This is my review for Calisto Protocol, I did NOT roll credits on this game, if you're interested to see why keep reading! Just a reminder I did NOT finish this game. 

 

Calisto Protocol; Just one of the MANY reasons why “New releases' ' or Triple A title games with a 60-75 USD price range, should no longer be the norm. With competeros, such as Horizon Forbidden West, Elden ring and even God Of War Ragnarok, in my opinion, this game shouldn't even be in the same sentence let alone the same price range. Its interesting world building and its hard to master yet easily addictive combat couldn't make up for its lackluster story and absolute SNOOZE-fest set of characters, so 2d I felt as if I'd give myself a paper cut. You're thrown into this dark cave where wonders lie and jewels of all sorts are hidden in the rough, but they dont give you the damn flashlight. Within minutes of play time I already knew what type of characters I was dealing with, the boring kind, trauma affects them very lightly and since its the story they kinda just roll with it. Really? We’re not gonna take a few more minutes on that HARD character developing moment?  After a few hours of gameplay that was only achieved by liking the combat and secret areas I kinda just put my control down and sighed asking myself “This was $75? Seriously?” popped the disk out and decided to return it to my local game store. 3.5/10. 

 

A game that was led on by its horrific gore and its ominous combat was entirely a let down for me. It is a survival horror game with “a sense of constant impending doom, where enemies lurk behind every corner and you're armed with whatever you can find and scrounge up. You face undeserved punishment for a crime you have no idea about. And you're stuck in a kill or be killed scenario. Can you scrounge up materials? Can you defend yourself? Can you get out sane?? Can you get out alive?”

 

Callisto Protocol, is a survival horror game with a beautiful atmosphere and creepy build up in an interesting world. Where the audio is immersive and the combat interesting, somehow the characters and story were forgotten in the sand. The protagonist, Let's call him Jake, because to be honest I can’t even remember his real name. Jake is such a 2D character it hurts my brain. With little to no interesting dialogue even when someone close to him is badly injured or even if he sustains significant trauma, it's just an unblinking white male in a world of interesting and scary good detail. Within the first five minutes of play though I had so many questions about the world, about this “virus” about the ship's cargo and I feel as if it's thrown directly out the window with 0 remorse. So many of my questions went fully unanswered, and honestly after a few hours it had me sighing in frustration and had me put my controller down for the last time after 5 hours of play time and no credits to be found.  Even with my love of the world building and even interesting combat mechanics I cannot rate Calisto protocole any higher than a 3.5/10 

 

I’ll Start with the ONLY part of the game I enjoyed: 

World building

 

You, the character, are thrown into this vast universe where space travel is effortlessly done, from moons to fully fledged planets. You watch the news channel and it shows this deadly virus, spreading quickly, mutating the people of “Terra” And they do not black screen at any point. You are shown the gore and what this virus is capable of. But it's cut short by the pilot who turns it off to save their appetite, and right there is where my attention was captured. What is this virus?? How will people stop it??  The direction they could've taken at that point, was ENDLESS. fully opened for them to explore whatever they decided. Space crafts are easily obtainable and after a little bit of gameplay you see fully fledged robots, with that I grew even more excited. And that's it. You're forced to a second location that is completely cut from the rest of the world. No mystery for you! No answered questions, just boring gameplay recycled over and over again to retrieve A item to get to B location to talk to C person.

 

The Combat

For all my groaning the combat was actually really interesting and a cool take on the close combat systems. With dodging instead of blocking for the early game, and difficult opponents I actually really enjoyed the combat! Well at least for a few hours, after that it got quite tedious, weave, hit, weave, shoot, weave, hit. Move on. Yawn…With upgradeable weapons and more guns to choose from and upgrade with, I was excited to try more of the combat. But sadly It was more or less the same overall idea. Enemies were blatantly reused over and over and there wasnt much of a variety. Bosses felt like bigger versions of the enemies you were already defeating. Even on the harder difficulties it still felt as if as long as i had my finger on the thumbstick in one direction, it was kinda a 50/50 on getting hit. As well as one on one fights can be interesting but with more than 1 enemy, it felt extremely unbalanced. None the less the combat I was able to review and actually play was interesting but redundant to say the least.

 

The Characters:

Here we go, I’ve been trying my best to stay positive but holy fuck.

With a $75 price tag and a release dangerously close to GoWR, I expected, not up to par, but at least on the same playing field, and with that I was disgustingly disappointed. The characters are extremely two dimensional, with dialogue explaining the location you are at with tips on what to do, and that's it. Your partner in crime, your eyes and ears are a person who has been at said location for a while, guiding you to locations to gather certain materials and talk to certain people. If he knows the area so well…why the fuck didnt he just go himself? There's absolutely no  drive from these characters to even try and figure out what happened. Just lets get the fuck out! Which totally makes sense. But it seems all so non urgent.

Don't even get me started on the first 5 minutes of the game. 

The character endures some pretty heavy traumas, news and events, and it feels as if he's thrown into them so quickly he's not able to process anything. Hell even YOU the player are thrown from scene to scene with little to no time to even process what the fuck is going on none the less the character! There's absolutely NO time to even register what has happened to this crucial character. Hell I don't even care about him because all I know is he flies spaceships. And he makes bad decisions for money. Uhhh okay? 

 

Optimization

I decided to play this game on my Playstation 5 console, which is still fairly new! And wow, what a disappointing release. I spoke to friends who had played the game and one out of 5 hadnt had issues. And while I'm writing this it seems as if they are pushing updates out. But people, youre spending $75 for a game, you shouldnt need updates for the game to fuckin run.

With poor frame rate in most areas even for a mostly closed and obviously carved path I was still getting some pretty shocking cuts and glitches including the audio portions of the “general” and even my partner. Within 5 hours of game time, with no blocking of the vents and no issues with other games prior, TCP crashed twice. Was glitchy and had too many cuts in audio and frame drops. Unacceptable.

 

The Story

Read Characters. Because wow what an abomination. With later research I'm glad I didn't put any more time into the game. Disappointing.

 

My thoughts:

Wow, just wow. I noticed the more I wrote the more upset I got. And that's not just for TCP. It's for gaming in general, as I'm searching other reviews, I'm seeing lots of positives and or recommended, with the words, “It's alright” In my opinion. When spending $75 for a triple A, anticipated game with heavy marketing “Eh its alright” Shouldnt be the norm, and it especially shouldn't be a positive review or even a recommendation for that matter. Yes, I am being extremely harsh to this game and it isn't just the bad story or the insane price range, I mean Yes that's the main reason but also, this shows what gaming is becoming. Pumping out mass hype products for an “its alright” with paid DLC, Collectors Editions and the Base Price being $75! 

 

In Conclusion:

I do not at all recommend this game. It not only has zero tension, heart, feelings or any human emotions attached to it, but it also displays what companies are trying to mass produce, with preorder sales and collectors editions and a $75 entrance fee, for an unfinished, buggy game with nothing but an interesting world? 

Absolutely Not.

Yes, The world is interesting. And so is the haunting atmosphere; However, The characters, The combat, The Story hell even the optimization are disgustingly low quality.