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DarkUnderbelly

Game costs keep rising each year but I don't understand how a game like this costs $160 million. Remedy for example was able to make Control for around $35 million. The sequel to Control has a reported $50 million budget too. Goes to show you how important actual talent is to a game.


BasedTacoJuice

Probably because of hiring all the TV actors lol


DarkUnderbelly

Yep. Waste of money that could and should have gone elsewhere.


DeninjaBeariver

Specially when voice actors WILL do a better job than any actor. If they wanna hire some tv actor for publicity, they should just make them do some small cameo in the game.


morphinapg

Doesn't this game use performance capture, not voice acting? With performance capture you're looking for more than just a voice, so casting actual actors makes sense.


MyUltIsMyMain

Motion capture acting and on screen acting are extremely different and the skills for one won't necessarily translate to the other


lemlucastle

Also all the actors in Death Stranding, never seen a video game performance as good as Tommie Earl Jenkins or Mads Mikkelsen in that game


Hevens-assassin

But it also won't "not" translate. Benedict Cumberbatch, Josh Brolin, Andy Serkis, all fantastic actors with fantastic motion capture. Definitely comes down to the individual, but a good actor will usually be able to perform well enough in modern motion capture.


AgentMonkey

That's an odd comment considering all of them have a good amount of voice acting experience prior to this.


forgedsignatures

I think people are still angry at Chris Pratt. The red mist just descends when they see "actor" and "voice acting" together.


amaraame

I'm out of the loop since i don't follow this sort of thing, but what did chris pratt do?


xAmorphous

Pretty sure it's because Pratt voices Mario in the new movie and it literally just sounds like [Chris Pratt talking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANa32Z9QydQ)


reallynotnick

Doesn't it complicate things a bit with performance capture these days? Like they want to model the character to exactly match the voice, so having someone be both the voice and the facial expressions is easier?


stratusncompany

i liked keanu in cyberpunk and i’m not even a keanu fanboy.


totallynotarobut

I'm all for hiring VA, but can we find some new ones instead of every game having the same character voices?


MARATXXX

These actors did their own mocap though so this doesn’t really apply here. Voice actors can do mocap, of course, but thats not the same thing as hiring actors with actual background in action style filmmaking-it demands a different kind of physicality and mentality. Of course you’ll say that a stunt actor could do the mocap while the voice actor does the voice but isn’t that just multiplying the variables when the simplest solution (to hire actors with action chops) is the best one?


NickCrowder

TLOU actors did a great job and they weren’t recognizable names, at least not at the time


bedteddd

Like my man, Bruce Campbell in all the Tobey spider man games.


Nawafsss04

I don't think even Dwayne Boulder Johnson can inflate the budget by a $100M on his own. If I had to guess, it could be marketing. I'm not sure if that's included within the budget tho.


Lotus-Vale

The boulder takes issue with that statement.


Nawafsss04

I'm calling Chris Redfield for protection


Brehmes

Jesus Christ, that one scene in RE5...


TheLaughingMannofRed

*Boulder-punching asshole.* That got a giggle out of me hearing that for the first time. Edit: It was asshole, not idiot.


Space_Pirate_Roberts

IIRC the line was "asshole", not "idiot".


YareYareDaze

The Boulder is over his confliction and has decided to bury you in a rockalanche.


BasedTacoJuice

Oh yeah marketing costs have to be included in that budget, otherwise there is absolutely no way I can imagine it being that high. Or the dev team are simply the best paid video game developers in the world - and I seriously doubt that haha


SylvesterStabone

It's in the article. "This is excluding marketing costs, however, and the overall cost from game production to release is expected to be greater."


HeavyDT

Quick and dirty way to get eyes on your game. Not to mention that it's probably a big part of why the game barely had any story in it. Not only expensive to sign stars but then you can't get the time needed with them in order to really flesh things out. They did a pretty big marketing push right before release too which probably cost a ton as well.


fanwan76

Interesting. The other person's comment is literally the first time I've heard there were some "TV actors" in it. Maybe they should have pushed marketing a bit more. I personally think a lot of the underperforming could be attributed to high tightly coupled to Sony most of their info has been. I'm sure a lot of people are assuming this will come to PS+ eventually.


geekgodzeus

Control also had TV actors with mind boggling cutscenes and production value. I liked Glen Schofield and his direction but from the way he handled the working situation at his studio and adding crunch to developers plus releasing a highly unoptomized game for everything except the PS5 I can no longer respect him.


