Game Review: The Callisto Protocol (Xbox Series X)

Do games with this much hype ever truly satisfy? The Callisto Protocol came with a heady amount of the stuff. Mainly because it promised a return to survival horror and was directed by Glen Schofield, who had previously co-created the Dead Space series.

Developed by Striking Distance Studios and published by Krafton, the game blends survival horror with action, and is played from the third-person perspective.

Players take on the role of Jacob Lee (Josh Duhamel), a transporter currently working a job for the United Jupiter Company. On a routine trip to the plant Europa from the Black Iron Prison on the planet Callisto, his ship is infiltrated by the reported terrorist group, Outer Way. They are looking for what Jacob is transporting, but things go wrong, and the ship ends up crash landing back on Callisto.

Jacob and the Outer Way leader, Dani Nakamura (Karen Fukuhara) are immediately picked up by Black Iron security, led by Captain Leon Ferris ((Sam Witwer). On the orders of the warden Duncan Cole (James C. Mathis III), both are incarcerated within the prison. Jacob argues for his innocence and lack of involvement with Outer Way, but no-one is willing to listen to him. He is fitted with an implant in the back of the neck and when he wakes up, he’s in a cell.

It just so happens that he slept through chaos and carnage, as the prison has become overrun by a mysterious infection. One that is transforming the prisoners and guards into horrific monsters. Jacob is able to escape his cell but getting out of the prison and off the planet will be a much tougher task.

Surprisingly light on story and characters, The Callisto Protocol doesn’t hang about putting you into the action and saves most of its story-telling surprises for the end of the game. It’s not the most enthralling of stories but that’s mainly because it doesn’t really tell it. There’s next to no world-building here. The same can be said for the characters, light on detail and lacking clear motivations beyond basic survival. For many, that will be enough but the lack of endearment towards them is felt because so little is known.

Who wants a satisfying story or likeable characters though! It’s all about the horror and action, something that The Callisto Protocol has plenty of. Elements that can be both brilliant and awful in equal measures.

Let’s start with the horror.

The Callisto Protocol looks and sounds amazing for the most part and the locations really add to the scare factor. There’s a real sense of danger lurking around every corner and the monstrosities are constantly challenging. It manages to both convey a sense of openness and claustrophobia at times, has some heart-racing scripted moments, and notable early jump scares.

Unfortunately, the more time spent with the game, the less effective all these horror elements become. The Callisto Protocol is very linear and once you come to realise that, the fear of what might be behind you, goes. It ends up overusing the same jump scares, has only a handful of enemy types, unskippable gory death animations, and eventually swaps out dread for action.

It quickly stops being scary when you must fight the same mini-boss multiple times, have seen Jacob get his head caved in for tenth time or when another ‘worm’ jumps out of a locker.

Which brings us to the action side of things, and this is where The Callisto Protocol really fumbles the ball.

The combat system is heavily weighted towards melee attacks and dodging. There are weapons but they’re mainly used for crowd control and snapping off a quick shot during a precision opportunity. For the most part, players will be relying on their stun baton that is picked up early game. An item, along with other weapons, that is upgradable so you can dish out even more damage.

Fighting enemies is not The Callisto Protocol’s issue as combat feels meaty and satisfying. It’s the dodge mechanic, something that is integral to ensuring you survive. Mapped to the same stick as movement, players must push left or right to dodge an attack, waiting for an opening to get their blows in. It’s extremely unwieldy and bafflingly frustrating. Made more difficult when dealing with multiple enemies coming at you from different directions.

Your health is monitored by Jacob’s implant, in a similar way to Dead Space. However, here it’s far too small and during frantic enemy encounters, the camera is swinging around so wildly that you may not even notice that you’re at death’s door.

Expect to die… a lot. The Callisto Protocol is a challenging game, as much because of the annoying combat system. It also loves to throw in unexpected difficulty spikes and autosaves at the most inconvenient of times. This here, is the real reason The Callisto Protocol is a scary game.

All that being said, once you start to get used to the system, it does become a bit more satisfying. Especially when you get hold of the gravity-manipulating gauntlet (GRP) which changes the nature of combat significantly. It rarely stopped being satisfying to pick up a monstrosity and fling them into a spiked wall.

Disappointingly though, the game changes the nature of the combat as it goes on. Choosing to throw more and more enemies at you in wider, more open areas. Resulting in a mess of desperate shooting, swinging, and dodging. Everything Jacob does takes time, so these battles become frustrating trial and error sequences. There’s no quick changing between weapons, and healing is simply impossible when you’re dealing with enemies. All semblance of horror disappears in the second half of the game as it devolves into an action-shooter.

Though there is a hilariously poor section that involves stealth as you navigate your way past blind beasties. Make a noise and they will attack on mass. It should be thrilling but it’s arguably the game’s easiest section because you can approach them from behind and kill them in one hit. The hilarity coming from the amount of noise Jacob makes killing one mere inches from another and apparently, they don’t hear it.

There’s around ten-hours of gameplay in The Callisto Protocol but it feels like a much longer game because of the sheer number of deaths you will suffer. In that time, you’ll see multiple frame-rate drops (mainly in cutscenes) and if you’re unlucky, several crashes. We were unlucky, and had three crashes in the space of twenty minutes, often right when a cutscene was due to start.

These issues, coupled with the unsatisfying story, lack of character depth, disjointed gameplay and awkward combat system means The Callisto Protocol fails to live up to the hype. It’s not a terrible game, at times it can be a ton of fun to play, but if you were hoping for the next Dead Space, this isn’t it.