it seems like Callisto Protocol works best in 1v1 situations.

Across the game, you will get a hold of the tool “GRIP'' which functions similarly to KINESIS from Dead Space, or the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2. Pull objects or enemies into you and throw them off. In combination with the deliberately placed environmental hazards like random wall spikes or unsafe space machinery, that you encounter in the game's expansive and varied but linear levels, makes for a fun physics driven combat. It's a game changing mechanic and one that is too overpowered can render the rest of your arsenal obsolete when it comes to dealing with the weaker enemies. It makes it feel like a whole different kind of game, removing the tension and becoming a full-on action game suddenly.

Callisto Protocol is a tense and anxiety inducing game, from the subtle sound effects emanating from the environment, dynamic blood effects splattering all over your prison coveralls, dark brooding hallways, gruesome kill animations, to the incessant use of jump scares. The graphics look phenomenal, the photorealism is done accurately and is undoubtedly a next-gen quality game. Some character models may look like plastic at times but for the most part they look very realistic.

Despite running relatively smooth for the console platforms, the PC optimization is shit, for a lack of a better word. It really needed more time in the oven as the game is stuttery even with the highest of specs. I have an RTX 3080 and still struggle to maintain 60fps. Lengthwise, expect the entire campaign to last you in a little bit under ten hours.

While I feel that the story, atmosphere, and gameplay are entertaining enough and the graphics genuinely next-gen, there is really nothing new to it as a game. From the narrative tropes to the gameplay elements, everything in it feels like something I've already seen before. Nothing really blew my mind nor met my somewhat high expectation for this game. Crippled even further by a stuttery PC performance, It’s not the masterpiece I originally thought it was, notwithstanding, The Callisto Protocol is still a great game at its best and an average game at its worst.

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