Developed by Striking Distance Studios, The Callisto Protocol is a resoundingly visceral, third-person survival horror adventure that not only lovingly recalls the glory days of similarly grim and dark sci-fi efforts such as Dead Space, but also iterates upon its classic influences in a range of clever ways too. To help you hit the ground running with the shocking spectacle of The Callisto Protocol, we’ve got everything you need to know about the game in our handy guide including the release date, platforms, latest trailer, gameplay details and more.
The Callisto Protocol Release Date, Platforms – When And Where Can I Play It?
The Callisto Protocol release date has been confirmed as December 2, 2022. It’ll be getting a full release on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, as well as PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One platforms. As of this writing, The Callisto Protocol is not slated to release on Nintendo Switch.
The Callisto Protocol – What’s It All About?
Emerging from the blissfully twisted mind of Glen Schofield, the extraordinarily talented fella that helped to bring us the genre defining Dead Space back in 2008, it perhaps shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that The Callisto Protocol bears more than a few similarities to his previous landmark genre effort. Set some 300 years into the future, The Callisto Protocol thrusts players into the space boots of one Jacob Lee, a poor unfortunate that finds himself tossed into the depths of the Black Iron Prison on Callisto, the second largest of Jupiter’s moons. However, it doesn’t take long for the brown stuff to hit the fan and soon Lee’s fellow inmates find themselves mysteriously transformed into massive, hulking monstrosities with a thing for smashing their mates into a fine red paste. Naturally wanting to escape all of those bad vibes The Callisto Protocol follows Jacob as he fights through the murderous biophage horde in a bid to flee Callisto altogether.
The Callisto Protocol Gameplay – How Does It Play?
Taking more than a few leaves out of the book of Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol is a survival horror effort in which the action unfolds from a third-person perspective as players guide and follow Jacob through the depths of Black Iron Prison and the surface of Callisto itself. In The Callisto Protocol, players will find themselves exploring the environment, not only to collect loot and solve some puzzles to gain access to new areas but also to uncover the mystery behind why everyone has suddenly decided to become partial to a bit of the ol’ mutation and murder. Of course when you’re not cutting across the grim depths of the Black Iron Prison and Callisto itself, you’ll be fighting for your life against an increasingly grotesque horde of flesh-twisted mutants that are hellbent on turning poor Jacob into a lump of chunky goo.
How Does The Combat System Work?
Combat in The Callisto Protocol is represented by the application of three different weapon types, melee, ranged and a special gravity cannon known as The Grip. Though melee combat is often the final choice in most survival horror games, The Callisto Protocol instead places a premium on its up and close bouts of violence, equipping players with an electrified baton that can use light and heavy attacks to dissuade the enemy. On a basic level, the melee combat of The Callisto Protocol actually resembles the likes of Dark Souls, as players must first concern themselves with dodging and evading incoming attacks before retaliating with a barrage of their own. In a manner similar to DOOM Eternal, The Callisto Protocol also lets players finish enemies off with a stomp style execution that can provide a wellspring of health, credits and precious ammo just when you need it.
Though firearms exist in The Callisto Protocol, they are both relatively rare and the ammunition that they use is also equally hard to get hold of too. So it makes sense to make every hit count and this is where the skill shots system comes into play. Whenever a successful melee combo has been pulled off, a special target appears on the body of Jacob’s foe, allowing players to unleash a torrent of focused critical damage on a particular limb or part of their enemy, potentially turning the tide of any given fight while also saving a whole heap of ammo in the process.
Finally The Grip offers up a variety of ways for Jacob to messily do away with his enemies in satisfying fashion. Essentially a weaponised gravity gun, The Grip allows Jacob to use the environment in a variety really rather nasty ways to shred and dismember the biophage, such as shooting them into massive industrial fans, firing them off ledges or just depositing their grim forms into the surprisingly numerous meat grinders that are littered around the Black Iron Prison. Beyond such grisly though satisfying applications, The Grip can also be used to fetch precious items and loot that would otherwise be just out of reach. Beware though, each activation of The Grip uses a battery charge and so frugal use is advised as a result.
How Do The Weapon Upgrades Work?
One of the main ways that you’ll stay alive in The Callisto Protocol is by keeping your arsenal appropriately upgraded and thankfully a pretty straightforward system makes it really quite easy to do so. Throughout the Black Iron Prison and beyond Jacob will discover a number of upgrade kiosks. By using the credits looted from fallen foes or looted from secret areas, our wayward hero can upgrade his melee and ranged weapons to focus on particular traits, such as increased ammo capacity, stronger stun effects and more. Easy peasy.
The Callisto Protocol Has A Thing For Death And It Wants You Know It
In embracing its macabre genre underpinnings, The Callisto Protocol is supremely gory and extremely proud of that fact. Not only are there practically hundreds of different death animations for the biophage horde which usually result in a range of splattery dismemberments that’ll have even the most hardened gore fiend grinning with a delight, there’s also a great number of unique death animations for the main protagonist to suffer too. In fact, so proud of the many, many different types of grisly death that poor Jacob Lee can fall foul of, developer Striking Distance Studios has even implemented an achievement which pops when the player has discovered them all.
Where Can I Watch The Latest Trailer For The Callisto Protocol?
Being something of a major milestone in the 2022 gaming calendar, it isn’t terribly surprising that The Callisto Protocol already has a whole host of trailers that have already been released for it. Naturally though, we’ve made sure to nab the very latest trailer for The Callisto Protocol to bring you bang up to date with what you can expect from Striking Distance Studios inaugural title. You can catch the super swish launch trailer for The Callisto Protocol above.