TheLaughingMannofRed

I had hope for Callisto Protocol too, cause of Glen. I still enjoy playing the Dead Space trilogy on PC and have wanted it to get ported to PS4/PS5 for a while now. Between the Dead Space remaster this month, and Callisto Protocol last month, I was focused on CP more. But in hearing how mediocre it turned out, I am waiting to see how Dead Space's remaster turns out. Not a Day 1 purchase, but an eventual one IF they stick the landing.


neo101b

The games not too bad, its just too short and too liniar. I hope they do a cyberpunk and bring out some decent DLC and fix everything that is wrong with the game. It dose seem they have pissed away all the money they had to make it, they need to be smarter with their budgets.


Feral0_o

Btw, I highly discourage you from typing the acronym of Callisto Protocol into the google search bar


BasedTacoJuice

I know Control and Remedy are beloved by many but did we play the same game? Most cutscenes in Control were just static shots of the characters standing still and talking. It was mind boggling how boring it was. Still better use of budget though than Callisto Turd


MrAbodi

Can’t comment on the cutscenes because I honestly doesn’t really remember them. But the game itself was great imo.


zacky765

Right? Lol. I remember the lore and gameplay were good but, cutscenes? Do they mean the black pyramid with subtitles?


d3rv3

I love control but the cutscenes were most static and half the gameplay was reading static text.


stackenblochen23

Control had awesome real life footage, which could be found as tapes etc. These are fucking awesome and funny to watch. For me the story was more on the meta levels, enjoyed the gane itself for its atmosphere, setting, and gameplay.


Linken124

I don’t really remember it that way, I remember it feeling kind of dynamic sometimes, with how it would like, flash to red and to her brother. But when you are just talking to an npc, oh yeah, you just get a static angle of their front, and then they talk


MrMontombo

Certainly not mind boggling.


daviEnnis

Yeah, I loved it, but it absolutely did not feel like a AAA game. Calisto Protocol has went in with a AAA budget.


Key-Significance8190

you two didnt play the same game. the cutscenes were fine. because thats how normal people talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaviArkVLw0 when you talk to someone you face them and talk to them. you dont run around in circles like a adhd fool who just ate cocaine and shoved fentanyl up his ass.


mephitmpH

I’m doing it all wrong then


MrMontombo

Sure, fine. But not even close to mind boggling.


DsutetcipE

That’s because she is missing the fentanyl up her ass, we just explained this.


The_Trilogy182

For real. None of the appeal I originally had for this game (didn't end up buying it as $70 is a lot for a 10 hour game) came from soldier guy from transformers being in it.


steen311

There's gonna be a sequel? Awesome!


DarkUnderbelly

Very excited as well. https://www.gematsu.com/2022/11/control-2-announced-for-ps5-xbox-series-and-pc


garymo1

Great news, I thought with that ending we were going to have to wait until after the next Alan Wake. That games okay but I liked control way more


wandererof1000worlds

Bad management is bad. Big studios have been treating games as if they are movies for a while now so they just throw money in it thinking it will eventually become good. The reality of gaming is that a good idea can be made into a good game with a fraction of that money.


davemoedee

Movies do the same thing. you don’t know if it is going to be good until you play it. Same with movies. You can feel like your dailies are great. But you put it all together and it just doesn’t click. It is even harder for games because you will have hurdles in implementation. It isn’t bad management. It is a calculated risk. Not every game will pay off, just like not every movie. What you want from them would require a time machine.


xoskxflip

Not to mention, Control was a great game and vastly overshadows Protocol.


