The Callisto Protocol Review: Half-baked Ideas; Blended Into Something Vaguely Coherent

The stage was set: Glen Schofield, a visionary game developer, made his long-awaited return to a genre he had unfinished business with. And considering his widely celebrated role behind Dead Space, expectations were set: The Callisto Protocol was meant to be a triumphant return for the veteran developer, and his newly constructed team at Striking Distance Studios.

It was supposed to be a supplement to his Sci-Fi horror magnum opus, an opportunity to build on that great work. However, The Callisto Protocol doesn’t quite stick the landing because of a convoluted combat system, poor plot pacing, and tedious jump scares.

Clunky Combat; Bizzare Dodging

The combat in The Callisto Protocol is bizarre and frustrating. Because ammunition is sparse in the first half of the game, you’re strongly encouraged to thump Biophages (the Necromorphs of the game) with your melee weapon, repeatedly, until they die. But, unfortunately, hand-to-hand combat is by far the weakest aspect of the game.

Enemies often counter your attacks as you swing for them. To combat this, you’re supposed to flick your analog stick in the opposing direction to avoid attacks and to keep changing the direction you flick as they whale on you. Because of how imprecise and unintuitive these inputs are, combat feels incredibly unfair and random, given that failing to appropriately block, dodge or counter usually results in you dying after just a few hits on the normal difficulty.

All this is a terrible shame for a game where smashing and shooting six-foot globs of alien gloop is one of the central features of the whole experience. I’m baffled as to why dodging wasn’t mapped to a single button, like in Gears of War, Assassins Creed, Dark Souls, and every other game that exists.

But the real issue is when you’re pitted against more than one baddie. On the medium security difficulty, which I played through for this review, typical enemies take somewhere between eight-ten wallops to finish off. This is manageable when you’re fighting solo, but as the game progresses, you increasingly have to fight multiple enemies at once, which feels dreadfully unfair, given all of them don’t seem to mind being twatted across the head at all, but can waste you in around four-five hits.

Class-leading Graphics

Powered by Unreal Engine 5, The Callisto Protocol is a real looker. And I mean, a REALLY good-looking game. When prioritising visuals, The Callisto Protocol locks at 30fps on the PS5, and the lead character Jacob Lee, played by Josh Duhamel (who also lent his likeness), is rendered in excruciating detail. 

The few wrinkles the devilishly handsome Duhamel has IRL are replicated in his video game likeness with uncanny detail. His skin contracts and contorts as he talks in cut scenes, just like he would in real life, and as Jacob repeatedly puts his baton through an enemy’s head, beads of sweat ooze out of his pores, and drip across his chiseled face.

Environmental design is impressive too. Black Iron prison, overrun by Biophage matter, has that striking look and feel of the protomolecule from TV’s The Expanse as it infected and transformed every part of Eros. In some areas, it slathers every conceivable surface, often overtaking and transforming entire structures and incubating all sorts of nasties.

One thing I really liked was the few moments during my playthrough, where I felt the team really made great use of fog. There’s a potion of the game where you’ve gotta navigate the prison’s biodome. 

After taking a few steps in, you’re hit by an enormous wall of sight-restricting stuff, and as you traverse it, all sorts of horrible fucking nasties, are making dreadful, spine-chilling sounds and are making their way toward you. I couldn’t really see where they were coming from, so it really felt like a back-to-the-wall-pump-action-shotgun moment as untold terrors emerged from the haze.

Despite Its Best Efforts, The Callisto Protocol Isn’t Scary

The Callisto Protocol tries its very best to scare you with the many tricks it has up its sleeves. Take audio design: the team at Striking Distance Studios really went to town in sourcing and producing spine-chilling audio. As you navigate the prison, you can hear the distant screams and groans of inmates no doubt being torn apart by oversized Biophages, and it’s a similar story when you enter a duct, you can hear the fleshy, pulpy, blood-curdling sound as enemies make stumble their away across blood-soaked floors. 

All in all, the game audio is brilliant. It’s well thought out, and well-designed, and when it’s deployed, it’s always to layer tension.

But other tricks don’t go down as well. While the audio creates a brilliant, immersive atmosphere, cheap jump scares happen far too frequently, and frankly, they just aren’t scary, and are far too predictable. 

For instance, in the early game, you can’t move 50ft without being pinned by a Bloodworm that appears out of nowhere. It’s the same with parasitic worms leaping out of chests randomly in the late game, and it’s the same with Biophages popping out of vents left, right, and centre.

The crux of the matter is unlike its contemporaries, The Callisto Protocol fails to ratchet tension and, instead, throws a fusillade of jumpscares at you, cheapening the whole experience.

Plot Pacing Spruns Potential

It’s a dreadful shame that in the 12 hours or so The Callisto Protocol lasts, the plot is doled out the way it is. And that’s because, in the final two hours, things finally start to get interesting after a 10-hour slog through vapid dialogue and character development.

The conspiracy that’s been hinted at throughout the game is finally revealed, and it makes for some interesting set pieces and discussion points. But just as the good bits are getting started, the game abruptly ends, and you’re thrown into the post-game credits screen.

And after the credits, I was left thinking about what The Callisto Protocol could have been, instead of enjoying what I’d experienced. Take character development: lead character Jacob was snatched from his life as a cargo hauler, imprisoned, fought his way through a bunch of extra-terrestrial beings, and watched a few pals die, all without batting an eyelid.

And I think for a game in 2022, that’s got access to Hollywood talent, incredible motion capture, incredible visuals, audio, and the rest of it, to have a sub-par narrative, isn’t great. It’s disappointing. The Callisto Protocol, and you, deserve better.

Despite Disappointment, It’s Still Worth Playing

It’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. It’s almost like all the devs got into one room and pitched a bunch of ideas, smushed them together, without anyone really thinking about their practical application.

Is The Callisto Protocol a bad game? No, it isn’t. But is it great? No, it isn’t. Is it worth playing? Yes. But not at this price point.

Final Verdict: 3/5

Available On: PS5 (reviewed); Xbox Series S/X, PC; Publisher Krafton; Developer: Striking Distance Studios; Released: 2nd December, 2022; Players: 1; ESRB: T for Teen; MSRP: $59.99

Full disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher.