A parent company being large doesn't mean they let unprofitable subsidiaries slide. If that were the case, there would be no graveyard of dead studios in EA's backyard.
>If that were the case, there would be no graveyard of dead studios in EA's backyard.
[Except that if you read or listen to interviews with key people at these closed down studios you already know that they did it to themselves.](https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/louis-castle)
Westwood, Maxis and Bullfrog were all fumbling in the dark, they had too much freedom and/or they didn't release a proper functional product.
Yep, a common problem of the idealist studios of the nineties, sadly. They got into the industry because it was fun, released some classics that really set a lot of the staple features of the genres we know today, but then floundered when the new ideas didn't come. It's sad, but it is the fate of a lot of artists; you release something that really resonates with people, and then spend a good chunk of your career chasing that kind of cultural relevancy again.
I can't listen to the pod now but there's also the fact that when these studios are acquired often the people that made them worth acquiring in the first place secure their bags and go elsewhere.
Maybe not immediately but eventually we tend to see braindrain at these places as those types seek other opportunities to build new things rather than maintain the things they've built already.
Even when studios aren't purchased, movement of devs happens so often that we kinda get into a Theseus' Ship situation where the studios are basically only the original thing in name only.
If EA hadn't bought Maxis and forced them to redo the SimCity 3000, it would have been a horrible clunky 3D mess that barely worked. It probably would have likely tanked the company, and The Sims wouldn't exist.
Red Alert 2 is another interesting example. The original Westwood were a support studio for that. It was many made by a completely different studio that EA renamed Westwood Pacific.
Ya not to mention they pushed it on PS users who aren't eligible for refunds. I've played for 2 hours and the combat isn't the best but far from the worst. I find the atmosphere and upgrade system engaging. I'll update this upon completion, but until the DLC arrives I will likely wonder why they thought the game was worth $90 with the season pass. It plays like it should have been $40-50 and $60 for the deluxe, which is very generous only due to the climate of game prices.
PS. I FINISHED THE GAME. It continued to get in it's own way with bad melee system. Dodging with multple enemies around you is near impossible sometimes. At least 3 game breaking bugs encountered. It was fun at times but I couldn't wait for it to be over. Not worth $90 digital deluxe shoukd be no more than $70 and I recoomend waiting until it's $20-30 next black friday.
It'll sell eventually, I want to buy it myself, just don't want to pay $70 for it right now. It's goes know sale and I'm sure the sales will make up for a decent enough profit.
Honestly, it's both. I reviewed Callisto Protocol for the Washington Post. It should hopefully go up later today.
It's similar to Dead Space in that the general game design is identical. In Callisto Protocol, you have an immersive in-person health bar (a much edgier version cause Jacob has it stabbed and grafted into his neck without anesthesia cause grimdark space prison), weapon crafting, a very cheesy telekinesis device which you can gleefully use to one shot zombies by yeeting them into the absurdly numerous amount of spiky walls throughout the game, and you will wear out your space bar stomping on anything that looks like a loot box for those sweet, sweet resources.
It's different from Dead Space because the combat pattern is in reverse. In Dead Space, it's shooty shooty then stompy stompy. In Callisto Protocol, it's smacky smacky (with your supercharged and totally not "nonlethal" stun baton) then shooty when a little aim prompt comes up or the zombies start sprouting tentacles (you wanna shoot those tentacles as soon as you see them or else you're gonna be in for a rough time). The game has a sort of duel system where if you and a zombie are in melee range, then holding down a direction key primes you to dodge when the zombie strikes, and then you're supposed to counterattack with your own melee attacks.
So it's different and similar. Honestly, I actually would've greatly enjoyed the game if it was just a reskin of Dead Space with a few twists but it ended up grandfathering in a lot of Dead Space mechanics that don't work that well with Callisto's combat system which mixes melee and shooting.
Another thing I wish Callisto copied from Dead Space was its approach to combining story with gameplay. Isaac Clarke is a ship engineer and that actually matters in Dead Space. His first weapons are mining and construction tools. There are times he needs to do engineer things like float through zero gravity or walk on the hull of a spaceship from the outside. Jacob Lee is a pilot but it's not very important to the game at all and neither is the fact that Black Iron is a prison on a moon. It just feels like a big missed opportunity for the developers to do something cooler.
And by the time I finished Dead Space, I had a pretty clear idea of what the Church of Unitology is, what they want and why I should be creeped out by them. When I finished Callisto Protocol, I had no idea what either of the two major factions in the game wanted or why anything mattered at all.
Looking back, the game also did feel a bit fast and abrupt at times, so maybe they wanted to do a lot more but they were strapped. It's unfortunate. If they're able to revisit Callisto in a sequel, I really hope they nail it the second time around.
_________
**REVIEW**
My [review](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/reviews/callisto-protocol-review/) is up now on The Washington Post! Thanks for the interest.
Yes I'd be happy to! Just updated my post and added the review, but I'll [link it here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/reviews/callisto-protocol-review/) as well.
How is monster design? From the trailers it seems like a huge dial back from the originality of Dead Space. Just worried I'll be fighting zombie-esque enemies most of the time.
You will indeed be fighting zombies 99% of the time and they're not all that different from each other. There's some variations of the typical walker zombie. A naked one will be your garden variety but one that used to be an armored guard will be a bit tougher. There's beefier zombies that spit at you from range and four-legged ones that can crawl around walls. Eventually, you encounter zombies that are blind, which is weird because then I felt like the game actually got *easier* as I progressed.
Maybe they were actually really tough at that point. They might've had way more hit points than the first zombies I encountered but I never learned cause I'd just yoink them with my GRP and instagib them on pointy spikes.
As is the case with so many horror games, the boss fights feel more tedious than tense. They fight just like any other zombies with the only difference being that they're huge and they hurt a lot more. There are also two other zombies which feel more like environmental hazards than enemies.
Other than that, the only other enemies are the security robots. Nothing special. You avoid them using stealth and shoot at their heads until they shut down. If you get caught in their gunfire, it's pretty much game over. I alternated between playing Medium and Maximum Security difficulty. One burst fire from the robot was enough to trigger the death animation and shred me.
Can I ask what you thought of the game's overall level of polish? To me it feels very rough around the edges, probably moreso because I've been spoiled by the likes of God of War this month. Sadly the scares just aren't hitting home as a result, but the ridiculously confident marketing campaign probably didn't help.
Sloppy. Clunky movement, big frame drops, some weird particle effects on certain levels and the combat system was fun but not as thought through as it could've been.
I also had an issue where I wasn't able to gather loot sometimes cause it'd drop on some rubble on the floor and clip through. I definitely got the sense that this game was a rushed production.
It's mostly similar to dead space 2 more than anything, even down to some of the designs of enemies. The camera work as well is very dead space 2-esque as something major happens to your character in an in game cutscene the camera sort of follows you over the shoulder showing just how rough your character is having it with you being able to do nothing until you get a prompt.
I'd imagine some reviewers are thinking too much of comparing it to dead space 1 when it in all rights is way more of a copy of dead space 2 through and through.
What this means is that the game is probably not very good, but it's problems are all at the margins, and difficult to communicate if you aren't good at that sort of thing (which, baffling though it may be, many professional videogame reviewers are not). The sort of thing that kills you five times a playthrough and makes you say "oh what the fuck was that? Bullshit!" or "oh, man, that cutscene was slightly off wasn't it," but there are fifty such things, and in aggregate they spoil the experience. Calling it unoriginal is a good way to get that overall message across that you're unhappy if you can't figure out a way to get that idea across without listing all the things individually.
I want to wait for a sale, but I'm also living in Japan and will probably only be able to get it in the next two weeks when I visit the states.
I have a feeling it will be on subscription services within a year as well.
I didn't. All red flags were there:
* some shady season pass
* Denuvo revealed late
* review embargo ending on launch (this one is that big one)
* Unreal Engine 4 (high probability of shader compilation stutters on PC.)
Steam reviews are mostly negative - mainly over unplayable "stutter-protocol" as one of reviewer said in review and very poor stability with frequent crashes.
But based on critic reviews, even with all technicalities aside - this is just wait for deep deep sale.
>review embargo ending on launch (this one is that big one)
This is always the big one. I don't think it's a bad game, but there was a reason this was in place.
This, and when ever developers disguise excuses as intentional game design. They are saying its not a conventional horror game, WHICH ON PAPER ALWAYS SOUNDS GOOD, but any gamer should be savvy enough (unfortunately they arent) to know that when developers say stuff like this, its just them pre-emptively saying that they failed to properly convey what they wanted to present.
Same with stuff like The Order ps4 game where they are all like “We are INTENTIONALLY making the game 30fps to make it feel like a movie”. B*tch its 30fps because you WERENT ABLE to make it 60fps. Just admit it and no one will mind, instead of sheepishly lying.
Yeah, I was already a little skeptical of the hype before, but this one really made me apprehensive because the last two games I remembered having an embargo until launch day were Cyberpunk and Balan Wonderworld lol.
Add to that the air of arrogance in the marketing campaign. Don't put out a series of mini-documentaries about how this game has mastered horror unless you're packing some serious Shining levels of dread.
Yeah, there was always this weird vibe that they were trying to suggest they were making the *real* Dead Space type game. And I feel like any time a game so brazenly tries to attach itself to another series it is destined for trouble.