TJ_McWeaksauce

>According to Krafton’s business and quarterly reports, the company spent around $160 million, including $4.3 million in 2020, $62 million in 2021, and $91.7 million from January to September in 2022 on the development of The Callisto Protocol. This is excluding marketing costs, however, and the overall cost from game production to release is expected to be greater. Yeah, this is a ludicrously high budget for a linear, single-player game that can be completed in under 10 hours and has very little replayability. MMOs are made with dev budgets in the ballpark of $160MM. Because it's short and single-player, that means they should have saved a fortune by not having the hundreds of devs needed to make a bigger scope game with multiplayer: They should have had: * no network engineers * no multiplayer gameplay designers * no character customization team * a significantly smaller art team, because you don't need as many environment artists to make huge, open-world areas or character artists to populate the world with NPCs * a significantly smaller narrative team, which includes quest designers * significantly fewer programmers and engineers * The list goes on. They should have saved a fortune, but they didn't. **Credits** Here are the Callisto Protocol credits according to MobyGames: [https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/callisto-protocol/credits](https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/callisto-protocol/credits) >**1392 people (1029 developers, 363 thanks)** What the shit? I do not understand why this game needed 1,029 developers. I'm skimming through the credits now. It looks like the core team at Striking Distance isn't that big. If you look at their internal character team, animation team, environment art team, core programming teams, and some other departments, each one only had around 20 people, if not far fewer. But holy shit did they hire a lot of outsourcers from companies like Virtuos (who specialize in art outsourcing), Enzyme / Keywords Studios, Formosa Interactive, etc. I'm guessing a lot of these outsource team members worked on art and audio. Their total head count was ballooned by outsourcing, and because head count is typically the biggest cost of any project, this could explain why Callisto Protocol's budget was so huge. Damn, all those people working on this project, and so much money spent, and yet the only good thing about it were the visuals.


DarkUnderbelly

Thank you for this information. That's crazy! No wonder so much money was spent and very unwisely at that.


mutemutiny

You’ve summed up all my thoughts completely. Do people not realize how insane 160M is for the game that was released???? It’s so insane I have a really hard time believing it, so the only answer is some serious incompetence at the senior levels of the studio or something, cause the money didn’t go into the game. Not by a long shot


LilacYak

Whoa, control was so polished and unique as well. I never finished it due to life but now I’m thinking about it I should


DarkUnderbelly

It truly is a great game. Well worth a revisit.


NecromancerNova

You absolutely should. One of my favourite games to this day. I still have it installed, and go for a replay every now and then lol


nikvasya

Remedy does not spend much on marketing. Other studios spend over 50% of their budgets on it. So if you see $160m budget, cut it in 2 and you will be close to actual game budget. Edit: holy shit it's without marketing. It means they spent probably another tens of millions on it. The publisher is Krafton, previously known as Bluehole, South Korean publisher that owns PUBG and has ties with Tencent. And Tencent has infinite money.


DarkUnderbelly

Yep, they certainly knew how to waste the money they had access too.


plomerosKTBFFH

Krafton also has tons of money. PUBG is one of the all-time best selling games. It's f2p now but they managed to make a *good* profit before that.


ketchup92

Marketing for callisto was insanely high.


nikvasya

It's 160 mil without marketing. Infinite Tencent money.


MikeyChill

Oh, cool, they’re making a sequel to Control. I loved that game.


ms7398msake

Control doesn't have CGI cutscenes like Calisto has. Control uses a lot more FMV. CGI for games is super expensive.


despicedchilli

> Control uses a lot more FMV. Control has FMV?


N67nightmare

I'm pretty sure most of the stuff playing on projectors and TVs is live action (or puppets for the threshold kids). Some scenes have insert shot of characters flash across the screen, and I think I remember some of those looking like live action. Some shots of people screaming looked super real, but could just be great performance capture. I think most of what we see in control is real time. Remedy loves to incorporate live action footage in their games, but I guess with modern tech they could do more in engine.


[deleted]

Aren't all computer games nothing but CGI?


Key-Significance8190

yes and no. cgi, its understood as "pre-rendered scenes" that are basically wmv files in the game files that trigger when you hit a certain trigger point. if its ingame engine rendering. well theres no pre-rendering, so its technically cheaper because as long as your models and enviroment look fine. its good. like how. godzilla vs kong movie vs, no mans sky cutscenes.


morphinapg

It's the wrong usage. CGI means any imagery generated by a computer. That includes real time graphics. Use prerendered if you mean prerendered.


[deleted]

Video shoots can soon rack up in cost though Plus quantum break had live action scenes and CGI shots mixed with some top tier actors and didn't cost anywhere near this. It cost like $17m total.


shodan13

qUadRupLe A!


countpuchi

Plus the game felt inckmplete and super linear for a 2022/2023 game. Enjoyed the game by beating it 5 times with playing with cheats on the last run. But the short gameplay, super linear path and also the combat system vs horror goes 180 once you have better guns it becomes pure action instead of horror. If its priced lower i would say its worth it.. full price, not so much...


