TEST of The Callisto Protocol: an old

The year is ending soon, Christmas is approaching and it’s freezing cold in Normandy (but not only huh). A dog time that pushes us more to laze in front of our TV, to watch films and series, but also to work a little to deliver our tests of new releases. And our last evenings, we spent them in the company of The Callisto Protocol. A survival-horror to have absolutely in your toy library as long as you are receptive to the genre?

All I Want For Christmas is The Callisto Protocol

In the year 2320 on Callisto, Jacob Lee, an experienced pilot and incidentally hero of this adventure, is commissioned to transport a secret cargo (suspense music). Bad luck, by going to check a malfunction in the ship that transports the goods, our character realizes that a part is on fire and that a simple fire extinguisher will not be enough to extinguish it. And inevitably, it ends with a crash on the dead moon of Jupiter. Still in the shoes of the accident, Jacob Lee is rescued by a security guard from the prison of Black Iron. Finally rescued is a big word. Without knowing why, the guard escorted by robots changes tone, handcuffs our conveyor and sends him to recover from his emotions in zonzon with a certain Dani Nakamura.

Jacob will then have to make plans to get out of it, especially since after a small hallucination caused by the device that has been implanted in his neck, everything goes into a spin. The penitentiary is on fire and blood, invaded by creatures – called Biophages – which do not have the mouths of lucky charms, and the escape therefore promises to be complicated. This is the starting pitch for The Callisto Protocol, and as usual, the idea is not to spoil the plot.

But does it hold up at least? For a survival horror, yes. Not original for a penny, the scenario is also in line with the old horror sci-fi productions that we could have in the 90s. Consequently, it follows without displeasure from the moment we know where the we set foot. Only downside perhaps, the keys to the story are quickly distributed on the very last part, in addition to the tracks released via character bios or audio logs. Again, it’s an old-fashioned spring but better executed than elsewhere (hello Resident Evil Village).

Alien, The Thing and Event Horizon have a child

Even with only one level accessible during our preview, we immediately detected the full potential of The Callisto Protocol in terms of horrific atmosphere. Well, we’re glad to see that our early judgment was correct. Without ever trying to be the scariest game ever designed, or else it would be a bit of a miss for once, the title enjoys a high quality atmosphere and a no less delicious staging. Some passages are a little marred by not always crazy effects, like atmospheric smoke, but it’s rare enough not to tarnish the experience.

The game is full of super cool shots that highlight the horror of Jacob Lee’s journey. We get a little stressed, at least at first, when we enter a conduit, when a protagonist disappears and gets sucked in by a monster, when an opponent appears out of nowhere, or sometimes, just with a sound. And for good reason, the sound design and spatialization are fantastic. We identify perfectly if a creature is above, on the sides, or if it comes dangerously close to our position by rushing like mad with the help of conduits and walls to reach us.

The atmosphere of The Callisto Protocol also owes its success to the work of the developers obviously, but also, and in large part, to the influences which helped to build it and which permeate each section of the software. We instantly think of Event Horizon (perhaps the only film almost salvageable by Paul WS Anderson), Alien or even The Thing by maestro John Carpenter. But not only.

How to talk about the game and issue an opinion without also citing Dead Space? Impossible when you know that the creator is the director of this new franchise, and that in addition, DS is everywhere, all the time. The bloody writings “Cut off their limbs” who become “Shoot the Tentacles”, the monitoring of our life via a mechanism that is behind our character, the mutating critters (also furiously reminiscent of Resident Evil 4), a scene where we are locked up with enemies until a door unlocks, the feeling of the fights or even the trampling finish move to get rid of our opponents forever, etc. But is it so disturbing? No, and these similarities were even expected. During our adventure, Resident Evil also often came to mind, perhaps also because The Callisto Protocol has this old school feeling that sweats from every pore. It would lack more than puzzles to be totally at home.

