- Publisher: KRAFTON Inc.
- Release Date: Dec 2, 2022
- Also On: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
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- Critic score
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- Unscored
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Dec 1, 2022The Callisto Protocol, throughout all of the tension and suspense, can't mask the terrors within might only be surface deep.
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Dec 13, 2022The Callisto Protocol is a unique and often good game which is hindered by its own ambition. The fighting system is sure to be hit and miss with audiences, and the difficulty coupled with the slow movement and weapon swapping will surely turn a few people off. Despite this, Protocol builds a unique world that would benefit from further entries diving more into its backstory and is brought to life with incredibly detailed graphics, fantastic sound design, and gorgeous lighting. The Callisto Protocol may not be the survival horror game many had hoped for, but it does successfully carve out its own niche.
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Dec 12, 2022Sadly, it’s tough to feel connected to the characters, but if you’re hungry for an action-filled survival horror experience, The Callisto Protocol has just what you need.
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Dec 11, 2022What was a candidate for game of the year for me, became just another run of the mill horror game. Amazing graphics, sound design and fun combat system can't mask what is inherently a predictable and to be honest, not-so-scary horror game.
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Dec 9, 2022Even if this game is at first glance a Dead Space clone, Callisto Protocol manages to differentiate from its predecessor gracefully. Unfortunately some annoying design choices, repetitiveness and technical difficulties are preventing it from taking the throne of the genre.
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Dec 8, 2022The Callisto Protocol is frustrating as a game because it's so easy to see how it could have been great. There's no single thing that drags down the game, but it's an endless stream of annoyances that are exacerbated by the constant reminders of better titles. The Callisto Protocol can be fun, but it's constantly getting in the way of its own fun. It's possible that patches might smooth out some of the combat issues and improve the game a fair bit. At launch, though, it's more frustrating than fun. There's a lot of potential for a sequel that takes the lessons to heart, but for the moment, you're better off waiting for a sale.
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Dec 7, 2022The Callisto Protocol shines best in its visceral, moment-to-moment combat, which strikes a good balance between feeling tense, and intuitive. What lets it down is a story that feels a little too unfinished and a few design choices that stick out like a sore thumb in this day and age.
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Dec 6, 2022For those who were expecting the next Dead Space, I’m sad to report that The Callisto Protocol just isn’t quite it. Instead, Striking Distance Studios has crafted a largely by-the-numbers horror-action title with terrific presentation that could’ve been something truly special. Unfortunately, while your journey across the titular dead moon is a sporadically fun and entertaining ride, it fails to authentically push the genre forward in any meaningful way. Still, despite all that… at least you get to stomp on stuff, right? Phew!
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Dec 1, 2022Beautiful audiovisuals and heaps of gore almost manage to cover up the lack of innovation in The Callisto Protocol. Everything in this game feels done many, many times before - but nonetheless we're having fun.
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Dec 1, 2022The Callisto Protocol is a satisfyingly gory spiritual successor to the Dead Space series, but it’s ultimately more of a striking modern mimic than a scary new mutation.
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Dec 1, 2022The Callisto Protocol is a consistently good game that, when it's at its best, gives many of the survival horror greats a run for their money. However, there's no getting around the fact the game has very little to truly call its own. In borrowing so heavily from Dead Space, there's always a sense of having been there, done that. With frame rate issues and an unimaginative story with poor characters, The Callisto Protocol is good. But it's not great.
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Dec 1, 2022The Callisto Protocol is an atmospheric graphics phony that can rival Dead Space only in rudiments in terms of gameplay.
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Dec 19, 2022Amazing graphics and talented voice acting isn’t enough to save The Callisto Protocol from the beast that is bad game mechanics. The game is its own worst enemy.
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Dec 13, 2022The Callisto Protocol is a decent spiritual successor to Dead Space that's often too careful. The intense action and visual beauty isn't bad at all. But the lack of originality in both story and gameplay are obvious.
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Dec 7, 2022The Callisto Protocol is a competent survival horror game but a poor man's Dead Space, making it only worth it for those diehard fans of the genre.
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Jan 3, 2023As much as it can come off the rails, there is something gruesomely compelling about The Callisto Protocol that drags you through its dark, blood-soaked corridors. Perhaps it is its lavishly constructed world; finding your way out of the prison onto Callisto’s snow-whipped surface has quite the effect. Perhaps, when it works, it is the primal satisfaction of the combat; a perfectly executed dodge and clobber before lobbing another zombie into a woodchipper with your gravity glove is a grisly but undeniable rush. It is unrefined and often testing, but if those raw ingredients appeal, there is some ghoulish action to savour.
