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The Callisto Protocol: An Hour Played – Really Scarier Than Dead Space?

2022-10-26T15:08:53.285Z


The Callisto Protocol: An Hour Played – Really Scarier Than Dead Space? Created: 10/26/2022, 5:00 p.m By: Joost Rademacher In an exclusive event, ingame.de was allowed to play The Callisto Protocol for the first time. Can Glen Schofield and Striking Distance build on previous successes? Hamburg – A few months before its release, it is clear that The Callisto Protocol has big shoes to fill. The


The Callisto Protocol: An Hour Played – Really Scarier Than Dead Space?

Created: 10/26/2022, 5:00 p.m

By: Joost Rademacher

In an exclusive event, ingame.de was allowed to play The Callisto Protocol for the first time.

Can Glen Schofield and Striking Distance build on previous successes?

Hamburg – A few months before its release, it is clear that The Callisto Protocol has big shoes to fill.

The first project of the newly founded Striking Distance Studios doesn't shy away from comparisons with Dead Space, director Glen Schofield actually seems to be very attached to his earlier sci-fi horror work.

At an exclusive preview event, ingame.de was allowed to play The Callisto Protocol for an hour and reveals whether the horror game can step out of the monstrous shadow of its spiritual predecessor.

name of the game

The Callisto Protocol

release

December 2, 2022

Publishers

Krafton

developer

Striking Distance Studios

platform

PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

genre

Sci-Fi Horror

The Callisto Protocol: An hour in Black Iron Prison, with new monsters and new tricks

How The Callisto Protocol Plays:

The preview session started in a rather early chapter of The Callisto Protocol.

At this point in the story, main character Jacob Lee is already armed with some weapons, but he's still largely a defenseless prison inmate who barely knows what's going on himself.

So you could get a good taste of prison air and let yourself be attacked by a few "biophages".

Especially in the fight it is noticeable what The Callisto Protocol's big goal is: to take the strengths of Dead Space and modernize them for the year 2022.

The Callisto Protocol: First Hour Played – Really Scarier Than Dead Space?

© Striking Distance Studios

The Callisto Protocol again offers a wide arsenal with which players can ensure their survival against the Biophage.

Again there are guns, stasis and kinesis, but Striking Distance also uses a little melee combat.

You often have to dodge or block enemy attacks, a perfect block opens up the opportunity for a particularly powerful and well-placed shot from the weapon.

That sounds very action-packed on paper, but it also does a good job of keeping up the panicked terror of the fights.

This is also due to the fact that the opponents are extremely bloodthirsty and brutal.

The Callisto Protocol: Surviving infected monsters is no picnic

This is how badass the game gets:

In The Callisto Protocol, players will often bite the dust.

Black Iron Prison's infected staff is absolutely merciless and will punish every missed shot, every failed dodge in the most brutal manner.

Worse still, the biophage is extremely resistant and can additionally mutate opponents.

So where and when you shoot your balls, which are rare anyway, needs to be well thought out.

There were enough deaths in the hour-long gameplay that it became almost worth counting.

Just surviving is a challenge in The Callisto Protocol, and that's generally a good thing.

This keeps you respecting the monsters instead of turning them into shooting gallery characters.

This also helps the game's overall horror factor.

The Callisto Protocol: Guns aren't the only tool in Jacob Lee's repertoire © Striking Distance Studios

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That's how creepy The Callisto Protocol gets:

Judging by the first hour of play, Striking Distance Studios seems to be pursuing a very specific type of horror.

There were few real jump scares, but there was a great deal of tension and panic in The Callisto Protocol.

The game doesn't intend to startle you suddenly, but rather to sit on the player's neck with the constant expectation of bad things to happen and make them panic when faced with a mutated monster with the last clip in the pistol.

Anyone who has played Dead Space will feel morbidly "at home" with it, even if The Callisto Protocol could get a little more creative and unpredictable with the placement of its shock moments.

A large part of the horror does not only come from the nasty monsters and brutal fights, the sound design and the extremely detailed graphics and level design also make a significant contribution and above all create one thing: a really dense, unsettling atmosphere.

The Callisto Protocol: On the right track, but with some hiccups

This has to get even better:

The Callisto Protocol still has some bumps to iron out before the release of everything that already works well.

In the preview version, the cutscenes still stuttered, the whole game still ran at a fixed 30 FPS and there were more than just a handful of physics bugs.

The Callisto Protocol regularly sends its players to terrible places © Striking Distance Studios

The first two problems should be ironed out with the promised performance mode with 60 FPS.

In the gameplay, however, it is to be hoped that Striking Distance Studios will at least turn the difficulty a bit so that the flow of the game does not stumble too much due to frequent deaths.

There's often a fine line between fear and frustration when a game tries to challenge mere survival.

It would be anything but desirable for The Callisto Protocol to go over the top here.

The Callisto Protocol: preview of the release of the horror breaker - how much dead space is in it?

Technical blunders of the preview version aside, The Callisto Protocol makes an at least exciting impression a few months before release.

The survival struggle in Black Iron Prison looks tremendous on the PS5 and already strikes a strong balance of empowerment and downright vulnerability in the gameplay, although some particularly tough fights make the main character feel almost too vulnerable.

As strange as it sounds, the first hour of play with The Callisto Protocol feels a bit like a little "homecoming" for all the brutality and horror.

Glen Schofield and Striking Distance Studios are holding onto much of what made Dead Space a success and are on the move to something that could become a fully worthy spiritual successor to the 2009 sci-fi masterpiece.

The Callisto Protocol doesn't seem to want to cover up its origins, in fact it proudly wears them on its chest.

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2022-10-26

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