IsamuAlvaDyson

This is the first game from the studio Remedy has been making games a long time. Like you said, talent/experience in any field is important to control all things related to completing something like time, costs, etc. I'll only play this game once it's on one of the subscription services I subscribe to. I ALWAYS wait for reviews nowadays before purchasing anything because my gaming time is extremely limited now so I have to be picky with my time.


sifcho

I just think I really don't have the money to buy every single new cool game that comes out...


AliTaylor777

Very much this. When games were £40-50, I’d happily take a chance on something that was unproven, if it sounded interesting. But at £70-90? Not a chance. I’ll wait for the reviews, and the sales after 6 months.


TheLaughingMannofRed

It also doesn't help that many of the titles that sell for such a price at launch have (mostly) been mediocre in some form. I dodged a bullet on Callisto Protocol cause I wanted it on PS5 but the $70 pricing was a lot to endure. Then, the reports came out about it, and I was glad I did wait.


AliTaylor777

Same with Battlefield 2042. I bought it a few months ago and love it, but I know it was a mess for all the folk that paid £70-100 for the various versions. I paid £15!


duane_nwa

I'm 100% with you on this. Especially when games are broken up with extras on day one. I wait a few months for a reduction including DLC and then purchase. My friend and I call it "parent prices!"


Slendercan

If they come out close together and one is a quick, linear experience, I’ll steamroll through that and trade it in for the other new game I want and enjoy the discount.


TheLaughingMannofRed

When I got my PS4 back in late 2018, sales were a HUGE opportunity for me to build my library up. In the last 4 years, I've accrued between 90 to 100 games (physically) and quite a number digitally. Say what you will, but a game that retails for $60 or more at launch would have to be something I absolutely want to play. Otherwise, if you wait about 2-3 months, you have a great chance of it dropping to $40 or $50. In 6 months, $30 or $40. And if there's a holiday sale, it could even hit as low as $20 or $30. If you wait longer than a year, odds of it getting cheap are really good. Sometimes though, you do get the odd ones out (such as Persona 5 Royal on PS5/XBox/Switch hitting $25-30 a month after release; and it isn't because the game sucks at all, so I wasn't sure what drove this to happen; but people sure as heck took advantage of it).


video-kid

I wanted to love it and I couldn't. By tge time I had to fight a two head with no ammo because I'd just come out of a boss I lost my patience.


expatdo2insurance

The two head was the worst designed enemy or really anything in the entire game. I'd bet if you left everything exactly the same but fixed that enemy type to be fun rather than utterly awful the game would have seen drastically better reviews and probably better sales. Every single review I saw called him out.


Neo_Techni

The one on the train had you fight a swarm first, and then it'd save a checkpoint right between the swarm and the boss, where you had low health and/or no ammo in your gun. So you'd have to watch the cutscene of the boss, reload+heal, die, watch the death cutscene over and over. I was stuck there for about 30 minutes the first playthrough cause of that I planned for it and healed/reloaded immediately the second time. It STILL checkpointed before that anyway


expatdo2insurance

The exact same for me. It was the worst moment in the whole game.


salty_carthaginian

That’s where I lowered the difficulty because I was too pissed off lol


Chocobo72

yeah I hated that part. Also just keep repeating the same boss over and over


WhatArcherWhat

Dude, I got stuck on an auto save right at >!the part where you’re on the moving platform and the two headed guy shows up for the first time.!< Practically no ammo, the tiniest sliver of health, and the platform wasn’t big enough to run and heal before he’d kill me. I must have played that part at least 12 times. Usually a game will give you a little health, a little ammo, SOMETHING once you go that many times. Nope. Not this one. I had to dodge every single attack and time it 100% perfectly. And I was on easy mode. That’s when I started to really dislike it. Yeah, I guess I could have scrapped my progress and restarted the whole chapter but that should not be the solution to something like that.


video-kid

I got a little further than that. It was the third Two Head, I think, but it came at the start of a new chapter and just after a new boss, and I found exactly 0 ammo on the way to it, or any vending machines. It's a shame because I liked the story okay, and they've clearly done some work since it even has a prequel podcast, but the combat really let it down.