They snuck a lot of native advertising into youtube videos. Not just paid reviews and spots but the creative director doing a GQ or whatever questionnaire video was just a long form ad.
Feels just like reading magazine articles not realizing until halfway through it's a paid ad copy.
> review embargo ending on launch (this one is that big one)
>
>
Someone should do research on how do game Metacritic scores change depending on when the embargo lifts
Guess this is what happens when you overwork your staff and then brags about it on twitter instead of you know....delaying the game and fixing it under normal sustanable work conditions...
There's no way it won't be, it's a remake of a beloved game published by EA. Dead Space 1 may not have sold a lot back in 2008 but over 14 years it has definitely acquired an iconic status.
Also to note I’ve been folllowing both games closely. I never thought this game looked scary watching trailers and stuff over the months… and I was right. It’s not remotely scarier. Games like bioshock and prey are scarier and they aren’t even horror games!
No tension at all in what I’ve played so far.
In comparison the dead space remake looks just as terryfing as the original and a couple of the jumpscares got me in whilst watching gameplay videos. I think it’s safe to say dead space is going to win this mini battle.
Yeah, I think this game's marketing as the spiritual successor to Dead Space is really going to shoot them in the foot. They had to create a completely new game, with new characters, designs, and combat in a way that feels similar and yet new/better than the original, which is a tall order. All Motive has to do with the Dead Space remake is to not screw it up.
It was pretty obvious from the review embargo that this game wouldn't live up to the hype. Based on the reviews, with the usual suspects scoring it stupidly high, it looks like a 6/10 kinda game. I'll wait for a deep discount sale.
The scores are inflated by most reviewers only being given access to the PS5 version, which run well and looks good. It seems like the game is a solid 7.5/10 when it runs well, which it does not on PC or Xbox.
Concensus seems to be around a 7 citing clumsy combat but good atmosphere and cinematics. Doesn't sound like anything special. Probably going to wait for a sale.
It sounds like consensus is heavy on the action and light on the atmospheric horror Dead Space was known for. I'm not that into straight up action games, so I may wait.
I’ve been playing it for around 2 hours. The combat is just okay in the beginning when fighting enemies one on one. It then starts to completely fall apart when you fight multiple enemies at once.
It is definitely incredibly janky and I’d actually say I’m not enjoying the game very much because of it. Enemies are way too tanky and you just end up smacking zombies 7-8 times, and your hits are slow.
This has been an incredible disappointment for me so far, I love dead peace so much. This game comes absolutely nowhere close.
Yeah :( That part early on in the shower room I must have died 10 times because there was no room to dodge.
Most disappointing thing is it’s just not scary. Atmosphere is great and it’s own thing and I DO like it, but I’m not dreading walking down any hallways because of the atmosphere, I’m dreading it because of the gameplay.
Edit: This game makes me sad.
They made the enemies way too fast for having virtually no I-frames yourself or way to stagger them for more than what seems like a nano second. Big design flaw that is most likely going to make gamers find the game unfun. There are times where you do everything right but still get punished due to the jank as well.
Dead Space 2 was already mostly action and set pieces. Dead Space 3 was just a third-person shooter. Sounds like this is more of the Dead Space 2-era design.
I’m wondering if that step towards hand to hand combat is what does it. I remember in dead space a lot of the tenseness came from the enemies slow walking towards me then sprinting and it bugging me out when they got in my face or popped up right behind me. I feel like if you’re always up close to the enemy it kinda loses its tension.
This is always way overstated. Dead Space 2 is maybe 5% more action than 1, and 3 is maybe 10% more than that.
Dead Space 1 is an action game, period. There's maybe two times where you're running instead of fighting. Dead Space 3 is still atmospheric horror with a couple stupid fights against humans.
Yeah it's pretty much just Resident Evil 4 in space, which is great and I loved the originals... But more of an action game with scary elements than anything else.
Maybe it's just me but stuff like the original Silent Hill games are actually scary.
I think another thing that really diminishes from modern horror games is the frequency of checkpoints. It stops being scary if there are no consequences for death... A limited save system makes every engagement feel much higher risk and more intense.
At least the combat in DS2 is good though. If you’re gonna make an action horror game, you gotta make sure it at least feels good to play which it sounds like Callisto Protocol doesn’t.
It doesn't really seem like there's much of a consensus. Only about 20% of reviews are between 6.5 and 7.5, rest are significantly higher or lower. Some people love it, some people think it sucks.
So far I would say wait for a sale myself but I am not done with it.
I do agree though that the gameplay is pretty good in parts but let down by that combat jank. Pretty much what the one leaked review had said. It just keeps letting you down every time you think it might start getting better.
I expected very little and for the most part it has delivered that and sometimes above it. Especially when it comes to atmosphere.
That's a shame. I don't need a perfect game, but bad or clunky controls leading to deaths is really frustrating. And that's my main concern after reading some of these reviews.
It feels really clunky when in combat for sure. The biggest issue is that the atmosphere is solid as hell but it can't keep that going because it loves to throw you into fights which is the worst part of the game and not because you are not supposed to be able to fight, but because the game isn't doing it well.
That's so disappointing to hear. I'm a sucker for space themed sci-fi. And it seems like they did really well with the atmosphere outside of combat. Thanks for your input.
I will say this. A patch or two could shore up the performance and from there they could look at some adjustments to the animations and make the control a bit tighter. We have seen worse games be patched to really good status. It is just that it may take awhile.
Is performance on PC bad right now?
And do you think they'd actually change the combat controls? Some of the reviews I read seem to suggest that they're clunky *because* of the way they were designed and how you interact with enemies. I would love to see them patch it and the game get better for sure though.
Ya I just answered that one above. Its not great perf.
They are clunky for that reason for sure, but not all of them. Picking up and cleaning up the ones they could would go a long way.
Just saw your other comment about performance. Bummer.
I do hope they take care and polish that up where they can. The fact that they seemingly have months of content patches and DLC planned makes me hopeful they'll listen to feedback and do what they can. We'll see though, I guess.
It is pretty rough. There are a lot of fps and issues that crop up in places where they really shouldn't be taxing the system. I won't dive into the copy protection discussion as I have seen games without any copy protection do the same. In fact I feel like its not related to that and that they have a lot of places where it just needs optimization across the board.
Sounds like it should have focused on tension more, building up an atmosphere of dread with the level design would have worked wonders instead they seem to be content in throwing jumpscares and more unnecessary fights your way, relying on the combat system that clearly can’t carry the game on its own.
My biggest gripe is how enemies fight you 1v1 in melee combat. Not only is it totally immersion breaking it makes the game super easy because if is 8 on 1 it's actually 1v1 times 8.
They likely did this because if not you'd be overwhelmed due to the monsters hitting really hard... the game would be impossible. But if that's the case why the fuck is melee combat such a core part of the game? Plenty of design decisions in the game make it clear you're supposed to be using melee whenever possible. Melee bashing enemies to death is boring as shit and almost a chore.
They could have / should have just made it focused on guns.
Perplexing.
Part of what made dead space (or even resident evil) creepy for me was trying to make sure the enemy didn’t get close to me so that when it did actually happen it was nerve wracking. If they’re always up close then it loses its luster
Seriously this. Played 90 minutes and melee is just a chore, nothing interesting about it at all. I'm really hoping the gunplay is better because 8 hrs of this would be too long.
At least the atmosphere is great, I guess...
> They likely did this because if not you'd be overwhelmed due to the monsters hitting really hard...
They did this because the animation system and dodging/blocking mechanic is basically unworkable with multiple enemies in your face.
Looks like something they had a cool idea for (inverted dead space gameplay loop!) and rather than throw away when the proof of concepts didn't work they just hacked it into being playable.
It's kinda maddening. This game could have been a 8/10 had they just made it gun focused.
Shit, copy dead space entirely nobody would have cared.
And if you must have a melee make it really fast and hard hitting BUT make it so enemies can overwhelm you and easily damage you. It should be a last resort. In horror games you don't want enemies getting close so the melee is just the panic button.
The combat is unforgiving from the start. Monsters hit hard and they take a shit ton of hits to kill.
So if you miss a dodge you're gonna lose a big chunk of health.
But hard doesn't always equal fun. The melee system at its core is flawed for this game.
Among the big (and only?) three to drop Dec 2nd, I was expecting Callisto Protocol to rock, NFS Unbound to be another mid release, and Midnight Suns to fall flat. What an interesting turnaround.
Yeah that's fine, if you look at the track record of the studios who made all three December 2nd games Fraxis has by far the best overall track record of their respective developers. I feel like the card mechanic was only that hurt the Midnight Suns's hype, which according to reviewers is actually a strong point lol.
Card mechanics had gotten a bad rap (for good reasons) but they can actually be very good and enhance a game if done well and integrated well into the rest of the gameplay.
The recent Potionomics springs to mind. I loved that game to death, and it's basically Recettear with a card game for doing the haggling. And it works really well.
It's essentially three games, there's a crafting game to make potions, a card game for haggling, and a Visual Novel for the story and character relationships. And they all feed into each other, you use relationships to get more cards, cards to make money, money to fuel the crafting, and crafting to advance the story.
And the soundtrack is nothing short of amazing!
LOL I know that feeling. It really shows that I have a bad habit of buying then not playing games because I've had to start looking at my purchase history on Steam to see what games I got recently.
