New sci-fi horror from the creator of the Dead Space series – that sounds tempting! Read our preview of what to expect on Jupiter”s moon
Is it an amusing coincidence or hard-hitting tactics that The Callisto Protocol, the new game by Dead Space creator Glen Schofield, is released a month before the Dead Space remake? Hard to say. Electronic Arts at least has the more appealing name in its line-up.
But the new horror-shocker is also well equipped for this battle. To cut through dense creepy atmosphere, great graphics, a stronger focus on melee combat and lots and lots of virtual blood should excite slasher fans from 2 December 2022.
Table of Contents
This is what The Callisto Protocol is all about
Jacob Lee is a freighter pilot who, in the year 2320, supplies the planet Jupiter and its moons – and occasionally smuggles a few things. A bit like Han Solo, then, but without a walking bedside rug as a partner. 300 years in the future, we humans have colonised other planets according to the story of The Callisto Protocol. Among them Jupiter and some of its 79 moons.
But this time something goes wrong. His ship crashes. The head of the Iron Gate penitentiary, which is pretty much the only human settlement on Callisto, becomes aware of the accident and rescues Jacob from the wreckage. Phew, lucky! Just escaped with his life. Think again!
Instead of helping the victim to get back to civilisation, he is locked up in one of the claustrophobically small cells. No real accusation other than conjecture about smuggled goods, no chance of appeal. But that is to become the least of Jacob”s problems when terrible things suddenly happen in the prison and the inmates mutate into bloodthirsty monsters.
A pub for the prison break
And this is where you literally come in to help Jacob out of his dilemma and get to the bottom of the creepy things. You, of course, steer the broken pilot through the prison infested with mutants, the so-called biophages. This is not so easy at first, because in order to defend your skin, you initially only have a shiv at your disposal, i.e. a prisoner”s blade you have filed yourself.
Memories of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay come to mind. But where Vin Diesel had a comparatively easy time during his escape from space prison, the prospects for Jacob Lee look somewhat bleaker. For the biophages are not the only threat wandering the corridors.
The robotic guards are also still there and are only programmed for one goal: neutralise all escapees. Ever tried to take out an armoured, armed robot with a cheese knife? The chances of taking down a fleshy mutant with a blade are better, despite its fearsome fangs, tentacles and other hideousness.
At this point the first comparison with Dead Space suggests itself. If only because Striking Distance studio head Glen Schofield is the creator of the series and also created The Callisto Protocol. Dead Space has a similar starting point: you wander alone through dark corridors and have to fight for your life against mutants.
Isaac Clarke, the main character of Dead Space, has a firearm at his disposal right at the beginning with the Plasma Cutter. Jacob Lee, on the other hand, has to make do with a knife for the time being. The Callisto Protocol focuses much more on close combat than Dead Space, where you can only use a few defensive kicks and of course the final head crusher.
Jacob”s arsenal of weapons is expanded to include firearms as the game progresses, but with clubs and similar slashing weapons, close combat remains an important mechanic with tactical influences. Tactics? We”ll get to that in a moment, don”t worry.
Monster combat with Grip(s)
But first, you”ll want to know more about the guns you find during your escape from monster prison. Well, one in particular stands out: the GRP. Pronounced “Grip”, the GRP is a weapon used by the guards to capture escapees. It works similarly to the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2 and lets you grab enemies, lift them into the air and fling them away.
The GRP is one of the game”s central mechanics, as you can use it to hurl monsters into environmental traps such as fans or other deadly construction elements of Iron Gate prison. And the weapon should also come in handy when solving smaller puzzles with moving objects. In addition, of course, there are more conventional shooters, as you would expect.
A common feature of all weapons is the upgrade system, which allows you to modify the performance values. We don”t know exactly how this will work, but we assume it will be similar to the system in Dead Space. In other words, you collect “currency” that you can spend at workbenches. This is supported by the fact that game director Glen Schofield mentioned in an interview that you can adapt the weapons to your personal play style – and that would be difficult to do with findable expansion parts.
Back to tactics: the modifications to your weapons play a part in this. Do you rely on sheer power for the frontal attack, or are subtleties also important to you, but which cause you to lose firepower? This already steers the battles in one direction.
Another factor is the individual strengths and weaknesses of the monsters. Some enemies can best be dispatched with melee attacks, others you should rather target from a distance. So when a mixed group of biophages attacks, you”ll need to switch between attack tactics and also decide which enemies to take out first, for example.
