Character models and environments are stunningly realised – the linearity of the game likely helps here, allowing Striking Distance to polish precisely what they want players to see – and it makes fantastic use of hardware features on PS5 (version tested) to push out comms chatter to the DualSense controller's speaker for a more immersive experience. Even more effectively, sometimes a fright will be lampshaded then _not happen, leaving you on edge for entire sections of the game.įor the studio's first game, The Callisto Protocol is also of phenomenally high quality. Flickering lighting and audio tricks, along with a brilliantly nerve-shredding score, play on the mind to magnificent effect, so even when you know_something is about to leap out at you, it's still shriek-inducing when it happens. The Callisto Protocol is from the jump scares school of terror, but it's a paragon of the form, mastering the art of building the tension leading up to them. Plus, as a horror game, it's genuinely scary. The Callisto Protocol never has you feeling like an unstoppable tank, and the infected inmates of Black Iron are always a threat, but progression is rewarded with enough of a boost to abilities that you feel like you stand a decent chance of surviving. Weapons like the stun baton, which keep the emphasis on melee encounters but add a bit of oomph to Jacob's strikes, are joined by a solid arsenal of firearms and – inevitably, given the game's roots – telekinetic powers that allow you to fling enemies around (most usefully, into live machinery). There's a better power creep through the game than Dead Space, too. He's a bit clunkier to control than we'd like, not helped by the (again, Dead Space-like) over-the-shoulder camera view that has him always feeling like he's moving at a slight diagonal. Jacob also feels less immediately vulnerable than his spiritual predecessor, Isaac Clarke – while even a single malformed infectee can take him down if you're not careful, treating the player to one of several distressingly gory death scenes, his blows with initial weapon the giant wrench feel satisfyingly meaty as they land. For one, the combat is more melee focused, with a simple yet effective mix of dodges and blocks using the L stick that force players to learn to read enemy attack animations. However, if you're going to imitate, there are worse games to crib notes from than Dead Space, and The Callisto Protocol does throw in some tweaks to the formula. Perhaps it's no surprise, given that director Glen Schofield co-created both games, but the similarities are so over-abundant that it often feels like a horror twist on the gag in Austin Powers In Goldmember, where a rampaging kaiju is pointed out to be very close to, but legally distinct from, Godzilla. It's also the linear progression, that rarely rewards players for exploring beyond the path developer Striking Distance Studios has laid out. It's the whole design sensibility, with Jacob's health permanently displayed on a gauge on the back of his neck, or simple holographic HUDs floating in easy player view. It's not just the familiar mechanics, with the signature ability to target specific enemy appendages once you lay your hands on projectile weaponry, or needing to stomp the last vestiges of un-life out of monsters once they're down to ensure they don't get back up (and squish the odd item out of their remains, to boot). Yet while Lee's jailbreak is the main thrust of the plot – with diversions into uncovering what's gone wrong at Black Iron, and a wider narrative involving a 'terrorist' group called the Outer Way and its leader Dani Nakamura – The Callisto Protocol never quite escapes its own Dead Space trappings.
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