made me piss my ass
Definitely worse than Dead Space
Man where to begin with this game. I guess I will start by saying this game is a massive disappointment to me guarding the fact I was insanely excited for this game for awhile being a fan of the dead space series how could you not have had any excitement about this game. The issue with this game is that its just OKAY when it could have really been an amazing experience but instead we get an OKAY game behind the beautiful graphics and sound effects the game has to offer.
THE BAD:
First off the combat is insanely boring once you understand how easy it is to dodge every attack and take into consideration I was playing on max difficulty where damage output was insane since you would die in 1-2 hits depending on the monster. With that being said once you understood the ins and outs of the boring ass combat the game became a damn near cake walk since you could auto dodge EVERYTHING if you just held left and right on the left stick. While having guns you would almost never use them as the main option but more of a finisher and combo extender as the game really wanted you to melee most of the time which I was not a fan of. You had other options like a gravity hand thing that would allow you to grab enemies and throw them which could as well be used for combo extenders or insta kills if there were ledges or spikes in the area you could throw them into. All in all combat IMO was the biggest issue of this game and what ultimately held it back since it just wasn't that much fun all combat areas played out the same.
The bosses as well sucked because the combat sucked allowing you to pretty much dodge most of the bosses attack since their attack patterns never changed at all. I also say bosses very loosely as there wasn't many bosses to begin with LOL. Also while the death scenes are very gorey and cool after the 20th damn time seeing the animation I just got the point where I would insta reload the checkpoint because sitting there for 5-10 seconds EVERYTIME got very annoying since some death scenes would replay over and OVER again.
The story was fine enough and kept me interested enough but of course we get a blatant cliffhanger ending that sets up for a sequel or DLC but the ending was so abrupt that I can't help to think that they damn near just cut content from the game to sell as DLC but we will see as the DLC rolls out. Playing on PS5 I didn't have the hard time of dealing with the PC version of this game but I did run into a few bugs and even a few hard game crashes but overall not a insanely buggy experience on PS5 it played well and looked very good. One last note this game honestly felt very short to me lol I was able to finish it in under 10 hours on the hardest difficulty so honestly the content felt very VERY limited in many ways.
THE GOOD:
Which leads into the good aspects because while there are bad there are somethings I really enjoyed about this game. First of the all the game LOOKS beautiful and while it very much takes dead spaces type of setting it is done very well and looks very beautiful. I complained about the death scenes becoming repetitive but still overall they looked awesome and were bloody as hell and whenever a new one played it was a blast to watch. The story like I said was interesting enough and really sets up for a big world that really can be expanded upon so I am really curious on where they will take this series story wise as we get sequels for it which I damn sure we will after that ending lol. The sound effects I also really enjoyed in the game from the deaths to the impact of your rod hitting the enemies it sounded good to me !
Overall its an okay game that really could have been something special and it really sucks that this game is just okay. I really hope they take feedback to heart and really improve on the sequel for this game !!!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND AT FULL PRICE BUY ON SALE.
THE BAD:
First off the combat is insanely boring once you understand how easy it is to dodge every attack and take into consideration I was playing on max difficulty where damage output was insane since you would die in 1-2 hits depending on the monster. With that being said once you understood the ins and outs of the boring ass combat the game became a damn near cake walk since you could auto dodge EVERYTHING if you just held left and right on the left stick. While having guns you would almost never use them as the main option but more of a finisher and combo extender as the game really wanted you to melee most of the time which I was not a fan of. You had other options like a gravity hand thing that would allow you to grab enemies and throw them which could as well be used for combo extenders or insta kills if there were ledges or spikes in the area you could throw them into. All in all combat IMO was the biggest issue of this game and what ultimately held it back since it just wasn't that much fun all combat areas played out the same.
The bosses as well sucked because the combat sucked allowing you to pretty much dodge most of the bosses attack since their attack patterns never changed at all. I also say bosses very loosely as there wasn't many bosses to begin with LOL. Also while the death scenes are very gorey and cool after the 20th damn time seeing the animation I just got the point where I would insta reload the checkpoint because sitting there for 5-10 seconds EVERYTIME got very annoying since some death scenes would replay over and OVER again.
The story was fine enough and kept me interested enough but of course we get a blatant cliffhanger ending that sets up for a sequel or DLC but the ending was so abrupt that I can't help to think that they damn near just cut content from the game to sell as DLC but we will see as the DLC rolls out. Playing on PS5 I didn't have the hard time of dealing with the PC version of this game but I did run into a few bugs and even a few hard game crashes but overall not a insanely buggy experience on PS5 it played well and looked very good. One last note this game honestly felt very short to me lol I was able to finish it in under 10 hours on the hardest difficulty so honestly the content felt very VERY limited in many ways.
THE GOOD:
Which leads into the good aspects because while there are bad there are somethings I really enjoyed about this game. First of the all the game LOOKS beautiful and while it very much takes dead spaces type of setting it is done very well and looks very beautiful. I complained about the death scenes becoming repetitive but still overall they looked awesome and were bloody as hell and whenever a new one played it was a blast to watch. The story like I said was interesting enough and really sets up for a big world that really can be expanded upon so I am really curious on where they will take this series story wise as we get sequels for it which I damn sure we will after that ending lol. The sound effects I also really enjoyed in the game from the deaths to the impact of your rod hitting the enemies it sounded good to me !
Overall its an okay game that really could have been something special and it really sucks that this game is just okay. I really hope they take feedback to heart and really improve on the sequel for this game !!!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND AT FULL PRICE BUY ON SALE.
I don't really want to go in-depth here so Im just gonna say what Im thinking about.
Linear game with very minor exploration. Which isn't a bad thing, it's just that the game very quickly starts to feel formulaic.
You wander around through hallways to obvious combat arenas, crawl through vents and are shoehorned on to various narrow hold w to progress pathways for a jumpscare at the end.
Speaking of the jumpscares, they aren't really that good nor do they work that well. Granted, sure, it's "like Dead Space"
Back to the exploration, sometimes you get a side path which typically has some supplies for you to grab. Sometimes the game doesn't really show off which path is the main one. Sometimes you end up taking the main path, realize it after a minute or so of jogging and then back track to go grab whatever you might've missed. It can be pretty boring outside of combat, it is most of the time.
The combat can be pretty engaging when you get into the flow of dodge>combo>gun follow-up>stomp dead body for item drop.
When you get the GRP glove you essentially have all the utility you need in the game, greatly trivializing the rest of the playthrough outside of boss fights. The arenas in this game have very obvious throw enemy here for instant kill traps for you to use.
Also there's stealth in this game but it's pretty half-baked and just slapped in there so you can have a setpiece with a lot of blind enemies about halfway through the game.
It's a pretty boring segment and I kind of felt like I was cheesing that part by actually stealth killing most of the enemies which isn't very hard to do considering how artificial the ai pathing felt where they sometimes just line up for you to stealth kill them.
By the way, enemy item drops sometimes just don't show up which might be intentional but I doubt it considering it's like a 1 in 20 chance that bodies dont drop something or they do show up but they drop in a spot where you can't actually grab it.
You know that first Birkin fight in RE2make? Well that's most of the bosses in this game. Run, shoot, run, shoot. There are a couple bosses where instead of running and shooting, you get to dodge and melee them. Oh yea dodging in this game is just alternating A/D or left/right. You just hold it down and the game does it for you, sometimes unintentionally. So yea some of the bosses is A>D>A>Melee combo>gun followup.
Checkpoints in this game are iffy, they are sometimes placed pretty far back so you have to redo long walks or even worse, heal/use shop/switch weapons/reload weapons again after dying at a checkpoint for the 4th time. It can get pretty tiresome. Also manual saves aren't actual saves, they are just snapshots of checkpoints.
Game felt too easy halfway through, I cranked it up to maximum difficulty, game still gave me the hard mode achievement. Probably not gonna do another playthrough of this. Wish I didn't spend $60 on this. Oh well, I have a job, I get paid Tuesday, I'm not gonna worry so much about the $60 I spent on this in a week. Also disregard this, this is a bad spending habit.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I should really put this is a 5 or a 6, when the game had fun encounters, it was a solid 6, otherwise boring and unremarkable. I wouldn't recommend this but I got some enjoyment out of it.
Final note: I have not talked about the story, the visuals, or music. It was all pretty whatever.
Cliches
Kind of shitty gore also sci-fi unreal engine 4 game
Shrill sfx
Whatever.
Linear game with very minor exploration. Which isn't a bad thing, it's just that the game very quickly starts to feel formulaic.
You wander around through hallways to obvious combat arenas, crawl through vents and are shoehorned on to various narrow hold w to progress pathways for a jumpscare at the end.
Speaking of the jumpscares, they aren't really that good nor do they work that well. Granted, sure, it's "like Dead Space"
Back to the exploration, sometimes you get a side path which typically has some supplies for you to grab. Sometimes the game doesn't really show off which path is the main one. Sometimes you end up taking the main path, realize it after a minute or so of jogging and then back track to go grab whatever you might've missed. It can be pretty boring outside of combat, it is most of the time.
The combat can be pretty engaging when you get into the flow of dodge>combo>gun follow-up>stomp dead body for item drop.
When you get the GRP glove you essentially have all the utility you need in the game, greatly trivializing the rest of the playthrough outside of boss fights. The arenas in this game have very obvious throw enemy here for instant kill traps for you to use.
