The Callisto Protocol - Spiritual Dead Space successor

[Fierce Poodle]

Far Cry 2 was the pinnacle of FPSs. It’s been downhill ever since then.

[Benny]

Until Ultrakill did a sweet kickflip into a wallride pop shove it 360 ollie wipeout.

[Timmo]

2 hours ago, ZOK said:

You can find tapes where the Jackal is talking to the journalist you meet in the bar at the start of the game. They are really short (not least because the Jackal talks so quickly) but really flesh out his character, and cause you to reflect on both his actions and your own as a player:

 

 

Less than ten minutes for a game you can easily play for a hundred hours, they are spot on.

 

https://farcry.fandom.com/wiki/Jackal_Tapes

 

I heard recently that all the dialog in Far Cry 2 was dramatically sped up so it could fit on the disc, which is pretty hilarious. I can't remember noticing it, but then I do listen to most audiobooks at 1.2x

[ZOK]

4 minutes ago, Timmo said:

 

I heard recently that all the dialog in Far Cry 2 was dramatically sped up so it could fit on the disc, which is pretty hilarious. I can't remember noticing it, but then I do listen to most audiobooks at 1.2x

Really? That could explain it!

 

Your audiobook revelation has shaken me to my core.

[Quest]

If I recall correctly, it's more that they went through and edited out all the natural pauses in the performances.

[Colonel Panic]

2 hours ago, Popo said:

 

Oh man, I have to play this game. 

I’m glad it’s polarising to be honest. 
 

I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be just like Dead Space, but to me, the melee, lack of crowd controls and tight FOV make it very tough at times. 

[Timmo]

38 minutes ago, ZOK said:

Really? That could explain it!

 

Your audiobook revelation has shaken me to my core.

 

Have you tried it? Your brain gets used to it extremely quickly. I wouldn't do it for Alan Partridge but for your typical easy-to-follow Fantasy epic it's ideal. 

[ZOK]

I would stop up my ears first! 

[Benny]

Audio books? Pfft.

 

Spoiler

Though to be honest the only reason I'm not keen on them is I can't keep doing this:

 

 

[mushashi]

17 hours ago, Moz said:

 

They patched it just before your post, no idea if it's entirely fixed or not but I expect they're just changing a 0 to a 1 in the ini file. 

 

If compilation stutters were that simple to fix, they'd never happen in the first place. Taken long enough for the less attuned to finally wake up on the multitude of technical problems large and small that plague modern complex games.

 

This game is certainly technically impressive for a non-platform holder funded release, and it even supposedly runs on last gen consoles.

[Pug]

Probs due to lower expectations but I'm quite enjoying.

[Dark Soldier]

3 minutes ago, Pug said:

Probs due to lower expectations but I'm quite enjoying.

Yeah reviews and the usual tedious gamer backlash on anything that scores sub 90% had me thinking this was Big Rigs 2. But it's a glorious linear short experience.

[NecroMorrius]

4 hours ago, mushashi said:

 

If compilation stutters were that simple to fix, they'd never happen in the first place. Taken long enough for the less attuned to finally wake up on the multitude of technical problems large and small that plague modern complex games.

 

This game is certainly technically impressive for a non-platform holder funded release, and it even supposedly runs on last gen consoles.

That was a joke mate… upthread someone posted a link claiming you can fix it by changing a value in the ini file. I hear Epic have caught wind of this across multiple games and are targeting some improvements in a future build of UE5, but only UE5. 

[Strafe]

Callisto Protocol

Completed it mate. 

 

Visuals and Audio are next level and really make the whole thing feel alive. Performances and voice acting was really good. Sam Witwer is in it though criminally underused I thought.

 

There’s a few hours that felt repetitive just after half way ish. Then it picks up again at the end.

 

A few frustrating moments but combat is pretty good and there’s plenty of ways to get inventive with your murdering. The ingame economy of ammo and upgrades is pretty well balanced, you won’t be able to unlock everything on a single play through (or maybe you can but you’d be better than me). There’s a couple of boss recycles.

 

The story is decent, if not mind blowing and probably more or less what you’d expect. It certainly gets tense but I never found it overly scary like, say, Outlast.

 

Looks like I had nearly 13 hours on the clock when the credits rolled.

 

7/10

[Colonel Panic]

Do you get the means of having more inventory space?

[SozzlyJoe]

On 03/12/2022 at 15:02, Strafe said:

I didn’t think there was any open world stuff in UC4, just the very good illusion of one. I mean that as a compliment.

 

In the DLC there is a section where you can drive around a large area in your jeep, visiting a load of temple ruins in any order (some skippable). It's very similar to the Seattle section (complete with in-game engine map in the characters hand) so it's obviously something ND do now. I like it.

Of course there is also the non-linearity of encounters, which is also good though it kind of stresses me a little when you enter a huge new area with about two dozen enemies and know you have to somehow take them all out. They have added a very generous checkpoint system to help there though.

 

Enough about UC I guess! Sounds like the non-linearity in this is when you get two paths you have to guess which one is the dead end with the collectable at the finish.

[SozzlyJoe]

Actually the combat in this kinda sounds like Ryse! That was visceral and fun but really just a timing game in very gory disguise, where the skill comes from crowd controlling. I'll certainly try this game at some point, I think (but likely only when it hits the free services).

[Strafe]

26 minutes ago, SozzlyJoe said:

 

 

 

Enough about UC I guess! Sounds like the non-linearity in this is when you get two paths you have to guess which one is the dead end with the collectable at the finish.

