Rating of
3/5
Dead (in) Space
Chris Kavan - wrote on 10/26/24
Originally envisioned as a PUBG: Battlegrounds spinoff, The Callisto Protocol instead morphed into a "spiritual successor" to the Dead Space series and it comes as no surprise as Dead Space series creator Glen Schofield was the main driving force behind the game. It also counts Steve Papoutsis, Scott Whitney and Christopher Stone - and, according to Schofield, about 25-30 other former Visceral Games and Sledgehammer Games employees (where Dead Space originated), as part of the project. Yet, despite a huge budget and the serious talent involved, The Callisto Protocol lost a massive amount of money and received decidedly mixed reviews. It turns out not amount of talent or money can fix a game that is fundamentally flawed from an actual gaming perspective. Hilariously, the Dead Space remake would come out shortly after and make a better case for itself.
Looks and Stuff: Let's start with the only thing that The Callisto Protocol gets right - the graphics and the sound. The game takes place on a prison and surrounding areas on the moon of Callisto. It's dark, dank and crawling with mutants. From the random blood smears to the frozen surface to the secret subterranean passages - the game gets the look and feel right. The character and creature design is top-notch as well. And they managed to secure some talent in the voice department with Josh Duhamel (Transformers) and Karen Fukuhara (The Boys) playing the main characters with Zeke Alton, James Mathis III and Sam Witwer rounding out the cast. It doesn't feature a lot of characters, but that's inherent in the setting.
The game also does a great job at keeping the tense atmosphere with your typical creaking, running footsteps and screams that just echo about you. I love a good jump scare in games along with that kind of atmosphere and there is plenty of that to go around too. While I don't think it can equal the scare heights of Dead Space - it certainly still has that same kind of feel to it and it did manage to evoke some dread along the way. I didn't encounter any major bugs on my playthough.
Story: The game follows pilot Jacob Lee (Duhamel) and his reluctant co-pilot Max Barrow (Jeff Schine) who have been rolling in the dough since ferrying goods between Europa and the maximum security Black Iron Prison on the moon of Callisto. Despite rumblings of just what they are transporting - especially after a recent terrorist attack and outbreak of something deadly on Europa - Jacob wants to complete one final job to secure his future. Too bad the terrorist sect the Outer Way - supposedly responsible for the same outbreak - have found a way on their ship. Crash-landing on Callisto, Jacob finds out the he and Outer Way leader Dani Nakamura (Fukuhara) are the only survivors. Taken by prison captain Leon Ferris (Witwer), both find themselves imprisoned on the orders of Warden Duncan Cole (Mathis III). Jacob, of course, is confused and angered by this action but is forced to be a prisoner. Not long after, however, the prison itself finds itself overrun by its own outbreak and mutant prisoner "biophages" begin to slaughter indiscriminately. Jacob finds help from Elias Porter (Alton) who wants him to seek out a master hacker in order to call in a ship for them to escape - said hacker just happens to be Miss Nakamura, of course. Meanwhile, an infected Captain Ferris proves to be a much deadlier threat than the normal biophages and the warden proves to be a member of a cult - and the prison itself a huge testing ground.
The Callisto Protocol follows a familiar pattern that you can find in Dead Space and even going back to Doom or Alien - that is, humans messing around with things they shouldn't mess around with and crazy cults/religions/scientists trying to control said thing and leading to a very bad outcome. It's been done plenty before, and better, and though it gives its own twists along the way it never feels as original as it wants to and I just found myself thinking of how a copy of a copy of a copy looks over time.
Gameplay: Where everyone working on this game truly dropped the ball was how the game actually works. I will spell it out in no uncertain terms: the combat absolutely sucks donkey balls. I hated, hated, hated he melee system of dodging and attacking. Which is what you do for most of the game. Yes, you gain access to guns, a stun baton and even a nifty glove you can use to throw things around (shades of Half-Life 2) but given the severely limited supply of ammo and even more limited capacity to carry damn near anything, most of the time you're going to be relying on beating things down. Yes, you can upgrade your weapons, yes, you can stealthily sneak around and kill enemies - but even being a ninja can only get you so far and you will have to rely on the wonky melee mechanics A LOT. And if you don't like being sneaky, good luck, because the game relishes on making one small mistake and having the entire level of enemies bum rush you if you alert them.
The game is also awful at ramping up the difficulty on you. While the game has only a few boss enemies - they are a slog. The first, a two-headed mutant (who shows up a few more times and is only slightly less annoying) takes a tremendous amount of damage and if you haven't been saving up those precious bullets - good luck on you. But even worse is the final boss - one that was so monstrously over-powered and annoying (compared to everything that had come before) I had to sit down and watch a few videos after failing to finish it off a few dozen times over. Even then I think beating him came down to more luck than skill and I never felt more exasperated finishing a game. Taking everything together and even if the game looks and sounds great it's just not that fun to actually play.
Replay value: I mean, if you want to punish yourself, go back and make things even harder, more power to you. I almost never go back and beat a higher difficulty - and I truly don't care enough to pick up the DLC, let alone flog myself on the main game.
Final Verdict: While the game may capture the atmosphere of a sci-fi horror experience, the uninspired story and truly dumb combat system bog everything down.
Presentation: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Replay: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 3/5
Hours Played: 14
Cheevos: 35% (21/47)