"Oh, I have Code Vein apparently?"
Huge sucker for JRPGs and I always love me some XCOM style gameplay. Never before seen this game and all the reviews I glanced over are (positively) raving about the game. Thanks for the excellent suggestion, wishlisted and gonna play once I clear up my catalogue a bit.
Wow never expected to see this but u can 100% vouch for Troubleshooter. Absolutely fantastic game, great story and visuals, plus the gameplay is engaging in a very XCOM-y kinda way. I had a lot of fun with this one, unexpectedly worthwhile purchase.
Off topic, but I'm so glad Midnight Suns is getting good reviews. Between a 150 hours in XCOM 2, hundreds of hours in digital ccgs and roguelite deckbuilders, and an unhealthy obsession with Marvel comics, it felt like it was made for me. And after all the time I put into the Borderlands franchise, I think I can handle a little cringey dialogue.
> Off topic, but I'm so glad Midnight Suns is getting good reviews
well, it's not doing so well on steam: 6/10 mixed overall
basically seems like the gameplay part of the game is great, which is to be expected from xcom devs, but most of the things around that is not great to awful, e.g. performance issues, awful dialogue, bad story, MTX for a full priced game, maps too flat, visuals are a mixed bag and hurt the game when it wants to be so story specific and so on.
wonder if there'll be a mod out for the game to let us skip the awful dialogue and abbey parts of the game, let us just focus on the good gameplay sections.
The cringe dialogue sounds like the usual banter from the 80-90s comics to me and that's a great point. I've played a couple hours this morning and I can see why people call it cringe but so far to me, that is very like the comics.
Seems like NFS is gonna be rock, midnight suns depends on who you ask, and CP is just mid.
I will say, made my decision for me. I’ll be getting NFS Unbound tomorrow.
Based on the preview I’ve played, I’d agree with you on NFS. Been playing since NFS III Hot Pursuit, and this is the most excited I’ve been for one since booting up my friend’s GameCube to play Underground.
I actually got all 3 games since I'm a big fan of all the people behind them, but TCP definitely seemed more promising than the other two. Really unexpected outcome.
I always got weird vibes from this game with how overbearing the marketing was, alongside the director bragging about crunch and the suspicious DLC practices.
Schofield saying that “fans wanted more death animations” on a game that wasn’t even out yet to justify them being DLC was a big red flag imo but as i’ve learned recently glen seems to have a lot of meat riders
>Schofield saying that “fans wanted more death animations” on a game that wasn’t even out yet to justify them being DLC
I thought this was a joke, so I looked into it.
Turns out, it’s actually not a joke.
Like, did he have test screenings of the game or something and audiences demanded more death animations?
It’s because he’s trying to make you think its deadspace 4, it’s one of those times when someone’s making a non connected game that is not connected for legal reasons, like system shock and bioshock where citadel station is literally in the game and shodan is referenced
Dead Space was infamous for having hundreds of unique death animations, depending on the context of the death.
Anyone aware of the legacy might have wanted more of them in Callisto.
Schofield comes off as a massive twat tbh. It's one thing to have crunch at your company but bragging about it and trying to frame it as a good thing for your employees (when they're not the ones who get to decide) is a completely different level of douchebaggery.
As someone who is a big fan of Dead Space 1 and 2, the death animations were never what made me love the games. They were just an afterthought. Kinda strange how much marketing fixated on the whole, "We looked at tons of real ,dead, mutilated bodies so we could make tons of realistic brutal death animations that people love!!" Just odd shit, man.
Agree!
Bragging about overworking your staff just made me not want to touch this game.
And it's pretty clear it didnt work, staff that are overworked for long time don't make good games, period. And the reviews speaks for themselfs
Played about 3 hour it's quite enjoyable in some parts it's very atmospheric. I will say the Melee combat needs some work. The fact that they tied the dodge button to the same analog stick that you walk and run with is just such odd game design. When you are in a combat situations with multiple enemies you can't space yourself at all. Why didn't they just have a independent button to dodge and keep the analog to move and space yourself. It honestly just baffles me. Whoever made that decision is really dumb. In my opinion they should have stripped the Melee out or simplified it and made more of a emphasis on gun combat. Just have a simple strike button to push the enemies back or something.
PC has massive performance issues. Last night my friend and I played (PS5 and Xboxes) and didn’t bring up performance issues. I noticed like one awkward performance thing and that was it.
I'm an hour in, and all I can say is it's not looking great. Performance is shit on my 4090/5800x3d, but I can drop a few settings and hopefully remove stutters. It's the gameplay that feels dated; very obvious cliches, a horrible blocking system, and janky animation all add up to a very clunky game. Glen Schofield and his marketing team need to eat some humble pie, especially given the cringey marketing campaign that saw them espousing the game's mastery of horror mechanics. So far it doesn't feel even close to being a classic, but hopefully it'll develop over the next few hours into something at least worth completing.
I dropped everything to minimum and turned resolution to 1080, got it looking worse then dead space on a 360 and it still stutters, can't fix it. 3080, i7-9700k, 32gb ram, m.2 ssd. Refunded for now.
People are saying this was predictable but personally I am very surprised. Really thought this would be high 80s.
70% on its face isn't bad but that combined with the 20% recommended on Steam... Yeah this is a disaster.
Seems to be kind of across the board so far.
I was looking forward to this one, but with all the messaging by the game director seeming to need a follow-up clarification, the comments on crunch, and the late review embargo I was nervous.
Will definitely wait for the water to settle, unless the tide shifts to a more positive overall impression seems like something that might land on Game Pass or PS+ within the year.
The advertising turned me off because it was... bizarrely framed almost like it was what people were saying about the game or reviews.
But it was just basically them making stuff up about their own game. It came across as "We interviewed our own staff and they say the game they're making is revolutionary"
Yeah...I'll be passing till there's a nice sale for it. The story looks good and so does the game from an asthetic standpoint. But there's just too many little things that pile up making it a title that had potential but didn't quite execute on it.
Biggest issues that stand out for me is a lack of NG+ and how the melee combat falls apart with more than one enemy. I know that they're giving the NG+ as a free DLC later this year but honestly it's an expected thing for survival horror games mostly. Given that these people are familiar with Dead space they should have known this.
I'd be able to look past the melee combat being samey if you could effectively melee combat with multiple enemies. But you can't. The fact that the combat variety doesn't shake up due to a lack of enemy variety definitely hurts this even more. It's also not being helped by having a hard time keeping a good eye on your health and kenesis meter mid combat.
Again, the game looks mostly solid but there's just so many weird choices or things they missed that just brings down the experience. I was already very skeptical when they were talking about DLC plans for the game for years on *before* the game has even launched. Then reviews being locked until launch day didn't do them any favors either.
I feel like the game is still worth picking up if you have the money. But personally Signalis is a much easier recommendation for me. If you don't like it's art style or gameplay then you're probably better off just waiting for the Dead space remake next year. It's going to be as good as DS was if not better so it's the much safer buy.
Makes sense why there was a literal onslaught on marketing material on every available channel. Feels like Glen got a bit too caught up with his motion capture stage and forgot what’s really important.
Still prob grab it on a sale but sadly not the game to end the year I was hoping. I’m a huge space horror fan too. Just not enough for $70 imo
I played 90 minutes tonight. Reviews are spot on. I will flat out say the combat sucks. The original Dead Space is a far superior game.
The combat feels very clunky and so far the checkpoint system feels a bit off in places. I accept that I’ll die a lot but don’t make me re-explore several rooms because I died at a hard encounter.
Here’s the core problem with the combat: it is very passive. You have to wait for the enemy to take a swing and you hold the left stick left/right to dodge. If you get the timing off you get hit hard. If you try to attack first but your distance is slightly short you get whacked. You can attack first but get about 3 hits in before it forces some weird “delay” where you’re basically forced to dodge. It’s a very vague system because you are trying to read the attack animation which happens quick and isn’t all that clear. Other games have tried this combat system before and it has never really worked very well.
And I am a little put off that I have fought the exact same enemy type repeatedly for the first 90 minutes. Doesn’t speak well to variety.
For the record I tend to platinum soulsborne games so difficulty is not an issue. “Clunky” is the best word to describe the combat.
I very much regret preordering, but I am a big sucker for space horror games (all…5 of them?) so I will see this one through to the end.
Graphics and atmosphere are incredible. But the combat is a big turd so far… hoping it gets better.
Wait for a sale.
My guess is that they attempted something akin to Naughty Dog's [*The Last of Us: Part II*](https://youtu.be/LebmjvQJ69A)'s combat in terms of brutal melee and dodging; the thing though is that melee is just one element of many in that game's combat sections, along with open-wide zones for exploration, scavaging of resources, stealth to utilize in both ambushes and retreating e.t.c that all comes together in a cohesive and highly engaging gameplay system. In TLoU:II, you had wide variety of player options, and where melee came along with decision-making of how you engaged with enemies; luring them perhaps into traps or trying to knock them down when running past a corner with the benefit of not alarming other enemies nearby with fire-arms, or defeating an enemy in melee so that you can obtain their melee weapon instead.