Also there's stealth in this game but it's pretty half-baked and just slapped in there so you can have a setpiece with a lot of blind enemies about halfway through the game.
It's a pretty boring segment and I kind of felt like I was cheesing that part by actually stealth killing most of the enemies which isn't very hard to do considering how artificial the ai pathing felt where they sometimes just line up for you to stealth kill them.
By the way, enemy item drops sometimes just don't show up which might be intentional but I doubt it considering it's like a 1 in 20 chance that bodies dont drop something or they do show up but they drop in a spot where you can't actually grab it.
You know that first Birkin fight in RE2make? Well that's most of the bosses in this game. Run, shoot, run, shoot. There are a couple bosses where instead of running and shooting, you get to dodge and melee them. Oh yea dodging in this game is just alternating A/D or left/right. You just hold it down and the game does it for you, sometimes unintentionally. So yea some of the bosses is A>D>A>Melee combo>gun followup.
Checkpoints in this game are iffy, they are sometimes placed pretty far back so you have to redo long walks or even worse, heal/use shop/switch weapons/reload weapons again after dying at a checkpoint for the 4th time. It can get pretty tiresome. Also manual saves aren't actual saves, they are just snapshots of checkpoints.
Game felt too easy halfway through, I cranked it up to maximum difficulty, game still gave me the hard mode achievement. Probably not gonna do another playthrough of this. Wish I didn't spend $60 on this. Oh well, I have a job, I get paid Tuesday, I'm not gonna worry so much about the $60 I spent on this in a week. Also disregard this, this is a bad spending habit.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I should really put this is a 5 or a 6, when the game had fun encounters, it was a solid 6, otherwise boring and unremarkable. I wouldn't recommend this but I got some enjoyment out of it.
Final note: I have not talked about the story, the visuals, or music. It was all pretty whatever.
Cliches
Kind of shitty gore also sci-fi unreal engine 4 game
Shrill sfx
Whatever.
is this game actually good or are people being contrarian because of muh video game journalism
I wanna keep this short so
Likes
-Combat(only cuz u can grab Mfers and throw em)
-Atmosphere
-Story(It was shit but I enjoyed it)
Negatives
-Very Short
-Bosses/Enemies (Just Meh)
-THE LACK OF HORROR SERIOUSLY
I really enjoyed the game but it has its problems and I can't help but to feel a little disappointed especially since this is coming from the man who made my favorite horror game of all time (Dead Space 1). I hope the dlc can fix what the game was lacking.
Likes
-Combat(only cuz u can grab Mfers and throw em)
-Atmosphere
-Story(It was shit but I enjoyed it)
Negatives
-Very Short
-Bosses/Enemies (Just Meh)
-THE LACK OF HORROR SERIOUSLY
I really enjoyed the game but it has its problems and I can't help but to feel a little disappointed especially since this is coming from the man who made my favorite horror game of all time (Dead Space 1). I hope the dlc can fix what the game was lacking.
The Callisto Protocol was a game at the top of my list in terms of excitement since it was announced due to the pedigree of developers behind it in their work on dead space. There are things I found that worked really well, and things that need to take a hard left turn and stop for a theoretical sequel. For positives, the game is gorgeous, ambiance and environmental noises were very well done. The weapons, while I wish they were a bit more varied and creative, had a kick to them and were satisfying to use. Jacob is a cool lead, and the performances were pretty good. The use of haptic feedback and the controller speaker were nice. However, there's a lot I hope is improved on, enemy variety was minimal, and the combat didn't feel like it was supposed to be part of a horror game. It became frustrating in certain areas, and feel it didn't work nearly as well when there's more than one enemy on screen. It was hard to tell where to even go sometimes, and could use an indicator or tracker. The story was fairly basic too I hope the next game is more open, a bit more creative with it's environments, and improves all the shortcomings with the combat. All in all, I'd say the game is worth your time, it was a fun, albeit short romp, and I hope wherever this series goes it gets even better. It feels good to have more horror in the AAA space.
The Callisto Protocol is the most atmospheric game this year and the sounddesign is something else. Especially with Playstation's Pulse 3D Headset. This game is really immersive with a good headset. So I highly recommend to use one. There are so many different environmental sounds like biophage crawling through the vents, security units patroling the corridors. I was so damn paranoid and on the edge the whole time. You never know where the next danger lurks.
What was that noise that I just heard? Was that a biophage who could jump out of the vent right next to me at any second, maybe just a noise from facility or my imagination after all? I like the variety of the environments/levels. The visuals are also really great and the game looks absolutely stunning. The combat is okay I guess, at the beginning it's a little bit repetetive but when you get a few weapons it gets better. But it gets really difficult when you encouter more than two enemies. The Callisto Protocol does not invent much new, but it doesnt have to. It takes established pieces of game design, puts its own spin on things and creates a really great game out of it. The story is interesting enough to keep me interested and the characters Jacob Lee and Dani Nakamura are well written. Voice acting and the motion capturing are both really great and the performance by Karen Fukuhara in particular stood out to me. She cute and is such a talent actress. She was the only positive thing in Suicide Squad (2016), is one of my favorite characters of The Boys and now probably my favorite character in this game.
The only things I noticed negatively are the amount of times you have to crawl through vents or shimmy through a gap, it's insane how often you have to do that. The bosses, you encounter one boss I think 4 times without a change so it's the same bossfight over and over again. The other one 2 times. The second time it has a second form. But both of them look really basic. The creature design in general isn't really special.
The other thing is the save mechanic, it's the worst save mechanic which I have ever encountered in a video game and it's one of the biggest lies in the history of video games. All the way up there along side Todd Howard saying "sixteen times the detail". It only saves at checkpoints even when you save manually. So if you level up your weapons before a bossfight and then get your ass kicked you have to level up everything again. This wouldn't be a big problem normally but there are a few really tough sections and it gets really annoying after a while.
The performance is great and I never had any problems on my PS5.
Overall there are a few flaws but they are not a really big problem and it's all in all a great game. I would also call it an action game and not a horror game. I'm excited for the story DLC because of the Cliffhanger and I'm hoping for a sequel because I can see the potential.
What was that noise that I just heard? Was that a biophage who could jump out of the vent right next to me at any second, maybe just a noise from facility or my imagination after all? I like the variety of the environments/levels. The visuals are also really great and the game looks absolutely stunning. The combat is okay I guess, at the beginning it's a little bit repetetive but when you get a few weapons it gets better. But it gets really difficult when you encouter more than two enemies. The Callisto Protocol does not invent much new, but it doesnt have to. It takes established pieces of game design, puts its own spin on things and creates a really great game out of it. The story is interesting enough to keep me interested and the characters Jacob Lee and Dani Nakamura are well written. Voice acting and the motion capturing are both really great and the performance by Karen Fukuhara in particular stood out to me. She cute and is such a talent actress. She was the only positive thing in Suicide Squad (2016), is one of my favorite characters of The Boys and now probably my favorite character in this game.
The only things I noticed negatively are the amount of times you have to crawl through vents or shimmy through a gap, it's insane how often you have to do that. The bosses, you encounter one boss I think 4 times without a change so it's the same bossfight over and over again. The other one 2 times. The second time it has a second form. But both of them look really basic. The creature design in general isn't really special.
The other thing is the save mechanic, it's the worst save mechanic which I have ever encountered in a video game and it's one of the biggest lies in the history of video games. All the way up there along side Todd Howard saying "sixteen times the detail". It only saves at checkpoints even when you save manually. So if you level up your weapons before a bossfight and then get your ass kicked you have to level up everything again. This wouldn't be a big problem normally but there are a few really tough sections and it gets really annoying after a while.
The performance is great and I never had any problems on my PS5.
Overall there are a few flaws but they are not a really big problem and it's all in all a great game. I would also call it an action game and not a horror game. I'm excited for the story DLC because of the Cliffhanger and I'm hoping for a sequel because I can see the potential.
It was fukkin awesome. Gawd I haven't played a true survival game in a damn long time. Despite everything, I enjoyed the game and have no complaints.
Die Stimmung, das Setting und die Grafik sind Aspekte die Callisto Protocol sehr gut macht, und sich durch die Gänge zu bewegen (oder in sehr vielen Fällen aufgrund von Ladezeiten quetschen oderkriechen) macht ne Menge Spaß. Nicht zu wissen was hinter der nächsten Ecke lauert, ob aus dem Nebel ein Gegner herausrennt oder man doch in Sicherheit ist und nur der Kopf wieder an die nächste Gefahr denkt ist eine der positivsten Aspekte die mir aufgefallen sind.
Die Gewalt und Todesanimationen sind sehr gut gelungen und alleine dafür sollte man sich zumindest mal ansehen, was da von Striking Distance Studios geschaffen wurde.
Das war das Gute. Jetzt kommt der Teil, der mir das Spiel leider kaputt gemacht hat. Das Kampfsystem fällt auseinander sobald man mehr als einen Gegner vor sich hat und die Bosskämpfe sind absolut unterste Schublade. Der einzige Bosskampf des Spiels ist ganz am Ende und der geht gegen alles was das Spiel vorher priorisiert. Sehr viel wird im Nahkampf gelöst, der letzte Fight wird aber komplett mit Waffen/Telekinese geführt und nach einem Treffer ist man tot - das ist kein gutes Bossdesign.
