OK so the game had a shoddy launch and that has caused people to ignore this game and straight say its shit and honestly I don’t think that’s fair, I too was a super hyped for this game, a horror title coming out that looks and feels like dead space (even have some of the creators of DS involved) it looks gooey and tense with a AAA sheen on it from an Indy developer…oh and none of that EA stink all over it. The trailers looked amazing you had a character that’s out of their depth, a no HOK, so the game had a shoddy launch, and that has caused people to ignore this game and straight say it’s shit. Honestly, I don’t think that’s fair. I, too, was super hyped for this game; a horror title coming out that looks and feels like Dead Space (even has some of the creators of DS involved) it looks gooey and tense with a AAA sheen on it from an Indy developer, and none of that EA stink all over it. The trailers looked amazing. You had a character that’s out of their depth, a no HUD game with health and ammo displaying on the player character, and a location with tight corridors and scares around every corner, and those gruesome deaths.
So what happened? Well, when the game released you had all the above which is great but we had bugs (not too many that I could find) we had a new combat system that people where not expecting, death animations that take a very long time to get through and are unskippable, as well as a few other nitpicks people So, what happened? Well, when the game released, you had all the above, which is great, but we had bugs (not too many that I could find), a new combat system that people weren’t expecting, death animations that take a very long time to get through and are unskippable, as well as a few other nitpicks people complained about, like no chapter select, unlikeable characters (I’ll get to that in a bit), and no story and unimaginative character design, which is a load of bollocks. Basically, what I’m getting at here is that people shat all over this game because they believed it to be the second coming of Christ in the form of new Dead Space and it wasn’t..
Callisto Protocol is a GREAT GAME; I had a blast with it. I got all the achievements in the game, which is something I haven’t done in a long time when it comes to gaming, which for me means I enjoyed the crap out of the game. Though I will say getting them all was super easy. OK, let’s break a few things down when it comes to people complaining about the game.
After I finished it, I went and watched reviews and read some too. Two names caught my attention, and these two names are people I respect and love as reviewers and entertainers: one is The Commanders themselves, Jim Stephanie Sterling, and the other is Jirard Khalil “The Completionist”. As you can imagine, these two had Callisto Protocol early in its release (I got mine Dec 17th and started playing Jan5th) so they experienced the game with all the “issues” it had and I played a patched version of the title. Sterling went on a tirade about how the game is shit and unoriginal, comparing it hard to Dead Space, saying one game had imaginative character design and the other had basic zombies, combat was new and innovative and the other just repetitive, one game had a likeable relatable character and the other had a bland unrelatable character, and finally that one had a compelling story with a satisfying end and the just kind of ends… Jirarad had other views on the game, but on his episode, he admits straight up that he’s been overworked and generally finding it very difficult to focus, which I think had a huge impact on his liking and abilities when it came to playing this game. He complained about the lack of chapter select in the game being bad for completionists, as he had to reload many areas to find collectables he missed and found if he collected one, if he died, it would just disappear, and he would have to reload again. The death animations being unskippable just became a gross-out thing for him (which to be fair, I get that). He said combat was hard to master, taking him well over an hour to get used to it, which became boring and samey for him by the end, and And that he wasn’t a fan of Jake (the main protagonist), stating his story and character just wasn’t relatable (there it is again
For me, I played the game a month after launch. Christmas got all up in my grill, I was working a hell of a lot and I just didn’t have time. By the time I played the game, I knew one solid thing about it and that was the combat was mainly focused on melee. Other than that, I was spoiler-free. Hell, the only trailer I watched for the game was the original teaser, and I’d seen a few images, that’s it. I went into the game saying to myself this should scratch that Dead Space itch until the remake comes along and for me it delivered… I was playing a patched version, so many of the glitches that appeared were gone. I experienced two myself: one, a lift disappeared and killed me right at the beginning of the game, and two, I got stuck on a railing… that’s it. I played this game on the Maximum Security mode (the hardest difficulty) had a little issue popping the achievement, but a few reloads of the final section sorted that, and I got every other achievement in one playthrough, including collecting all the bio-records (that’s not what they’re called). Then I watched the Completionist and wondered what the hell he was on about. Jirarad came out disappointed in the game and with a permanent sour taste, which honestly is a massive shame. I completed the game in 10 hours and 10 minutes, which is ten hours less than the professional and I think maybe he didn’t play the game to its full potential. Same with the commander, to be honest, but with Jim, they have been extra salty on games in general, and when someone who would look at games like Deadly Premonition and give it a perfect score because they understand the love and work behind the game, to come around to this game many years later and shit all over it, it makes for hard reading.