Brutality and gore for a tripaille cocktail

Fortunately, the success of The Callisto Protocol is not only due to its atmosphere, otherwise the whole thing would quickly collapse. Striking Distance Studios’ game stands out a bit from the mass of survival horror with its gameplay and more particularly the hand-to-hand combat aspect. Like Isaac Clarke from Dead Space, Jacob Lee can defend himself with a proximity weapon, here an electric baton. But unlike DS, it’s really THE important mechanic of the title to the point where teams had declared that close encounters counted for 50%. The skirmishes are based on a system of combos, alternating classic and heavy melee attacks, and dodges via the L joystick. Depending on the direction of an enemy’s blow, all you have to do is avoid it by moving the stick left or right at the right time. By upgrading this metal staff, it will even be possible to block attacks and then grab the opening window to retaliate.

But you should also know that melee attacks can and should be combined with weapons (pistol, shotgun, machine gun, etc.). Each combo makes it possible to automatically make a blue target appear on the enemy, synonymous that it is necessary to shoot him above to maximize the damage which can be critical. A “Strategic Targeting System” that also repels the opponent to briefly let us breathe. A mechanism that is very useful when several critters want our skin, especially when we hit a biophage and one of its congeners hears us and decides to come back to defend it. The brawls are therefore intense and resolutely brutal.

We not only feel the power of the blows inflicted through the controller – even if the use of the DualSense could have been more nuanced -, with the effort that this requires of the hero, but we also see it. Whether it’s with a club, a weapon or when you trample an enemy, it’s an extremely enjoyable hemoglobin festival. A little sadistic on the edges, and we thank them for it, the developers have applied this same ferocity to our own deaths which will be repeated as the software knows how to be intransigent at times, even in normal. As soon as a creature grabs us to spread our jaws or cut us in two, we experience the pain of Jacob. At least the viewing of real shock sequences by the teams will not have been for nothing. Overall, the opponents are quite tough and very aggressive, except for a certain race copied and pasted from The Last of Us, less intelligence with infiltration sequences therefore missed. However, a pity not to have been more daring in the bestiary precisely, and above all, to have had a little too much recourse to recycling.

Half-Life 2 X Dead Space (again) = The Callisto Protocol

Hand-to-hand combat also has another purpose: to save our ammunition. For our part, playing almost all the time with the melee attack system, which leads to combos and strategic targeting, and dodging, we never really struggled. Except in the last part where, oddly, the game was much more resource-stingy. And inevitably, it’s this whole segment, which doesn’t last very long, that convinced us the most. Because for the first time, even using the combat mechanics, we had this stress of thinking that we were going to run out of ammo.

As said above, the stun baton can be boosted with new features, upon spending Callisto Credits. A currency found on trampled corpses, on tables and other decorative items, or by reselling valuable contraband items. And the same for weapons. To do this, you will have to go to the Forge, a state-of-the-art 3D printer that creates modules for our equipment (larger charger, increased damage) or even blasters if you find the manufacturing diagrams. Nothing very thrilling in the weapons, it’s very classic, but the sensations are once again there with a good result when you press the trigger. On the other hand, we appreciate less the wobbly system chosen to switch from one weapon to another which is sold as “fast” when this is not the case. In some of the most intense situations, it can be painful and cost us an extra death for nothing.

The other star of The Callisto Protocol gameplay is the GRP gravity weapon. Striking Distance Studios took Half-Life 2 as well as Dead Space and put them in a shaker to give birth to the result that you will see in game. This arsenal takes the form of a glove that can grab items from the environment (crates , gas canisters…) to make them projectiles, but also enemies. Imagine pinning down an opponent, sucking them into you, then ending up sending them flying over a wall of spikes? Bah it’s like for the rest: totally exhilarating.

To warn of an imbalance, the gauntlet works on batteries that we pick up on the ground, in chests or on the remains of creatures. They can auto-recharge very slowly or be replaced manually by browsing through inventory. But be careful to monitor the consumption, because when its energy is exhausted, the magnet that attracts enemies and objects will be HS. In the event that this happens, the game will itself draw a backup battery from your equipment bag. The accumulation of all these mechanics allows the game to have more solid confrontations than usual with a bit more strategy and to clearly free itself from Dead Space.