The Callisto Protocol Review – Cold Depths of Hell

Dropped into a foreign world, get out alive as the grotesque beings try to kill you whilst chasing down a lady that sent you into this place. Stop me if you have heard this record before. 

There’s no doubt that The Callisto Protocol is retracing some steps from its spiritual successor in some aspect, in which it excels brilliantly, but there are some foibles that may have doomed this title from being more than an average AAA Horror experience. 

So let’s head down this elevator of darkness. 

Presentation

One thing that the developers have nailed from the get-go is the atmosphere. It just oozes with the meaty textures of whatever creatures that are chasing your player character and its oppressive architecture that helps make this game sell its no hopes for survival aspect.

The same can be said with the sound design, which will make you feel tense and uncomfortable as you stumble around the prison looking for a way out. Even the remaining “human” objects like a vending machine will give you a good fright, with how tense it can be.

And I do like how the two main casts, Josh Duhamel (of Transformer fame) and Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko from Amazon’s The Boys) actually gave a pretty good performance for this level of horror game, reacting genuinely to all the stuff and death animations that rival the likes of the equally gory successor. 

The UI design might be familiar to fans of Dead Space, with how it’s placed behind our protagonist, which looks pretty cool within the presentation side but gameplay-wise is quite flawed. This now brings us there to that station.

Gameplay

Speaking of that, the UI looks nice but it is super counterintuitive to how the inventory design works. It feels dated and clunky to use, with the design choice of shifting audio logs into the menus instead of autoplaying it like many of its peers is rather poor.  

The game also feels rather dated in design, filled with some interesting QTEs for enemy encounters and even door openings as well. Its combat is also rather sluggish since our main man is a space trucker but the shooting feels draggy during the start and even during the end when you can dual-wield the weapons and have more in your arsenals. 

It does feel dated in nature, with how they telegraph an upcoming battle arena and the enemy placement being both very predictable, but yet will one-shot you if you mess up, which sometimes feels rather harsh when the arena isn’t telegraph parts that you could die in, which will lead with a frustrating restart of the checkpoint. 

And while the upgrades are earned via killing enemies, it feels too sparse for upgrades, which makes the gameplay experience quite dull than it should be. A shame that something like perhaps spicing up stuff (like making alternate fire something available early) would have made it more enjoyable.

Content

The Callisto Protocol will get players a pretty good average of 10 hours per playthrough, but if you’re a scaredy cat like I am, it might feel longer than 10 hours whilst you explore/survive the elements, maybe even 20 hours if you’re being more careful. 

It’s a short and no-filler type of game that makes it quite interesting if you haven’t played the likes of Dead Space beforehand because it does feel like a retread, only it’s all gas and no brakes on this one.

Is it replayable? Probably if you don’t mind replaying the slow burn of a start before gradually the chaos comes in as you explore more of the prison. But if you’re like me, maybe one run is enough to see all of them.

Personal Enjoyment 

Horror games, in my opinion, are a broad genre nowadays. From indie romps like The Forest to a more focused venture, you know Silent Hill and such, but I can’t seem to put Callisto into any category due to how it’s not really as focused as its predecessor, nor it’s an indie due to it’s backing with Krafton but the game’s in a wavy middle ground that makes it lack any identity, for me at least.

I left the game feeling rather frustrated knowing how much potential this title had. The ideas and atmosphere were there but it felt as though the rest of the game had been left behind from that other series’ final outing in 2013 and played it far too safe whilst also having way too hard of difficulty on Normal for its own good in 2022.

And it’s a shame really, I wanted to love Callisto but it doesn’t love me back.

Verdict

The Callisto Protocol is a disappointing game. Its dated gameplay hampers the already immersive atmosphere, so perhaps if they play their cards right, this series could see a sequel that perhaps make it more standout than this outing.

I would wait for a sale or inclusion to any subscription service before you can give this one a try. 

Played on Xbox Series S, Review code provided by the publisher.

The Callisto Protocol

A disappointing game due to it’s dated gameplay and hampers it’s already immersive atmosphere.

• Presentation 7

• Gameplay 6

• Content 6

• Personal Enjoyment 5