When I finished the game, I loved it. I thought the nods to Dead Space were lovely, the visuals of the world were stunningly beautiful in a gross way, and I felt for Jake the entire way through, being a dude who’s lost in a mystery he just can’t escape. I felt this game could’ve been Dead Space 4, where for Ex-Machina reasons, the moons didn’t devour Earth and Isaac and Carver were thrown into prison on a moon by the cult of Unitoligy and they had to figure out how to escape while also trying to destroy a new marker, blah, blah, blah. Basically, would I recommend the game? HELL YES
Lets break shit down
- Combat: Though not body slicing, there is a new way of battling your foes with a new dodge mechanic attached to the left thumbstick. Odd at first, but read the prompts, and boom, you’re flying. (Hold the left stick left or right once dodged, move stick to the other side, hit the bad guy). If you just use that in the game, then yeah, fine, the game will get repetitive, but you have a couple of guns (two pistols, a riot gun, sawed-off shotgun, and an assault rifle). I only stuck to 3 guns total to save on precious inventory space, but use these in combat to vary things up. You also have a kinesis module or the grip (GRP), which can grab baddies and launch them. I used this loads to manage swarms of enemies, throwing them into environments, using items on the ground to stun them or just to simply get them away from me. Though limited, combat has a nice variety, even having a “forced” stealth section, which you can just shoot a GRP your way through if you want to.
- Collectables: There aren’t many collectables in the game and with no waypoint showing you where to go, you have to make decisions on where to go by figuring out where the game wasn’t you to go…this was easy. If you came to a fork in the road, look at the most likely way the game wants you to go and go the other way. If an auto-save pops up, turn back as you’re going where the story wants you to go. An boom, you’ll find all the collectables. This game is very linear, just like Dead Space, so you shouldn’t have any real issues. If you miss an item, play the game again. I guess in your pause menu, you can see what collectables are missing in each chapter and the persons of interest have multiple across all chapters, so check that regularly.
• Creature design: The creatures in the game may not be as body horror as Dead Space, but they are still gross and varied. You have spitters, tanks, crawly explody guys, and bugs that jump out of the shadows. There is also a mini-boss that repeats three more times, which may be boring, but it’s similar to the armored brute in Dead Space that bursts through doors. While some people may compare them to necromorphs and say that the designs aren’t as gross, it’s important to remember that it’s not a carbon copy and to wait for the remake. Overall, the creatures are gooey, nasty to look at, hit hard, and barely look human, so I enjoyed them.
• “Unlikeable Characters”: Nah, you’re just wrong. When reviewers played this game, they compared it to Dead Space a lot and fairly, I guess. But saying Isaac (DS 1) is more relatable than Jake is dumb as fuck. Isaac said not a word; the only story beats we had from him is he is looking for Nicole and is having hallucinations. He becomes way more relatable in the second game when he gets a voice. Jake isn’t better than Isaac, but he’s no worse. He certainly isn’t bland. He would be like anyone else in that situation, confused about what the hell is happening after being thrown in prison for no reason and then teaming with a stranger that is just all kinds of charming and wants to help, then teaming with someone that consumes him a bit later. Not only that, he has to deal with a zealot prison guard who seems to have gone cult crazy and experimenting on the prisoners. And then you get to the end of the game, and I just feel bad for Jake and his role in the story. • The story and world building: The story in this game is fairly simple, similar to the first Dead Space game. A regular Joe just doing his job gets caught up in a crazy body horror nightmare and needs to escape. Along the way, he makes allies and enemies, and discovers things about the situation he is in and grows because of it. Like I said, it’s very basic. However, the world building is lush and the game is gorgeous to look at. It forces you to take in the sights as it expands from a prison to a snowy wasteland, to a Bio-Dome, and to an underground city. It feels loved and connected and flows seamlessly to each area, except for when it uses a Zack Snyder-esque The Justice League chapter title cards. But outside of the game, we were given a prequel podcast story starring Gwendoline Christie and Michael Ironside which is well worth a listen before you play the game, or even afterwards, it’s up to you. Dead Space did something similar with comics, movies, and novels, so the creators tried to get you invested, but you were so caught up in your own hype for a new Dead Space game that isn’t Dead Space that you missed all of that
II’ve rambled on quite a bit here, but I hope you can see my points that this game is a victim of overhyping from a different game. I believe that this game will become a cult favorite in the future. There is one thing I didn’t like about this game – it’s a current-gen game on the most powerful consoles of all time, yet there are so many crawling and shimmying sections used to load new areas. For example, you’ll be in a room, see a vent, crawl through it to load the next area, which is fine as every game does it. But then you’ll pop out in a tiny room with a crafting station and maybe an enemy, and then you leave through a crack to load a new area – what?! Why? This could have been avoided. I understand that it’s trying to build tension and, plot-wise, it makes sense, but it could have been done differently
Anyway, I love this game and you should too. Take this game for what it is and you should have a blast. Use all the tools it gives you and the combat is great fun. Get yourself engrossed in the world that has been built for you. We have a game here that has the potential to be an excellent franchise, so play it and enjoy it.
Have a great day and don’t forget to be nice to each other.
Stuart