Ein Fight im Spiel nach einer langen Kampfsequenz wird als Bossfight inszeniert, danach kommt der gleiche Gegner aber leider mehrfach hintereinander als normaler Gegner.
Variationen in den Gegner sucht man leider auch vergeblich. Es gibt 5 Typen, der Rest ist nur eine kleine Abweichung vom Original.
Die Gewalt und Todesanimationen sind sehr gut gelungen und alleine dafür sollte man sich zumindest mal ansehen, was da von Striking Distance Studios geschaffen wurde.
Das war das Gute. Jetzt kommt der Teil, der mir das Spiel leider kaputt gemacht hat. Das Kampfsystem fällt auseinander sobald man mehr als einen Gegner vor sich hat und die Bosskämpfe sind absolut unterste Schublade. Der einzige Bosskampf des Spiels ist ganz am Ende und der geht gegen alles was das Spiel vorher priorisiert. Sehr viel wird im Nahkampf gelöst, der letzte Fight wird aber komplett mit Waffen/Telekinese geführt und nach einem Treffer ist man tot - das ist kein gutes Bossdesign.
Ein Fight im Spiel nach einer langen Kampfsequenz wird als Bossfight inszeniert, danach kommt der gleiche Gegner aber leider mehrfach hintereinander als normaler Gegner.
Variationen in den Gegner sucht man leider auch vergeblich. Es gibt 5 Typen, der Rest ist nur eine kleine Abweichung vom Original.
Dead Space left off on a sour note, one with a pungent aftertaste that has lingered for almost a full decade. The Callisto Protocol seemed designed to finally override that nasty aroma with its own approach to the genre, as it was unambiguously inspired by that series and from some of the same creatives. Instead of being a thoughtful successor worthy of carrying the torch, The Callisto Protocol is a bafflingly misguided horror game that’s hopelessly lost in space.
Read the full review here:
https://www.comingsoon.net/games/reviews/1252882-the-callisto-protocol-review-ps5-worth-buying
Read the full review here:
https://www.comingsoon.net/games/reviews/1252882-the-callisto-protocol-review-ps5-worth-buying
I curse the past version of myself who blew up on this game's unbearable jank in the first hour - because that guy was wrong. I struggled to understand exactly how the combat worked at first but after some practice it became incredibly fun and engaging. Though it is not without fault I had a blast and couldn't put the game down hardly all weekend, beating it on the hardest difficulty and getting most of the trophies. Though this game has a flavor of Dead Space in the skin I think the distinct gameplay differences make me want a sequel to this more than that overpriced remake. The Callisto Protocol is a SOLID ++ sci fi survival horror that I will happily return to once they add New Game + in February.
The Callisto Protocol is the new game from Dead Space's original director Glen Schofield and it shows in the product a lot. What we get is a few advancements of the formula put forward in the Dead Space games while also, unfortunately taking a few back. Callisto boasts itself in the survival horror genre of games and the way that it pulls that off with it's overall atmosphere and tone is brilliant. Throughout all of it's environments there are so many inspired little moments and details that become awfully memorable and grin worthy as you progress through. In particular, around the middle of portion of the game you come across a very long stretching hallway, drowned in darkness. The only light source being what seems to be a smokey, grey doorway at the end of the hall, a shot that feels straight out of Alien. Callisto is also an incredibly beautiful game, one of the best looking games of the generation so far, if the story doesn't entirely sell it for you then the painstakingly realistic blood splatters and gore effects will most certainly get you to squirm at least once or twice.
However, that isn't even my favourite part of Callisto, that honour goes to the ever present and ever rewarding combat. Callisto has one of my favorite combat systems in any of these linear, survival horror games as it both rewards you for playing tactically and taking the time to actually learn the system while also punishing you severely for overstretching you hand and getting too confident. The way that Callisto separates it's combat apart from it's competition is by a complete overhaul of the dodge mechanic. Typically, in almost every game, you'd have your dodge mapped to L1 and R1, it's standard. However Callisto looks to challenge that perception by striking you away from you comfort zone and mapping it to the same thing you use to move, the left analog stick. It's left and right to dodge each way and back to block. This method leaves you constantly thinking and improving your timing as you are consistently looking at the enemies' attack patterns for the opening window. An improvement on something like Dead Space for example as, after a while, the player becomes too used to the dodge almost being a safety net that is all too easy to fall into. Callisto's safety net is challenging to hit but all the more satisfying to pull off.
However, that isn't even my favourite part of Callisto, that honour goes to the ever present and ever rewarding combat. Callisto has one of my favorite combat systems in any of these linear, survival horror games as it both rewards you for playing tactically and taking the time to actually learn the system while also punishing you severely for overstretching you hand and getting too confident. The way that Callisto separates it's combat apart from it's competition is by a complete overhaul of the dodge mechanic. Typically, in almost every game, you'd have your dodge mapped to L1 and R1, it's standard. However Callisto looks to challenge that perception by striking you away from you comfort zone and mapping it to the same thing you use to move, the left analog stick. It's left and right to dodge each way and back to block. This method leaves you constantly thinking and improving your timing as you are consistently looking at the enemies' attack patterns for the opening window. An improvement on something like Dead Space for example as, after a while, the player becomes too used to the dodge almost being a safety net that is all too easy to fall into. Callisto's safety net is challenging to hit but all the more satisfying to pull off.
This game has its fair share of issues and strange design choices, a (so far) middling story, plus it is shockingly unsubtle with its horror. All that said, I admire that they tried something different with its gameplay loop. The weird melee focus leading to punchout-lite bobbing and weaving with gun cancel combos feels immensely satisfying, if not particularly deep as far in as i got. It also has really nice production values, and I think the motion and facial capture in combination with the acting is enjoyable to behold. And I have to give a special shout-out: this game has some of the best Dualsense implementation I have experienced, with every small sound and action making a noticeably different ping on the controller; it was good enough to create yet another way to detect incoming threats I hadn't quite seen yet.
I'm not feeling it enough to play it til the end right now, but I definitely could certainly see myself coming back to it in the future.
I'm not feeling it enough to play it til the end right now, but I definitely could certainly see myself coming back to it in the future.
"Michael Bay trying to be John Carpenter" from VG247's review is all that needs to be said.
After beating the game and getting all the achievements I can say I did enjoy this game. It is stunning to look at and has fun combat. The shortcomings for me is the performance on pc and the story pacing and ending being pretty bad. There is also a lack of enemy variety which I found disappointing. I would say buy it on sale 50% there is still a very solid game here.
It's unfortunate that 95% of the discourse about this game is dominated by people who either dropped the game two hours in, or are parroting the opinions of people who dropped the game two hours in, because nobody is talking about the ACTUAL worst parts of the game.
So the opening is bad and goes on for too long before you get anything more than just a melee weapon, then once I got all my gear I started to enjoy myself for a decent chunk, then the entire back half of the game is fucking dog shit.
You get five weapons in total, the first is a powerful pistol, the second is a pistol-shotgun, then a real shotgun, then a bad pistol, and then a bad burst-fire assault rifle. So of your five weapons, three of them are good, and and even then two of those three are basically the same thing. And of these weapons, only your first pistol and the real shotgun are unmissable- the other three require you to pick up a schematic that you can miss, and if you end up doing so then tough shit, you don't have that weapon. And yeah I think 2 of the 3 weapons you need a schematic for are bad, but it takes so long for you to get new shit in and there's so little you get overall that it feels like you're constantly starving for the game to give you anything new.
While on the subject of equipment, aside from the five guns, you have your melee weapon and kinesis that can also be upgraded. You cannot upgrade your health. You only get one suit in this game at around the halfway point, and this is the only time you get increased health and inventory space. Yet despite the fact that you essentially have a fixed amount of health at all points in the game, the amount of damage enemies can do feels shockingly unbalanced. So you constantly feel like you need to upgrade your health, but you never have the ability to do so, and you only get one health boost in the entire game.
Yes, the melee combat is not good. I think people are exacerbating and/or misrepresenting some of its problems (see my opening comments regarding the discourse surrounding this game) on top of just overthinking it and/or not understanding the tutorial, but it's such a bizarre system and I don't know why they didn't just make something more... normal?
There are 8 chapters in total (unless I'm dumb and miscounted), and at the end of chapter 5 the game introduces the first boss, which it then proceeds to make you fight three more times in the remaining chapters. This boss essentially only has two attacks, a left punch and a right punch, but if you get hit by either of them it's an instant kill. And you're always forced to fight this boss in very tight quarters in a game where everything from movement to swapping weapons feels comically slow. There's one point where you need to get an item in another room, and you can see this item through a window, at which point there's nothing else in the room, but as soon as you walk in the door locks behind you and this boss just pops into existence directly in front of the item, and simply picking up the item and running isn't an option- every time the game makes you fight this boss you have to kill it, despite the fact that it can be a huge ammo sink before you understand exactly how you're supposed to fight it.
It should be noted that when I say "first boss," the only other boss in the game is the final boss (which I think is slightly less frustrating but still not good), and since the game waited until over halfway through to introduce this boss it makes me confused as to why they even bothered at all.
