Rauwdauwer Jacob is an intergalactic transport pilot. When he crash lands on the former colony (and Jupiter’s moon) Callisto, a nightmare begins for him. He is captured and imprisoned in the infamous “Black Iron Prison”. Without the ability to tell his story, Jacob slowly loses hope, until misery sets in. Strange mutations among the other inmates and staff turn the prison into hell in one fell swoop. This story that The Callisto Protocol scoops is thinner than a sheet of cheap toilet paper, but it’s still a stepping stone to one of the coolest, but certainly not the most original, next-generation horror games. A game that feels a bit like a cross between Bioshock, Resident Evil and Die Hard (in space), with a whole take Dead space.
Jacob has to escape fighting through the dungeon. The mutants, which consist of both the guards and his fellow inmates, are all creepy, slimy, and deadly. They will also regularly surprise you by appearing out of nowhere. Now we’re not swooned by good ‘jumpscare’ but the game has a tendency to place a ditto scare mutant behind every door, corner and grate. This is especially creepy at first. So there came a point where when we looked around a corner and nothing appeared, we thought for a moment that it was a insect used to be. This makes the game feel a bit bland without getting really scary. However, producers sometimes manage to create truly scary moments.
The game does this by focusing on “survival horror” mids, with dark, dimly lit corridors filled with smoke and fog. These moments are where the game is at its best. Phenomenal ray-traced visuals create a world that feels realistic at times. You can almost taste the sweat on Jacob’s neck. The only sticking point are the mediocre fire effects that appear to move at a lower frame rate. Frame rate is also a sensitive issue in general. While recent updates have already made the frame rate more stable, there is still work to be done.
The voice cast, led by Josh Duhamel (Transformers) he is in absolute top form. Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad, The Boys) en James Mathis III (God Of War: Ragnarök, The Last of Us: Part II) he forms quite a change from Jacob, who is slowly becoming stoic. It’s a shame that some of the story is told through audio logs. This needn’t be a problem, but where they can be heard in most games as you play, they force The Callisto Protocol to stay in the audiolog menu. It’s a weird move that really takes the momentum out of the game.
Other than that, the game runs great. It was a masterstroke to place the health bar in Jacob’s neck, indicating on a display on the weapons how much ammo Jacob still has, the game does just fine without a HUD. The fact that an arrow is painted here and there on the wall to indicate the path, we take it for granted. Our biggest surprise came from the combat. Because you haven’t suffered a firearm, you’re mostly addicted to melee at first. In addition to the truncheon and firearms, there is also the “GRP”, a glove with which you can lift and throw certain objects and husks. The amount of spinning fans, pins on the wall and spinning gears to hurl mutants at even reminded us a bit of the classic Wii Mad World. These weapons aren’t really overpowered, so in some sections you really have to rely on your creativity to survive. There are also 3D printers plenty of opportunities to upgrade your weapons and craft new ones, provided you have enough Callisto credits on hand.
We thought The Callisto Protocol a very nice game. A delicate point is that the comparison with Dead space it cannot be avoided. It would have been a credit to the producers to have been a little more original, especially with the release of the makeover of Dead space end of next month. We also ran into play time, at six or seven hours this is a fairly short game. An expansion is now planned, but it still seemed like the producers could get more out of this setup. We played this horror game on PlayStation 5. After tweaking the picture settings, we ended up with a game that ran in beautiful 4K and 60fps. Haptic feedback, triggers and 3D audio provide a next generation experience that takes gaming to a new level.
The Callisto protocol is available for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