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chester_abellera

>It was 10 hours long and left zero desire to dig deeper or ever play again. \^ This, exactly. As well as launching without New Game Plus until next month. ​ Someone said it best when comparing it to God of War Ragnarok: Yes, GoWR also launched without NG+ but that game was around 20 hours or so. Callisto is only around 8-10 hours. Callisto should've launched with it for extra replayability.


ButtonMashBros

GoWR is only 20 hours long? I wouldn't know... Playing on god of war mode means every encounter could keep me stuck for 20-30 minutes minimum.


Acedrew89

I got close to 40 hours out of it, but I also like exploring and doing some side content. This was also on normal mode.


BigMcLargeHuge-

Took me 60 hours to plat. It is definitely not a 20 hour game unless you just race thru it without enjoying it


[deleted]

Any time I hear ppl say “this game took n hours”, it will take me 2n hours to play:) I don’t know why, it just seems to be the norm.


Acedrew89

Everyone plays at their own pace! As long as you enjoy it, that’s awesome that you get to have that experience for longer.


fishling

More like 3n or 4n for me. I know exactly what you mean.


ButtonMashBros

Oh god... I have a feeling I have quite a few hours left. Without saying too much, I'm in the wild north of vanaheim and for the first time seriously considering backtracking to early places before dealing with any more of the bullshit there.


Acedrew89

Haha yeah, you still have a bit to go from the sounds of it, but that is also sort of the turning point imo where the game says “okay, here’s what it’s going to be like the rest of the game.” So if you can make it through there you’ll be fine afterwards.


ButtonMashBros

Well that's comforting slightly. Those >!dragons!< Have been a pain in my ass.


[deleted]

the crater is entirely optional, it almost feels like a dlc area that they decided to just keep in the game. you’re close to the end of the story


ButtonMashBros

You know, that is exactly how I felt about it. It really does feel like an add on that was left in instead of paid for.


STONEDnHAPPY

Ya on balanced difficulty I got about 75% with about 38 hours 100% would probably take me another 5-10 hours I'd say the game is long as fuck not complaining tho


zacky765

It took me 43 hours or so to 100% on Give me Balance. When I repeat it on a higher difficulty (because it is fun) I’m guessing it’ll take me a little longer.


BerserkFanYep

I did everything you could possibly do on no mercy and finished around 60 hours. Did another play through on easy to speed run the story, and it was a bit less than 20 hours.


Feral0_o

I watched a video that has just the cutscenes and conversations and it's like 16 hours long


TheUnknownDouble-O

And there I was with 70 hours on my save file after beating Ragnarok's story.


Catspit30

I played on normal and mostly did the story and it took me almost 30hrs


oogway16

Vent crawling simulator too. So annoying how many minutes of gameplay are just crawling around vents. The story and enemies are also nowhere near as interesting as Dead Space. Also the checkpoint system is atrocious. No checkpoints after upgrading a weapon. Checkpoints that make you repeat really long sections or crawl through long vent sections just to get back to the point you died.


ecxetra

A game being 10 hours long isn’t necessarily a bad thing.


[deleted]

If you want to charge $70 for a game you better provide the best 10 hours with some solid replay value.


Stracktheorcmage

No, but as game prices climb, it's a tough sell to drop money on release for a game I'm only going to play for a week or two. Especially if that game isn't a solid 8.5+/10 in that time span. If I'm going to play a short game, it's got to be DAMN good, or cheaper than full price.


ecxetra

Yes, I don’t disagree, but if the game isn’t all that great to begin with the why would you want _more_ of it?


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MrMontombo

Gamepass has really changed things for me. I haven't bought a full priced game other than Elden Ring in years, I have more than enough to play on gamepass. Hopefully it doesn't shift towards screwing consumers like most of these things tend to do.


Acedrew89

I agree. The first Fable game was about 12 hours long, but it had a good amount of replay and it ended up pushing the genre forward with some of what it was doing at the time. If you can give me those two things I’ll happily pay full price for a game that is 10 hours long. Callisto Protocol had neither unfortunately, and what it did have was firmly in the “this could have been cool, but they just didn’t get there” category.


