This review contains spoilers
TL;DR - Disappointed that this is a by-the-numbers action game rather than a well-made survival horror game. Game isn't bad by any means, just very mediocre and I wish it could decide whether it wants to be action or horror.
After taking turns with a friend over the past 2 days, wow. I do not know how to express my disappointment. By no means is it awful, but I'm just disappointed.
Game is linear to a fault - linear games are good, but this is bordering on being on-rails. There is no way to go but forward, the game is a huge corridor with little to no exploration. I will say this game being a 12hr game is very pleasing, prevents it from dragging on too long, but it's practically holding forward for 12 hours, maybe another direction if you're in a fight.
The gameplay was also not exactly what I was hoping for. The combat is pretty mediocre. Guns feel weak, some VERY IMPORTANT GUNS are missable for some ungodly reason, and I'm not the biggest fan of the melee mechanics. On the one hand, the melee combat sounds cool on paper, weaving and beating the shit out of the zombies with a stun bat. You have to think, which is neat, but it gets stale very fast without enemy variation and becomes annoying in groups. Dodging is fine, but becomes very predictable since enemies can't attack in the same direction twice. I've heard it compared to Punch-Out mixed with TLOU1 which is honestly pretty accurate. But if I wanted to play those games, I'd just go play those games. At least I don't get locked into an enemy in the middle of the group while the remaining ones throw projectiles at me. (I also don't think those combat styles mix well in the slightest.)
The horror elements are severely lacking, which honestly confuses me. This is marketed AS a horror game and yet it failed to actually make a tense situation. Me and my buddy could read it like a book due to the linearity. He joked about a door having a jumpscare behind it into it immediately happening. It was insanely predictable, and that sucks. Part of the fun of survival horror is the atmosphere alongside unpredictability - the fear of the Xenomorph chasing you in Alien Isolation, the chance of a body turning crimson in RE1, the fear of necromorphs ruining your day in Dead Space 1. All of these have GOOD ATMOSPHERE behind them, meanwhile nothing about Black Iron hasn't already been done in much more depthful ways in the Ishimura. Or the Spencer Mansion. Or the Torrens. It sucks.
I cannot believe I'm saying the words "we had technical problems on the PS5", but we did. Even in performance mode the game ran like Sonic Unleashed did back in the PS3 era - as soon as any slight of above-usual action kicked up, we got noticeable framedrops. Not to the extent of the PC release going from 120 to 2, but lord it was still bad. The saving system is also abysmal - manual saving doesn't put you where you save, it puts you where your last checkpoint was. This could mean anywhere from "30 seconds ago when the checkpoint triggered during a boss attack" to "before you entered the area and now you've missed the shotgun permanently in this survival horror game."
And lastly? The story honest to god just felt like a bad version of Dead Space 1. Average dude in a spaceship crash lands, gets forced into a situation upon arrival where zombies come out of the floorboards, has to fight for his life while losing his mind over exposure to a mysterious artifact, and eventually ends up (almost) sacrificing himself before getting a post-credits jumpscare after surviving. The only difference is the location and a few characters in similar roles survived - and Jacob is portrayed as an action hero as time goes on rather than just a dude in a bad situation like Issac. Which, I think I've realized where my disappointment with this game comes from.
This isn't a survival horror game. It's an action game trying to masquerade as a survival horror game. Not a game like RE4 or DS2 where action is blended in with the horror, this is straight up an action game trying to be a horror game. The melee combat, the guns being as weak as they are, the stealth sections - it's all clicking as I'm writing. This is an action brawler game, outright. Not a survival horror game.
Let me make something very clear - I never wanted or expected Dead Space 4.
I know Striking Distance is the reincarnation of Visceral, but Dead Space has been left alone (until the remake) for a reason. I wanted something fresh from the ashes, something rebuilt to feel familiar yet original. Something like Shovel Knight, Bayonetta 1, Bloodstained, A Hat in Time, games that wear their inspirations on their sleeve but bring so much more to the table, except with an AAA budget. I didn't want the magic of Dead Space back, I wanted a new experience from people who understand the magic of the genre. But because of how it's built, I genuinely cannot help but compare it to Dead Space because it feels like it's trying to be Dead Space - as the marketing banked on so hard and the story tries to be - but simultaneously trying it's hardest not to be as the gameplay itself shows.
Not every game needs to be a masterpiece - I loved RE3R even though that game was far from perfect - but at least that game was still fun and still understood what it was trying to be. Callisto doesn't. It fights itself, trying to split itself between a cinematic brawler game and something more like it's predecessor instead of settling on one or the other. If it went the more cinematic brawler road, it'd be a better game. If it went the more survival horror route, it'd be a better game. But instead it tries to be both, causing it to suffer heavily.
Not to mention that crunch statement that got thrown out by Glen a while back. Wow.
Maybe I'm sour that this isn't the horror experience I wanted, I don't know. I'm definitely gonna sit on my thoughts for a while, but I just feel so disappointed in this as a horror game - even as an action brawler game I feel like it doesn't hold it's own. It's just lacking in so many areas.