The chapter that ends with you fighting this boss is almost entirely filled with one single enemy type. This enemy is blind and can only find you based on sound, and because you (theoretically) don't have to worry about being rushed down by a ton of enemies at once, the game just constantly puts 5 in a room with you, so even with them being blind you still have to play pretty carefully, because having to fight one while the others are still active will just attract everyone to you and at that point you don't really have a way to get back into hiding. This all ends up making this the most tedious chapter in the entire game (which is saying a lot, because many individual segments in this game feel like they're way longer than they should be), and the rest of the game isn't really much better, if at all.
There are also lots of little places here and there where taking damage is practically unavoidable? Sometimes when you open a chest or a locker a tiny enemy will jump out at you and latch onto your neck and you have to do a QTE to get rid of it. You can technically use kinesis or a gun on these before they jump on you, but to do so you pretty much HAVE to know it's coming, and if you know it's coming you don't have any reason to open that container/locker in the first place, because there's never anything else in those containers aside from the tiny enemies.
The save/checkpoint system is incredibly fucking inconsistent, to say the least. Manual saves won't always actually save the things you've done since the last autosave, sometimes when a checkpoint reloads after you die, items in the environment will still be where they should be, but then if you die again they just won't be there anymore and you can't get them at all (this happened to me multiple times). I've never seen a game where the save/checkpoint system just didn't fucking work, and it's honestly inexcusable. This is just another of many reasons (incredibly poor PC performance, subtitles that only show up half the time and don't always match up exactly with what's being said, etc) that the game needed more time in the oven before shipping.
The story sure is there. It's one of those stories where you can't even go "ha, called it," because unless this is the first piece of media you're experiencing in your entire life, every element that's introduced just makes you go "ah so this other thing is what's really happening," and you get confused when the game acts as though you aren't supposed to have figured these things out. Granted, in a game like this, the story doesn't need to do much more than act as an excuse for the game to happen and for there to be some setpieces here and there, but it feels like it doesn't even reach that level, and the gameplay being plagued with so many problems certainly doesn't help.
Overall there were just so, so many baffling design decisions made during development. There is no way testers played this game (ESPECIALLY the back half) and said anything but "what the fuck are you doing."
In the words of AVGN, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!"
So the opening is bad and goes on for too long before you get anything more than just a melee weapon, then once I got all my gear I started to enjoy myself for a decent chunk, then the entire back half of the game is fucking dog shit.
You get five weapons in total, the first is a powerful pistol, the second is a pistol-shotgun, then a real shotgun, then a bad pistol, and then a bad burst-fire assault rifle. So of your five weapons, three of them are good, and and even then two of those three are basically the same thing. And of these weapons, only your first pistol and the real shotgun are unmissable- the other three require you to pick up a schematic that you can miss, and if you end up doing so then tough shit, you don't have that weapon. And yeah I think 2 of the 3 weapons you need a schematic for are bad, but it takes so long for you to get new shit in and there's so little you get overall that it feels like you're constantly starving for the game to give you anything new.
While on the subject of equipment, aside from the five guns, you have your melee weapon and kinesis that can also be upgraded. You cannot upgrade your health. You only get one suit in this game at around the halfway point, and this is the only time you get increased health and inventory space. Yet despite the fact that you essentially have a fixed amount of health at all points in the game, the amount of damage enemies can do feels shockingly unbalanced. So you constantly feel like you need to upgrade your health, but you never have the ability to do so, and you only get one health boost in the entire game.
Yes, the melee combat is not good. I think people are exacerbating and/or misrepresenting some of its problems (see my opening comments regarding the discourse surrounding this game) on top of just overthinking it and/or not understanding the tutorial, but it's such a bizarre system and I don't know why they didn't just make something more... normal?
There are 8 chapters in total (unless I'm dumb and miscounted), and at the end of chapter 5 the game introduces the first boss, which it then proceeds to make you fight three more times in the remaining chapters. This boss essentially only has two attacks, a left punch and a right punch, but if you get hit by either of them it's an instant kill. And you're always forced to fight this boss in very tight quarters in a game where everything from movement to swapping weapons feels comically slow. There's one point where you need to get an item in another room, and you can see this item through a window, at which point there's nothing else in the room, but as soon as you walk in the door locks behind you and this boss just pops into existence directly in front of the item, and simply picking up the item and running isn't an option- every time the game makes you fight this boss you have to kill it, despite the fact that it can be a huge ammo sink before you understand exactly how you're supposed to fight it.
It should be noted that when I say "first boss," the only other boss in the game is the final boss (which I think is slightly less frustrating but still not good), and since the game waited until over halfway through to introduce this boss it makes me confused as to why they even bothered at all.
The chapter that ends with you fighting this boss is almost entirely filled with one single enemy type. This enemy is blind and can only find you based on sound, and because you (theoretically) don't have to worry about being rushed down by a ton of enemies at once, the game just constantly puts 5 in a room with you, so even with them being blind you still have to play pretty carefully, because having to fight one while the others are still active will just attract everyone to you and at that point you don't really have a way to get back into hiding. This all ends up making this the most tedious chapter in the entire game (which is saying a lot, because many individual segments in this game feel like they're way longer than they should be), and the rest of the game isn't really much better, if at all.
There are also lots of little places here and there where taking damage is practically unavoidable? Sometimes when you open a chest or a locker a tiny enemy will jump out at you and latch onto your neck and you have to do a QTE to get rid of it. You can technically use kinesis or a gun on these before they jump on you, but to do so you pretty much HAVE to know it's coming, and if you know it's coming you don't have any reason to open that container/locker in the first place, because there's never anything else in those containers aside from the tiny enemies.
The save/checkpoint system is incredibly fucking inconsistent, to say the least. Manual saves won't always actually save the things you've done since the last autosave, sometimes when a checkpoint reloads after you die, items in the environment will still be where they should be, but then if you die again they just won't be there anymore and you can't get them at all (this happened to me multiple times). I've never seen a game where the save/checkpoint system just didn't fucking work, and it's honestly inexcusable. This is just another of many reasons (incredibly poor PC performance, subtitles that only show up half the time and don't always match up exactly with what's being said, etc) that the game needed more time in the oven before shipping.
The story sure is there. It's one of those stories where you can't even go "ha, called it," because unless this is the first piece of media you're experiencing in your entire life, every element that's introduced just makes you go "ah so this other thing is what's really happening," and you get confused when the game acts as though you aren't supposed to have figured these things out. Granted, in a game like this, the story doesn't need to do much more than act as an excuse for the game to happen and for there to be some setpieces here and there, but it feels like it doesn't even reach that level, and the gameplay being plagued with so many problems certainly doesn't help.
Overall there were just so, so many baffling design decisions made during development. There is no way testers played this game (ESPECIALLY the back half) and said anything but "what the fuck are you doing."
In the words of AVGN, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!"
This game was almost everything I hoped it would be, my only major gripe is the amount of repeated boss fights with instant-kill moves. I would have liked to see a bit more variety there but everything else from the visuals to the sound design was so fantastic and the gameplay had a good amount of challenge to it. I truly believe this is a fitting successor to Dead Space, and only wish it had launched with a New Game+ feature so I can jump straight back in.
This review contains spoilers
For survival horror and sci-fi fans, The Callisto Protocol sounded like a dream come true. Dead Space was a game that shook the industry upon its release. Nearly mastering the 3rd person over the shoulder gameplay that its main inspiration, Resident Evil 4, introduced years prior. Having an immersive UI that never takes you out of the gameplay, and giving an in universe reason for doing so. Not to mention even having the no cuts style game long before God of War 2018 made it cool.
Dead Space was way ahead of its time and I'm not saying all of this to get you hyped for a "Dead Space sequel in all but name." Because the Callisto Protocol is not that. And despite what the marketing might tell you, it was never trying to be that. I'm telling you all this because I want you to understand the heights this team are capable of. To put into further context the criticisms I am about to give this game that I was extremely excited for, but ultimately let down by. Let's get into it.
I want to start off the review by diving into the story. Callisto Protocol begins after a Pilot, Jacob gets boarded by a supposed terrorist group, The Outer Way. Causing the ship to crash on the Dead Moon of Jupiter, Callisto. Callisto is home to Black Iron Prison, a maximum security prison where you can only assume they send the worst people that the solar system has to offer. You're very quickly discovered by "BIP" Captain Ferris (Played by Sam Witwer) and rather than being rescued, you're put in cuffs and put under arrest due to "Warden's orders." Que title card.
Jacob is administered with a neck implant that will allow you to communicate with other prisoners as well as view your health and GRP power in game. Jacob passes out from the pain, wakes up in a cell to find that during his nap the prison has gone to absolute hell. Prisoners and guards alike are running around or attacking each other, fellow inmates have been torn limb from limb, the entire cell block is on fire.
And its clear that you're only goal is to escape Black Iron Prison. The game starts off pretty strong with a pretty gripping introduction, but after that Callisto's story follows a pretty predictable path. Offering not a lot of new ideas and retreading ground much of Dead Space's ground, but not improving on any of its tropes. You'll journey to one destination only to find the door is locked and you need a key card, or to reroute power. After rendezvousing with your partner, you will almost always be separated from them due to a collapsing platform, an explosion, etc.
I never felt like I needed to know what was going on at the Black Iron Prison. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the mystery just didn't intrigue me the way that other survival games of the past have. I just didn't find the "Biophages" interesting enough to care and that really disappointed me.
Apart from that, this game is pretty atmospheric. The sound design is brilliant and one of the best aspects of the game. Black Iron creaks like an old house settling during the witching hour. Pipes burst, enemies run through vents in the walls around you and if you're wearing headphones, you can hear them moving around you which is pretty chilling.
