The Callisto Protocol, we analyze the trailer of the Summer Game Fest of the successor of Dead Space
The Callisto Protocol
If we have learned anything from this Summer Game Fest it is that modern software houses obviously love developing horror. If those horror games are hugely inspired by Dead Space and led by members of the original team, then, so much the better.Obviously this is the case with The Callisto Protocol, as good Glen Schofield (game director and executive producer of Dead Space) attended the stage, boldly showing not only a new trailer, but also some healthy ultraviolent gameplay. Now, the intent of the good Glen was crystal clear from the start: to create a spiritual successor to Visceral Games horror, more faithful than ever to the formula so loved by the fan base at the time; yet we must admit that we expected something more surprising from the gameplay shown, especially from a new team led by a veteran with a very respectable pedigree in the industry.
The Callisto Protocol, on the other hand, seemed to want to refer to its "ancestor" almost 100%, so much so that it seems almost an integral part of the original series. Some gems in the gameplay revealed, however, have been noticed, in addition to a technical sector of a certain level.
Today we try to analyze the trailer of the Summer Game Fest of The Callisto Protocol, the successor of Dead Space
No more unknown, much more horror
The Callisto Protocol Considerato born from an offshoot of what are now PUBG Studios, The Callisto Protocol was originally supposed to be set (very distantly) in the PUBG: Battlegrounds universe, but recently the publisher must have realized how absurd the connection was and he decided to abandon everything to focus on a separate universe.The game then takes place in 2320 in a prison located on Jupiter's moon called Callisto, also known as "the dead moon", where our alter ego - a prisoner named Jacob, apparently so unfortunate as to ending up there by chance and being captured after a crash - he suddenly finds himself free due to the chaos resulting from the transformation into monsters of most of the inmates.
Considering that the monstrosities that roam Callisto are anything but friendly, the good Jacob decides to arm himself fully and seek a life of escape as soon as possible, perhaps even investigating what really happened in the meantime. And ok, it won't have the charm of the narrative background of Dead Space and its mysterious monoliths, but as you can well guess it is more than enough basis to insert a random poor guy in a claustrophobic metal hell full of monsters ready to escape. every hole.
The Callisto Protocol And the atmosphere is unmistakable: the silences, the scarcity of lighting, the movements of the monsters ... everything is seriously reminiscent of Dead Space. Oh my God, maybe even too closely, given that the gameplay shown once again emphasizes the dismemberment, thanks to clearly complex enemy hitboxes separated into several parts, which allow you to cripple them with precise blows to the legs or make them less dangerous by slicing off the limbs . Hard at the moment to say if, unlike the Visceral title, here the dismemberment represents only an alternative to the good old shots to the head, however considering the focus on this type of elimination shown during the demo we find it difficult. If nothing else, the combat characteristics don't seem to stop there.
Death around every corner
The Callisto Protocol During the demo, in fact, in addition to a pistol extremely similar to the plasma gun - with much of a linear sight designed to facilitate strikes to the limbs - a weapon called The Grip was shown, which functions as a mix between the Stasis Gun and a gravity rifle. In practice it immediately attracts enemies and paralyzes them and then hurls them at a long distance, and it seems very useful for warding off particularly aggressive monsters or to take advantage of another feature of the title: environmental dangers.The maps of the game contain after all, potentially lethal objects and traps; during a combat phase Jacob throws one of the game's "space zombies" into a moving turbine, obtaining an inevitable smoothie in a few seconds, and it only takes a handful of moments for him to be eliminated inside a similar object nearby afterwards an enemy shoulder. This choice adds a bit of additional tactics to the combat and it wouldn't surprise us if there were other weapons in the game capable of moving enemies in a similar way to the one just described.
The Callisto Protocol Another gem of the title is the presence of hand-to-hand weapons, given that Jacob seems at least more knowledgeable in the fight than Isaac and does not disdain eliminations through a bit of healthy blows, aided by a sort of electric baton. Executions by stomping or brutal final blows are clearly an integral part of the experience here as well. Difficult to fully assess the rest, yet from the trailer it seems at least that the behavioral routines of the enemies are quite complex. They move like obsessed, and change patterns of movement and speed based on the limbs lost. They also seem to have the ability to load, and boast a minimum of diversification even among the basic types.
And the technical sector? Well, at the moment it seems very respectable, with excellent animations, a level of detail that cannot be underestimated, and the clever choice of an interface reduced to a minimum (another element taken in weight by Dead Space, with lots of bullets remaining clearly visible on the weapons and colored waist indicator on the protagonist's neck). Only stumbles a couple of noticeable drops in frame rate during the action, fairly worrying considering that the game will be released at the end of the year. However, there is plenty of time to optimize performance for launch and what we have seen gives us some confidence.
The Callisto Protocol gameplay seemed solid to us and, despite an almost morbid attachment to the original concept of Dead Space, the title of Schofield and his new team seems to have the quality necessary to stand on his legs. Will it manage to be as distressing and atmospheric as its predecessor today? We'll find out just by trying it, but it's not long before launch.