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Dec 31, 2022It’s been hard to hide my disappointment with The Callisto Protocol throughout this review. While the game has the same creative forces behind Dead Space, and many of the features are retconned into the game, it’s not quite lived up to my expectations. The game strikes me as a conglomerate of ideas, like a novel approach to dodging, a similar but different storyline, tough combat borrowed from challenging games like Dark Souls, packed into a beautifully presented game. But here’s the thing: all of these ideas sound great in isolation. But the execution here in The Callisto Protocol makes for an inferior gaming experience compared to other titles.
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Dec 16, 2022If Callisto Protocol was able to get out of its own way (and was less glitchy at launch), it probably would have been an even bigger hit.
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Dec 10, 2022The Callisto Protocol is definitely not an evolution of Dead Space or even a title of equal quality that we wanted it to be. It’s certainly a pleasant experience for horror fans, thanks to the one-note, but satisfying combat, as well as it’s no-frills linear design. Nevertheless, it’s a by the numbers horror title without many (if any) surprises and a crucial lack of variety in enemies and combat/ survival situations.
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Dec 7, 2022The Callisto Protocol prevails at setting the mood and making you feel like you are part of the action, but it comes up short when delivering an experience that keeps your attention longer than the initial jump scare.
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Dec 7, 2022The Callisto Protocol looks stunning and can offer small doses of fun, but from misguided gameplay choices and hyper-linear design to ineffectual attempts at horror and a bland story, it stumbles and disappoints in too many ways to be labelled as anything but a disappointment.
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Dec 5, 2022If you still really want to play The Callisto Protocol it would be wise to wait for any upcoming updates and significant price drop.
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Dec 5, 2022The Callisto Protocol is a good game that falls short in almost every department of being a great one. Predictable story, gratifying-yet clunky combat mechanics and a lack of variety hold back what is an otherwise visual and audible spectacle. Dead Space has cast a long shadow since its release in 2008 and The Callisto Protocol can’t emerge from the depth of its superb darkness.
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Dec 2, 2022The Callisto Protocol is big dumb fun. Sadly, there’s so much middling combat that it blots out all of the great work in characterisation, art and atmosphere. The Callisto Protocol is a love letter to video game and cinematic horror that fails to be more than a scrapbook, a pale imitation of the genre’s best bits.
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Dec 2, 2022A fantastic looking game that builds a great sci-fi world only to trash it with an unenjoyable combat challenge.
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Dec 1, 2022These various problems aside, though, The Callisto Protocol is still doing a lot of what Dead Space did, for better and worse. And to that end, there are moments of fun, even if, in contrast, they’re light on genuine terror. I’m okay with The Callisto Protocol being another version of its spiritual predecessor, but it struggles to nail even the basics. As a result, I’m underwhelmed, annoyed, and disappointed. If you wanted anything more out of this second crack at making a new sci-fi IP in survival horror, or something markedly different that acknowledges just how far gaming has come since 2008, The Callisto Protocol is not your answer.
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Dec 1, 2022The Callisto Protocol delivers the violence, intensity and horror that lives up to its Dead Space predecessor, but with deeper strategic combat. However, a cliché story and lack of original ideas means that it has one tentacle stuck in the past.
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Dec 1, 2022The Callisto Protocol succeeds as a desolate and brutal survival horror experience in its opening hours. But the second half is hindered by massive difficulty spikes and clunky melee combat.
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Dec 1, 2022Dead Space 4 in all but name, except with no puzzles and surprisingly little suspense. The Callisto Protocol has plenty of gritty action but that’s not quite enough to sustain interest for its entire duration.
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Edge MagazineDec 29, 2022The Callisto Protocol's biggest misfire as a story is in failing to establish a similar rapport between player-character and world. Whatever concluding themes the plot may reach for, Lee is ultimately just a tourist here, clubbing and blasting his way through an edifice that only ever exists as an escape route. [Issue#380, p.104]
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Dec 13, 2022The Callisto Protocol is mediocre at best with nothing to brag about as every aspect of the game like story, ending, boss fights, visuals and pretty much everything else is below the standards of 2022.
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Dec 6, 2022One of the best-looking releases of the past few years from a technical and artistic standpoint, so heavily undermined by everything else surrounding it, The Callisto Protocol caps off 2022 with a release devoid in substance and all the more disappointing because of it.
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Dec 6, 2022As good as it looks, though, The Callisto Protocol is bad horror that has nothing meaningful to say and struggles to have a single original moment within it. I know that there are people out there saying that the game was “rushed out” to meet a deadline of “releasing before the Dead Space remake”… and perhaps it was! That might explain the performance issues on other platforms. However, that’s not really the problem with it. What lets this game down is that the core theme is broken to its foundations, and even if it ran perfectly at all times, in a best-case scenario, all polish would have ever done is ensure that it was entertaining enough to play. It was never going to be a horror experience that anyone remembers, even five years from now.
