The Callisto Protocol (2022)

[DeathKnight]

Reviews are all over the place...

https://opencritic.com/game/13372/the-callisto-protocol

Will wait to play it much later when it gets cheap and/or eventually Game Pass. The developer claimed they don't see it as a Game Pass game, but if interest falls off a cliff, especially after the Dead Space remake releases next year, they may cave and release to Game Pass sooner rather than later.

[KAC]

Yes this looks like it will make it to gamepass. Gonna play then.

[Lazy8s]

The combat is what kills it for me so far. Just for comparison, Dead Space’s combat was simple, had serious weight behind it and was super effective and satisfying. This feels like they added needless and annoying ducking and dodging that feels mandatory at times, just because….maybe to try to differentiate it from Dead Space a bit. I don’t know, but it doesn’t work for me.

It looks insanely good, but game play > graphics….

[MNB4800]

Way too much stutter that I am comfortable with. Refunded. Will buy when it is actually fixed.

[DeathKnight]

Yes this looks like it will make it to gamepass. Gonna play then.

Now that I think about it, Sony has the marketing rights to this game. Not sure for how long. That means no Game Pass until at least the end of that contract since they forbid its release on competing subscription services.

[Mangler]

We’re aware that some users are experiencing stuttering issues on the PC. We’ve got a patch that will be available in a few hours to improve performance, with a number of additional updates on the way.

https://twitter.com/CallistoTheGame/status/1598732338133110784?cxt=HHwWgMDUleql668sAAAA

[Sundance Kid V2]

I’m about an hour in. It runs and looks great on the PS5, but just based on gameplay alone I recommend passing on this one. So far it’s just annoying and tedious.

O jeez. I was thinking of pulling the trigger 2 days ago and buying it. Will wait for discount.

[Lazy8s]

O jeez. I was thinking of pulling the trigger 2 days ago and buying it. Will wait for discount.

Good move. It’s not scary, the combat is just tedious and the story is….kind of nothing at all. Looks great, otherwise, after about 3 hours now, it’s still just a 5 or 6/10. Not even in the same league as Dead Space.

[Sundance Kid V2]

Good move. It’s not scary, the combat is just tedious and the story is….kind of nothing at all. Looks great, otherwise, after about 3 hours now, it’s still just a 5 or 6/10. Not even in the same league as Dead Space.

Ughh. I thought this game was going to rock our world. Dang!!! I will wait for discount. Thank goodness I didn't pull the trigger...

[Lazy8s]

Ughh. I thought this game was going to rock our world. Dang!!! I will wait for discount. Thank goodness I didn't pull the trigger...

I was hoping it would too

[nutcrackr]

New patch on steam removes 95% of the stutter for me. I still get a tiny bit of slowdown in some new areas, but it's not really too bad or frequent. Definitely quite playable now.

I'm not far into it but the handcannon is pretty decent. The melee combat is weird but I'll probably get use to it.

[|MaguS|]

Heard the game has a **** save system, anyone able to comment on it?

[nutcrackr]

Heard the game has a **** save system, anyone able to comment on it?

Saves are pretty regular for me. It seems to save just before big encounters. Maybe they get worse but they're fine atm.

There might be some places where it doesn't save after cutscenes though

[g-a-m-e]

Ok the atmosphere is amazing
The cutscenes look so good i actually enjoy watching them
The graphics are insanely good

The story, not sure yet not that far in.

But i have one gripe so far and it's annoying me:
The game is not really using any resources while fps is not that great.

In the game MENU, it eats more than 300 watts from my GPU
But when PLAYING the game, it barely touches 200 watts (and frames are struggling)

That's with a 4090 and a 13900k

What gives man. If resources were used properly i could even maybe supersample the resolution and have all the eye candy on. That would be epic but utilization seems super bad

[nutcrackr]

Took me 10 hours to beat and I'm pretty sure I explored every side area. Overall I give it about 7/10. Decent enough but a shadow of Dead Space. Biggest disappointments for me are the story, or lack-thereof, and the dull weapons.

[Mangler]

Which dead space is this a spiritual successor to, dead space 1 or the more bombastic/set piece based sequels?

[theshadowcult]

Very clearly dead space 3. only it lacks co-op and actual interesting creativity. Seems like a perfect dead space 4.

[Lazy8s]

Nutcrackr is more forgiving than I am lol. I played about 60-70% of the game and called it quits, but based on that:

Graphics are gorgeous, good looking game for sure, but the environment is almost 95% static. Very little moves or can be interacted with.

The combat - props for trying something different, but movement is so clunky, the combat is nearly identical in each encounter because you fight the developers way, not necessarily your way and it gets tedious fast, very fast.

Weapons are lacking and the enemy encounters - you could predict exactly where you will be attacked 90% of the time, and they all play out in a nearly identical fashion.

Story….the story is just lazy and poorly written. Nothing redeeming about it.

I also make the mistake of buying from Sony, so Massive buyers remorse. From what I played and watched on youtube, I didn’t miss anything new by not completing the game….HUGE buyers remorse. Should have saved that money for the Dead Space remake.

I know not everyone will agree with me and that’s fine, but even after trying hard to find something to keep me going…..nope.

[nutcrackr]

Which dead space is this a spiritual successor to, dead space 1 or the more bombastic/set piece based sequels?

All three maybe? It's got the basic template of the OG but also other elements from the sequels. It's just a general dead space template.

I don't really regret buying it but I also don't think I'd ever want to replay it and, aside from visuals, it doesn't do much to make me recommend it.