I wish that I could post screenshots in this review, because some of the scenes in the is game are fantastic. One of my favorites is when you enter a completely dark hallway with a burst pipe at the end. The light coming from the door at the end of the corridor illuminates the fog into a brilliant white cloud. Preventing you from making out what's on the other end. As you slowly creep towards it, you hear a gurgled growl and a Biophage bursts through the mist sprinting at you with it's arms raised ready to bring his arms down on you. Then another bursts through a vent behind you. This sequence was probably my favorite in the entire game. It was beautifully eerie and although I knew there was a monster on the other end of that fog, seeing the shadow grow as it creeped through was a terrifying sight to behold.
I don't want to spoil the entire game for those who haven't played it, so I'll wrap up the story section by summarizing my thoughts on it.
Callisto's story doesn't do anything new. The characters are likable enough to carry you through the game and I did thoroughly enjoy the performances from the cast. Sam Witwer's Captain Ferris was a stand out for me. Ultimately, the story serves its purpose and not much more than that. If you're coming to this game looking for a survival horror roller coaster, you'll be disappointed.
Protocol's gameplay is where things get really interesting and where I have the most to say.
Its gameplay is very unique in its genre. It blends tank controls, with meaty melee combat, gunplay and dodging. The guns are incredibly fun to shoot. On a PS5 controller, each gun offers different haptic feedback and trigger pulls that further enhances the experiences. The shotguns can stagger and throw lighter enemies to the ground if you hit them right. The hand cannon can take off heads and limbs at a distance if you can dial in your aim.
The melee combat starts off frustrating at first. You don't do a lot of damage at first, and your attacks are a basic light attack. But as you upgrade the stun baton at the 3D printer and I HIGHLY recommend putting most of your points into the stun baton, it quickly becomes a viable way to dispatch enemies. Each upgrade feels worth the credits and makes a genuine difference during the combat.
But that is where my praise for the gameplay comes to an end and now we need to discuss the dodge mechanics. Dodging is integral to this gameplay in the same way that blocking and dodging are in FromSoftware's Souls Games. Dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge or you will be brutally and I mean BRUTALLY murdered in this game. Over, and over, and over. Which is why it is so unfortunate that dodging can get you killed, just as much as it will protect you.
The way this mechanic is mapped is interesting. The way you dodge is you hold back on the left stick, either right/left to dodge or back to block. Seems easy enough, but there are several reasons that this becomes an issue. The first and most obvious is that the dodge button is mapped to the same that your basic movement is mapped to. This creates scenarios where you are completely surrounded by enemies instead of running, you are locked in this constant cycle of dodging attacks. Because they are routed to the same input, it forces the player to compromise their positioning in favor of dodging an attack.
Secondly, because it is mapped to the stick, it can be a bit finicky when it decides to dodge rather than block. The cutoff isn't as decisive as if it were a button prompt. Leading to blocking when you wanted to dodge or vice versa. This may not sound like a big deal, but when you are swarmed by enemies and trying to get away, you're using the left stick to run away. Your movements have to be quick and decisive with little room for error and this mapping allows a lot of room for error.
Thirdly, because a dodge only activates when an enemy swings at you there is no way to dodge projectiles. One of the main enemy types hocks goo at you from a distance. This was also a main enemy type in Dead Space. In DS, you can deal with these enemies in a variety of ways. There were plenty of spikes and explosive barrels around at all times that you could pick up and throw at them. If there weren't you can rip the arms of enemies and use those instead, If you were quick you could even snatch the projectile acid out of the air and throw it back at them.
Aside from an occasional explosive barrel, none of those options are present here. Making multi gang combat feel even more like a chore.
Lastly is that this mechanic completely falls apart in multi enemy combat scenarios. Where you can only dodge one attack at a time, but enemies can attack you from multiple directions at once. This became absolutely infuriating during boss fights. The bosses will always one hit kill you and they have a very long reach due to their size. Starting with the second boss, more basic enemies will come into the arena to attack you as well. And I died a handful of times because the mob swung first, and while I was stuck in the dodge animation (Moving away from both enemies) the boss swung down and caught me. Killing me instantly.
This happens a lot throughout the gameplay where you end up getting caught taking damage due to the mechanics limitations. It makes the game feel cheap, rather than like the odds are stacked against you.
The closest comparisons I can draw to Callisto's dodging is that from The Last of Us Part II. Where you used the left stick to dictate which way you wanted to dodge but initiated it with another button press. Letting you prioritize your positioning first, and quickly dodge out of the way when needed. It still felt tanky, slow and chaotic. But it worked much better than Callisto Protocol's.
I've spent a massive chunk of this review highlighting the flaws in this mechanic. I chose to do so because I feel it is so critically flawed but despite this, Striking Distance Studios chose to build their entire combat system around it. Callisto Protocol suffers from other issues, but the dodge mechanic almost single handedly drags this game down into the mud.
Callisto Protocol's gameplay is agonizingly slow. From the way weapons are designed, to the down right SHOCKING amount of gap shimmying, vent crawling and crouch sequences. It is not hyperbole to say you will sit through these sequences more often than you will walk through a door in Callisto Protocol. It is ridiculous. Both God of War 2018 and Ragnarok are also filled with these sequences. But they use the rock climbing and boat rides to tell interesting stories, use character dialogue to build up the world or the relationships between the characters. Callisto Protocol has very little to none of that and instead it only serves to rip control away from the player. Making them sit there while they hold forward on the left stick in silence for the hundredth time.
Callisto Protocol's weapons are designed around modularity. At the beginning of the game, you are given a weapon frame. That you take to the 3D printer and make a hand cannon out of. Later on, you can find more schematics like a tactical pistol and a hand held shotgun. These are all created from the same frame, meaning that when you need to switch to the skunk gun from the hand cannon, you need to pull up the quick menu, scroll down to select it, then watch the animation as Jacob pulls the attachment out of his pocket, swaps the attachments puts the other one back in his pocket and then he's ready to fire. Later on, you get another weapon frame that allows you even more to fumble with in the heat of the moment. If you are a Last of Us fan, imagine you run out of ammo mid combat so you have to pull out your back pack and select a different weapon mid combat. Imagine the original Resident Evil 4, needing to swap weapons by pulling up the inventory screen. Only that it didn't pause the game.
Healing is the same case. In resident Evil you pause the game, eat a quick herb and you're back in it. In Dead Space you hit the B or O button to use a heal that will apply automatically. In Callisto Protocol: You hold down on the D pad, Jacob crouches down, pulls out a health injector, stabs it into his neck, slowly injects the fluid, stand back up, tosses it aside and then you're back in it. This simply just isn't possible to do in combat. Making it so that whatever amount of health you go into combat with, is what you're stuck with til the end.
I hope I've thoroughly illustrated how frustrating this game is to play. How much of a slog it is from start to finish. How agonizing it is to pop out of a gap in the wall, only to have to crawl through a vent a few moments later.
I am a massive fan of survival horror, Dead Space and Glen Schofield's past work. I tried really really hard to love or even like The Callisto Protocol. But aside from its stellar presentation, it has disappointed and frustrated me at nearly every turn. And without a new game plus, worthy unlockables, or a way to skip cutscenes or the vent crawling sequences, I doubt that I will be returning to this game again.
Dead Space was way ahead of its time and I'm not saying all of this to get you hyped for a "Dead Space sequel in all but name." Because the Callisto Protocol is not that. And despite what the marketing might tell you, it was never trying to be that. I'm telling you all this because I want you to understand the heights this team are capable of. To put into further context the criticisms I am about to give this game that I was extremely excited for, but ultimately let down by. Let's get into it.
I want to start off the review by diving into the story. Callisto Protocol begins after a Pilot, Jacob gets boarded by a supposed terrorist group, The Outer Way. Causing the ship to crash on the Dead Moon of Jupiter, Callisto. Callisto is home to Black Iron Prison, a maximum security prison where you can only assume they send the worst people that the solar system has to offer. You're very quickly discovered by "BIP" Captain Ferris (Played by Sam Witwer) and rather than being rescued, you're put in cuffs and put under arrest due to "Warden's orders." Que title card.
Jacob is administered with a neck implant that will allow you to communicate with other prisoners as well as view your health and GRP power in game. Jacob passes out from the pain, wakes up in a cell to find that during his nap the prison has gone to absolute hell. Prisoners and guards alike are running around or attacking each other, fellow inmates have been torn limb from limb, the entire cell block is on fire.
And its clear that you're only goal is to escape Black Iron Prison. The game starts off pretty strong with a pretty gripping introduction, but after that Callisto's story follows a pretty predictable path. Offering not a lot of new ideas and retreading ground much of Dead Space's ground, but not improving on any of its tropes. You'll journey to one destination only to find the door is locked and you need a key card, or to reroute power. After rendezvousing with your partner, you will almost always be separated from them due to a collapsing platform, an explosion, etc.
I never felt like I needed to know what was going on at the Black Iron Prison. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the mystery just didn't intrigue me the way that other survival games of the past have. I just didn't find the "Biophages" interesting enough to care and that really disappointed me.
Apart from that, this game is pretty atmospheric. The sound design is brilliant and one of the best aspects of the game. Black Iron creaks like an old house settling during the witching hour. Pipes burst, enemies run through vents in the walls around you and if you're wearing headphones, you can hear them moving around you which is pretty chilling.