The creeps on your neck
In the thick of battle, however, you have to watch where you step. The surrounding traps are not only deadly for mutants, but also quickly turn Jacob Lee into small fry. If you get too close to one of the huge ventilation fans, for example, the biophages will have their dinner in the form of meatballs. This adds an additional stress factor to the monster encounters, which don”t happen in clusters and thus degenerate into a continuous battle fest, but are meant to grab you each time and put you under pressure.
To give the whole thing a proper creep factor, the developers often stage the appearances of the mutants in a special way before you meet them. What was that shadow? What is that shadowy figure at the end of the corridor? Where is that noise coming from? All this should provide extra heart palpitations and a constant feeling of dread, as befits a horror game.
Those who have played Dead Space know that Schofield has already masterfully proven that he can put the player under pressure with sound design, light and shadow play and also “clumsy” shock moments. The more advanced technology compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360 era will do the rest to make you sit in front of the screen with sweaty palms.
The Callisto Protocol is one of those games that should benefit immensely from a sound system and a big screen. The possibilities of scaring you with Dolby Atmos on the Xbox Series X or Sony”s own 3D sound on the PS5 with creaks from the corners, thumping machine noises and even directional effects from above should be a real playground of horror for horror fan Schofield.
Let me tell you at this point that a pair of decent headphones or even a good home theatre system is a worthwhile investment. Sound is unfortunately still one of the most underestimated factors in the video game hobby.
More than just Dead Space 4
And while we”re back to comparing Dead Space, there are a few similarities worth mentioning: The Callisto Protocol also relies on a HUD-less gameplay experience. So there are no on-screen displays of life energy, ammunition and the like. Everything you need to know is read directly from the character. There is a luminous bar display for health at the back of the head, which is explained in the game with a collar that every prisoner has to wear, and the weapons have a display that tells you how many rounds are left in the magazine.
This kind of on-screen display was quite revolutionary at the time of Dead Space and ensured that you were drawn into the game world even more. Why it wasn”t used more often outside of the Isaac Clarke series is probably one of the great unsolved mysteries of the game designers.
But the similarities go further: when Jacob aims at enemies, the pose, camera angle and even the visual aiming effects are also strongly reminiscent of Glen Schofield”s original space horror. You can even target enemies” limbs, which naturally evokes associations with the tactical dismemberment system from Dead Space. The monsters will even keep crawling towards you if you shoot their legs off, or even have to be attacked in certain parts of their bodies to defeat them.
So does The Callisto Protocol end up being the Dead Space 4 we never got? If Schofield has his way, the game is much more than that. Not only does he want to chase players through darkly creepy prison corridors and machine rooms, but he also wants to do something he wasn”t able to do with the first Dead Space due to the spaceship setting: he also wants to stage the horror in open areas of the crater-strewn moon outside the prison.
Well, something similar was already attempted in Dead Space 3, one could now say. But in the third part, with which Schofield had nothing to do, things went wrong and instead of horror there was rather dull shooting paired with annoying microtransactions. So we can be curious to see how The Callisto Protocol wants to stage the same approach completely differently – and better.
Off-the-shelf alien story?
The Callisto Protocol is very story driven according to developer statements. Jacob”s believable characterisation probably plays a big role when it comes to going from a guy who just wants to get away with life to a near-world saviour. Or maybe more like lunar saviour. Judging by the footage released from the game so far, there”s once again a madman behind the mutant mess.
Hologram scenes you stumble across in the course of the game show experiments on prisoners. And the prison warden seems to be the originator of it all. We assume that they stumbled across some alien artefacts while working in the raw material mines connected to the prison, and are now playing fast and loose with them under flimsy pretexts. That would at least be the most obvious, typical approach we can think of for the story. But somehow also the most boring.
Let”s hope Glen Schofield doesn”t disappoint us and has a more exciting story in store. Until we can find out, it”s not that long away either. The game is scheduled for release in early December 2022. And a month later, Electronic Arts will serve us the remake of Dead Space, the game to which The Callisto Protocol owes so much. Great times for horror fans!
Editor”s Verdict
Dead Space completely captivated me at the time and had me jumping off the couch in horror time and time again. I really hope that The Callisto Protocol will offer a similar experience, because horror games that really work for me are rather rare. However, the fact that the creator of Dead Space is behind it and was able to credibly convey his enthusiasm for the game to me in the interview makes me feel very positive. Dead Space with a dash of The Cronicles of Riddick and even more “John Carpenter”s The Thing” than in the original makes a very positive impression on me. And as an old Gorehound, I”m of course also pleased that the game is so beautifully soupy. The pre-Christmas period is guaranteed to be pretty scary for me this year.
