The Callisto Protocol Review

Developer: Striking Distance
Publisher: Five Star Games
Release: December 2, 2022

Dan Rizzo
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
December 14, 2022

Editor's Note

The following review reflects our thoughts on The Callisto Protocol for PlayStation 5, post Patch 1.007.

Dead End...

Let’s talk Dead Space for a second, seeing as it’s co-creator Glen Schofield is the mastermind behind this brand new barrage of insanely gory and grotesque anarchy. A beloved franchise can birth some of the greatest set pieces and cornerstone’s in gaming, but reprisals, rebirths or reboots always come into question whether its a step beyond their own creator’s reach. The Callisto Protocol tries to recapture the magic of an initial project put out to sci-fans, who adore the formerly aforementioned series but runs directly into a multitude of pacing issues that make its narrative a forgetful foray into the dark and eerily mysterious. Dead Space had some of the greatest pacing, marrying gameplay with storytelling at such an untouchable demonstration, that it’s highly regarded as the blue-print of sci-fi survival horrors to this day.

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The Callisto Protocol does its best in replicating this, paying homage to Schofield’s magnum opus, but with an assortment of issues from not only its poor story, and technical hiccups, the experience plays second fiddle to immersion of any proportion. It should be noted, while its pre-patch launch had a marvel of inexcusable jitters, post-launch patches have attended to most of its performance qualms, but are still evident further into the game. Regardless, The Callisto Protocol still prides itself on what an interactive cinema experience should be on current generation platforms, however a repetitive gameplay loop, short campaign and unbalanced hordes of mutated baddies come at the cost of The Callisto Protocol’s anticipation, halting all hype for the elated sci-fi fan, and ultimately hoping for some way off this haunted hamlet.

Proper Protocol...

As mentioned, the campaign itself can take up from anywhere around eight to sixteen hours, depending on your respective pace. Crash landing on the moon of Callisto, Jacob Lee see’s himself unlawfully arrested after he and his partner Max transport containments of goods to the planet’s detention centre, the Black Iron Prison. The duo employed by the United Jupiter Company or UJC for short, come to learn that the prison itself is also operated by the same company that employs them. A promising run for them, this would be Jacob’s last delivery in what would be a lucrative deal that would set him up for life and retire from the transporting business, only to have been incarcerated by Cpt. Leon Ferris and Warden Duncan Cole. Upon his imprisonment, Jacob is injected with an implant on the back of his neck called a “Core Device” which details his health levels.

After awakening from a painstaking process – which temporarily renders him dead before resuscitation – Jacob is confronted by scenes of absolute chaos within Black Iron, with many of its prisoners attacked or slained to unidentifiable creatures known as “biophages”. The term itself is derivative to “phage”; a thing that devours with bio needing no explanation. Hindsight, conceptually adjacent to the Necromorphs in Dead Space, the biophages are realised as inmates that have been infected by an unknown aliment. Looking to escape, Jacob tears through an army of the infected, only to be confronted by another prisoner that says he has an escape plan, which leaves Jacob with no other alternative but to trust him. Elias guides Jacob around Black Iron’s security, evading the plague spreading the prison, while surviving the corroding self-destruction of the prison’s interior.

The opening moments demonstrate some orientation to what the gameplay loop will primarily be throughout the onset of the campaign. Floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee, Jacob’s evasion system is more-or-less a boxer’s wet dream with each attack easily avoidable with the flick of the thumbstick that allows you to dodge each oncoming attack with high velocity. I’d say the initiation of the story was the most exhilarating, with little weaponry at your disposal so you’re essentially running on adrenaline like a freight train through a mish-mash of bloody porridge. Smashing a biophage with a metal stake, or a pick-axe is hilariously satisfying but all so horrifying upon close-up. The insanely detailed chunks of human flesh that are torn to shreds is grossly terrifying and will leave some in utter awe.

With Dead Space the remake right around the corner, will The Callisto Protocol continue to make a name for itself within the survival horror genre? Or will its forefather bury it beneath the sands of Callisto as an afterthought?