I wish that I could post screenshots in this review, because some of the scenes in the is game are fantastic. One of my favorites is when you enter a completely dark hallway with a burst pipe at the end. The light coming from the door at the end of the corridor illuminates the fog into a brilliant white cloud. Preventing you from making out what's on the other end. As you slowly creep towards it, you hear a gurgled growl and a Biophage bursts through the mist sprinting at you with it's arms raised ready to bring his arms down on you. Then another bursts through a vent behind you. This sequence was probably my favorite in the entire game. It was beautifully eerie and although I knew there was a monster on the other end of that fog, seeing the shadow grow as it creeped through was a terrifying sight to behold.
I don't want to spoil the entire game for those who haven't played it, so I'll wrap up the story section by summarizing my thoughts on it.
Callisto's story doesn't do anything new. The characters are likable enough to carry you through the game and I did thoroughly enjoy the performances from the cast. Sam Witwer's Captain Ferris was a stand out for me. Ultimately, the story serves its purpose and not much more than that. If you're coming to this game looking for a survival horror roller coaster, you'll be disappointed.
Protocol's gameplay is where things get really interesting and where I have the most to say.
Its gameplay is very unique in its genre. It blends tank controls, with meaty melee combat, gunplay and dodging. The guns are incredibly fun to shoot. On a PS5 controller, each gun offers different haptic feedback and trigger pulls that further enhances the experiences. The shotguns can stagger and throw lighter enemies to the ground if you hit them right. The hand cannon can take off heads and limbs at a distance if you can dial in your aim.
The melee combat starts off frustrating at first. You don't do a lot of damage at first, and your attacks are a basic light attack. But as you upgrade the stun baton at the 3D printer and I HIGHLY recommend putting most of your points into the stun baton, it quickly becomes a viable way to dispatch enemies. Each upgrade feels worth the credits and makes a genuine difference during the combat.
But that is where my praise for the gameplay comes to an end and now we need to discuss the dodge mechanics. Dodging is integral to this gameplay in the same way that blocking and dodging are in FromSoftware's Souls Games. Dodge, dip, duck, dive and dodge or you will be brutally and I mean BRUTALLY murdered in this game. Over, and over, and over. Which is why it is so unfortunate that dodging can get you killed, just as much as it will protect you.
The way this mechanic is mapped is interesting. The way you dodge is you hold back on the left stick, either right/left to dodge or back to block. Seems easy enough, but there are several reasons that this becomes an issue. The first and most obvious is that the dodge button is mapped to the same that your basic movement is mapped to. This creates scenarios where you are completely surrounded by enemies instead of running, you are locked in this constant cycle of dodging attacks. Because they are routed to the same input, it forces the player to compromise their positioning in favor of dodging an attack.
Secondly, because it is mapped to the stick, it can be a bit finicky when it decides to dodge rather than block. The cutoff isn't as decisive as if it were a button prompt. Leading to blocking when you wanted to dodge or vice versa. This may not sound like a big deal, but when you are swarmed by enemies and trying to get away, you're using the left stick to run away. Your movements have to be quick and decisive with little room for error and this mapping allows a lot of room for error.
Thirdly, because a dodge only activates when an enemy swings at you there is no way to dodge projectiles. One of the main enemy types hocks goo at you from a distance. This was also a main enemy type in Dead Space. In DS, you can deal with these enemies in a variety of ways. There were plenty of spikes and explosive barrels around at all times that you could pick up and throw at them. If there weren't you can rip the arms of enemies and use those instead, If you were quick you could even snatch the projectile acid out of the air and throw it back at them.
Aside from an occasional explosive barrel, none of those options are present here. Making multi gang combat feel even more like a chore.
Lastly is that this mechanic completely falls apart in multi enemy combat scenarios. Where you can only dodge one attack at a time, but enemies can attack you from multiple directions at once. This became absolutely infuriating during boss fights. The bosses will always one hit kill you and they have a very long reach due to their size. Starting with the second boss, more basic enemies will come into the arena to attack you as well. And I died a handful of times because the mob swung first, and while I was stuck in the dodge animation (Moving away from both enemies) the boss swung down and caught me. Killing me instantly.
This happens a lot throughout the gameplay where you end up getting caught taking damage due to the mechanics limitations. It makes the game feel cheap, rather than like the odds are stacked against you.
The closest comparisons I can draw to Callisto's dodging is that from The Last of Us Part II. Where you used the left stick to dictate which way you wanted to dodge but initiated it with another button press. Letting you prioritize your positioning first, and quickly dodge out of the way when needed. It still felt tanky, slow and chaotic. But it worked much better than Callisto Protocol's.
I've spent a massive chunk of this review highlighting the flaws in this mechanic. I chose to do so because I feel it is so critically flawed but despite this, Striking Distance Studios chose to build their entire combat system around it. Callisto Protocol suffers from other issues, but the dodge mechanic almost single handedly drags this game down into the mud.
Callisto Protocol's gameplay is agonizingly slow. From the way weapons are designed, to the down right SHOCKING amount of gap shimmying, vent crawling and crouch sequences. It is not hyperbole to say you will sit through these sequences more often than you will walk through a door in Callisto Protocol. It is ridiculous. Both God of War 2018 and Ragnarok are also filled with these sequences. But they use the rock climbing and boat rides to tell interesting stories, use character dialogue to build up the world or the relationships between the characters. Callisto Protocol has very little to none of that and instead it only serves to rip control away from the player. Making them sit there while they hold forward on the left stick in silence for the hundredth time.
Callisto Protocol's weapons are designed around modularity. At the beginning of the game, you are given a weapon frame. That you take to the 3D printer and make a hand cannon out of. Later on, you can find more schematics like a tactical pistol and a hand held shotgun. These are all created from the same frame, meaning that when you need to switch to the skunk gun from the hand cannon, you need to pull up the quick menu, scroll down to select it, then watch the animation as Jacob pulls the attachment out of his pocket, swaps the attachments puts the other one back in his pocket and then he's ready to fire. Later on, you get another weapon frame that allows you even more to fumble with in the heat of the moment. If you are a Last of Us fan, imagine you run out of ammo mid combat so you have to pull out your back pack and select a different weapon mid combat. Imagine the original Resident Evil 4, needing to swap weapons by pulling up the inventory screen. Only that it didn't pause the game.
Healing is the same case. In resident Evil you pause the game, eat a quick herb and you're back in it. In Dead Space you hit the B or O button to use a heal that will apply automatically. In Callisto Protocol: You hold down on the D pad, Jacob crouches down, pulls out a health injector, stabs it into his neck, slowly injects the fluid, stand back up, tosses it aside and then you're back in it. This simply just isn't possible to do in combat. Making it so that whatever amount of health you go into combat with, is what you're stuck with til the end.
I hope I've thoroughly illustrated how frustrating this game is to play. How much of a slog it is from start to finish. How agonizing it is to pop out of a gap in the wall, only to have to crawl through a vent a few moments later.
I am a massive fan of survival horror, Dead Space and Glen Schofield's past work. I tried really really hard to love or even like The Callisto Protocol. But aside from its stellar presentation, it has disappointed and frustrated me at nearly every turn. And without a new game plus, worthy unlockables, or a way to skip cutscenes or the vent crawling sequences, I doubt that I will be returning to this game again.
I enjoyed when the guy said 'CALLISTO PROTOCOL' in a serious way that doesn't make it seem way funnier then it was.
THE DEAD SPACE 3 IS REAL!!!!
Also no fish at all on this frozen prison planet- no mutant fish and that's just stupid
EDIT: Had to come back and lower my score because fuck that DLC ending shit and fuck this game for how annoying it was. Huge waste of time! 11/19/2023
THE DEAD SPACE 3 IS REAL!!!!
Also no fish at all on this frozen prison planet- no mutant fish and that's just stupid
EDIT: Had to come back and lower my score because fuck that DLC ending shit and fuck this game for how annoying it was. Huge waste of time! 11/19/2023
The Callisto Protocol
Vaya desinflada de juego. Del principio a la mitad, el juego está de puta madre, a partir de ahí, se vuelve un shooter, bugeado, con niveles de mierda y un boss reciclado e irritante.
(5/10)
No lo suspendo porque me gustaría que hicieran otro bien.
Vaya desinflada de juego. Del principio a la mitad, el juego está de puta madre, a partir de ahí, se vuelve un shooter, bugeado, con niveles de mierda y un boss reciclado e irritante.
(5/10)
No lo suspendo porque me gustaría que hicieran otro bien.
I don't believe these are the people behind Dead Space. The atmosphere is great the lighting is amazing and the performances are good for what little they had to work with. The combat is such a hit or miss either being clunky melee garbage or satisfying crunchy sequences, it goes back and forth way too often. This game is just a long series of hallways with little to no scares, there's nothing scary about walking down a hallway and rushing an ememy with a baton, how can a horror game try to be scary while also making all encounters so mindless and easy? You never have to run or plan just walk forward, doge and melee on loop and it can get you through the entire game. The bosses are awful, literally the most generic and mechanically void fights I've ever done in a game, they are literally basic enemies but the dodge melee loop goes on for 3 minutes. The story is just ok and that's the best word I can use to describe this game, it's ok. Buy on heavy sale.