Pretty much - there’s a couple of points with more than one route and you can get turned around on occasion but I never got lost really.

[CarloOos]

The first two Dead Space games are almost 100% linear so I’m a bit baffled that anyone would find it contentious here. 

[Strafe]

5 hours ago, Colonel Panic said:

Do you get the means of having more inventory space?

Yes, though it takes a while. Weapons don’t take up space in your inventory at least.

[Strafe]

14 hours ago, Strafe said:

Callisto Protocol

Completed it mate. 

 

Visuals and Audio are next level and really make the whole thing feel alive. Performances and voice acting was really good. Sam Witwer is in it though criminally underused I thought.

 

There’s a few hours that felt repetitive just after half way ish. Then it picks up again at the end.

 

A few frustrating moments but combat is pretty good and there’s plenty of ways to get inventive with your murdering. The ingame economy of ammo and upgrades is pretty well balanced, you won’t be able to unlock everything on a single play through (or maybe you can but you’d be better than me). There’s a couple of boss recycles.

 

The story is decent, if not mind blowing and probably more or less what you’d expect. It certainly gets tense but I never found it overly scary like, say, Outlast.

 

Looks like I had nearly 13 hours on the clock when the credits rolled.

 

7/10

 

Changing my score.
 

I bought Callisto Protocol for £45. It also came with a £5 voucher, which I’ll be using,

Having completed the game I sold it to CEX for £36.

 

So 13 enjoyable hours of Callisto Protocol basically cost me £4.

 

I now rate this game 9/10.

 

 

[Colonel Panic]

I’ve started to enjoy it a bit more. The melee combat is a bit annoying still, but you learn to work around it I guess. 

[Down by Law]

15 hours ago, Strafe said:

Callisto Protocol

Completed it mate. 

 

Visuals and Audio are next level and really make the whole thing feel alive. Performances and voice acting was really good. Sam Witwer is in it though criminally underused I thought.

 

There’s a few hours that felt repetitive just after half way ish. Then it picks up again at the end.

 

A few frustrating moments but combat is pretty good and there’s plenty of ways to get inventive with your murdering. The ingame economy of ammo and upgrades is pretty well balanced, you won’t be able to unlock everything on a single play through (or maybe you can but you’d be better than me). There’s a couple of boss recycles.

 

The story is decent, if not mind blowing and probably more or less what you’d expect. It certainly gets tense but I never found it overly scary like, say, Outlast.

 

Looks like I had nearly 13 hours on the clock when the credits rolled.

 

7/10

 

This sounds pretty good to be honest and should be a nice visual treat, all those dark scenes on an OLED*

 

Seems reviewers are finally learning to use the actual 10 point scale rather than "looks pretty and hyped so at least 8" lately so i do wonder if it would have reviewed better a year ago.

 

*OLED owners just gotta make it known

 

44 minutes ago, Strafe said:

Changing my score.
 

I bought Callisto Protocol for £45. It also came with a £5 voucher, which I’ll be using,

Having completed the game I sold it to CEX for £36.

 

So 13 enjoyable hours of Callisto Protocol basically cost me £4.

 

I now rate this game 9/10.

 

This is why i still physical game. I got Forbidden West in the summer, played it for about 30 hours and then sold it on for a couple of quid less than I paid for it. I'm sure if I had paid £70 for the digital version to collect invisible dust and take up precious HDD space, I likely wouldn't have been as fond of it. The game is of course, the same, but the 'good value for money' proposition always helps. A bit like all those 'perfect for gamepass' comments. I mean what game isn't perfectly suited to a free as part of a subscription service? 

[Spacehost]

Sounds like they've patched out the shader-compilation issues, and if the overall sense of stressed dread emanating from Glenn Schofield's Twitter is anything to go by I've got a lot of sympathy for the team. I can quite imagine how it managed to slip through.

[Rog]

Having missed Dead Space first time round I'd like to play it before this, but there doesn't seem any way to do so on a current console. PS store only brings up the remake. Any ideas?

[Chooch]

14 minutes ago, Rog said:

Having missed Dead Space first time round I'd like to play it before this, but there doesn't seem any way to do so on a current console. PS store only brings up the remake. Any ideas?

Its available via EA Play, well it is on the Series X anyway.

[MattyP]

5 minutes ago, Chooch said:

Its available via EA Play, well it is on the Series X anyway.

If you've had Gold for a bit I think it was given away with that at some point too... at least its on my library on the 360 and I haven't bought it!  

 

EDIT: https://www.trueachievements.com/games-with-gold/games Looks like DS2 and DS3 are also on there.

[earlymodernsteve]

Finished this earlier on today and it was fine, good even in places, but just too unevenly paced. Needed more combat options and enemy variety (the repeated miniboss got old fast). Without the hype this would have probably been happily received but it is a far cry from what people wanted or expected. Sold my physical copy straight away so only cost me about £9 to play it through - feel bad for those who went digital. 

 

I will probably pick it up again when it's <£15, by which time New Game + and extra story content should be available. The lack of Chapter Select is a real pain, and was the roadblock stopping me from trying for the platinum. Still, a nice appetiser for the Dead Space remake and there is definitely potential in this universe and from these devs - just as long as they listen to the feedback and mix things up a bit.

[Down by Law]

The lack of new game plus for a survival horror game is baffling. I'm the sort of player that likes to 100% these sort of games, so if that's in the next patch, i'll buy it.

[BubbleFish]

10GB PS5 patch today. Haven’t seen any notes for it yet.