I'll give it a 2.5. It's not godawful garbage by any means, but I feel like it could've been done so, so much better.
After taking turns with a friend over the past 2 days, wow. I do not know how to express my disappointment. By no means is it awful, but I'm just disappointed.
Game is linear to a fault - linear games are good, but this is bordering on being on-rails. There is no way to go but forward, the game is a huge corridor with little to no exploration. I will say this game being a 12hr game is very pleasing, prevents it from dragging on too long, but it's practically holding forward for 12 hours, maybe another direction if you're in a fight.
The gameplay was also not exactly what I was hoping for. The combat is pretty mediocre. Guns feel weak, some VERY IMPORTANT GUNS are missable for some ungodly reason, and I'm not the biggest fan of the melee mechanics. On the one hand, the melee combat sounds cool on paper, weaving and beating the shit out of the zombies with a stun bat. You have to think, which is neat, but it gets stale very fast without enemy variation and becomes annoying in groups. Dodging is fine, but becomes very predictable since enemies can't attack in the same direction twice. I've heard it compared to Punch-Out mixed with TLOU1 which is honestly pretty accurate. But if I wanted to play those games, I'd just go play those games. At least I don't get locked into an enemy in the middle of the group while the remaining ones throw projectiles at me. (I also don't think those combat styles mix well in the slightest.)
The horror elements are severely lacking, which honestly confuses me. This is marketed AS a horror game and yet it failed to actually make a tense situation. Me and my buddy could read it like a book due to the linearity. He joked about a door having a jumpscare behind it into it immediately happening. It was insanely predictable, and that sucks. Part of the fun of survival horror is the atmosphere alongside unpredictability - the fear of the Xenomorph chasing you in Alien Isolation, the chance of a body turning crimson in RE1, the fear of necromorphs ruining your day in Dead Space 1. All of these have GOOD ATMOSPHERE behind them, meanwhile nothing about Black Iron hasn't already been done in much more depthful ways in the Ishimura. Or the Spencer Mansion. Or the Torrens. It sucks.
I cannot believe I'm saying the words "we had technical problems on the PS5", but we did. Even in performance mode the game ran like Sonic Unleashed did back in the PS3 era - as soon as any slight of above-usual action kicked up, we got noticeable framedrops. Not to the extent of the PC release going from 120 to 2, but lord it was still bad. The saving system is also abysmal - manual saving doesn't put you where you save, it puts you where your last checkpoint was. This could mean anywhere from "30 seconds ago when the checkpoint triggered during a boss attack" to "before you entered the area and now you've missed the shotgun permanently in this survival horror game."
And lastly? The story honest to god just felt like a bad version of Dead Space 1. Average dude in a spaceship crash lands, gets forced into a situation upon arrival where zombies come out of the floorboards, has to fight for his life while losing his mind over exposure to a mysterious artifact, and eventually ends up (almost) sacrificing himself before getting a post-credits jumpscare after surviving. The only difference is the location and a few characters in similar roles survived - and Jacob is portrayed as an action hero as time goes on rather than just a dude in a bad situation like Issac. Which, I think I've realized where my disappointment with this game comes from.
This isn't a survival horror game. It's an action game trying to masquerade as a survival horror game. Not a game like RE4 or DS2 where action is blended in with the horror, this is straight up an action game trying to be a horror game. The melee combat, the guns being as weak as they are, the stealth sections - it's all clicking as I'm writing. This is an action brawler game, outright. Not a survival horror game.
Let me make something very clear - I never wanted or expected Dead Space 4.
I know Striking Distance is the reincarnation of Visceral, but Dead Space has been left alone (until the remake) for a reason. I wanted something fresh from the ashes, something rebuilt to feel familiar yet original. Something like Shovel Knight, Bayonetta 1, Bloodstained, A Hat in Time, games that wear their inspirations on their sleeve but bring so much more to the table, except with an AAA budget. I didn't want the magic of Dead Space back, I wanted a new experience from people who understand the magic of the genre. But because of how it's built, I genuinely cannot help but compare it to Dead Space because it feels like it's trying to be Dead Space - as the marketing banked on so hard and the story tries to be - but simultaneously trying it's hardest not to be as the gameplay itself shows.
Not every game needs to be a masterpiece - I loved RE3R even though that game was far from perfect - but at least that game was still fun and still understood what it was trying to be. Callisto doesn't. It fights itself, trying to split itself between a cinematic brawler game and something more like it's predecessor instead of settling on one or the other. If it went the more cinematic brawler road, it'd be a better game. If it went the more survival horror route, it'd be a better game. But instead it tries to be both, causing it to suffer heavily.
Not to mention that crunch statement that got thrown out by Glen a while back. Wow.
Maybe I'm sour that this isn't the horror experience I wanted, I don't know. I'm definitely gonna sit on my thoughts for a while, but I just feel so disappointed in this as a horror game - even as an action brawler game I feel like it doesn't hold it's own. It's just lacking in so many areas.
I'll give it a 2.5. It's not godawful garbage by any means, but I feel like it could've been done so, so much better.