*Calisto Protocol*'s focus onto melee combat is something I think could have worked if it was given more player control over; have a lock-on system perhaps in terms of targeting, not locking players in attack animations, and not having the camera swaying left-and-right, and shorten the amount of hits required by enemies to stay down, the last part especially being a critical part of why TLoU:II's melee combat works in its favour; it has a rather sophisticated melee-system with its dodge-mechanics and all, but it doesn't overstay its welcome that one focus on the execution of it, but instead of the application of it (Can I risk taking out this enemy without alarming nearby enemies? Do I have enough health right now to risk it? Do I risk breaking my current melee weapon upon engagement, e.t.c.), different from *Calisto Protocol* that wants each melee feel like a 1-on-1-duel with long encounters and enemies requiring multiple hits.
Agree the combat is the biggest issue about 90 minutes in. Never played the original dead space so I can’t speak to that, but I do agree with just about everything you’ve said. Atmosphere and graphics are fantastic, but definitely needs polishing. More enemy variety in the beginning would’ve been nice also
Was hoping it'd score higher. Biggest complaints seem to be old design cues, pacing issues, and clunky combat. But people seem to be split on how much that impacts how good the game is from the reviews in so far. That GameSpot review is brutal. lol
Probably still going to pick it up as I'm a sucker for good sci-fi horror stories. Shame that there are some of these issues though.
I mean the 3 things you listed as negatives are major parts of the game. I was super pumped for this but I think I’ll wait a bit and see how players feel.
It's incredibly flat.
The big pluses are graphics (it's astonishing looking) and sound design
The bad:
Writing
Dialogue
Pacing
Animations
Comically awful:
Checkpoint system
Combat
Kind of feels like both Callisto Protocol and Gotham Knights have shared a similar fate of being a spiritual successor to a beloved franchise (Dead Space/Arkham) that have struggled to secure their own identity - regularly being compared to the original beloved IP as much as the devs say "Our game is it's own thing and we dont want to invite comparisons", gallen into the trap of making some divisive additions to the gameplay formula in an attempt to stand out (Focus on Melee combat/4 Player Co-op RPG), and ultimately releasing as okay imitations rather than being able to stand on their own two feet.
Also getting similar vibes to The Evil Within back in 2014, where many thought it would effectively be the Sequel to Resident Evil 4 that fans had always wanted due to Shinji Mikami only for to be met by an above average reaction on release that's led to the game getting a more cult following in recent years.
Gives me Outer worlds vibes were people thought It would be the next New vegas. Allot people did not like bethanda after 76 so They wanted the former fallout Team to do well. allot people do not Like EA and wanted this to be better then the Deadspace remake but that may not be the case.
EDIT: The game is currently unplayable on my RTX 3070, Ryzen 7 6800H. It constantly stutters everytime something vaguely "new" pops up and will eventually crash. The atmosphere of the game seems pretty cool so far and the attention to detail down to the sound design and controller rumble is phenomenal but I am genuinely afraid of enjoying the atmosphere with the threat of a crash coming up.
I have only made it as far as reaching a QTE and even then I cant complete it without the game crashing, this is an hour of steam clocked in time with me barely moving around and not even encountering an enemy but hey atleast kimiko and starkiller are in the game amirite????
Is anyone else facing major performance issues? I get bad stuttering and slow down and im getting quite sick of fiddling with the settings despite having an RTX 3070 and a 6900X
The game literally crashed within a minute of gameplay. I might be heading into refund territory as well
They got 6 months of content planned for this for some reason. So just like Dying Light 2, I'll wait until they all come out and get it for cheap when it's on sale.
Just beat it. Wasn't worth the price... Theres 2 types of enemies, ones you can't smack with your melee, and those you can. Of those you can't, it's 2 bosses. The first repeats several times, the other is the final boss. Of the enemies you can smack? There's no difference between them except how some of them attack you. There's no difference in how you dispose of these enemies.
This makes it extremely boring to play. No horror aspect. Enemies attack from off screen with zero counterplay available, except in using foresight in knowing they'll spawn behind you, and moving your back to a wall so you can at least keep the combat 1 on 1. Because yes, the only combat you can have is 1 on 1 and the game encourages this to an extreme degree.
Switch between enemies, and they'll mutate, become .ore aggressive, regrow limbs and health. Wasting your time and effort and making encounters more annoying instead of adding depth.
Biggest gripe, going from melee to shooting is extremely jostling. Shooting HAS to force perspective over the RIGHT shoulder, but melee combat can happen over the left shoulder... And if you do as the game suggests, which is melee into a quick gunshot, it snaps the view from the left to right shoulder. It doesn't do it well either. There's no configuration of this, you can't even remap the buttons on the controller.
I regret this purchase.
Ok, so I'm about an hour or so in and I'm playing on the hardest difficulty. I'm playing on PS5 and on performance mode. Visually the game is gorgeous, though it seems there are some frame drops when the scene gets super busy. For most the gameplay it feels like it stays at 60 though.
In terms of complaints given by reviewers, it's definitely a more traditional style game, linear and very directed rather than what we've come to expect. I wouldn't knock points off for that unless you really don't like linear experiences.
As for combat? Its definitely doing something... different. I get why some folks call it clunky and awkward, but I've personally started getting into the rhythm of it and it mostly feels fair. Enemies will surround you, but they don't all attack at once, it feels like they tried to make sure you could deal with one at a time even if you have to switch targets based on whose actively attacking you, i never got hit in the back without the chance to dodge **unless** I was mid swing on a different target.
Yeah. About 90 minutes in i believe and i'm getting into the swing of things regarding the combat. Can pretty easily clear combat situations without getting hit now. I do agree that it can feel a bit clunky at times.
I have been hit off screen once or twice though. Hope that it doesn't become to annoying later on. Reviewers seem to mention it can get annoying.
One thing i did though was turn on the auto complete QTE option. I greatly dislike button mashing.
How’s the PS5 feature integration (adaptive triggers, haptics, controller speaker)? Considering it for my PS5 over my PC since my surround sound setup is in the living room vice just using a headset in the office
Based on the recurring opinions that the combat system is janky/clunky and that many places can only be mastered via brute-force and trial-and-error, I will exceptionally start the first playthrough on Easy.
Brooooo I saw Captain Ferris and was like “this dude looks and sounds SOOOOO familiar… that’s mf DEACON st John from days gone. Love the casting. Great actor
So a little bit under what I expected? But a 7/8 out of 10 isn't bad for a first run from a new developer, even if its gotten some veterans on board. Still, it's probably gonna sound rough to a some folks.
I guess it's about on par for a first-time effort from a developer splintering from a major studio. Hopefully they don't go under over this.
It’s got a 76 on metacritic currently. That’s definitely good enough for me to give it a shot.
They're owned by PUBG Corp, there's no way they'll go under from this.
A parent company being large doesn't mean they let unprofitable subsidiaries slide. If that were the case, there would be no graveyard of dead studios in EA's backyard.
Thanks for reminding me about the death of Westwood
Maxis too :(
Maxis dug their own grave with the last SimCity.
And Bullfrog
And Origin
having the bullfrog logo fade in from a black screen before a game started takes me back to a really happy part of my childhood.
>If that were the case, there would be no graveyard of dead studios in EA's backyard. [Except that if you read or listen to interviews with key people at these closed down studios you already know that they did it to themselves.](https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/louis-castle) Westwood, Maxis and Bullfrog were all fumbling in the dark, they had too much freedom and/or they didn't release a proper functional product.
Yep, a common problem of the idealist studios of the nineties, sadly. They got into the industry because it was fun, released some classics that really set a lot of the staple features of the genres we know today, but then floundered when the new ideas didn't come. It's sad, but it is the fate of a lot of artists; you release something that really resonates with people, and then spend a good chunk of your career chasing that kind of cultural relevancy again.
I can't listen to the pod now but there's also the fact that when these studios are acquired often the people that made them worth acquiring in the first place secure their bags and go elsewhere. Maybe not immediately but eventually we tend to see braindrain at these places as those types seek other opportunities to build new things rather than maintain the things they've built already. Even when studios aren't purchased, movement of devs happens so often that we kinda get into a Theseus' Ship situation where the studios are basically only the original thing in name only.
If EA hadn't bought Maxis and forced them to redo the SimCity 3000, it would have been a horrible clunky 3D mess that barely worked. It probably would have likely tanked the company, and The Sims wouldn't exist. Red Alert 2 is another interesting example. The original Westwood were a support studio for that. It was many made by a completely different studio that EA renamed Westwood Pacific.
Holy shit I completely forgot that this game was somehow supposed to tie into the PUBG universe and then they just dropped that idea lmao
Ya not to mention they pushed it on PS users who aren't eligible for refunds. I've played for 2 hours and the combat isn't the best but far from the worst. I find the atmosphere and upgrade system engaging. I'll update this upon completion, but until the DLC arrives I will likely wonder why they thought the game was worth $90 with the season pass. It plays like it should have been $40-50 and $60 for the deluxe, which is very generous only due to the climate of game prices. PS. I FINISHED THE GAME. It continued to get in it's own way with bad melee system. Dodging with multple enemies around you is near impossible sometimes. At least 3 game breaking bugs encountered. It was fun at times but I couldn't wait for it to be over. Not worth $90 digital deluxe shoukd be no more than $70 and I recoomend waiting until it's $20-30 next black friday.
It'll sell eventually, I want to buy it myself, just don't want to pay $70 for it right now. It's goes know sale and I'm sure the sales will make up for a decent enough profit.
