Developer: Striking Distance Studios
Publisher: Krafton, Inc.
Released: 2022
Platforms: Steam | PS4 & PS5 | Xbox One, Series

Aw geez, here’s another game that went in one eye and out the other.

On the surface, Callisto is visually fantastic. Even when running on DirectX 11 (a necessity for me during its buggy launch week), it looks gorgeous. The facial rigs and animations are among the best in class that I’ve seen in video games.

I wasn’t bothered by Callisto’s story basically reimagining Dead Space’s, since it was touted as a spiritual successor. It’s a grungy sci-fi future, space “zombies” pour out of the woodwork, what more do you need?

The main issue with Callisto comes from its shallow combat loop.

In Callisto, melee is king. Aside from the GRP, it’s the most reliable way to take out hordes of enemies. Ammo is scarce (as expected from survival horror), so it’s the go-to tactic to fall back on.

Unfortunately, there are more melee animations than there are actual melee attacks. Realistically, you get one “dance” to use around your enemies, where maybe you can change the order of a few steps that lead to the same finisher anyways.

It’s not unusual for players to fall into a routine with shooters or brawlers. You’ll hear me fangirl over DMC5 all the damn time. However, a good video game gives you options to build your own routine off of. This is an aspect that’s missing in Callisto.

I’ve skimped on talk about the various guns found in Callisto because they don’t matter. I only ever used one to complete the basic melee combo, and the game is kind enough to auto-aim for said combo.

Melee is so busted, that an elite/boss enemy will literally insta-kill you if you try to swing at it. It baffles me that such a thing was coded in.

If I split hairs, Callisto’s telekinetic attack - referred to as “GRP” - is the “other option” to add “variety.” To Striking Distance’s credit, they acknowledged how much Kinesis can be spammed in Dead Space. GRP is instead fueled by its own ammo system (batteries). It’s still a cheesy attack, but now the player must consider the best times to use it.

The thing is, it’s almost always a good idea to prioritize GRP over melee. I struggle to recall how many (if any) rooms were missing a spiky death obstacle or explosive canister that I could sweep enemies with. GRP “evolved” my routine into locating the nearest insta-kill item, exhausting GRP ammo, and then returning to melee.

There’s an obligatory stealth mechanic in this game, and its implementation feels like the devs threw it in to check off a box. My chat put it best: it runs on “Skyrim logic.”

By simply activating the crouch button, the player is 100% silent to enemies. No upgrades are needed to achieve this - it’s available by default. Granted, you can still blow your cover… if enemies have eyes.

The hilarious aspect of Callisto’s stealth is when I encountered what I call “Dollar Store Lickers” (they’re blind & rely on echolocation). So long as I activated a stealth kill while crouched, their screams wouldn’t alert their nearby buddies. Yes, that includes them standing right next to each other. It’s a huge immersion breaker.

While on the topic of monsters, the hostile space zombies in this game look blaaaaaand. They made me realize how striking Dead Space’s basic Necromorphs are in comparison. I’m not inspired to write a random article on Callisto’s critters.

Playing The Callisto Protocol was like pushing it through a conveyor belt. I went through the motions, only playing it so I could finish it. The people who refunded the game in 2 hours made a good choice. The combat wasn’t engaging for me in 2, 8, or 12 hours into the game. For me, all it had going for itself was the visual fidelity, but that’s not enough to justify the price of admission.