The Callisto Protocol

I anticipated the arrival of the game.. When I played I enjoyed a lot of elements in it. Combat was both visceral and fun. The graphics were amazing... Then, as the game lagged on it started to show its flaws.

Combat became more and more clunky and obviously swayed in favor of the monsters.. meaning , Jacob could not execute the moves for the buttons I was hitting..it seemed I was doing something wrong... turns out .... I wasn't . It's the game. It became beyond challenging to carry out the simplest of combat moves... normally in a game it takes you a bit and you get the hang of it but here You will find yourself fighting the controls more than the monsters.. unfortunate outcome to this otherwise pretty cool theme.

Calisto beared some similarities to dead space but is hollow compared to the meaty gameplay of the grand daddy of space horror.

It makes me think this was the lamest of the dead space crew that came over to the new game company.. the guy that works on the controls part is laughing sitting over at EA... saying " let's see your game be good without my buttery controls scheme dbags" lol

Thankfully the new dead space came out shortly after and I was able to redeem my belief that good games CAN have it all... controls...graphics... and be entertaining. Forget this one guys. It's a bargain bin game.. get dead space the remake..it'll provide you with countless hours of horror fun and you won't have to fight the controls to be successful. 60 bucks wasted.

This is a continuous problem with video games in the horror genre, but it needs to be said: blood, guts, and grotesque images aren't inherently scary.

What makes games like Dead Space and Alien: Isolation landmark successes within the horror genre is not the blood and guts spewed across the screen, but the genuine terror that comes with exploring the worlds they've created. It's the fear of being caught, wondering what it was that made that sound, or the outline of something disappearing into the shadows. It's not redundantly smashing a gross looking corpse with a hammer as it growls at you.

Callisto Protocol is...okay. The environment and setting? Love it. I'm a sucker for Science Fiction Horror. Cast? Good. Basic premise? Prison planet is a touch cliché but it can work. The story? Eh...I can forgive some of the more derivative plot points and how much it borrows from Dead Space. But what I can't forgive is the boring pacing and repetitive combat that the game forces you into.

Want to sneak past enemies? Nope. They pop out 1v1 and you beat them to death. Every time. Want to find creative ways to solve problems or avoid hordes of creatures? Nope. Go here, open this door, kill that thing, unlock that room, repeat. The environments and corridors begin to all look the same (splattered with blood, echoing with screams). The combat begins to feel like a chore (you're not afraid of the creatures, you're just annoyed you have to beat another one to death...again) and that's *if* the combat mechanics work. If any CP creator is reading this-please realize that I would rather have little to no combat (like a Dark Pictures Anthology game or Outlast) in which I'm just avoiding death versus a game where I stumble into a room and have to begrudgingly kill something so I can move to the next room and do it again.

Horror is not gore. We don't get scared of something gross that growls and vomits up junk. Maybe the first time you see them it's unsettling. The second and third time the shock wears off. By the third hour of gameplay you'll roll your eyes at how annoying and disinterring you find them-and this is one of the biggest draws of the game (there's no puzzles, no side quests, no real RPG elements).

CP focused on the frosting and forgot about the cake. It's lots of blood, shrieks, screams, and gross creatures, but without the underlying gameplay, combat mechanics, and tone that make a horror game worth playing, CP just ends up feeling hollow and never delivers on the terror that it promises.

Big fan of the first two dead space games, but this isn't dead space and I didn't expect the same game.

Sure there are similarities but they didn't bother me. Visually the game is stunning and I liked the atmosphere, for me it had an Event Horizon, Alien feel to it.

Is it the scariest game ever? No. Does is it have the best story? No. But hey this is like a sci-fi B movie, you like it or you don't.

The combat worked fine for me. I did find the world a bit empty, as in the same few posters and a soda machine everywhere. This took away a little bit of the illusion.

Is it worth full price? Well that depends, for me it was but I love sci-fi horror. If you think sci-fi horror is meh then wait for a discount.

Boring enemies, sketchy combat controls and all round average game!

Every fight feels the same and I just find myself trying to get through the game as quickly as possible. Not worth the money paid.

At least give us a variation of combat scenarios, it feels like every enemy I kill is the exact same. The combat and dodging controls are awful and sometimes I find myself questioning the continuity of it all. The atmosphere is good and I can tell it's made by the same guys who did Dead Space but other than that there is not much to it. The scare factor is lacking and the storyline is pretty awful, I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone looking for an in-depth journey into a far away planet haha.

Right of the bat I'll start by saying a had loads of fun playing this game. The combat is satisfying, the gore is truly next-gen and the story is solid. I don't think I need to say anything about the graphics because it speaks for itself.

Even though it has a bunch of positives, there's the negatives as well. Repetitive gameplay, lack of enemies, easy boss fights (except for the last one) and underdeveloped combat.

But even with the negatives the game gave me memories of the PS3 and XBOX 360 era, and that's good in my opinion, I would define the game as "simple" but believe me simple isn't easy to make. The game doesn't try to change a formula or to be innovating and I respect that, especially nowadays with just dumb and meaningless "innovations" to try and catch the public's attention. Making it simple was the right way to go for me. And god bless them for not including a online marketplace or anything online related.

I played on the PS5 and the game didn't have trouble running just a few dropped frames here and there but solid performance. (Just writing this part because apparently pc players are having a bad time) Overall it was truly a work of love and most importantly I got what I expected. Exited to see new work from the studio's involved in this project.