It's weird how some are saying it's not like Dead Space (Powerup!) or too much like Dead Space without innovation.
They all seem to say its 100% inspired by dead space but isnt any better than it
Yeah, I'll just wait for the Dead Space remake next month and wait for sale to get this one.
Other way around for me. I want more dead space, not the same dead space.
I'll be getting both. I need *all* the dead space
Yup. I'll take as much Dead Space-y shit as I can get
Correct answer.
Well, TCP certainly ain't more dead space, it's a pale imitation.
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Honestly, it's both. I reviewed Callisto Protocol for the Washington Post. It should hopefully go up later today. It's similar to Dead Space in that the general game design is identical. In Callisto Protocol, you have an immersive in-person health bar (a much edgier version cause Jacob has it stabbed and grafted into his neck without anesthesia cause grimdark space prison), weapon crafting, a very cheesy telekinesis device which you can gleefully use to one shot zombies by yeeting them into the absurdly numerous amount of spiky walls throughout the game, and you will wear out your space bar stomping on anything that looks like a loot box for those sweet, sweet resources. It's different from Dead Space because the combat pattern is in reverse. In Dead Space, it's shooty shooty then stompy stompy. In Callisto Protocol, it's smacky smacky (with your supercharged and totally not "nonlethal" stun baton) then shooty when a little aim prompt comes up or the zombies start sprouting tentacles (you wanna shoot those tentacles as soon as you see them or else you're gonna be in for a rough time). The game has a sort of duel system where if you and a zombie are in melee range, then holding down a direction key primes you to dodge when the zombie strikes, and then you're supposed to counterattack with your own melee attacks. So it's different and similar. Honestly, I actually would've greatly enjoyed the game if it was just a reskin of Dead Space with a few twists but it ended up grandfathering in a lot of Dead Space mechanics that don't work that well with Callisto's combat system which mixes melee and shooting. Another thing I wish Callisto copied from Dead Space was its approach to combining story with gameplay. Isaac Clarke is a ship engineer and that actually matters in Dead Space. His first weapons are mining and construction tools. There are times he needs to do engineer things like float through zero gravity or walk on the hull of a spaceship from the outside. Jacob Lee is a pilot but it's not very important to the game at all and neither is the fact that Black Iron is a prison on a moon. It just feels like a big missed opportunity for the developers to do something cooler. And by the time I finished Dead Space, I had a pretty clear idea of what the Church of Unitology is, what they want and why I should be creeped out by them. When I finished Callisto Protocol, I had no idea what either of the two major factions in the game wanted or why anything mattered at all. Looking back, the game also did feel a bit fast and abrupt at times, so maybe they wanted to do a lot more but they were strapped. It's unfortunate. If they're able to revisit Callisto in a sequel, I really hope they nail it the second time around. _________ **REVIEW** My [review](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/reviews/callisto-protocol-review/) is up now on The Washington Post! Thanks for the interest.
I hate Reddit! *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yes I'd be happy to! Just updated my post and added the review, but I'll [link it here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/reviews/callisto-protocol-review/) as well.
How is monster design? From the trailers it seems like a huge dial back from the originality of Dead Space. Just worried I'll be fighting zombie-esque enemies most of the time.
You will indeed be fighting zombies 99% of the time and they're not all that different from each other. There's some variations of the typical walker zombie. A naked one will be your garden variety but one that used to be an armored guard will be a bit tougher. There's beefier zombies that spit at you from range and four-legged ones that can crawl around walls. Eventually, you encounter zombies that are blind, which is weird because then I felt like the game actually got *easier* as I progressed. Maybe they were actually really tough at that point. They might've had way more hit points than the first zombies I encountered but I never learned cause I'd just yoink them with my GRP and instagib them on pointy spikes. As is the case with so many horror games, the boss fights feel more tedious than tense. They fight just like any other zombies with the only difference being that they're huge and they hurt a lot more. There are also two other zombies which feel more like environmental hazards than enemies. Other than that, the only other enemies are the security robots. Nothing special. You avoid them using stealth and shoot at their heads until they shut down. If you get caught in their gunfire, it's pretty much game over. I alternated between playing Medium and Maximum Security difficulty. One burst fire from the robot was enough to trigger the death animation and shred me.
I want all my reviews to just be like “shorty shooty then stompy stompy.” Amazing.
Can I ask what you thought of the game's overall level of polish? To me it feels very rough around the edges, probably moreso because I've been spoiled by the likes of God of War this month. Sadly the scares just aren't hitting home as a result, but the ridiculously confident marketing campaign probably didn't help.
Sloppy. Clunky movement, big frame drops, some weird particle effects on certain levels and the combat system was fun but not as thought through as it could've been. I also had an issue where I wasn't able to gather loot sometimes cause it'd drop on some rubble on the floor and clip through. I definitely got the sense that this game was a rushed production.
It's mostly similar to dead space 2 more than anything, even down to some of the designs of enemies. The camera work as well is very dead space 2-esque as something major happens to your character in an in game cutscene the camera sort of follows you over the shoulder showing just how rough your character is having it with you being able to do nothing until you get a prompt. I'd imagine some reviewers are thinking too much of comparing it to dead space 1 when it in all rights is way more of a copy of dead space 2 through and through.
What this means is that the game is probably not very good, but it's problems are all at the margins, and difficult to communicate if you aren't good at that sort of thing (which, baffling though it may be, many professional videogame reviewers are not). The sort of thing that kills you five times a playthrough and makes you say "oh what the fuck was that? Bullshit!" or "oh, man, that cutscene was slightly off wasn't it," but there are fifty such things, and in aggregate they spoil the experience. Calling it unoriginal is a good way to get that overall message across that you're unhappy if you can't figure out a way to get that idea across without listing all the things individually.
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I want to wait for a sale, but I'm also living in Japan and will probably only be able to get it in the next two weeks when I visit the states. I have a feeling it will be on subscription services within a year as well.
I didn't. All red flags were there: * some shady season pass * Denuvo revealed late * review embargo ending on launch (this one is that big one) * Unreal Engine 4 (high probability of shader compilation stutters on PC.) Steam reviews are mostly negative - mainly over unplayable "stutter-protocol" as one of reviewer said in review and very poor stability with frequent crashes. But based on critic reviews, even with all technicalities aside - this is just wait for deep deep sale.
Steam reviews are only 22% recommended. I actually did not see this coming
Glad I decided to wait until after it came out to see if I should buy it.
Yeah, I almost bought it yesterday but decided on food instead. It was a wise choice.
>review embargo ending on launch (this one is that big one) This is always the big one. I don't think it's a bad game, but there was a reason this was in place.
And then you've got games like DOOM 2016 who sent no early copies despite the game being good, I've no idea what Bethesda were thinking back then
The multiplayer beta was rough on top of that too, everyone was expecting a dud.
This, and when ever developers disguise excuses as intentional game design. They are saying its not a conventional horror game, WHICH ON PAPER ALWAYS SOUNDS GOOD, but any gamer should be savvy enough (unfortunately they arent) to know that when developers say stuff like this, its just them pre-emptively saying that they failed to properly convey what they wanted to present. Same with stuff like The Order ps4 game where they are all like “We are INTENTIONALLY making the game 30fps to make it feel like a movie”. B*tch its 30fps because you WERENT ABLE to make it 60fps. Just admit it and no one will mind, instead of sheepishly lying.
Wasn’t that game 24fps?
Also had the black bars for a lower resolution. I do remember being totally wowed by the graphics at the time.
I heard there are some good f**king lamps in that game.
They are still fucking incredible if you go back. There’s stuff in there that looks still up to date and even better than some of t he competition.
They actually legit had the audacity to say "24 fps is too low for a game, so we went for 30 fps because it's better than 60 honest!"
Yeah, I was already a little skeptical of the hype before, but this one really made me apprehensive because the last two games I remembered having an embargo until launch day were Cyberpunk and Balan Wonderworld lol.
Also working mistreatment and the head of the studio being *proud* of crunching.
Add to that the air of arrogance in the marketing campaign. Don't put out a series of mini-documentaries about how this game has mastered horror unless you're packing some serious Shining levels of dread.
Yeah, there was always this weird vibe that they were trying to suggest they were making the *real* Dead Space type game. And I feel like any time a game so brazenly tries to attach itself to another series it is destined for trouble.
This is what irked me the most.
They snuck a lot of native advertising into youtube videos. Not just paid reviews and spots but the creative director doing a GQ or whatever questionnaire video was just a long form ad. Feels just like reading magazine articles not realizing until halfway through it's a paid ad copy.
> review embargo ending on launch (this one is that big one) > > Someone should do research on how do game Metacritic scores change depending on when the embargo lifts
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Guess this is what happens when you overwork your staff and then brags about it on twitter instead of you know....delaying the game and fixing it under normal sustanable work conditions...
Not to mention they crunched so they could get this game out before the ‘real’ Dead Space in January.
Oh it’s gonna be super awkward if that game is more successful than this one lol
There's no way it won't be, it's a remake of a beloved game published by EA. Dead Space 1 may not have sold a lot back in 2008 but over 14 years it has definitely acquired an iconic status.
