In this article, we’ll look at The Callisto Protocol, a survival horror video game directed by Glen Schofield, who also worked on the Dead Space series.
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The Callisto Protocol Review
To begin with, The Callisto Protocol is a stunningly beautiful game. It’s full of levels and environments that I actively enjoyed exploring and looking at – the level of detail, texture, and ambience to everything is incredibly well done, from grimy metal to haze in the air, and it’s never less than a beautiful thing to see.
Overall, the sound design is excellent, with the station clanging, creaking, and groaning as if it were alive. When monsters move through air vents, you can actually follow their position from the audio and predict where they’ll emerge. It’s both a strangely cool and useful little detail.
The plot and characters are also good. You’re a cargo pilot who crashes lands on Callisto, one of Jupiter’s moons, along with the terrorist who sabotaged your ship. Space zombies appear and… go! The Callisto Protocol prioritizes survival and problem solving over anything else. The alien issue is very much on a to-do list along the way, giving everything a pleasingly grounded feel. Nobody is attempting to be a hero; they are simply trying to survive.
In that regard, The Callisto Protocol has a classic survival horror feel to it. You’re constantly trying to manage your inventory, calculating how much ammo and health you can afford to leave and take. Overall, there is a greater emphasis on action rather than prolonged tension building.
Crushing blows
Based on what I’ve said thus far, I really wanted to like The Callisto Protocol more. The constant, crushing forgivingness of the fighting, on the other hand, makes it an ordeal. The fighting system is fundamentally incapable of dealing with more than one enemy. Even in one-on-one combat, The Callisto Protocol is prone to absolutely merciless battles that can seemingly inflict insta-death on you at will.
The combat system should be brilliant, with the ability to dodge incoming attacks by holding left and right on the left stick. There is no timing; all you have to do is hold a direction. It works great when fighting against single enemies, but the problems multiply when multiple enemies appear on the scene. Character movement is too slow, making it difficult to put any distance between yourself and danger or track any threats you’re not directly engaged with. So, you’re essentially stuck in the same spot, unable to access anything outside of your field of view and vulnerable to an off-screen sucker punch.
For almost the entire game, I felt like I had lucked or cheesed my way through nearly every encounter. Some of the worst offenders have elements that clearly do not work and simply highlight the flaws. Like a mini boss with only insta-kill attacks: it’s difficult on its own, as you dodge forever, lacking the speed or space to get any safe distance to breathe. The second phase, on the other hand, adds a second smaller enemy that may be easy to kill, but you must first locate them. That means either taking your gaze away from the main threat, at which point he kills you, or remaining focused on the main threat only to be slapped by the additional enemy and insta-killed by the boss while stunned.
I’m more disappointed in general than anything else. There’s a lot to like about The Callisto Protocol, but the combat pacing drains the life out of it as you grind through basic encounters over and over, hoping for a break that will allow you to continue. By the second half of the game, I’d mostly switched off during the fighting, robotically enduring try, die, repeat loops until it was over and then switching back on for exploration, cutscenes, and everything else.
There’s a great sci-fi game here, but it’s hampered by its combat system. Which seems such a shame given the world Striking Distance has created and the overall quality of The Callisto Protocol. As a result, it’s difficult to love, but despite my frustration, I’d like to see a sequel in the future.
The Callisto Protocol is avalable on Steam.
