Released on December 2, “The Callisto Protocol” is intended to be a return to basics for the man who marked Survival Horror with a white stone 14 years ago, by creating the terrifying “Dead Space”. For what result?
Released 14 years ago – in other words an eternity or almost in the digital age -, dead spaceSurvival Horror Sci-Fi developed by the Visceral Games studio and largely influenced by works like Alien and The Thing, has become over the years a true classic of the genre.
Glen Schofield, who was the CEO of the Visceral Games studio and creator of this formidable horror franchise (adored by the way by a certain John Carpenter), left to co-found the Sledghammer studio by working on the license call of dutyhas for a while left his functions within this entity entirely devoted to the billionaire martingale of Activision.
Going back to a studio dubbed Striking Distance Studios, it revealed in December 2020 what is the studio’s first game. A horror game, then, by the name of The Callisto Protocol. History to carry out the project, he also took in his luggage some veterans of the industry.
Striking Distance Studios
Chris Stone for example, creative director on the game. He was the animation director of the original team who created dead space, from Visceral Games. He had also worked as animation and performance capture director on three iconic games in the Call of Duty franchise and, most recently, as senior animation director on Days Gone; a title released in 2019, of which we tell you here the good that we think of it despite certain obvious reservations.
At the helm of character creation Callisto Protocol figure Glauco Longhi, notably spent at Santa Monica Studio where he worked as a Concept Artist on the franchise god of waras well as at Naughty Dog where he worked on Uncharted 4.
Very solid pedigrees. And if this is obviously not enough to guarantee a (very) good game, Schofield at least had the merit of wanting to surround himself with big names in their respective fields, with the clear hope of striking again a great blow in a genre that made its glory and that of a studio unfortunately liquidated by Electronic Arts.
Released on December 2, the game unfolds its plot on Callisto, the dead moon of Jupiter, in the year 2320. A trafficker, named Jacob Lee, finds himself trapped in a maximum security prison, answering to the sweet name of Dark Iron. Soon after his arrival, the prison is thrown into utter chaos, when the inmates and prison staff begin to transform into terrifying creatures…
Throughout a good ten hours of play, The Callisto Protocol unfolds a plot which, if it can be followed with pleasure, unfortunately remains on a path already largely marked out, not to say warmed up and very (too) familiar… It starts off quite strong, however, with a striking immersion within this prison hell rapidly turning into an apocalypse.
As long as we talk about immersion, we must give thanks to the care given to detail in the environments, each more anxiety-provoking than the other, and by the fantastic quality of the modeling of the two headliners of the game and their animations: Josh Duhamel, who plays Jacob Lee, whose path crosses that of Karen Fukuhara, who plays the formidable and deadly and silent Kumiko in the series The Boys. A very good point then.
A tough challenge
The Callisto Protocol is a difficult game. Even at the intermediate level, of the three difficulty levels offered, the title offers a fairly tough challenge.
You will use a lot of melee attacks, strong or fast, as well as dodging, right or left, as well as a parry, to avoid the devastating blows that the enemies will give you. And even the weakest of them will hurt you very badly if you fail to master this principle of survival well. Especially since you will most certainly – even frequently – strike in the void by misjudging the distance of your melee strike against creatures. Jacob’s animations are realistic, but slow, he’s not a superman.
Delivering strong blows require energy, and by the time the character returns to its initial position, you will have plenty of time to get punished. Punishment which can also be even more brutal if you face several enemies, which does not fail to happen in the game. It is therefore better to try to isolate them to face them one by one.
Striking Distance Studios
Of course, you have an arsenal of firearms that can be improved, including the melee weapon – an electric baton – which will accompany you until the end. But these improvements obviously come at an increasingly exorbitant cost. It will not be possible for you to boost them all to the maximum, forcing you to make choices.
You will also be equipped with a kind of magnetic glove, which can also be improved, which allows you to repel or attract enemies, throw them against a huge fan or electric wall bristling with spikes, grab gas canisters (a classic in games of horror decidedly…) to balance them on the creatures, etc…
Mastery of melee combat, dodging, and the use of this magnetic gauntlet is the key to survival in the game. And this arsenal will not be luxury; as some enemies give the impression of being indestructible HP bags. Especially when tentacles sprout from their tortured bodies, mutating them into more fearsome creatures.
Striking Distance Studios
This is even more evident during clashes with the inevitable bosses in the game, which can kill you in one go… Scattered at pivotal places in the game, we regret their very low variety.
Spiritual continuation of dead spaceeven taking up gameplay ideas like dismembering enemies on the ground to make sure they don’t get back up, The Callisto Protocol suffers from a general lack of audacity, whether at the level of the story, the conclusion of which calls for an inevitable DLC to come; weapons or enemies; sometimes combined with questionable gameplay choices, such as the very tense slowness with which the character switches weapons and can be used.
Despite the above reservations, The Callisto Protocol has for him real arguments to put forward, between its beautiful graphic touch, its oppressive atmosphere at will, a rhythm and a raised challenge which does not give the impression of rolling over the enemies. If it is not the (new) masterpiece of the genre signed by Glen Schofield, it remains more than recommendable.