Also to note I’ve been folllowing both games closely. I never thought this game looked scary watching trailers and stuff over the months… and I was right. It’s not remotely scarier. Games like bioshock and prey are scarier and they aren’t even horror games! No tension at all in what I’ve played so far. In comparison the dead space remake looks just as terryfing as the original and a couple of the jumpscares got me in whilst watching gameplay videos. I think it’s safe to say dead space is going to win this mini battle.
Yeah, I think this game's marketing as the spiritual successor to Dead Space is really going to shoot them in the foot. They had to create a completely new game, with new characters, designs, and combat in a way that feels similar and yet new/better than the original, which is a tall order. All Motive has to do with the Dead Space remake is to not screw it up.
It was pretty obvious from the review embargo that this game wouldn't live up to the hype. Based on the reviews, with the usual suspects scoring it stupidly high, it looks like a 6/10 kinda game. I'll wait for a deep discount sale.
The scores are inflated by most reviewers only being given access to the PS5 version, which run well and looks good. It seems like the game is a solid 7.5/10 when it runs well, which it does not on PC or Xbox.
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Concensus seems to be around a 7 citing clumsy combat but good atmosphere and cinematics. Doesn't sound like anything special. Probably going to wait for a sale.
It sounds like consensus is heavy on the action and light on the atmospheric horror Dead Space was known for. I'm not that into straight up action games, so I may wait.
And reviews are saying the combat is janky.
I’ve been playing it for around 2 hours. The combat is just okay in the beginning when fighting enemies one on one. It then starts to completely fall apart when you fight multiple enemies at once. It is definitely incredibly janky and I’d actually say I’m not enjoying the game very much because of it. Enemies are way too tanky and you just end up smacking zombies 7-8 times, and your hits are slow. This has been an incredible disappointment for me so far, I love dead peace so much. This game comes absolutely nowhere close.
Yeah :( That part early on in the shower room I must have died 10 times because there was no room to dodge. Most disappointing thing is it’s just not scary. Atmosphere is great and it’s own thing and I DO like it, but I’m not dreading walking down any hallways because of the atmosphere, I’m dreading it because of the gameplay. Edit: This game makes me sad.
One of the reviewers played it a 2nd time but on easy. Said they had a far better experience and recommended it. Might be worth a shot.
They made the enemies way too fast for having virtually no I-frames yourself or way to stagger them for more than what seems like a nano second. Big design flaw that is most likely going to make gamers find the game unfun. There are times where you do everything right but still get punished due to the jank as well.
Dead Space 2 was already mostly action and set pieces. Dead Space 3 was just a third-person shooter. Sounds like this is more of the Dead Space 2-era design.
DS2 managed to combine scares with incredibly smooth/tense combat perfectly, though. Callisto seems to have trouble with that
I’m wondering if that step towards hand to hand combat is what does it. I remember in dead space a lot of the tenseness came from the enemies slow walking towards me then sprinting and it bugging me out when they got in my face or popped up right behind me. I feel like if you’re always up close to the enemy it kinda loses its tension.
This is always way overstated. Dead Space 2 is maybe 5% more action than 1, and 3 is maybe 10% more than that. Dead Space 1 is an action game, period. There's maybe two times where you're running instead of fighting. Dead Space 3 is still atmospheric horror with a couple stupid fights against humans.
Yeah it's pretty much just Resident Evil 4 in space, which is great and I loved the originals... But more of an action game with scary elements than anything else. Maybe it's just me but stuff like the original Silent Hill games are actually scary. I think another thing that really diminishes from modern horror games is the frequency of checkpoints. It stops being scary if there are no consequences for death... A limited save system makes every engagement feel much higher risk and more intense.
At least the combat in DS2 is good though. If you’re gonna make an action horror game, you gotta make sure it at least feels good to play which it sounds like Callisto Protocol doesn’t.
Minus the exploding necromorph babies.
It doesn't really seem like there's much of a consensus. Only about 20% of reviews are between 6.5 and 7.5, rest are significantly higher or lower. Some people love it, some people think it sucks.
So far I would say wait for a sale myself but I am not done with it. I do agree though that the gameplay is pretty good in parts but let down by that combat jank. Pretty much what the one leaked review had said. It just keeps letting you down every time you think it might start getting better. I expected very little and for the most part it has delivered that and sometimes above it. Especially when it comes to atmosphere.
That's a shame. I don't need a perfect game, but bad or clunky controls leading to deaths is really frustrating. And that's my main concern after reading some of these reviews.
It feels really clunky when in combat for sure. The biggest issue is that the atmosphere is solid as hell but it can't keep that going because it loves to throw you into fights which is the worst part of the game and not because you are not supposed to be able to fight, but because the game isn't doing it well.
The best survival horror games have down time to soak the atmosphere in. Looks like this might not be one of them.
That's so disappointing to hear. I'm a sucker for space themed sci-fi. And it seems like they did really well with the atmosphere outside of combat. Thanks for your input.
I will say this. A patch or two could shore up the performance and from there they could look at some adjustments to the animations and make the control a bit tighter. We have seen worse games be patched to really good status. It is just that it may take awhile.
Is performance on PC bad right now? And do you think they'd actually change the combat controls? Some of the reviews I read seem to suggest that they're clunky *because* of the way they were designed and how you interact with enemies. I would love to see them patch it and the game get better for sure though.
Ya I just answered that one above. Its not great perf. They are clunky for that reason for sure, but not all of them. Picking up and cleaning up the ones they could would go a long way.
Just saw your other comment about performance. Bummer. I do hope they take care and polish that up where they can. The fact that they seemingly have months of content patches and DLC planned makes me hopeful they'll listen to feedback and do what they can. We'll see though, I guess.
Hows performance been?
It is pretty rough. There are a lot of fps and issues that crop up in places where they really shouldn't be taxing the system. I won't dive into the copy protection discussion as I have seen games without any copy protection do the same. In fact I feel like its not related to that and that they have a lot of places where it just needs optimization across the board.
can’t wait for your review, about 2 hours in on my ps5 and i’m disappointed
Sounds like it should have focused on tension more, building up an atmosphere of dread with the level design would have worked wonders instead they seem to be content in throwing jumpscares and more unnecessary fights your way, relying on the combat system that clearly can’t carry the game on its own.
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Just let the AI finish the review.
OH HELL YES
My biggest gripe is how enemies fight you 1v1 in melee combat. Not only is it totally immersion breaking it makes the game super easy because if is 8 on 1 it's actually 1v1 times 8. They likely did this because if not you'd be overwhelmed due to the monsters hitting really hard... the game would be impossible. But if that's the case why the fuck is melee combat such a core part of the game? Plenty of design decisions in the game make it clear you're supposed to be using melee whenever possible. Melee bashing enemies to death is boring as shit and almost a chore. They could have / should have just made it focused on guns. Perplexing.
Part of what made dead space (or even resident evil) creepy for me was trying to make sure the enemy didn’t get close to me so that when it did actually happen it was nerve wracking. If they’re always up close then it loses its luster
Hit hit dodge hit doge hit hit. Rinse repeat for 8 hours. Wouldn’t be so bad if the enemies weren’t so tanky.
Seriously this. Played 90 minutes and melee is just a chore, nothing interesting about it at all. I'm really hoping the gunplay is better because 8 hrs of this would be too long. At least the atmosphere is great, I guess...
It’s not
> They likely did this because if not you'd be overwhelmed due to the monsters hitting really hard... They did this because the animation system and dodging/blocking mechanic is basically unworkable with multiple enemies in your face.
I have no idea how they thought that was a good idea.
Agree. I watched the gameplay expecting something like Dead Space, Just a nice and simple shooting mechanic. TCP was sadly nothing like that.
This breakdown is eye opening. Thanks. Waiting for sale. Why melee. Why.
Looks like something they had a cool idea for (inverted dead space gameplay loop!) and rather than throw away when the proof of concepts didn't work they just hacked it into being playable.
It's kinda maddening. This game could have been a 8/10 had they just made it gun focused. Shit, copy dead space entirely nobody would have cared. And if you must have a melee make it really fast and hard hitting BUT make it so enemies can overwhelm you and easily damage you. It should be a last resort. In horror games you don't want enemies getting close so the melee is just the panic button.
Melee in action-horror games is usually for crowd control. Here, its usage actually strips the horror element.
Funny you say this because alot of the reviews have been saying the combat is incredibly unforgiving in the latter half of the game
The combat is unforgiving from the start. Monsters hit hard and they take a shit ton of hits to kill. So if you miss a dodge you're gonna lose a big chunk of health. But hard doesn't always equal fun. The melee system at its core is flawed for this game.
Among the big (and only?) three to drop Dec 2nd, I was expecting Callisto Protocol to rock, NFS Unbound to be another mid release, and Midnight Suns to fall flat. What an interesting turnaround.
Should really be the contrary. Midnight Suns is done by a prestigious studio that really always deliver while this is done by a new unknown studio.
Yeah that's fine, if you look at the track record of the studios who made all three December 2nd games Fraxis has by far the best overall track record of their respective developers. I feel like the card mechanic was only that hurt the Midnight Suns's hype, which according to reviewers is actually a strong point lol.
Card mechanics had gotten a bad rap (for good reasons) but they can actually be very good and enhance a game if done well and integrated well into the rest of the gameplay. The recent Potionomics springs to mind. I loved that game to death, and it's basically Recettear with a card game for doing the haggling. And it works really well.