55
I feel like the people that said that the combat was a clunky mess in group fights don't really know how to play the game properly? I think that one of the good things about this game is that it invites the player to actually think about their surroundings and how to approach different encounters, obviously you can't just rush into a group of 4-5 enemies on the hardest difficulty and expect to win just like that (using melee as your only tool). That might be true near the beginning of the game but they give you the pistol pretty quickly to the point where you can then plan out your combat encounters a bit more, idk it might just be me but I thought the combat was MOSTLY really enjoyable. Plus when you get telekinesis it genuinely makes most encounters really fucking fun because of how cool it is to use it.
For a survival horror game I thought that the exploration was sufficient too, lots of people said that the game is one long hallway but there are definitely other areas you can go through that take maybe 10-15 minutes, although it is true that they just end up linking back to the main path but for a linear game I think that's acceptable, I don't really think we needed anything more there.
Where the game DOES become a bit of a chore is enemy variety, in an interview Glen Schofield said that there are approximately 11 enemy types and I'm sorry... what? where the fuck are the other 5? Even most enemies that are classified as "different" have the exact same moves to the point where you cant even call them different enemies, they're just more skinny, fat or taller. I can't think of a reason as to why they put four two-heads within the span of an hour when they're the most tedious bullet-spongey enemies in the game, they're not even hard, just long. The final boss is also way too easy and forgettable, I beat him first try on the hardest difficulty because he only has two moves, both being moves other enemies have so you've essentially spent the entire game fighting the boss but just when he's smaller which makes the payoff of finally reaching the end of the game non-existent.
The stuff that I actually did like are the visuals, every location looks stunning with amazing attention to detail that makes just walking through the environment really fun. The mocap is some of the best I've seen in recent years as well with stellar performances that lessen the effect of boring characters and the sound design is pretty great too.
However I really don't think this game is worth any more than £30 and even THEN I'd still wait for a sale because the length of this game does not justify the price. I 100% the game in 10.4 hours on the hardest difficulty while getting stuck on some encounters for like 15 minutes so essentially this is going to be like an 8 hour game for most casual players if you don't go out of your way to go through every corridor to find all the collectibles and paying £55 for that seems to be a bit too much.
Also, this isn't scary at all.
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
2022 - Ranked
I feel like the people that said that the combat was a clunky mess in group fights don't really know how to play the game properly? I think that one of the good things about this game is that it invites the player to actually think about their surroundings and how to approach different encounters, obviously you can't just rush into a group of 4-5 enemies on the hardest difficulty and expect to win just like that (using melee as your only tool). That might be true near the beginning of the game but they give you the pistol pretty quickly to the point where you can then plan out your combat encounters a bit more, idk it might just be me but I thought the combat was MOSTLY really enjoyable. Plus when you get telekinesis it genuinely makes most encounters really fucking fun because of how cool it is to use it.
For a survival horror game I thought that the exploration was sufficient too, lots of people said that the game is one long hallway but there are definitely other areas you can go through that take maybe 10-15 minutes, although it is true that they just end up linking back to the main path but for a linear game I think that's acceptable, I don't really think we needed anything more there.
Where the game DOES become a bit of a chore is enemy variety, in an interview Glen Schofield said that there are approximately 11 enemy types and I'm sorry... what? where the fuck are the other 5? Even most enemies that are classified as "different" have the exact same moves to the point where you cant even call them different enemies, they're just more skinny, fat or taller. I can't think of a reason as to why they put four two-heads within the span of an hour when they're the most tedious bullet-spongey enemies in the game, they're not even hard, just long. The final boss is also way too easy and forgettable, I beat him first try on the hardest difficulty because he only has two moves, both being moves other enemies have so you've essentially spent the entire game fighting the boss but just when he's smaller which makes the payoff of finally reaching the end of the game non-existent.
The stuff that I actually did like are the visuals, every location looks stunning with amazing attention to detail that makes just walking through the environment really fun. The mocap is some of the best I've seen in recent years as well with stellar performances that lessen the effect of boring characters and the sound design is pretty great too.
However I really don't think this game is worth any more than £30 and even THEN I'd still wait for a sale because the length of this game does not justify the price. I 100% the game in 10.4 hours on the hardest difficulty while getting stuck on some encounters for like 15 minutes so essentially this is going to be like an 8 hour game for most casual players if you don't go out of your way to go through every corridor to find all the collectibles and paying £55 for that seems to be a bit too much.
Also, this isn't scary at all.
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
2022 - Ranked
[OBRIGADO RONALDO POR EMPRESTAR A BIBLIOTECA]
The Callisto Protocol era um jogo que eu não dava absolutamente nada por mas achava interessante visto que tinham veteranos de Dead Space envolvidos no projeto e sabendo que só teremos o Remake dessa franquia tão foda em 2023 decidi dar uma chance para Callisto e sinceramente até de graça foi caro.
A história do jogo é ok? ela começa relativamente interessante até mas com o passar do tempo vai virando mais um fato secundário que vai te levar pelo gigantesco complexo de salas com 4 ou 5 inimigos que são repetidos INUMERAS vezes durante sua campanha que não chega a ser cansativa mas que definitivamente abusa da boa vontade do jogador em alguns momentos
Durante a sua campanha a coisa que você mais fará será combater os inimigos e... o combate é bem fraco, os inimigos são esponjas de dano e dão muito dano. O combate é simples a ponto de ser frustrante durante certos momentos, principalmente pela mecânica de te travar num combate corpo a corpo (que você muitas vezes vai visto que você não estará preparado ou com balas o suficiente para matar todos os inimigos) que também, depois das primeiras duas horas perde completamente a magia e fica mais repetitivo que qualquer coisa por volta da metade do jogo, e por você lutar, você vai precisar se curar e... a cura é lenta, e só te cura o suficiente para dois hits, fazendo a cura quase inútil durante o combate
Fora tudo isso, pouquíssimos são os momentos que você joga de fato, por conta das inúmeras sessões de caminhada scriptada (entrar em ventilações, se arrastar por baixo de obstáculos etc.) e quando você não está fazendo isso, você está ou no repetitivo combate ou resolvendo puzzles simples, ambos que provavelmente estarão rodando com uma performance horrível que fará com que mesmo que você queira curtir vai ser MUITO difícil por conta dessa performance quebrando a imersão completamente
TL;DR
combate Repetitivo, simples demais e chato, otimização péssima, história e personagens desinteressantes, provavelmente 3/4 do orçamento foram pra contratar os atores
The Callisto Protocol era um jogo que eu não dava absolutamente nada por mas achava interessante visto que tinham veteranos de Dead Space envolvidos no projeto e sabendo que só teremos o Remake dessa franquia tão foda em 2023 decidi dar uma chance para Callisto e sinceramente até de graça foi caro.
A história do jogo é ok? ela começa relativamente interessante até mas com o passar do tempo vai virando mais um fato secundário que vai te levar pelo gigantesco complexo de salas com 4 ou 5 inimigos que são repetidos INUMERAS vezes durante sua campanha que não chega a ser cansativa mas que definitivamente abusa da boa vontade do jogador em alguns momentos
Durante a sua campanha a coisa que você mais fará será combater os inimigos e... o combate é bem fraco, os inimigos são esponjas de dano e dão muito dano. O combate é simples a ponto de ser frustrante durante certos momentos, principalmente pela mecânica de te travar num combate corpo a corpo (que você muitas vezes vai visto que você não estará preparado ou com balas o suficiente para matar todos os inimigos) que também, depois das primeiras duas horas perde completamente a magia e fica mais repetitivo que qualquer coisa por volta da metade do jogo, e por você lutar, você vai precisar se curar e... a cura é lenta, e só te cura o suficiente para dois hits, fazendo a cura quase inútil durante o combate
Fora tudo isso, pouquíssimos são os momentos que você joga de fato, por conta das inúmeras sessões de caminhada scriptada (entrar em ventilações, se arrastar por baixo de obstáculos etc.) e quando você não está fazendo isso, você está ou no repetitivo combate ou resolvendo puzzles simples, ambos que provavelmente estarão rodando com uma performance horrível que fará com que mesmo que você queira curtir vai ser MUITO difícil por conta dessa performance quebrando a imersão completamente
TL;DR
combate Repetitivo, simples demais e chato, otimização péssima, história e personagens desinteressantes, provavelmente 3/4 do orçamento foram pra contratar os atores
An incredible visual treat that is held back by a poor PC version as of launch. While the story isn't necessarily anything special, the world building and atmosphere are top-notch that show what we've missed out by EA killing off Visceral Games.
This review contains spoilers
This review is marked for spoilers but it is only for a particular gameplay section later on in the game. There are no story spoilers ahead.
Man, for the first half of this game I was really in its corner. But the level of frustration I had, especially, from chapter six and onwards dragged this down a star and a half. Let's start with the good! It's immersive. Character models are really impressive. Loved the environments, loved the atmosphere.
Let's start with the middling. The melee is not awful but it definitely feels like you have to step down to get to the game's level to get comfortable with it. It's a choice many don't seem to agree with but whatever. I got used to it.
Now let's start with the downright frustrating. The checkpoint system in this is severely outdated. Turns out I missed the platinum trophy for this because if you get a collectible, die and restart from a checkpoint, you have to get the collectible again. Oops. Didn't know that. I just figured you know, like every other modern game that shit like that would save. Oh well. Normally I'd be able to go back and get the collectible but I can't since there's NO CHAPTER SELECT. What are we thinking not adding this?
