“The Callisto Protocol” is a third-person survival horror game developed by Striking Distance Studios and published by Krafton, released for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC/Steam.

The game stars Jacob Lee, a cargo pilot who is making a delivery to the “Black Iron” prison, located on the Callisto Moon, and finds himself in a complicated situation that leads him to be arrested and confined in prison. Upon awakening, the prison is infested with monsters known as “Biophages.” Jacob needs to figure out what’s going on as well as get out of there.

“The Callisto Protocol” came with the proposal of being a scary game with engaging gameplay like a great classic of the survival horror genre, “Dead Space”. And this does not happen by coincidence, because the director of “The Callisto Protocol” is Glen Schofield, who was also an executive producer of the first “Dead Space”.

And a very important piece of information for this review: We analyzed the PS4 version, which was already updated to version 1.07.

Good setting and sound design; simple storytelling and exploration

“The Callisto Protocol’s” setting and aesthetics are heavily influenced by “Dead Space”, focusing on claustrophobic scenarios inside spaceships, prisons, and caves. The settings and character models are very beautiful, even in the PS4 version.

This is followed by great sound design, both environmental and sound effects, whether from your movement, your weapons, the sound of combat, or enemy attacks.

“The Callisto Protocol” is a game with a linear campaign, with beautiful cutscenes and a great performance by Josh Duhamel as Jacob (he participated in several Transformers films), as well as Karen Fukuhara in the role of Dani Nakamura (known as Kimiko from The Boys Series).

The Callisto Protocol actors — Picture: Courtesy

With a campaign that can vary between 11 and 15 hours, “Callisto’s” story has its moments but fails to stand out among the many narrative-focused games that have come out in recent years. It also ends up having a lot in common with other similar games with themes of outbreaks and monsters, such as “The Last of Us”, “Resident Evil”, and “Dead Space” itself.

Unfortunately, the linear campaign provided almost no exploration: there are few options for what to do other than follow corridors, face enemies, follow more corridors, pick up any collectibles, use some items to open a door here and there, face enemies, and follow more corridors. Doing this for almost 15 hours makes the game predictable and likely to make its second half boring, both for the player and for those watching.

The game also has no post-game content, no New Game+, no chapter selection, and therefore no incentive to replay it.

The Callisto Protocol’s Narrative and Combat are affected by poor performance

The combat in “The Callisto Protocol” is what most differs from its inspiration, as here the focus is on hand-to-hand combat, where firearms are used as a combat aid.

You have access to a stick from the start, and as you progress, you’ll acquire new firearms as well as the possibility of upgrading all of this equipment.

Combat is typically one-on-one, and you must dodge attacks while waiting for the enemy to open his guard in order to retaliate with a more powerful counterattack, eventually allowing you to finish with firearms for massive damage. This combat is initially pretty fun.

However, there is a big problem in combat, when you have to face more than one enemy at the same time. In addition to combat not giving much flexibility to change targets during clashes, it is heavily affected by performance.

This is where the main problem of the entire game comes in: its performance.

PS4’s “The Callisto Protocol” (as well as the Xbox One versions) is riddled with performance issues and bugs. It takes a long time to load everything. Loads after starting the game or a checkpoint take about 35-50 seconds. And after that, sometimes there are still scenarios not loaded.

Sharp drops in FPS occur when fighting with more than one enemy.

Despite the game running at 30FPS on PS4 Pro, all cutscenes are locked at 24FPS, greatly hindering immersion and fluidity.

The loading delay is very frustrating in a game where you can die several times trying to get through a difficult part. As well as FPS dropping during combat, you can often die due to poor performance that is not your fault.

As of this review, not even the PS4 version’s trophies are working correctly. It is not possible to upload them to PSN and therefore add them to your profile. To be able to view them, it is necessary to access the list offline.

The Callisto Protocol

PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series (2022)

Performance

Streamability

Audience Engagement

Replayability

Summary

“The Callisto Protocol” on PS4 is a game that suffers from poor performance. Despite its simple narrative and exploration, the combat could initially prove to be a strong point to keep the player’s or the public’s attention, but the lack of fluidity of the custcenes, the frequent FPS drops, and the delay in loading make everything frustrating due to poor optimization for eighth generation consoles.