The Callisto Protocol (2022) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

The Callisto Protocol is a spiritual successor to the legendary Dead Space, it was directed by the co-creator of that series, Glen Schofield. I had heard that the game, with a reliance on close quarters combat, could be frustrating to play, and that the location of a prison was uninspired. For me though, it was the utterly forgettable and generic story that really dragged this down.

Set in 2320, Jacob Lee (voiced by Josh Duhamel), and his partner are cargo pilots who have recently dropped off a shipment of supplies at the Black Iron Prison on the moon of Callisto. Soon after taking off they come under attack by a terrorist organisation, 'The Outer Way', a group held responsible for a recent biological attack on Europa. In the process of trying to protect his ship from the invading group, Jacob inadvertently causes it to crash back onto Callisto, with him and the terrorist leader, Dani Nakamura (Karen Fukuhara - The Boys TV series) the only survivors. Rescued by Black Iron's head of security, Captain Leon Ferris (Sam Witwer - The Mist), Jacob thinks he is saved, but is shocked to discover that the warden of Black Iron, Duncan Cole (James Mathis III - Dead Space remake voicework) has decided to imprison him along with Dani. At some point later, Jacob awakens in his cell, where he quickly discovers some type of horrific outbreak has occurred which has transformed many of the prisoners and guards of Black Iron into grotesque zombie-like mutants. Escaping from his cell, Jacob sets out to find a way to get off of Callisto.

First things first, I think The Callisto Protocol may be one of the best looking games I have had the pleasure to play. Finally, after many years, this was a game that looked like it was actually designed for current consoles. Use of light and shadow, and the incidental detail is strong. The enemy designs are disgusting looking, while the visceral combat was a joy to witness, with some really brutal looking finishers. The main location is the prison facility, and while hardly groundbreaking in terms of its design, it looked fantastic. There are a few different areas the game goes to, mainly industrial environments, but includes some levels set out in the snow (giving me Dead Space 3 vibes), and a great section set below ground where the abandoned first Callisto settlement was located. The great graphics do come at a cost, as much of the environment isn't destructible, the only places where supplies can be found are either in lockers, or neon blue glowing chests which are few and far between.

My biggest issue with the game was the bizarrely forgettable story. It is such a generic plot, so completely devoid of any surprises that I legitimately had to consult a Wikipedia plot guide each time I sat down to play this. I was just unable whatsoever to recall what on earth was happening with the game. It doesn't help that your objectives are never much more than to travel from A to B constantly. The game sets up twists and turns, yet it was all extremely obvious where this was going. There is no attempt to hide the warden being the antagonist, it was obvious that Dani wasn't the bad guy she was initially made out to be, while it was also super obvious that Jacob wasn't as innocent as he was trying to make himself out to be. Then it does the annoying thing that Dead Space 3 did, having the proper ending of the game locked away behind DLC.
Maybe the story could have been saved with some world building, but here, even the audio diaries you find dotted around the game are minimal and dull, usually amounting to a couple of unexciting lines of dialogue that failed entirely to make themselves sound interesting.

At least the gameplay was fun, the decision to make 80% of the combat in the game reliant on melee attacks was an inspired choice, it leads to some violent scenes where you are getting covered in blood from the ever mutating creatures. Starting off as zombie like creatures, the enemies design evolves over the course of the game, so by the end, enemies are changing one or two times during a typical fight. Boss fights are less exciting, usually requiring you to wear the boss down using your guns before going in for the melee kill. The guns include pistol, submachine guns, shotguns and a magnum, but the sci-fi look made it pretty hard to tell which gun was which, while the way you change guns is very cumbersome, requiring you to mess around in a subscreen in real time where your attempts to change the weapons can be interrupted. You also have the ability to levitate enemies and fling them against walls, fine enough, but I found the metre that governed your power to do this was extremely hard to see, so I was never able to figure out if I had power to do the ability or not. Blocking was another mystery to me, apparently you are meant to hold down on the d-pad to block, but I was never able to figure this out.
The difficulty definitely increases over the course of the game, enough that there were many sections towards the end that took me multiple attempts to beat. Rather than frustrating, this actually felt a little old school, like how games used to be, so I appreciated the gradual difficulty increase. 

The Callisto Protocol is a beautifully ugly survival horror game, one that had some really fun combat to it. I however am someone who really enjoys story in video games, I found this bland as they come sci-fi horror attempt to really pull me out of what was happening, the boring unoriginal plot really made this game not as good as it could have been, and that is a shame. With a DLC chapter to wrap up the game proper, and a 'Riot' roguelike mode also added, there will be more for this game to follow in the coming weeks and months.  

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