The Callisto Protocol - Spiritual Dead Space successor

[Lying Cat]

Ignoring the performance issues (which will probably get sorted sooner rather than later looking at the backlash), by all accounts the actual combat is pretty miserable as well. The game presses your 'dodge' button for you so all that's required of you is to be strafing in the correct direction to trigger the reaction, but even when the dodge animation plays you'll often still be hit? Even though there's no actual player agency when it comes to the actual timing?

 

Bullet sponge enemies, etc etc.

[MansizeRooster]

Wait for it to hit PSPlus Extra it is, then.

[Windowlicker]

I took a chance with this but these reviews make the combat sound too much of a chore and unfair in places. I'll let Amazon take it back.

[Strafe]

They should have called it flatline in a vacuum.

[Down by Law]

47 minutes ago, Lying Cat said:

The game presses your 'dodge' button for you so all that's required of you is to be strafing in the correct direction to trigger the reaction

 

 

That's a shame because the dodge animation and camerawork looks pretty good, I envisioned it would be kind of like a parry i.e perfect timing > safe dodge. I wonder if that can be toggled in the options? 

 

 

[Timmo]

50 minutes ago, Uncle Nasty said:

The dreadful name was enough of a red flag to indicate this was going to be a stinker.

 

Like The Shawshank Redemption!

[MardiganX]

9 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

 

That's a shame because the dodge animation and camerawork looks pretty good, I envisioned it would be kind of like a parry i.e perfect timing > safe dodge. I wonder if that can be toggled in the options? 

 

 

Yeah absolutely this and can’t understand how anyone would think this is a good idea. Surely that’s an accessibility option and can be changed?!
 

That’s like when my son kicks my arse at Marvel v Capcom because I’ve turned auto combos on for him. Wee prick thinks he is a gaming god!

[tejinashi]

I'm ignoring these middling reviews. I'm a huge survival horror fan, and I doubt I'll be let down. John Linneman of Digital Foundry said he loves the game - good enough for me.

[JoeK]

The EG review makes it sound pretty encouraging. I'll definitely be giving it a whirl sometime, just not at full price.

[stir fry]

Always makes you wonder what's going on when a game is getting 5s and 9s. 

 

Definitely one I would wait before picking up personally. I'm hoping it turns out to be an Alien Isolation situation, where it's actually kind of brilliant but too long or brilliant in a very subjective way that will put a lot of people off

[Alan Stock]

Maybe I was too hasty in pre-ordering this one, it dropped on the doorstep today. Still, as long as its 7-8/10 material I'm happy, I love the genre and hard combat is something I actively enjoy, I played Dead Space 1 and 2 on the hard difficulty. Other issues, we'll have to see. What other criticisms are being laid on it? I don't want to read reviews cos spoilers. 

 

I'm getting it as an xmas pressy anyway so at least I'll get the first patch.

[Uncle Nasty]

 

[Timmo]

8 minutes ago, Uncle Nasty said:

 

 

My God, the combat sounds beyond awful. This is 100% an avoid.

 

I'd advise anyone here to watch that section before buying. 14:55

[stir fry]

That combat sounds so weird, reminds me of the Gothic games which also have odd dodging and strafing controls

 

Actually makes me a bit more interested lol

[carlospie]

13 hours ago, Transient Curse said:

 

As I understand it, the codes you're buying are codes that individuals have bought from the local store as gifts and are selling you through eneba. 

 

Microsoft have noticed the (no doubt vast) number of games being gifted to people in other countries and have stopped this method of gifting games in Argentina. 

 

As a result, only already generated codes are available. That's why codes for, for example, the Calisto Protocol, aren't available from Argentina on Eneba, et al.

 

 

[Thor]

Wo

2 hours ago, Lying Cat said:

Ignoring the performance issues (which will probably get sorted sooner rather than later looking at the backlash), by all accounts the actual combat is pretty miserable as well. The game presses your 'dodge' button for you so all that's required of you is to be strafing in the correct direction to trigger the reaction, but even when the dodge animation plays you'll often still be hit? Even though there's no actual player agency when it comes to the actual timing?

 

Bullet sponge enemies, etc etc.

Well, that's me never playing this game. Ever.