The amount of health, ammo and credits you receive throughout the game is inconsistent across the board. There are times where it's very manageable, and times when you hit a fucking checkpoint at a really bad time when you have NO health, NO ammo and are being bombarded by enemies with NO time to reload!
Which brings me to another point...the reloading. I get slowing down the gameplay just enough to make the enemy encounters more tense but it is WAY too slow. This mechanic singlehandedly makes the gameplay feel dated. It's a design choice that deliberately goes against how games should feel to play in 2022. I can't tell you how many times I was stuck in a situation where I was being bombarded by enemies (and ALL of them have tentacles, if you've played it you know what I'm fucking talking about) and all I can do is dodge and melee because I don't have time to heal, I don't have time to reload, I don't even have time to switch weapons (which is frustrating as fuck itself) and you just have to try again and again and again until you get lucky. Because you know, there's a good chance an annoying ass checkpoint got you in that mess in the first place.
I'm gonna talk for a second about the end of chapter six specifically. You fight this two-headed monster after you fight about fifteen or so enemies in which you better be prepared or else you're fucked. I had plenty of Hand Cannon ammo the first time I around. I die, checkpoint is reloaded and I have none. I couldn't believe it.
I finally got done with that, having exhausted ALL of my ammo and I was very surprised at the lack of opportunities to get more after that. I was barely scraping by having to melee everyone (a feat that took much longer than it needed to because of the fucking tentacles!!) Only to have to face that ammo-sinking two-headed asshole monster AGAIN. Oh and he shows up like two more times, all of which are completely inconvenient and not fun at all.
This could've been so good. So, so good. I really liked it up until it frustrated me to no end. I'm done with it now, without the Platinum trophy because of the dumbs checkpoints, and at this point I'm glad it's over.
Man, for the first half of this game I was really in its corner. But the level of frustration I had, especially, from chapter six and onwards dragged this down a star and a half. Let's start with the good! It's immersive. Character models are really impressive. Loved the environments, loved the atmosphere.
Let's start with the middling. The melee is not awful but it definitely feels like you have to step down to get to the game's level to get comfortable with it. It's a choice many don't seem to agree with but whatever. I got used to it.
Now let's start with the downright frustrating. The checkpoint system in this is severely outdated. Turns out I missed the platinum trophy for this because if you get a collectible, die and restart from a checkpoint, you have to get the collectible again. Oops. Didn't know that. I just figured you know, like every other modern game that shit like that would save. Oh well. Normally I'd be able to go back and get the collectible but I can't since there's NO CHAPTER SELECT. What are we thinking not adding this?
The amount of health, ammo and credits you receive throughout the game is inconsistent across the board. There are times where it's very manageable, and times when you hit a fucking checkpoint at a really bad time when you have NO health, NO ammo and are being bombarded by enemies with NO time to reload!
Which brings me to another point...the reloading. I get slowing down the gameplay just enough to make the enemy encounters more tense but it is WAY too slow. This mechanic singlehandedly makes the gameplay feel dated. It's a design choice that deliberately goes against how games should feel to play in 2022. I can't tell you how many times I was stuck in a situation where I was being bombarded by enemies (and ALL of them have tentacles, if you've played it you know what I'm fucking talking about) and all I can do is dodge and melee because I don't have time to heal, I don't have time to reload, I don't even have time to switch weapons (which is frustrating as fuck itself) and you just have to try again and again and again until you get lucky. Because you know, there's a good chance an annoying ass checkpoint got you in that mess in the first place.
I'm gonna talk for a second about the end of chapter six specifically. You fight this two-headed monster after you fight about fifteen or so enemies in which you better be prepared or else you're fucked. I had plenty of Hand Cannon ammo the first time I around. I die, checkpoint is reloaded and I have none. I couldn't believe it.
I finally got done with that, having exhausted ALL of my ammo and I was very surprised at the lack of opportunities to get more after that. I was barely scraping by having to melee everyone (a feat that took much longer than it needed to because of the fucking tentacles!!) Only to have to face that ammo-sinking two-headed asshole monster AGAIN. Oh and he shows up like two more times, all of which are completely inconvenient and not fun at all.
This could've been so good. So, so good. I really liked it up until it frustrated me to no end. I'm done with it now, without the Platinum trophy because of the dumbs checkpoints, and at this point I'm glad it's over.
A good if utterly uninspiring action horror that has a few problems. It's painfully linear and it feels somewhat rushed - a few ideas just feel a bit half-baked and could've done with a little more time in the oven. Or, at least, an oven that wasn't cooking during a global pandemic.
It's one of the best looking games I've played to date and has a genuinely excellent atmosphere, while the combat, which has irritated a few people, for me was simply a ballhair away from being brilliant. It's brutal and (groan) visceral and makes you feel really up close and personal with the grim horror of the enemies. It forces you to think in every encounter, never get greedy and be just as aware of your defensive options as you are offensive ones, but a few things like the ability to change weapons or cure in a pinch make some of the encounters with many enemies or the handful of boss fights feel a bit messy. Not that good, scrambling for survival against the odds messy either. Just like the tools you have aren't quite up to the challenge that has been put in front of you.
Saying all that, if I was in the business of shitting on survival horror games for having crap boss fights and control issues I'd have done nothing but shit since like 1996, so I have to say that I enjoyed my run through The Callisto Protocol a fair bit, could see the issues it had even if they didn't really bother me to much due to my pretty high tolerance for some of the ropey stuff that comes with survival horror titles and I would love to see a sequel that is a bit more expansive, less linear and fleshes out some of the genuinely good ideas found here.
It's one of the best looking games I've played to date and has a genuinely excellent atmosphere, while the combat, which has irritated a few people, for me was simply a ballhair away from being brilliant. It's brutal and (groan) visceral and makes you feel really up close and personal with the grim horror of the enemies. It forces you to think in every encounter, never get greedy and be just as aware of your defensive options as you are offensive ones, but a few things like the ability to change weapons or cure in a pinch make some of the encounters with many enemies or the handful of boss fights feel a bit messy. Not that good, scrambling for survival against the odds messy either. Just like the tools you have aren't quite up to the challenge that has been put in front of you.
Saying all that, if I was in the business of shitting on survival horror games for having crap boss fights and control issues I'd have done nothing but shit since like 1996, so I have to say that I enjoyed my run through The Callisto Protocol a fair bit, could see the issues it had even if they didn't really bother me to much due to my pretty high tolerance for some of the ropey stuff that comes with survival horror titles and I would love to see a sequel that is a bit more expansive, less linear and fleshes out some of the genuinely good ideas found here.
Definitivamente, The Callisto Protocol no es Dead Space, seguro que eso habrá decepcionado a mucha gente pero yo no lo veo necesariamente como algo malo. De hecho, creo que las peores parte de este título son aquellas en las que se buscan deliberadamente los paralelismos con el legendario juego de Visceral Games.
Uno de esos paralelismos es a nivel narrativo. Han sido muchas las ocasiones en las que he notado que la historia y el guión de este juego estaban muy basados (más de la cuenta) en los hechos que narraba Dead Space. Esto ocasiona que en muchos momentos los acontecimientos futuros sean predecibles y pierdan parte de la gracia de estar viviendo una aventura nueva. Aún así, no se puede decir que esté mal este apartado. Además, la ambientación es sublime de nuevo.
A nivel jugable quizá es donde se quede un poco más corto. Está muy basado en el combate a melee, ya que las armas de fuego hasta casi el final de la aventura son bastante malas, y este no es especialmente brillante y se acaba haciendo repetitivo muy pronto.
En general, me parece un juego que está bien pero las expectativas le quedaron muy grandes. Aún así lo he disfrutado bastante y si sale la segunda parte en un futuro también la jugaré. Eso sí, ha salido con algunos fallos técnicos imperdonables en un juego que se vende a precio completo de Triple A como la sincronización labial y los bugs de algunos elementos atmosféricos como la niebla.
Uno de esos paralelismos es a nivel narrativo. Han sido muchas las ocasiones en las que he notado que la historia y el guión de este juego estaban muy basados (más de la cuenta) en los hechos que narraba Dead Space. Esto ocasiona que en muchos momentos los acontecimientos futuros sean predecibles y pierdan parte de la gracia de estar viviendo una aventura nueva. Aún así, no se puede decir que esté mal este apartado. Además, la ambientación es sublime de nuevo.
A nivel jugable quizá es donde se quede un poco más corto. Está muy basado en el combate a melee, ya que las armas de fuego hasta casi el final de la aventura son bastante malas, y este no es especialmente brillante y se acaba haciendo repetitivo muy pronto.
En general, me parece un juego que está bien pero las expectativas le quedaron muy grandes. Aún así lo he disfrutado bastante y si sale la segunda parte en un futuro también la jugaré. Eso sí, ha salido con algunos fallos técnicos imperdonables en un juego que se vende a precio completo de Triple A como la sincronización labial y los bugs de algunos elementos atmosféricos como la niebla.
Wished this game actually took inspiration from Dead Space. Instead this game went the worse route and feels like it took inspiration from Last of Us and God of War (2018).
love the way your guy's head is primed to explode the INSTANT u hit zero health. this really is dogshit — its like if someone whacked every one of the original dead space devs in the skull with a lead pipe and left them to remake the game.