WELCOME TO HELIX!

This series has me so badly that I'm legitimately exited about the fake software the evil company in the fictional video game universe has been working on.

It's like a swashbuckler. But it's a video game. Or I wish it was. That's how it starts.

The traversal is a LOT less liberal with the specifics. And the controls just don't work.

I HATE the difficulty and level system they created. Like, why? Why do I need four different kinds of currency? Just give me my abilities! And the outfit thing seems like a neat idea, but it's just a whole bunch of time you could have spent somewhere more important.

And the cover system sucks and never does what I want it to do.

I thought the new eagle vision system was cool at first, but during stealth and more tense moments, it just doesn't work. I hate how enemies disappear from the minimap. Enemies will be right in front of me and I won't even know.

Enemies spot you without you even knowing that there are enemies there or where they're spotting you from.

People see you in the street and immediately try to kill you.

I don't think I've died in combat since Brotherhood, and I've died more in this game than I have in all the others combined.

And I think the game is way too punishing with where it places you after you die.

The stealth is so infuriating, I wish they would have just not incorporated it at all. Just fully made a swashbuckler video game. Instead, not even the swordplay is that enjoyable because the new combat system really loves watching you die out of pure slowness.

And the new wannabe-Hitman assassination system is fucking stupid and repetitive. It adds nothing. It was cool for one mission, and then they gave up. It just makes the game more tedious and the missions longer. And if you fail the mission, you have to restart the whole thing, so, no, fuck you and your game.

Élise being a Templar has no point between the moment you find out, and the moment she stops being one.

The French Revolution feels less like a part of the story or a set piece, but rather more just like something that happens to be going on at the same time as the plot. They never really give a shit about it. Some stuff happens, and then the king is being executed and it means nothing to you because it hasn't before now.

And the modern day stuff doesn't really continue what Black Flag and Rogue did, and is basically just nonexistent, so, garbage game.

The real tragedy in the whole thing is that they didn't spend their time polishing this game to be THE next-gen Assassin's Creed title.

The foundations are all here, but it's bare bone, and for some of it, it doesn't even feel like they haven't polished it, it's like they just didn't finish making the game. Like it's 70% done. There's shit missing.

And FUCK Marie Lévesque and her fucking gala!

Playtime: 13 Hours
To be honest, we would all like "The Callisto Protocol" better if it weren't for "Dead Space", a game that revolutionized and defined survival horror. And yes of course that game is the obvious role model, but for me that doesn't mean that the alternative Dead Space has to be bad.

Although it never comes close to that classic, "The Callisto Protocol" looks incredibly good, has a really well-mixed sound and the atmosphere is insane. Just like the staging in the cutscenes is very well done. I've now been playing the game for almost a year after its release and fortunately haven't had any crashes, bugs or other really annoying technical errors or problems. Everything ran smoothly for me.

The problems I did have with the game only started halfway through. Although I liked the idea of the combat system, creating a mixture of dodging, melee and ranged combat using weapons and a special ability, this became more annoying than exciting in the boss fights and when there were too many enemies. And just as the intermediate bosses are repeated too often later in the game, the gameplay itself is also too repetitive, despite the short playing time of just under 13 hours. I would have liked a few puzzles to break things up.

However, the level design has made an effort to offer a lot of variety despite the limited space of a prison on an ice planet. And I think that worked. I was never bored by the visual presentation and finding the way worked well even without a map or anything similar. Which brings us to the most important thing: how scary is the game, especially compared to its role model? It's been a while since I played "Dead Space", but back then it was the scariest game ever for me. "The Callisto Protocol" never quite comes close, but there were definitely some moments when I held my breath and didn't want to look around the next corner. Overall, the game does a good job in my opinion.

So in the end I'm relatively satisfied and can't really understand all the bad reviews.