The Callisto Protocol Reviews
The Callisto Protocol is an atmospheric graphics blender that can only compete with Dead Space in a playful way.
Review in German | Read full review
The Callisto Protocol could have borrowed a few more lessons from its spiritual inspiration, and further refined its mechanics to make a game that plays as good as it looks.
The Callisto Protocol is an excellent game while it lasts, but it's missing important features that would have propelled it to the next level.
The Callisto Protocol brings high-def sci-fi horror to current-gen consoles, but it suffers from a lack of dynamic gameplay ideas outside of its gore.
Gory and moody, The Callisto Protocol doesn't mess with the survival horror formula, instead embracing all its beats and clichés to tell a grim sci-fi tale that drips with menace.
AAA-class SF horror game that appeared after a long time. The lingering story created among people who have turned into bizarre monsters is the attractive element of the game. The battle balance and level design are somewhat disappointing, but it is still a fun enough game.
Review in Korean | Read full review
This breakout horror game stumbles occasionally, but it still stands tall as a thrilling survival-horror experience.
The Callisto Protocol is a modest starting point for what I hope will flourish into another heavy-hitting horror franchise. It's gory and gratuitous, with an endlessly satisfying combat system. But the lack of enemy variety scares, and surprises, even if engaging, stop it from being the horror game masterpiece it's trying to be. Despite all of its shortcomings, it's an immensely enjoyable romp that's left me desperate for more.
The Callisto Protocol is violent and brutal, with stunning visuals, but it's intimacy causes a few problems that are hard to be overlooked.
Certainly a "good first" for Striking Distance Studios
Review in Italian | Read full review
Though it starts off on a strong note, The Callisto Protocol's focus on action-heavy spectacles fails to adequately explore its horror and overcrowds its weak combat mechanics.
A spiritual successor to Dead Space that blends and riffs on ideas from the best horror games of recent years, with plenty of blood and guts to go around, though a lacklustre plot is its one minor flaw.
The Callisto Protocol might be treading familiar ground, but it does so with such mastery that it turns it to sacred ground. It perfects the goals that Dead Space first set out to achieve, reaching the peak of the survival horror genre when it comes to gameplay, art direction, storytelling, and — of course — horror.
Dead Space comparisons are impossible to avoid - but while The Callisto Protocol's missing some of the depth and tension, it makes up for it with production value and bloody-minded fun.
Considering that it is the first work by Striking Distance Studios, the level reached by The Callisto Protocol is certainly very high. We are looking at one of the best audio-visual experiences of this generation, surrounded by gameplay that is anything but trivial and a truly noteworthy atmosphere.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Callisto Protocol is the best start for a new survival horror series to date. Schofield, Papoutsis and the other veterans at Striking Distance Studios have managed to create a new nightmare with a very bright future ahead.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Callisto Protocol delivers the violence, intensity and horror that lives up to its Dead Space predecessor, but with deeper strategic combat. However, a clichéd story and lack of original ideas means that it has one tentacle stuck in the past.
This isn’t to say there isn’t a good game oozing within the sticky flesh of this Frankenstein, though; it just feels like it’s not what Striking Distance wanted it to be. It’s not the next step in horror gaming, the evolution of Dead Space, or a proposition unlike anything you’ve seen before – it’s the opposite. An amalgam, less than the sum of its parts, whose main focus becomes overwrought and frustrating by the time you’re halfway through its short run-time. The scariest thing about The Callisto Protocol, sadly, is all the potential that’s been wasted on a small moon in Jupiter’s orbit.
A fantastic looking game that builds a great sci-fi world only to trash it with an unenjoyable combat challenge.
A horror that does not bring new elements to the genre and suffers from several conceptual problems, although not so serious as to reject the experience as a whole.
Review in Italian | Read full review