The Callisto Protocol (2022) - Review
- Sam Bateson
- Jan 4, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 28, 2023
Reviewed on Xbox Series X
(Spoilers ahead...)
One of the most hostile, isolated environments in the universe, Callisto looms large over Jacob’s desperate struggle to survive. Players must not only contend with the horrors of Black Iron Prison, but also the centuries-old secrets that plague Jupiter’s long-dead moon, both above and below the surface.
- Microsoft Store -
The Callisto Protocol is a game I've been looking forward to since the cinematic trailer was released - it promised close quarters horror, horrific enemies and explicit gore - when I'd heard that it had been banned in Japan due to excessIve violence, I was so hyped.
I've always wanted a sequel to 2014's Alien: Isolation, and I feel like this is the closest we'll get for now. But I'm not going to make any comparisons - nor am I going to compare this to Dead Space, the studio connection to which formed a substantial part of the marketing of this game. So many reviews are out there that do this, so if you want that, feel free to check out literally any other review of the game that exists on the internet - I meanwhile, have never played Dead Space, so I'm reviewing this game in a vacuum. As it should be. It's a review, after all.
So, where to begin? Let's start with the story. You play as Jacob Lee (Josh Duhamel), a pilot under contract with the central UJC, who operate the Black Iron Prison on Jupiter's moon, Callisto. Jacob has been transferring unknown material to Black Iron, and on his final delivery, he finds himself incarcerated in Black Iron after a boarding by The Outer Way, a terror group led by Dani (Karen Fukuhara), who crashes his ship.
After being incarcerated, an outbreak occurs in Black Iron that transforms inmates and staff into Biophages - victims infected with an unknown disease that causes hideous and violent mutations, all of which are bad news for our poor Jacob. He must escape Black Iron whilst uncovering its secrets. Along the way, he is aided by Elias (Zeke Alton), a fellow inmate who serves as your eyes and ears throughout the first half of the game. When he becomes, let's say "indisposed" after the first half, Jacob must team up with the very woman who crashed his ship to resume their escape.
I won't spoil everything here, but over the course of the game, it's discovered that the outbreak in the Prison is merely a development of a similar outbreak amongst colonists decades previously, above whom the prison was built. Secrets, as promised in marketing material, are revealed, characters who should trust each other don't and endings aren't as real as you're made to believe.
Story-wise, Callisto Protocol doesn't reinvent the genre - it relies on established clichés and twists - in fact, much of the story is delivered in cutscenes, but further expansion is found in audio logs found scattered amongst the victims of the outbreak. All you're left to play through are levels involving activating breakers, find your way through difficult missions whilst you're being attacked by Biophages or whilst the NPCs sit back and direct you. "I'm at the tram station, but the bridge from your location is broken! Take the elevator down, there is a route through that way!" Is a paraphrase from Elias early in the game. Of course, I needed to fix the lift, first. There were genuine moments when a stairwell or bridge collapsed, or an NPC told me "I can't come with you", leaving me on my own to take the long way around, where I thought 'of course. What a surprise'. All of this is familiar territory for fans of the genre, as I am, but for a game that promised to "reinvent the genre", I expected better.
Storywise, the game is fairly cliched and generic. Where it shines is in the graphics - I played this game on the Xbox Series X, where the 1:1 scans of the actors playing the characters as their in-game avatars shone. I can't fault the graphics of this game. The fidelity of every environment, character and enemy was faultless. I felt I was in a fully-realistic world. Black Iron Prison is brilliantly realised, and cutscenes began and ended by perfectly blending in with their interactive counterparts. Each chapter (there are several, interspersed with a loading screen) was continuous - as I was walking through a an eery corridor, my character would instantly become part of the cutscene, only for him to become a playable character again at the end. The game is seamless, and I mean seamless. I've been longing for this kind of interaction for years, and I feel like it's been perfected for this game.
My real issue comes with the gameplay and combat - this is a third person game, and as such Jacob takes up a helluva lot of space on-screen - and by a helluva lot, I mean way too much - a full third of the screen is taken up by his body, not just his head. First person would have been preferable, or in liue of such a view, the ability to switch him from the left or right side of the screen, or at least the ability to peak around corners would be perfect. Instead, you're left with a complicated series of buttons to press in order to succeed in combat.
The regular controls exist; LT to aim, RT to fire. But then, of you want to use the GRP (Gravity-Restraint-Projector) glove, you need to press LT, press A (on Xbox), then press the fire button (RT). Don't forget using alternate fire mode, which involves a different combination of buttons, involving LT, RB, RT, combined with needing to aim (R-Stick), sprint (which is LB), whilst also reloading your weapon (X), but only if you've equipped it (Left-D-Pad, Down D-Pad, A), look, its a mess. But luckily, there is a fully dedicated tutorial menu in the options menu. Fortunately, there are ways to eradicate enemies without weapons and that involves merely spamming your melee mutton (RT) over and over again, and if you've got the right upgrade on the stun baton, occasionally pressing RB during melee attacks. You can also dodge by pressing LT either left or right during an attack.
Confused yet? Don't be. In all honestly. the controls are fairly easy to pick up - a lot of it involves mashing, but the game teaches you to use the right combat method for each situation. There are some occasions you'll need to kill plenty of enemies, but then you can use your GRP to launch them into turbines, killing them instantly, or you'll have a load of explosive barrels to launch into them. Other times melee is preferred, especially early in the game. Two-thirds of the way through the game, you have plenty of opportunity to stealth kill a few enemies who are blind - you can sneak behind them and achieve a stealth kill. This is where the game succeeds best - the mix of horror and action comes in brilliantly, but at the same time, you're able to let your own style come through. You can fight any enemy you want, or you can sneak by them. Other times, you can run past any before they have time to fight back and get to the next checkpoint.
This game is unforgiving, it really is. I played on medium difficulty, and I struggled massively, especially during parts where you're left to deal with multiple enemies at once - you can quickly become overwhelmed, and restoring health is a cumbersome process that isn't really achievable on the fly. It would have been easy to drop down to "minimum security" (the easiest setting), but that would have taken the fun out of it, and from what I gather, it's still not the easiest way to play the game (that would be to use some of the 'helpful' settings in the Accessibility menu...).
The last thing I need to talk about, and what I suspect a lot of you are here for, is the gore. Look, this game isn't as violent, gory or visceral as people are making out. Yes, it's banned in Japan because the devs refused to cut down on certain content, but I can't see why. Sure, there are death animations involving Jacobs face being torn in half (leaving a half-head spurting blood and brain matter visible), but the majority of animations aren't that bad - they're more ridiculous than horrifying and traumatising. In fact, I would say these aren't gory enough. What really drags me out of the game is the constant sound of bodies exploding or being stomped, the foley for which sounds like a bag of water bursting 50 feet above you and raining down (legal disclaimer - I've no idea what the sound of a body bursting actually should sound like...)
Call me a sadist, but the game is only gory in the same way the Mortal Kombat games are - sure, there's blood, but it's all a bit cartoon-like.
The Callisto Protocol, then, is a great horror game - it has the atmosphere, it has the graphics, and in moments where a couple of enemies head your way, it's definitely got the scare - factor. But with some somewhat clumsy combat, a lacklustre story and an over reliance on more traditional action, I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I'll never say I dislike this game, I absolutely loved playing through it and I'd play it again. But it doesn't seem like the game that's advertised.
Sam's Score: 7
The Callisto Protocol is available on Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series S | X
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