The Callisto Protocol

Fans of the original Dead Space may find The Callisto Protocol lacking in comparison. The story is inferior, combat isn’t quite on the money and the enemy variation is lacking. That said, there is still a good sci-fi survival horror game hiding within.

The Callisto Protocol has the qualities to have been a great survival horror, but we found too many execution problems that end up dragging down the experience.

As a great fan of horror games, who sees one of the best moments in Dead Space, I do not hide that I ended my experience with The Callisto Protocol with a bad taste in my mouth. I found myself faced with a graphically remarkable game, with an honest albeit banal story and with a gameplay that works until you are confronted with the basic mechanics. On all of this, however, some conceptual and game-design problems have arisen. From an unrefined and substantially outdated user experience, to a disastrous Italian audio track, passing through the lack of a terrifying element, the cornerstone promise of The Callisto Protocol. In my memory will remain a game that I played from start to the end without serious technical or structural problems, but which will probably soon fade in my memory because it lacks a strong personality, a desire to stand out and the fundamental element for its genre: adrenaline.

The Callisto Protocol plays it safe. It sustains its playable base on the pillars that made Dead Space an icon of space terror and that is fantastic news for fans of Visceral Games' work. Perhaps some imagination, innovation or narrative unpredictability is missing, but the new work from Glen Schofield is exactly what Dead Space fans could expect. Its raw and violent gameplay is addictive and the beauty of its settings is astonishing. Unfortunately, the title is weighed down by a very poor technical section that fails in performance, in sound and even in such a basic aspect as the correct placement of checkpoints. Despite everything, space terror fans and especially Dead Space fans will find exactly what they came looking for. And that's okay.

Despite some cumbersome combat systems and performance issues, The Callisto Protocol successfully builds on Dead Space's legacy.

Considering its short length and current lack of replay value, it is somewhat difficult to recommend The Callisto Protocol at full price, but it is a must-buy when the price comes down a bit. The Callisto Protocol is an excellent game let down by some hugely important missing features, but hopefully future updates will help it live up to its full potential as a worthy successor to the Dead Space franchise.

Visually, The Callisto Protocol is one of the only games for the PS5 and Xbox Series X that feels like a next-generation game. But that ambition has clearly come at a cost. For all its bells and whistles, The Callisto Protocol isn't doing much of anything new with its story or design. It's not just a Dead Space imitator, but it does manage to take a lot of the ideas from earlier action horror games and execute them half as well. Alongside myriad factors and the fact that New Game Plus and Hardcore modes — staple features of the genre — aren't coming until next year is evidence that The Callisto Protocol should have been given more time to have a smoother, fully-featured launch.

The Callisto Protocol is my biggest disappointment this year. While it nails the aesthetic and is one of the most beautiful games I’ve played this year, it misses the mark in almost every other department. I think it can be refined to at least be more fun, but in its current state, the story and gameplay weigh down this new entry to the survival horror genre from the potential it so obviously has.

It's a shame that, despite looking great and having a good concept at its core, some poorly-executed ideas lead to a frustrating experience overall. For a new studio to produce a brand new IP is obviously a mammoth task and commendable, so here’s hoping the team get another chance to get a grip on this universe and tighten up the experience.

The Callisto Protocol feels like a throwback title, for better and worse. While the Dead Space comparisons are unavoidable, director Glen Schofield’s return to survival horror does bring with it several new concepts, but many, like the melee combat system, suffer from poor execution. Still, if you’re looking for a fun, B-movie disaster story with some famous Hollywood faces and a more straightforward, linear single-player experience, you could do worse—at least until the Dead Space remake launches next year.

The Callisto Protocol really is a game of two halves. Striking Distance Studios has served up a slice of sci-fi/horror that gets off to a reasonably strong start, introducing a jaw-dropping world and punchy new combat system that impresses until it becomes strained by busy enemy encounters, a handful of miserable boss confrontations and a narrative that goes absolutely nowhere. As much as this one dazzles from a graphical perspective, overall it's a shadow of the game that it most closely seeks to emulate. With little in the way of replayability and a final act we genuinely never want to sit through again, we'll be returning to the USG Ishimura for our action horror kicks long before we set down on Callisto again.

This isn’t to say there isn’t a good game oozing within the sticky flesh of this Frankenstein, though; it just feels like it’s not what Striking Distance wanted it to be. It’s not the next step in horror gaming, the evolution of Dead Space, or a proposition unlike anything you’ve seen before – it’s the opposite. An amalgam, less than the sum of its parts, whose main focus becomes overwrought and frustrating by the time you’re halfway through its short run-time. The scariest thing about The Callisto Protocol, sadly, is all the potential that’s been wasted on a small moon in Jupiter’s orbit.

The Callisto Protocol isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't do much to verify why survival-horror fans wanted these types of games back in the first place. With a bit more depth to its various systems and mechanics, The Callisto Protocol could have been far more enjoyable from start to finish. Instead, my main takeaway from Callisto has simply been that I'm now that much more excited to play a number of other survival-horror games that are set to release in 2023.

There’s a solid game at the heart of Black Iron Prison, but every opportunity the game gets to subvert expectations or do something new is instead a moment of deferral to one of Callisto’s many inspirations. It’s nice to see Callisto try to be a new brew, synthesised from many parts, but an entirely new vision would have stuck around in the bloodstream a little longer.

The Callisto Protocol is a gorgeous mess. I cannot recommend it at the full launch price. The combat is miserable, and the story is simply not interesting. If you are a massive fan of survival horror it lets you down by not being scary either, instead relying on jump scares the entire time. It is highly competent technically though, and I hope the team at Striking Distance gets more time for their next title, which very well could be a sequel to this one.