It becomes noticeable when close encounters have the in-game camera come in for the tight shot to highlight Jacob’s offense, whether it be a melee strike of ranged combat. Bloody spatter will coat Jacob’s head, suit and artillery, but toxic waste and faeces – yes, you read that right – will also be sprayed around like water sprinkler on the green. Some of the excitement of The Callisto Protocol’s combat is somewhat nulled by an equipped glove called “The Grip” which works similarly to Dead Space’s telekinesis. At first you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how cool it is to be “Bad” with this Power Glove – see what I did there? – but its overpowered offense becomes an unbalanced mess leaving the common biophage with zero chance of attacking you in the process. While that sounds great in the long run, the gameplay loop suffers severely, becoming quite the cumbersome trudge.

In space, no one can hear you...

SOLID POINTS

✔️ Insanely Gorgeous. Great example of realism in gaming.

✔️ Subtleties give it human element other games miss.

✔️ Dead Space Love letter that tries its best to re-invite fans back to sci-fi horror.

❌ A buggy mess.

❌ Gameplay loop that becomes way too repetitive.

It’s without doubt that while Dead Space is initially the main inspiration for The Callisto Protocol, half way through the campaign you’re confronted by biophage’s that are blind, and depend on surrounding audibles within their vicinity akin to the clickers from The Last of Us – they make a similar clicking sound as well. However, Jacob’s stealth in the game is almost a non-issue, with the blind variant oblivious to my whereabouts even when close-up. No idea whether this was a bug I personally encountered but it was almost too easy to eliminate them, regardless of their heightened senses.

I was perturbed by the detection system in this section of the game, as I would be slaughtering a blind biophage close-by one of its cohorts, and while it would be screaming in agony, the other zombified enemy would not flinch. While other forms of these mutants will be encountered throughout the campaign, Black Iron’s security system is overrun by an army of androids that are mostly invincible, but can be stopped with a single headshot, which again displays some of the imperfections of the game’s balancing.

Speaking of a balancing act, Jacob’s holstering system is just too slow for some boss battles. Trying to best my way through some end game fights, the realism of swapping out guns can be appreciated, it’s also a bottlenecked excuse to how one would naturally react while staring death in the face. There were points during an encounter that would call for me to swap out my gun for another load-out, but would have to evade an enemy’s attack which would then cancel out my swap for which I would have to perform again and the chances of me successfully swapping out the gun were pretty slim as it would essentially put me in a death loop. The boss fights themselves are quite the repetitious slog at times, and recycle the same gameplay without any differences that mark them as anything memorable.

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The campaign is littered with an abundance of attempts to jump scare the player, and sure it has a handful that are successful, but there are so many of them, you become desensitised to it by the fourth or fifth hour the game. I will praise the game for its insanely masterful audio-visual pairing that can only be demonstrated through the means of wearing a pair of headphones while playing. Its immeasurable display of horror and intensity does itself no justice without the incredible audio design put into the title, and it’s a technical example of what some titles outside its realm or genre should be adapting as we journey further into this generation. I also give a solid hand to Josh Duhamel for doing an outstanding job portraying Jacob Lee, and bringing his character to life. The detail put into the game is so lifelike, you’ll forget you’re playing a game at times – whether that’s a good or bad thing.

The Callisto Protocol is a prime love letter which I know is cliché, but it will have Dead Space fans satisfied but leaving with more questions than gratification. A great example of a video game that layers itself with a defining cinematic experience but leaves more to be desired in its interactivity. It’s short, but that can also play in part to its pacing issues that are essentially problematic toward its unbalanced offense, and pre-determined outcomes. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but will leave a lingering thought to those that wanted more from its overly realistic representation of sci-fi horror. The question here is, where do we go from here? With Dead Space the remake right around the corner, will The Callisto Protocol continue to make a name for itself within the survival horror genre? Or will its forefather bury it beneath the sands of Callisto as an afterthought?