The Callisto Protocol Review – Fumbled in the Second Half

In The Callisto Protocol, you play as a freight transporter tasked with ferrying cargo from the massive Black Iron prison on Callisto, After getting caught up in a firefight and illegally imprisoned in the Black Iron complex, the player is forced to survive as an infection turns the other inmates into horrors beyond comprehension. The player must uncover the mysteries of Callisto and escape the prison in what can easily be called a spiritual successor to the Dead Space series.

While built upon a strong premise, The Callisto Protocol shudders in its execution. What should have been a thrilling, slow-burn horror masterpiece struggles with its own identity, trying to be more of an action-oriented game (especially in its second half) with horror elements. However, the game’s lackluster combat system leaves it failing to be either.

Before delving into Callisto Protocol’s flaws, it’s important to address the initial issue many had with the game. On launch, The Callisto Protocol was a buggy mess, with a severe stuttering issue that left even high-end systems struggling with performance. The developers have quickly addressed this issue, which was caused by the game being improperly packaged for its PC release. The game is now in a playable state, so while this was the biggest issue for many players, it won’t be considered for the sake of this review.

Callisto Protocol is a game that wants to sell you a highly atmospheric, story-driven experience. In some ways, it succeeds; The game is absolutely beautiful, and while I wouldn’t call the setting entirely original (rather, it seems almost the standard for ‘scary space game’ at this point,) it is definitely immersive.

The problem with Callisto Protocol’s desire to be a story-focused experience is that it doesn’t fully commit to the bit. Much of the game, especially in the second half, wants to be an intense action game. This identity crisis leads to some frustrating moments when these two design philosophies crash, such as getting stuck in an especially hard location and being forced to watch the same, prolonged death animations over and over again.

The animations are something Callisto Procotol seems to be especially proud of, much to the bane of the experience. There have been times when a monster has started a lengthy, telegraphed attack animation, and though killed in the process, manage to complete the animation and hit before realizing they were dead.

The combat system, while not terrible, is clunky and ill-suited for what the game is. I would describe it as Dead Space-like in its combat, but adjusted to make you feel more like a bruiser capable of slugging it out with hordes of enemies. This really downplays the horror aspect of the game; There are times in The Callisto Protocol where a horde of enemies will rush you, surround you, and then politely wait their turn as you 1v1 with the closest monster to you. This just simply downplays a ton of the scariness of being surrounded by a horde of monsters.

The combat system is set up around melee attacks and dodging, encouraging you to get up in the face of these supposedly scary monsters and beat them to a bloody pulp. For some reason, the developers chose to map the dodge mechanic to the same stick you use for movement — If you press right on the analog stick / D key, you will either move to the right or dodge to the right depending on if an enemy is attacking you or not. In crowds, this means trying to move around will often instead see you dodging where you don’t want to, and can quickly frustrate a player in the heat of the moment.

It seems like many of the game’s potential horror and story-driven elements were sacrificed in the attempt to focus on combat, and vice versa. While the combat system suffers from many of the elements of the game designed to deliver a stunning visual experience (long, repetitive death animations, and long animations in general that throw off the flow of combat,) the game doesn’t really seem to deliver on the horror as well as it could either.

The death animations you’ll face in the game are a huge source of the game’s horror, which in my opinion is a very weak choice in any game of this kind. While death shouldn’t feel like a punishment (it often does in Callisto, but that’s beside the point,) it shouldn’t be the reward, either, and I would argue that the goal of playing a horror game is to be scared. The reward is fear, and if most of it comes from losing progress, you haven’t designed a good horror game.

Outside of these death animations, the game relies too much on cheap jump scares for its horror. There are some genuinely terrifying and tense moments in the game, but those feel few and far between compared to opening lockers and having a screaming slug jump at you.

I don’t want to spend too much time talking about or even thinking about The Callisto Protocol’s story. It is, to put it nicely, a mixed bag, with moments where it shines and moments where it falls flat. The worst I can say about the story is that there are an abundance of genre cliches (it very desperately wants to be Dead Space 4) and that certain reveals happen far too late in the story to be impactful.

The strange thing about the Callisto Protocol is that many of its problems come about in the latter half of the game. In the beginning, the game is all tension and horror, building up the feeling of dread and keeping the hairs on the back of your neck standing as you wonder what lies behind each corner. Then, in the second half, the game takes a sharp turn into absurdist action and constant fighting, making the protagonist feel more like Kratos than Isaac Clarke. It almost feels as if two different teams worked on the first and second halves of Callisto, and you’re better off starting the game and not finishing it.

Our The Callisto Protocol review was written based on the PC version of the game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website!