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Dec 1, 2022It's a shame that The Callisto Protocol is so uninteresting at its core. Though it looks gorgeous on the surface, a dozen hours of nothing special can have a clarifying effect. Like a monstrous two-headed enemy banging Jacob's head into the ground until it collapses, the game's tedium forces you to reckon with the fact that there just isn't much once the facade splatters away.
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Dec 1, 2022These problems and others make much of The Callisto Protocol ultimately feel like wasted potential. For what may be one of the most highly detailed sci-fi horror environments ever seen in a game, its rooms and hallways remain an empty - though grisly - backdrop, rarely presenting environmental narrative, anything to interact with, or a compelling pathway through. Killing mutants in the first hour feels identical to killing them in the last, and three difficulty levels only seem to affect mutant health pools. Maybe The Callisto Protocol's upcoming DLC will breathe new life and wonder into its world, but Black Iron Prison remains a far cry from the dynamic decks of the USG Ishimura.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Jan 23, 2023Fighting not only against terrifying creatures, but also against modern gaming trends, The Callisto Protocol is committed to doing fewer things, but doing them very well.[Recommended]
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Dec 1, 2022This breakout horror game stumbles occasionally, but it still stands tall as a thrilling survival-horror experience. Buy it.
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Dec 2, 2022Dead Space comparisons are impossible to avoid - but while The Callisto Protocol's missing some of the depth and tension, it makes up for it with production value and bloody-minded fun. [Eurogamer Recommended]
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Dec 5, 2022The Callisto Protocol was touted as the next Dead Space and it unfortunately suffers for that comparison. With frustrating, awkward combat, an uninteresting plot, and jump scares that fall completely flat, The Callisto Protocol struggles in the shadow of its spiritual predecessor, which did all of those things better 14 years ago. (This is all not to mention the full-screen strobing light effects that cannot be turned off; an accessibility failure that one would not expect of a modern AAA game.) It's a pity that Callisto copied the aesthetic of Dead Space while failing to execute the aspects that made it frightening and fun. [Quick Look]
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Dec 2, 2022I consider The Callisto Protocol one of the most ambitious games I played this year, maybe even the most next to Elden Ring (though I think Elden Ring is in a league of its own—I don’t know if anything will be able to approach its depth and sophistication for a long time). Its thoughtful attention to environment, sound, and touch is what, I think, next-gen gaming should be like: an experiment with the senses and with story. The game has its issues, too, which can’t be ignored. But at least it feels human.
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Dec 3, 2022The Callisto Protocol is a sublime horror experience in atmosphere and immersion, offering a worthy challenge when it comes to single-enemy combat or against a mini-boss. The problem appears when the hordes arrive: when fighting many enemies, the rough combat mechanics are very noticeable. And being such a combat-centric survival horror, these shortcomings keep it from being one of the best of the year. [Review in Progress]
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Dec 1, 2022With The Callisto Protocol, Striking Distance proves it can capably create nerve-wracking moments of tension and horror with a well-crafted combination of sights, sounds, and atmosphere. The studio was smart not to create a one-to-one copy of Dead Space — especially with original publisher Electronic Arts now returning to the franchise with a remake due next month. But still: The Callisto Protocol could have borrowed a few more lessons from its spiritual inspiration, and further refined its mechanics to make a game that plays as good as it looks.
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Dec 1, 2022These little irritations are all over the place in The Callisto Protocol, steadily eroding what little fun there is at every turn. There’s the long wait time between checkpoints—because nothing screams “Spooky!” like repeating a five-minute section of gameplay for the fourth or fifth time, teeth grinding as you realize just how boring walking down these endless corridors can be. There’s the awkward weapon-switching mechanics, which make fumbling a different gun out of your inventory an exercise in annoyance. And there’s the endless low-grade frustration of thinking you’re properly dodging a hit, only to have a third of your health sliced off because of unclear signaling. It all adds together to make something that’s less than the sum of its parts—and significantly less than the sum of all the games whose legacy it ill-advisedly invokes. Have no doubt: The Callisto Protocol will get your blood pressure up. Just not in the way that Schofield and his team clearly intended.
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Dec 1, 2022We can confidently say Dead Space fans will delight in its bloody mutant-shredding carnage, Striking Distance Studio using the classic 2008 horror as a template while inventing new and interesting gameplay ideas of its own.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 615 out of 1069
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Mixed: 212 out of 1069
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Negative: 242 out of 1069
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Dec 3, 2022The story, the combat, the visuals, the sound design, everything is peak cinema
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Dec 3, 2022
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Dec 3, 2022Very poor mechanics. Graphics very good but it is not enough. Highly unstable gameplay on ps5.