[KAC]

I watched Dr Disrespect’s stream of this game. It was so boring and even the dude himself was bored out of his mind. If his sponsors weren’t paying him he would have waltz out of playing the game. I also didn’t like that you had to smash bodies to get more ammo etc out of them. Like wtf, that has got to get old after 1-2 times.

Anyways, not feeling this game and will get it for 10 dolla.

[MNB4800]

After the patch, I went in and bought it again. Indeed it fixed 90% of stutters but I will wait a bit to enjoy it while it is smoother. Though there are bugs related to checkpoint system. Also, FSR doesn't seem to be working correctly. And Ray Tracing seem to have issues. I play it at 4k DL DSR with no ray tracing and all max on my 3090. Looks beautiful.

[theshadowcult]

After the patch, I went in and bought it again. Indeed it fixed 90% of stutters but I will wait a bit to enjoy it while it is smoother. Though there are bugs related to checkpoint system. Also, FSR doesn't seem to be working correctly. And Ray Tracing seem to have issues. I play it at 4k DL DSR with no ray tracing and all max on my 3090. Looks beautiful.

This is how we get ants, do you want ants? No wait, i meant; This is why we can't have nice things!

[MNB4800]

Thing is, the devs expressed that they are working on the bugs and in a short turnaround and they have been delivering so far. As for the gameplay, each can like or hate what they want. I am in it for the atmosphere and setting.

[KAC]

Are they adding "FUN" to the game... and basic stuff like skippable death animations

[Sundance Kid V2]

Yea.. saw Dr Disrepect playing, some other guy also complaining about the fighting .

Nah.. I'm good. Will wait for cheap price.

[theshadowcult]

Haha, first new member and it's a fishing bot.

[nutcrackr]

The death animations are only annoying if you die a lot and for me that only happened with one mini-boss. Medium wasn't difficult at all and I'd almost say it was easy.

Stomping corpses is something that was in Dead Space and I didn't mind it being there as a homage. I don't really like this game enough to defend it much but it's not that bad.

[nutcrackr]

Another patch out today, improves performance even more. Ran through the first hour again and noticed like 2 minor slowdowns. Not sure if I should be impressed they basically fixed it in 5 days or disappointed they didn't have it fixed before release.

[DeathKnight]

One has to wonder what exactly it is a lot of these developers are doing before release. The games always come out with gobs of issues, even on console where there's a set config. Where is the quality control? Buying games on release is rarely worth it anymore yet tons of people still do it.

[Lazy8s]

One has to wonder what exactly it is a lot of these developers are doing before release. The games always come out with gobs of issues, even on console where there's a set config. Where is the quality control? Buying games on release is rarely worth it anymore yet tons of people still do it.

Posted by acroig on the Discord channel.

https://www.thegamer.com/the-callisto-protocol-modern-gaming-hubris-cyberpunk-2077/

That sums up my feelings on the matter, which also echo yours.

I gave in to the hype a day or 2 before release, and jeez, lesson re-learned the hard way.

[acroig]

Don't let Lazy fool you, he loves the game.

[Lazy8s]

Don't let Lazy fool you, he loves the game.

[KAC]

One has to wonder what exactly it is a lot of these developers are doing before release. The games always come out with gobs of issues, even on console where there's a set config. Where is the quality control? Buying games on release is rarely worth it anymore yet tons of people still do it.

I have actually stopped any pre orders and usually am buying games at discount. I am never ready to play when the game is released and it can take me up to a month before I will indulge. Only game I pre ordered was MW2 but only because I had played 2 beta for it and knew I will get my money’s worth (which I have already).

I was super hyped about this game as well but just after watching a few videos it looks like a bargain bin or game pass / playstation plus kind of title for me. I have most subs available to me (game pass for 3 years), PS+ for a year with catalog and also EA 10 hour play crap that I don’t need to pre order anything anymore.

[demo]

Was never really a fan of dead space tbh, more of a doom3 guy. As its a spiritual successor of dead space with QTE style combat I'll wait for discount.

[Chubz]

Just beat it tonight. This is one of those games that you play through once, and pretty much never want to touch again. There's zero replay value here. Repetitive as hell (I feel like I did the same thing in combat from the time I acquired my first gun and the GRP, to the time the game ended), linear as hell, and a majorly forgettable story. The shoddy combat never once grew on me, and it was far too easy to abuse the GRP for insta-kills by chucking enemies into spike traps. The bosses were awful as well, particularly the single, shallow-as-a-puddle miniboss that was recycled ad nauseum near the end of the game. One thing I will say is that the graphics were outstanding, and the sound design rocked as well. Such a gorgeous and awesome-sounding game, let down by literally everything else. When the Dead Space remake drops next month, this game had might as well be wiped from existence.

[g-a-m-e]

I really enjoyed it. Will probably play through it again in a month or so.

[KAC]

Got this on discount for 28 bones including DLC. I am in Habitat level and honestly, I should've just stayed away. The story is so boring I am skipping cutscenes lol. Just brainless killing for a bit. I can't believe this is a game. Having recently played Dead Space remake this game really feels like a joke. I was in a place where you have to wait for some crap to charge up. I kept lifting and throwing zombies in shredders without a single second of tension. It was like hey dumbass, just come closer so I can pick you up and throw you while your idiot friends wait for me to finish animation. Half the time I got killed (maybe 2-4 times) was because I forgot that I had pressed left or right in QTE and repressed it (playing SF6 so mashing buttons has been a thing for a few weeks lol).

I give this game a solid 4 turds / 10.