The Callisto Protocol is one of the games that has been stalking the halls of Gamescom 2022, and has confirmed its post-launch plans.
The Callisto Protocol Confirms A Year of Post-Launch Support, Plus More Gamescom Details
Fans of the Survival Horror genre have tons to look forward to, withResident Evil 4 Remakenext year and The Callisto Protocol this December. The latter, being developed by Striking Distance Studios led by industry veteran Glen Schofield, is a true spiritual successor to EA’s Dead Space Series.
Since then, no other game has totally captured the isolated feeling of deep space horror (well, except for Alien Isolation). The Dead Space games, while still true survival horror, empowered players as they were far from helpless.
The Callisto Protocol Gamescom Info
The Callisto Protocol was one of the games that was featured heavily at this Gamescom conference back in August. Producer Glen Schofield himself was happy to answer questions with the press, and talked about some things regarding combat.
Melee, Stealth, and Ranged combat will be doled out all in equal parts in The Callisto Protocol. Protagonist and prisoner Jacob Lee is at the center of an infectious outbreak in Callisto, one of Jupiter’s many moons.
As a prisoner, he won’t have access to a full armory of weapons at his disposal. He will have to make do with what he can scavenge. The Callisto Protocol will feature “sandbox” combat in the sense that players will have multiple options on dishing out violence.
Our Little Box of Horrors
Lee will have access to small firearms, various melee weapons, and the GRP which is basically this game’s version of Kinesis dialed up to 11. Since melee and ranged weapons are self-explanatory, we will be focusing a lot on the GRP and how it can be used in creative ways.
Unlike Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol will allow players to pull and push live enemies towards and away from them. These hapless foes can then be thrown off railings, or even better, into precariously positioned meat grinders and fan blades.
In fact, certain monsters can even be used as makeshift temporary meat shields. However, this isn’t meant to last, as flesh is weak. Other foes can tear these meat shields to shreds, effectively only allowing us a moment’s respite against their claws and acid attacks.
Players will also be able to manipulate more objects in the environment, versus Dead Space’s sharp poles and loot crates. Random objects placed in the world can be picked up with the GRP and flung at enemies. While these won’t do too much damage compared to more conventional weaponry, in a pinch and when you have no ammo, anything is viable.
Manipulating objects and enemies can be used offensively, defensively, or as crowd control to slow down foes. A surprising amount of love and care has gone into perfecting the game’s physics engine to make the GRP feel satisfying. Aside from the speed and momentum at which bodies travel when you grab them, they also feel “heavy”.
The Callisto Protocol’s Hellspawn
Speaking of enemies, another unique feature of The Callisto Protocol is that certain foes can actually mutate on the fly. Dying foes that have been backed into a corner let out roars and expose their tentacles in a last-ditch effort to mutate. This creates tense situations wherein you must strategically take out enemies lest they become uncontrollable and overwhelm you.
Schofield is extremely proud of The Callisto Protocol’s enemy design in particular. Some of his favorites are “Two Head” and “The Blind” enemies. Two Head is the figure included in the Collector’s Edition and is basically a horrific mutation that includes two heads in one body. The Blind is a foe that sticks itself to walls with horrible ichor, is extremely deadly, but tends to slumber. These foes will force the player to change playstyles as waking up one Blind will wake them all up.
Post-Launch Support
Mark James, Striking Distance Studio’s CTO, told TrueAchievements in an interview on Gamescom that the team is committed to treating the game as a “full-service”. This means that The Callisto Protocol will definitely have DLC lined up for at least a full year.
The nature of these DLC, however, is still shrouded in mystery. James intentionally leaves his answers ambiguous, stating that the world of The Callisto Protocol is definitely expandable, and can continue to house many stories to come.
Some options would be to have different perspectives during the prison outbreak. We could get a mode wherein we would have even more limited combat options, for example, have the player take the role of maintenance crew or engineer (like Isaac Clarke). Or a horde mode, but we have enough of that already in other horror games.
In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Scream
The Callisto Protocol will release on December 2 of this year. It will be available on PC, and the PlayStation and Xbox ecosystems. Price ranges from $59.99 to $69.99 on PlayStation 5.
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