Striking Distance Studios might not bring any gaming memories to mind, but the name Glen Schofield probably does. The co-creator of The Callisto Protocol is very much in his element having also been the mind behind the Dead Space trilogy. While the new gory space-survival game doesn’t quite live up to the gameplay of Dead Space, there is so much to be excited and entertained by in The Callisto Protocol that it might just be my favorite new-gen game yet. Here are my thoughts after spending time with the Xbox Series X version.

Because I took time to play through the game’s 10-ish hour campaign before this review, I know that others are out there and published. There has been plenty of discourse around The Callisto Protocol’s wonky combat system, shorter-than-desired campaign, and overall lack of solidity. That said, I don’t find myself in a camp with others wishing to point out every element of the game I didn’t like. There are shortcomings, but the overall experience of Callisto is one that I feel very effectively transcends a traditional game into a visceral media experience. Specifically, an experience that matches the best suspense films and horror novels.

The Callisto Protocol launches immediately into a wrongful imprisonment plot that develops into a contagion horror story. You know very little about the character you control and the world itself. Audio companions and lore exist online, but to the player just owning the game, there’s a lot that is unexplained. That doesn’t really change through the game’s campaign. Part of what I enjoyed was that mystery. There is so much you don’t understand while playing the game that you truly feel an enhanced terror in what’s around you.

Like Dead Space, you are in one location trying to survive a frightening array of creature monsters who are out to kill you. To do so, you must manage items carefully by searching through crates and hoping to ration out health and ammo effectively. Luckily, the ammo part is less dire thanks to a heavy focus on melee, particularly early on in Callisto. Using the left stick to dodge attacks, you’re very much working with a combat system that isn’t utilized in many other games, if any. For some, that’s a head-scratching decision on behalf of Striking Distance, but I welcome the change of pace.

That’s not to say it’s all that effective. While gunplay is fairly standard, melee combat is tough to manage via its stick-dodge mechanic because it’s not all that precise. Death after death, I wondered what I was doing wrong only to find that others experienced the same thing. A tough lesson to learn was that it’s not necessarily timing-based, and more so just required you to dodge a certain way when enemies attack. Utilizing a timing or hit-box mechanic would have been much more effective here.

Once you get the ability to use the gravity-driven GRP, however, all bets are off on using weapons creatively. Simply throwing enemies against responsive environmental features makes the late game a breeze. Forget saving ammo, you’re a telekinesis powerhouse! It does work on a charging system, but this is easy to manage. When the combat lets up, you’re left to admire the lighting of scary corridors and freaky prison areas. They’re so well done I almost wish this was more walking sim than a half-baked survival action game.

While the graphics will certainly get overlooked by some for the combat’s shortcomings, I think this is the best-looking new-gen game we’ve seen yet. Because of its dynamic visuals, which recently got a ray tracing update, I find The Callisto Protocol to be an effective horror game. It’s not the most fun you can have while scaring yourself half to death though, since that award is still owned by the Resident Evil franchise. Still, this is a flawed game that looks incredible. Call me old-fashioned, but that makes for a great time.

The 10-hour runtime doesn’t necessarily bother me, but I do wish we got more story and lore explained in-game. There’s more mystery to explore in a future entry to the potential franchise, but in a horrific space dystopia rife with violence and decay, I wanted more fleshed out. Even so, this is a game I think deserves your time if you’re a fan of horror games. It’s not going to be a Dead Space reimagining that some wanted, but it’s a spiritual successor that does just enough to separate itself into an effective project.

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The Callisto Protocol

59.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Incredible horror environments
• Enhanced melee focus is a nice change of pace
• Room to expand into a series

Cons

• Inventory management becomes moot near end-game
• Didn't dig deeply enough into lore and story