He certainly cuts the tension a tad more than I would like, but The Callisto Protocol's atmosphere is so unsettling that it claws its way back under your skin quickly enough. So far, Jacob seems to match the energy of the male survival-horror protagonists we've seen in recent years, often speaking to himself when figuring out where to go for his next objective or cursing out the monsters he's going up against following an especially harrowing encounter. ' gets thrown into prison just before this outbreak and it's kind of stunning for him,' Striking Distance Studios CEO Glen Schofield told me, following an hour and a half of time with the game during a preview event.

Now Playing: The Callisto Protocol: Next-Gen Horror | Summer Game Fest 2022 Interview

Regardless of his reasons for being there, Jacob quickly finds himself needing to escape as a deadly infection sweeps Black Iron, transforming the former human inhabitants into monstrous mutations referred to as biophages.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Why Jacob is being held there hasn't been revealed. The Callisto Protocol breaks that mold, amping its tension by encouraging you to aggressively deal with whatever gross monster you're fighting.ĭeveloped by Striking Distance Studios, The Callisto Protocol sees you play as Jacob Lee, who's being kept in Black Iron, a prison located upon Callisto, one of Jupiter's moons. Many survival-horror games keep the monsters more than an arm's length away, allowing you to keep them at bay with a handgun, plasma cutter, camera, or some other manner of clicking-and-shooting.

The Callisto Protocol stands out in what it does differently, in which it injects a compelling melee combat system into a survival-horror game. The setting and enemy designs are certainly unnerving but in a way I've seen before, and there is a sense of comfort in that familiarity. Despite looking a whole lot like the spiritual successor to Dead Space, I was surprised by how little The Callisto Protocol terrified me.

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