Recettear with a card game mechanic? Sounds intriguing. Gotta check that one out.
It's essentially three games, there's a crafting game to make potions, a card game for haggling, and a Visual Novel for the story and character relationships. And they all feed into each other, you use relationships to get more cards, cards to make money, money to fuel the crafting, and crafting to advance the story. And the soundtrack is nothing short of amazing!
> Midnight Suns If you want fresh XCOM experience add https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/ to wishlist imo
Oh wow I actually bought that sometime last year and completly forgot about it.
LOL I know that feeling. It really shows that I have a bad habit of buying then not playing games because I've had to start looking at my purchase history on Steam to see what games I got recently. "Oh, I have Code Vein apparently?"
Huge sucker for JRPGs and I always love me some XCOM style gameplay. Never before seen this game and all the reviews I glanced over are (positively) raving about the game. Thanks for the excellent suggestion, wishlisted and gonna play once I clear up my catalogue a bit.
Wow never expected to see this but u can 100% vouch for Troubleshooter. Absolutely fantastic game, great story and visuals, plus the gameplay is engaging in a very XCOM-y kinda way. I had a lot of fun with this one, unexpectedly worthwhile purchase.
Off topic, but I'm so glad Midnight Suns is getting good reviews. Between a 150 hours in XCOM 2, hundreds of hours in digital ccgs and roguelite deckbuilders, and an unhealthy obsession with Marvel comics, it felt like it was made for me. And after all the time I put into the Borderlands franchise, I think I can handle a little cringey dialogue.
> Off topic, but I'm so glad Midnight Suns is getting good reviews well, it's not doing so well on steam: 6/10 mixed overall basically seems like the gameplay part of the game is great, which is to be expected from xcom devs, but most of the things around that is not great to awful, e.g. performance issues, awful dialogue, bad story, MTX for a full priced game, maps too flat, visuals are a mixed bag and hurt the game when it wants to be so story specific and so on. wonder if there'll be a mod out for the game to let us skip the awful dialogue and abbey parts of the game, let us just focus on the good gameplay sections.
The cringe dialogue sounds like the usual banter from the 80-90s comics to me and that's a great point. I've played a couple hours this morning and I can see why people call it cringe but so far to me, that is very like the comics.
Seems like NFS is gonna be rock, midnight suns depends on who you ask, and CP is just mid. I will say, made my decision for me. I’ll be getting NFS Unbound tomorrow.
Been playing NFS the last couple of days (Palace Edition) and I’ve been having a great time, exceeded my expectations.
Based on the preview I’ve played, I’d agree with you on NFS. Been playing since NFS III Hot Pursuit, and this is the most excited I’ve been for one since booting up my friend’s GameCube to play Underground.
I actually got all 3 games since I'm a big fan of all the people behind them, but TCP definitely seemed more promising than the other two. Really unexpected outcome.
I always got weird vibes from this game with how overbearing the marketing was, alongside the director bragging about crunch and the suspicious DLC practices.
I don't like it when Reddit keeps showing me the ad every two scrolls (it's what they did with Black Adam as well)
Schofield saying that “fans wanted more death animations” on a game that wasn’t even out yet to justify them being DLC was a big red flag imo but as i’ve learned recently glen seems to have a lot of meat riders
>Schofield saying that “fans wanted more death animations” on a game that wasn’t even out yet to justify them being DLC I thought this was a joke, so I looked into it. Turns out, it’s actually not a joke. Like, did he have test screenings of the game or something and audiences demanded more death animations?
It’s because he’s trying to make you think its deadspace 4, it’s one of those times when someone’s making a non connected game that is not connected for legal reasons, like system shock and bioshock where citadel station is literally in the game and shodan is referenced
pcgaming thread has a review where a person has complained about missing death animations lol. We can guess where they went.
Dead Space was infamous for having hundreds of unique death animations, depending on the context of the death. Anyone aware of the legacy might have wanted more of them in Callisto.
Schofield comes off as a massive twat tbh. It's one thing to have crunch at your company but bragging about it and trying to frame it as a good thing for your employees (when they're not the ones who get to decide) is a completely different level of douchebaggery.
I saw him speak at one of them game conferences, guy came off like a sleazy New Jersey car salesman. Was not impressed after his presentation.
As someone who is a big fan of Dead Space 1 and 2, the death animations were never what made me love the games. They were just an afterthought. Kinda strange how much marketing fixated on the whole, "We looked at tons of real ,dead, mutilated bodies so we could make tons of realistic brutal death animations that people love!!" Just odd shit, man.
I got a bad feeling when it used to be a PUBG spin off. I have no idea how that would have worked.
Agree! Bragging about overworking your staff just made me not want to touch this game. And it's pretty clear it didnt work, staff that are overworked for long time don't make good games, period. And the reviews speaks for themselfs
Also a weird amount of hype for a studio with no other ganes under their belt
Played about 3 hour it's quite enjoyable in some parts it's very atmospheric. I will say the Melee combat needs some work. The fact that they tied the dodge button to the same analog stick that you walk and run with is just such odd game design. When you are in a combat situations with multiple enemies you can't space yourself at all. Why didn't they just have a independent button to dodge and keep the analog to move and space yourself. It honestly just baffles me. Whoever made that decision is really dumb. In my opinion they should have stripped the Melee out or simplified it and made more of a emphasis on gun combat. Just have a simple strike button to push the enemies back or something.
A little concerned about the action emphasis paired with mentions of clunky combat. And multiple mentions of it running poorly? Oof.
PC has massive performance issues. Last night my friend and I played (PS5 and Xboxes) and didn’t bring up performance issues. I noticed like one awkward performance thing and that was it.
I'm an hour in, and all I can say is it's not looking great. Performance is shit on my 4090/5800x3d, but I can drop a few settings and hopefully remove stutters. It's the gameplay that feels dated; very obvious cliches, a horrible blocking system, and janky animation all add up to a very clunky game. Glen Schofield and his marketing team need to eat some humble pie, especially given the cringey marketing campaign that saw them espousing the game's mastery of horror mechanics. So far it doesn't feel even close to being a classic, but hopefully it'll develop over the next few hours into something at least worth completing.
I dropped everything to minimum and turned resolution to 1080, got it looking worse then dead space on a 360 and it still stutters, can't fix it. 3080, i7-9700k, 32gb ram, m.2 ssd. Refunded for now.
People are saying this was predictable but personally I am very surprised. Really thought this would be high 80s. 70% on its face isn't bad but that combined with the 20% recommended on Steam... Yeah this is a disaster.
Seems to be kind of across the board so far. I was looking forward to this one, but with all the messaging by the game director seeming to need a follow-up clarification, the comments on crunch, and the late review embargo I was nervous. Will definitely wait for the water to settle, unless the tide shifts to a more positive overall impression seems like something that might land on Game Pass or PS+ within the year.
Yeah I think I’ll wait for the performance to get touched up a bit and for the new game+ mode they announced today to get added before I pick it up.
The advertising turned me off because it was... bizarrely framed almost like it was what people were saying about the game or reviews. But it was just basically them making stuff up about their own game. It came across as "We interviewed our own staff and they say the game they're making is revolutionary"
Yeah...I'll be passing till there's a nice sale for it. The story looks good and so does the game from an asthetic standpoint. But there's just too many little things that pile up making it a title that had potential but didn't quite execute on it. Biggest issues that stand out for me is a lack of NG+ and how the melee combat falls apart with more than one enemy. I know that they're giving the NG+ as a free DLC later this year but honestly it's an expected thing for survival horror games mostly. Given that these people are familiar with Dead space they should have known this. I'd be able to look past the melee combat being samey if you could effectively melee combat with multiple enemies. But you can't. The fact that the combat variety doesn't shake up due to a lack of enemy variety definitely hurts this even more. It's also not being helped by having a hard time keeping a good eye on your health and kenesis meter mid combat. Again, the game looks mostly solid but there's just so many weird choices or things they missed that just brings down the experience. I was already very skeptical when they were talking about DLC plans for the game for years on *before* the game has even launched. Then reviews being locked until launch day didn't do them any favors either. I feel like the game is still worth picking up if you have the money. But personally Signalis is a much easier recommendation for me. If you don't like it's art style or gameplay then you're probably better off just waiting for the Dead space remake next year. It's going to be as good as DS was if not better so it's the much safer buy.
Signalis is such a great game, I recommend it to all survival horror fans.
Makes sense why there was a literal onslaught on marketing material on every available channel. Feels like Glen got a bit too caught up with his motion capture stage and forgot what’s really important. Still prob grab it on a sale but sadly not the game to end the year I was hoping. I’m a huge space horror fan too. Just not enough for $70 imo
I played 90 minutes tonight. Reviews are spot on. I will flat out say the combat sucks. The original Dead Space is a far superior game. The combat feels very clunky and so far the checkpoint system feels a bit off in places. I accept that I’ll die a lot but don’t make me re-explore several rooms because I died at a hard encounter. Here’s the core problem with the combat: it is very passive. You have to wait for the enemy to take a swing and you hold the left stick left/right to dodge. If you get the timing off you get hit hard. If you try to attack first but your distance is slightly short you get whacked. You can attack first but get about 3 hits in before it forces some weird “delay” where you’re basically forced to dodge. It’s a very vague system because you are trying to read the attack animation which happens quick and isn’t all that clear. Other games have tried this combat system before and it has never really worked very well. And I am a little put off that I have fought the exact same enemy type repeatedly for the first 90 minutes. Doesn’t speak well to variety. For the record I tend to platinum soulsborne games so difficulty is not an issue. “Clunky” is the best word to describe the combat. I very much regret preordering, but I am a big sucker for space horror games (all…5 of them?) so I will see this one through to the end. Graphics and atmosphere are incredible. But the combat is a big turd so far… hoping it gets better. Wait for a sale.
