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I stick to quitting video games. As a general rule, I always try to get at least credits on the majority of the games I start just to give them every possible chance of winning me over. But the Callisto Protocol really tested my resolve.
The Callisto Protocol is a spiritual successor to Dead Space – one of my all-time favorite gaming franchises – so naturally, my pre-emption was high. But after just a few hours of walking through Black Iron Prison, I was seriously considering leaving the game early. While the atmosphere was pleasantly scary, and the visuals are absolutely stunning on PS5, the unconvincing, unconvincing combat really pushed me to my limits.
However, just when I was about to hit my breaking point and go play something more worthy of my limited free time, I decided to switch the game to easy mode as the last Hail Mary to save my game. I soon found that the Callisto protocol greatly improved when the odds were more in your favor.
Fundamentally flawed experience
The Callisto Protocol does a fair amount of things right. As noted, it has a great sense of atmosphere – playing in the dark with a good pair of headphones is encouraged – and it’s a great display of the power of next-gen consoles. But, unfortunately, as great as it looks and sounds great, its basic gameplay loop could be generously described as ill-judged.
Unlike its obvious Dead Space inspiration, where the focus is on keeping your distance from your mutated enemies so you can strategically remove limbs with a variety of weapons, in The Callisto Protocol melee is the name of the game. As you unlock a variety of firearms, your primary weapon for most of the game is the taser.
The real problems come when encounters with multiple enemies are shown. At this point, the whole system collapses as you try to avoid attacks you can’t even see coming and the protagonist swings wildly at enemies off-screen.
Especially in the early game, where weapons and ammo are in short supply, dispatching terrifying enemies like zombies that you encounter requires you to get up close and personal. The core combat in The Callisto Protocol feels eerily reminiscent of Ubisoft’s medieval action game For Honor as you trade melee blows with enemies. Holding the left stick in either direction while the enemy is swiping you will initiate an evasive move, after which you can follow up with a strike of your own.
When fighting enemies one-on-one, this system is effective, albeit somewhat difficult. The animations don’t flow very well (and switching between weapons is quite cumbersome), but the lack of a timing window on your dodge makes it a chore to avoid attacks after a few minutes of practice. The real problems come when encounters with multiple enemies are shown. At this point, the whole system collapses as you try to avoid attacks you can’t even see coming and the protagonist swings wildly at enemies off-screen.
The focus on melee combat felt ill-judged to me from the start, but once things escalated and I was taking on three, four, or even five enemies at once, the initially tacky combat system became a complete game ruiner. After about four hours, my frustration levels soared that I almost uninstalled the game out of blind rage – a feeling I hadn’t felt since my ill-fated attempt to complete Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice on PS4.
Embrace easy mode
With my impatience running out, I decided to take drastic measures. Up until this point I had been playing The Callisto Protocol on the default difficulty setting but since I felt the game wasn’t fair it seems reasonable to me to even the odds by making myself stronger and the enemies weaker.
When I die in Elden Ring, I always feel like it’s because I did something wrong, while in The Callisto Protocol deaths happen regularly because of corrupt game design that let the player down.
I must stress that I was not originally looking for an easy Callisto take. I love challenging games. Elden Ring is my personal game of the year by a huge margin. But unlike FromSoftware’s latest masterpiece, Callisto’s difficulty feels artificial, resulting from poor combat design rather than deliberate choice. When I die in Elden Ring, I always feel like it’s because I did something wrong, while in The Callisto Protocol deaths happen regularly because of corrupt game design that let the player down.
Fortunately, after switching the game into “minimum security” mode, the whole experience became a lot more bearable. My frustration remained from the close combat, but at least now I could take more damage, and the enemies weren’t able to bug me with the same effect. My quest to escape the dead moon of Jupiter wasn’t entirely smooth sailing, but I was mainly able to brute force my way in as normal enemies struggled to deplete the increasing health bar.
Did this switch to easy mode destroy the sense of tension that most survival horror games thrive on? To be honest, yeah I kind of did. Whereas in a game like Dead Space or Resident Evil you’re constantly terrified about what lurks around the corner, now in The Callisto Protocol I was unaffected by practically every encounter with an enemy. Any fear factor was gone, but that was a trade-off I was willing to make to be able to at least enjoy some of the Callisto Protocol.
But it is not an ideal solution
Unfortunately, switching to easy mode is not a perfect solution to all game issues. Not only do they greatly affect Callisto Protocol’s ability to build effective tension, but some of the game’s most frustrating encounters are unaffected by the change in difficulty.
The perfect example is the game’s final boss. No spoilers here, but the scariest enemy in the game has the ability to shoot you at once on all difficulty levels. Even if it’s easy, he still has the means to get you down in seconds if you make a mistake. Combat is made even more frantic due to the appearance of explosive enemies that can quickly overwhelm. It took me about 30 minutes to beat the final challenge in the match, and to be honest, I didn’t enjoy a single moment of the fight.
And this is perhaps the most frustrating thing about The Callisto Protocol; It often feels like you’re fighting with the game itself rather than the mutated monsters appearing on the screen. Switching to easy mode certainly made my game more tolerable, but I can’t say it completely makes up for the many flaws in the game’s basic design. I’m hoping next year’s remake of Dead Space will give me the sci-fi horror fix I’ve been craving – and I certainly have no intention of playing this game on easy mode.
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