The core gameplay is pretty solid: the gunplay and movement set flows pretty well and it has an exciting variety of guns with different effects and playstyles.

However, the game is structured to be veeeery repetitive. It's a run-based game but you don't have enough options to make runs feel different, so it feels like you're playing the same thing over and over again. The bosses are awfully balanced for single-player mode, both competitive and co-op multiplayer are very tiresome, the game's """"""""""""""humor""""""""""""" is agressively cringy and the soundtrack is horrendously dated, filled with 2010 bargain Skrillex garbage.

it's tough to review this """game""" since its fundamental proposal is to be an ever-evolving platform, so, everything I'm writing (2022/14/09) could not be true in a couple of months.

I'm a massive fan of the Rocksmith series of ""games"" (calling it a game it's very debatable, but let's not worry about this). The main idea of Rocksmith+ seems to be the right path for this sort of experience, a way they could keep updating the game, adding new songs, and adding new tutorials, without having to do a whole another $60 release.

However, in the current state, the game is VERY lackluster. They advertise as having more than 9000 songs, but the majority of them come in the form of Chord Charts or Bass Charts, which is basically showing the chords for the song, something you can EASILY find on the internet for free. The main value of Rocksmith as a whole is when the songs are arranged to match exactly what's being played, and currently, in the game, there are LESS THAN 1000 songs like that.

Rocksmith+ has a LOT of potential with the Live Service model to constantly improve the song list and also with community-created arrangements, but looking at the list of songs with real arrangments done, it seems like they're doing it in the wrong way.

The Callisto Protocol reminds me a lot of The Order 1886: it's extremely beautiful and extremely boring.

Just like The Order 1886, this is a extremely linear game. The level structure is the same for the entire game: You fight in a room and then you have two possible paths, the correct one and on the other you will find some type of resources. It is very hand-holdy and it feels like you can't do anything thats off script. There are valid ways to structure a linear game without making it too guided (just like they did in Dead Space 1 and 2) and this one is not it.

I appreciate that they had a specific vision for the game combat, but in my opinion, it falls very short. The dodge mechanic makes every enemy encounter the exactly same; At no time you feel like you can express your playstyle in anyway. Because of this, the only way the game can create difficulty in a fight is by increasing the number of enemies, and then, because your movimentation is so limited, there's no way you can recover from bad positioning during an encounter, so, there are a lot of instances that are just trial and error until you figure out every enemy spawn.

the story is very bland and uninteresting

this game is pretty disappointing overall. The main aspect that got me excited was the "new original story" created for it, but then it turns out 80% of the game is playing through the series' old story arcs.

the whole quest design feels hell-bent on wasting the player's time. There is a lot of going back and forth to talk to get items and talking to NPCs which makes the pacing veeeeeeeeeeery slow. The worst offender of this is the first couple of chapters. As the game goes on, the chapters begin to feel rushed, but ironically this actually makes the game pacing better.

gameplay-wise it is pretty fun, the turn-based battle system and leveling up and tuning character builds with accessories mechanics are pretty good.

if it was not for the INCREDIBLE charisma of the One Piece characters, this game would be unbearable. But it is still very bad though.