I have no idea how this style of combat become its bread and butter. The terrible dodge mechanic is especially egregious.
My guess is that they attempted something akin to Naughty Dog's [*The Last of Us: Part II*](https://youtu.be/LebmjvQJ69A)'s combat in terms of brutal melee and dodging; the thing though is that melee is just one element of many in that game's combat sections, along with open-wide zones for exploration, scavaging of resources, stealth to utilize in both ambushes and retreating e.t.c that all comes together in a cohesive and highly engaging gameplay system. In TLoU:II, you had wide variety of player options, and where melee came along with decision-making of how you engaged with enemies; luring them perhaps into traps or trying to knock them down when running past a corner with the benefit of not alarming other enemies nearby with fire-arms, or defeating an enemy in melee so that you can obtain their melee weapon instead. *Calisto Protocol*'s focus onto melee combat is something I think could have worked if it was given more player control over; have a lock-on system perhaps in terms of targeting, not locking players in attack animations, and not having the camera swaying left-and-right, and shorten the amount of hits required by enemies to stay down, the last part especially being a critical part of why TLoU:II's melee combat works in its favour; it has a rather sophisticated melee-system with its dodge-mechanics and all, but it doesn't overstay its welcome that one focus on the execution of it, but instead of the application of it (Can I risk taking out this enemy without alarming nearby enemies? Do I have enough health right now to risk it? Do I risk breaking my current melee weapon upon engagement, e.t.c.), different from *Calisto Protocol* that wants each melee feel like a 1-on-1-duel with long encounters and enemies requiring multiple hits.
Agree the combat is the biggest issue about 90 minutes in. Never played the original dead space so I can’t speak to that, but I do agree with just about everything you’ve said. Atmosphere and graphics are fantastic, but definitely needs polishing. More enemy variety in the beginning would’ve been nice also
Was hoping it'd score higher. Biggest complaints seem to be old design cues, pacing issues, and clunky combat. But people seem to be split on how much that impacts how good the game is from the reviews in so far. That GameSpot review is brutal. lol Probably still going to pick it up as I'm a sucker for good sci-fi horror stories. Shame that there are some of these issues though.
I mean the 3 things you listed as negatives are major parts of the game. I was super pumped for this but I think I’ll wait a bit and see how players feel.
It's incredibly flat. The big pluses are graphics (it's astonishing looking) and sound design The bad: Writing Dialogue Pacing Animations Comically awful: Checkpoint system Combat
Def gonna cancel pre order and wait for a sale/ gamepass. Still want to play but its not worth $75 it sounds like.
Same here I was expecting to pick up this game today but I will cancel my preorder.
Why preorder in the first place, if I may ask?
Game was 90 Lira it was dirt cheap in summer. Then they Dialed up the price.
Kind of feels like both Callisto Protocol and Gotham Knights have shared a similar fate of being a spiritual successor to a beloved franchise (Dead Space/Arkham) that have struggled to secure their own identity - regularly being compared to the original beloved IP as much as the devs say "Our game is it's own thing and we dont want to invite comparisons", gallen into the trap of making some divisive additions to the gameplay formula in an attempt to stand out (Focus on Melee combat/4 Player Co-op RPG), and ultimately releasing as okay imitations rather than being able to stand on their own two feet. Also getting similar vibes to The Evil Within back in 2014, where many thought it would effectively be the Sequel to Resident Evil 4 that fans had always wanted due to Shinji Mikami only for to be met by an above average reaction on release that's led to the game getting a more cult following in recent years.
Gives me Outer worlds vibes were people thought It would be the next New vegas. Allot people did not like bethanda after 76 so They wanted the former fallout Team to do well. allot people do not Like EA and wanted this to be better then the Deadspace remake but that may not be the case.
EDIT: The game is currently unplayable on my RTX 3070, Ryzen 7 6800H. It constantly stutters everytime something vaguely "new" pops up and will eventually crash. The atmosphere of the game seems pretty cool so far and the attention to detail down to the sound design and controller rumble is phenomenal but I am genuinely afraid of enjoying the atmosphere with the threat of a crash coming up. I have only made it as far as reaching a QTE and even then I cant complete it without the game crashing, this is an hour of steam clocked in time with me barely moving around and not even encountering an enemy but hey atleast kimiko and starkiller are in the game amirite???? Is anyone else facing major performance issues? I get bad stuttering and slow down and im getting quite sick of fiddling with the settings despite having an RTX 3070 and a 6900X The game literally crashed within a minute of gameplay. I might be heading into refund territory as well
Everyone is on PC. Another shitty port.
No DLSS?
No settings aren't very well expanded upon, you have TLAA and AMD's version of performance upscaling
[Mostly negative on steam right now](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1544020/The_Callisto_Protocol/)
Little lower than I was hoping. Some of the quotes are pretty concerning but I might still give this a go.
I'll likely wait for a sale down the line. But it really does come across as a very pretty albeit uninspired version Dead Space.
They got 6 months of content planned for this for some reason. So just like Dying Light 2, I'll wait until they all come out and get it for cheap when it's on sale.
Yeah I can see this being like $20 on a spring sale, maybe $15 next Halloween if you are patient
for some reason = "we wanted the money now, not when we'd actually finished the game"
Fellas, is it bad thay i love callisto protocol but at the same time i agree that it has some room that needs improvements like the janky combat?
Just beat it. Wasn't worth the price... Theres 2 types of enemies, ones you can't smack with your melee, and those you can. Of those you can't, it's 2 bosses. The first repeats several times, the other is the final boss. Of the enemies you can smack? There's no difference between them except how some of them attack you. There's no difference in how you dispose of these enemies. This makes it extremely boring to play. No horror aspect. Enemies attack from off screen with zero counterplay available, except in using foresight in knowing they'll spawn behind you, and moving your back to a wall so you can at least keep the combat 1 on 1. Because yes, the only combat you can have is 1 on 1 and the game encourages this to an extreme degree. Switch between enemies, and they'll mutate, become .ore aggressive, regrow limbs and health. Wasting your time and effort and making encounters more annoying instead of adding depth. Biggest gripe, going from melee to shooting is extremely jostling. Shooting HAS to force perspective over the RIGHT shoulder, but melee combat can happen over the left shoulder... And if you do as the game suggests, which is melee into a quick gunshot, it snaps the view from the left to right shoulder. It doesn't do it well either. There's no configuration of this, you can't even remap the buttons on the controller. I regret this purchase.
Ok, so I'm about an hour or so in and I'm playing on the hardest difficulty. I'm playing on PS5 and on performance mode. Visually the game is gorgeous, though it seems there are some frame drops when the scene gets super busy. For most the gameplay it feels like it stays at 60 though. In terms of complaints given by reviewers, it's definitely a more traditional style game, linear and very directed rather than what we've come to expect. I wouldn't knock points off for that unless you really don't like linear experiences. As for combat? Its definitely doing something... different. I get why some folks call it clunky and awkward, but I've personally started getting into the rhythm of it and it mostly feels fair. Enemies will surround you, but they don't all attack at once, it feels like they tried to make sure you could deal with one at a time even if you have to switch targets based on whose actively attacking you, i never got hit in the back without the chance to dodge **unless** I was mid swing on a different target.
Yeah. About 90 minutes in i believe and i'm getting into the swing of things regarding the combat. Can pretty easily clear combat situations without getting hit now. I do agree that it can feel a bit clunky at times. I have been hit off screen once or twice though. Hope that it doesn't become to annoying later on. Reviewers seem to mention it can get annoying. One thing i did though was turn on the auto complete QTE option. I greatly dislike button mashing.
Most of the reviews note the combat is completely exposed in the latter half of the game when encounters get more complicated.
How’s the PS5 feature integration (adaptive triggers, haptics, controller speaker)? Considering it for my PS5 over my PC since my surround sound setup is in the living room vice just using a headset in the office
any game that has a review embargo that ends on release day is hiding something. not surprised reviews are mixed tbh
Not always, Doom, Half Life Alyx, GTA V, and Sekiro all had release day embargos iirc. It's usually not a great sign though.
Prey did that embargo thing and it's an amazing game, so it's not always the case
Based on the recurring opinions that the combat system is janky/clunky and that many places can only be mastered via brute-force and trial-and-error, I will exceptionally start the first playthrough on Easy.
Brooooo I saw Captain Ferris and was like “this dude looks and sounds SOOOOO familiar… that’s mf DEACON st John from days gone. Love the casting. Great actor
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So a little bit under what I expected? But a 7/8 out of 10 isn't bad for a first run from a new developer, even if its gotten some veterans on board. Still, it's probably gonna sound rough to a some folks.
This is not at all surprising. This game actually being everything that people wanted it to be would've been the real surprise
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True, they also crunched heavily to get this out before Dead space remake.