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My Opinion on The Callisto Protocol

This review was made on 12/15/22 at its current state.
To say that I was ecstatic for Callisto Protocol’s release day is simply an understatement. I had been waiting for this game since they announced it during the summer and was counting down the days until I could get my hands on a copy. I was stoked after hearing that some of the original Dead Space creators were going to be working on the team of Callisto and knew without a doubt in my mind— that Callisto would be a masterpiece. And B O Y, was I wrong!
To start off, I know there are a lot of mixed reviews, but this is just my opinion on the game from my playthrough. I am not biased in any way, shape, or form; I purchased this game with my own money, and all thoughts are my own. I have a lot to say about this game, so let’s jump right into this wonderful cesspool!
Callisto Protocol’s story line was pretty intriguing at first. It became a little confusing as time went on, but all my questions got answered towards the end of the game (sort-of???). Without spoiling too much, it felt very much like a Resident Evil story line and less Dead Space-y. The ending does point towards a possible sequel, which I’m kind of upset about, but I won’t get into the reasoning as it has the possibility of spoiling the story! Pertaining to the story and the characters that you encounter throughout, I never really felt any connection, emotionally, towards any characters. I never really *cared* when something tragic happened to a "vital" character because I didn’t really know them, in a way. It just lacked a lot of possible dialogue or lore between characters to help build a relationship between them. I just felt no bond between the main character, Jacob, and other inconsequential characters.
Ahh, the combat. So interesting, but so f***ing annoying at the same time. You can either fight an enemy one-on-one or be ganked by four different enemies at the same time, resulting in an extremely unfair fight. Leaving you to just be stuck in an infinite death loop or trying to find environmental hazards you can use to your advantage, IF they are available in the room you’re in. The dodging mechanic is a little weird... BUT, I found out about halfway through my playthrough that there is an "auto-dodge" option in the accessibility settings, and it helped a fair bit after I enabled that option. So, if you’re struggling with dodging, I recommend bumping that on!
To be honest, the weapons are pretty generic; you’ll have your hand cannon, shotgun, ARs, etc. It wasn’t anything out of this world, but the reforge (where you craft/upgrade weapons) was a pretty cool station to use, and it was cool to watch weapons be "printed." The weapon that was really cool to use is the GRP weapon, it’s kind of like telekinesis in Dead Space, you can pick up enemies and throw them into environmental hazards (COOL AS F**K) and also throw things at them like flammables/explosives. I had a lot of fun with this weapon!
Some mechanics I wish they had implemented since day 1 is an auto-play on tapes that you pick up. Why should I have to go into my inventory, try to remember who the tape was from, and then find the right tape to listen to? Give me an auto-play, hello?! Another feature that should’ve been added is an objective marker system. I don’t care how you do it; give me a compass on my HUD and my objective marker on the compass. Give me the objective marker line, just like in Dead Space—whatever you want! Just give me an objective marker. I had so many times where I would go the "right" way to progress the story, while I was trying to avoid the right way because I wanted to explore and find lore/ammo/health packs. This drove me up a wall sometimes.
I will say that the game is absolutely gorgeous, but the performance is f***ing horrible. I played on day 1, and it ran okay. I changed from DX 12 to DX 11, and it helped a little, but this game should not have been released in the state that it was. I also have a 3070, and I was playing on high settings. There were moments where I would have to be fighting a boss and running around with 20–30 FPS. It was so infuriating!
The difficulty was DIFFICULT in Callisto. When I tell you this game is HARD. Maybe it was just me, though? I played on medium security, which I guess is like normal difficulty? I usually play games on normal or the second hardest difficulty and don’t struggle too much, but this was a huge challenge. I actually ended up lowering the difficulty after encountering my first boss, and even then, the boss was a huge bullet sponge.

And that’s pretty much all I have to say about The Callisto Protocol. It was quite the experience. Do I recommend this game? To put it simply, no. I do not recommend this game right now. It was rushed, the story wasn’t grabby (it had potential though), and the game just ran horribly almost the whole time. I am extremely disappointed in this game, and it makes me sad to say that because I was really looking forward to it and paid $60 for it. I would recommend it maybe after a year if they continue to update and optimize the game like the developers say they will, or catch it on a sale or something. But don’t pay full price for this game in the state this game is in.
Thanks so much for reading; I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoyed. :)
Rating: 6/10
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