[Uncle Nasty]

11 minutes ago, Timmo said:

 

My God, the combat sounds beyond awful. This is 100% an avoid.

 

I'd advise anyone here to watch that section before buying. 14:55

 

Yeah, the dodge mechanic is a really strange design decision, especially the way it translates to the mini-boss that you fight four times. The back and forth between you and enemies sounds really boring as you're supposed to wait for them to attack first.

 

The only positive from the SkillUp review was the graphics. Beyond that he says it flat out doesn't work or play well.

 

I think the Dead Space remake is going to feel dated and the RE4 Remake is going to school everyone all over again.

 

 

[Lying Cat]

Just now, Thor said:

Well, that's me never playing this game. Ever.

 

The Skill Up review hammers it home. The one mini-boss in the game (that's copy/pasted 4 times) can't be melee'd, only shot. You can just hold down left or right to dodge everything while reloading, just standing in front of the thing and it can't hit you.

[stir fry]

People also shouldn't sleep on Bloober Hills 2, I think it will surprise people

 

Well, I hope it will anyway. At the very least we have lots of choice for horror in the next couple years

[Captain Kelsten]

Well that's a huge shame as this looked great up until this point. What a bizarre and game-killing decision on the combat.

[MardiganX]

1 hour ago, Timmo said:

 

My God, the combat sounds beyond awful. This is 100% an avoid.

 

I'd advise anyone here to watch that section before buying. 14:55

 

That is incredible. The original Dead Space and survival horror games in general often ended up fairly rigid in terms of combat mechanics but given where we are in game development it is staggering that this has made it not only into the final game, but essentially the core of it. Fuck me!

 

It looks like The Surge games but with 10% of the gameplay mechanics and none of the threat or excitement.

[Captain Kelsten]

The issue that is always present in survival horror games of any kind is power creep - they can never maintain that feeling of helplessness, of being outmatched and outnumbered. They're always too keen to give you the bigger weapons etc to even the playing field such that, by the end, you're a walking one-person-army. The only times they ever get it completely right is when you just don't have combat, but that's less survival horror and more flat out horror, I guess? Even the pinnacle of the genre, the Resident Evil series, can't ever get the survival bit right throughout the game and as for what 5 and 6 became? Yeesh. 7 started so promisingly, but then even that turned into a shooter by the end.

[Mystacon]

Oh well, bring on the Dead Space remake I guess.

[Lying Cat]

1 minute ago, Captain Kelsten said:

The issue that is always present in survival horror games of any kind is power creep - they can never maintain that feeling of helplessness, of being outmatched and outnumbered.

 

Even in Dead Space, if you can cling on by your finger nails for the first two hours and pump everything in the Cutter, it just snowballs into an absolute wrecking machine, even at the highest difficulty.

[Transient Curse]

1 hour ago, carlospie said:

 

I stand corrected! Perhaps I've been misled and there's some other reason why the codes didn't seem to be being advertised. I had read on HotUKDeals that a work around had been found if Argentinians access an older version of the store, so perhaps that's what's happening. 

 

Oh well, good news! 

[RipePlums]

Oh well, I'll pick it up for peanuts in a couple of months when it's just the die-hards left in the thread, insisting it's a misunderstood gem.

[NecroMorrius]

1 hour ago, Timmo said:

 

My God, the combat sounds beyond awful. This is 100% an avoid.

 

I'd advise anyone here to watch that section before buying. 14:55

 

More to the point, by all accounts there is zero puzzling/exploration and the game simply becomes a linear combat gauntlet after a couple of hours. 

 

Pretty gutted to be honest, even though some people think it's OK, I'm not paying 50 bucks to find out.

[Masterbeef]

Is it me or have they kind of missed the point of Dead Space?

 

Combat always felt second fiddle to the atmosphere, design and storytelling in DS. Here , it seems to be front and centre.

[Pug]

Could have told you it was shit because I preordered it.

At least I have a physical copy coming (when RM get through the backlog) so can sell on when finished or had enough, probs the latter.

[Kevvy Metal]

John Linneman loves it, even more than GOW:R! 
He’ll also prob put Sonic “EDGE 3/10” Frontiers in his GOTY list. 
 

So who’s right?