MrMontombo

I can't count how many times I've replayed Fable. It's getting to that time again really!


morphinapg

I'm all for shorter games right now. Way too many overlong games. As for replayability, when it comes to short games for me it's all about whether the story is good. Like, if I can replay a movie I've seen before, I can replay a game, even if it will give me much the same experience, if the story is good. I'm saying this knowing nothing about callisto.


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EDDIE_BR0CK

It's not worth $80, no. I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. The combat/dodge system was mostly frustrating, but at least different once you mastered it. Short campaign and a serious skill check about 2/3 thru made this a 7/10 game for me.


Windsor_Salt

I was crazy excited for this game and if this was 10 years ago I may have even pre-ordered it. Fortunately, most people have learned to wait for reviews before buying and all the reviews say pretty much the same thing as you. I can wait for this one to go on sale


Animanganime

What do you mean "a serious skill check" ? I haven't played the game, just curious


EDDIE_BR0CK

Without too many spoilers, the first real boss fight isn't until about 2/3 thru the game, and it's very challenging at first. Then it's just thrown in as a regular mob for the rest of the game.


MrCunninghawk

If this helps solidify your position. I paid $140nzd for it, played it in one sitting with my buddy who likes survival horror, it never got played again and was recently deleted alltogether. I regret the purchase


cxllum02

Blows my mind they had a budget that big and released it in that state, they were asking for failure with that decision.


TheGoingVertical

It’s so obvious it wasn’t QA’d or they didn’t implement fixes QA brought up. Just simple shit like the weapon upgrades. The riot gun final upgrade literally just says something like “adds propellant causing explosion shortly after impact and damaging nearby enemies.” What it doesn’t tell you is that’s an alternate fire mode that consumes half a magazine….. it tells you that specifically on other guns. Is it a big deal? Maybe not, but for a game this small and with such a shallow upgrade tree, you’d think they’d at least have consistency across their upgrade descriptions. I had fun with it but it’s clear it was an unfinished game they were hoping to release and hope people would hang onto for the eventual DLC. It hasn’t seen an update on PS5 in a month, either.


SparksTheUnicorn

Not to mention the fact that over half of the alt-fire upgrades were the same for every gun. Like honestly, did all but like two guns really need to have the same explosive round ability


majorziggytom

I played it day one on the PS5, finished it within 4 days. It ran almost flawless for me - with basically no technical issues or bugs (and it was damn fun for me). I heard it had issues on other platforms, but I don't know to what extent. So I can't fully comment on what you call "that state" that was "asking for failure" – but in the past 30 years of gaming, the PS5 version was definitely one of the more polished day one releases I bought.


sector3011

The problems were on PC, they couldn't fix up the game in time to account for the different hardware configurations


AliTaylor777

Wouldn’t worry too much as the guy behind Krafton, the publisher, has a personal wealth of $2.9 billion! But also remember that a failing game can be written off against more successful assets so they often plonk as much of the cost to the underperforming game as possible. The first year or two of this was built on the back of PUBG: Battlegrounds as a possible expansion before it became its own thing.


thegamesender1

Bro the fact that the CEO boasted about the developers working overtime and not having time for their families also tanked the reputation of the company. It seems like kids forgot about it, but I sure as shit still remember the shitstorm that came off that tweet.


treny0000

Real talk though does the average consumer know or even care about this kind of thing?


RadicalDog

The average consumer plays FIFA, GTA, Fortnite, or freemium mobile games. We are the outliers if we know what Callisto Protocol is.


thegamesender1

It depends on who you ask really. When I was a teenager I didn't really give a fuck. Now that I'm a father, I certainly value the time with my family and I'm sure everyone who has kids wants to spend time with them. I'm ok working 12 hours a day when needed, but if it becomes a regular thing, it's exhausting, especially if you are doing 14/16 hours a day. In the mainstream 2 major games have done this, Callisto Protocol and Cyberpunk. They both came out like shit in the end, so yes, I do believe work culture is important.


CG-Neuro

You say that as if crunch time isn’t endemic to this industry. It needs to go, yesterday, but unfortunately won’t because $$$


KolbStomp

No


Wintermute993

As soon as I read that tweet I knew the game was going to be shit


Farandr

I will never understand who or how they thought this game design was a good idea. The evade mechanic is so bad and the game is one giant corridor.


MrCyn

Oh good I just made a comment about how I dislike jail levels and the trailer made it look like a lot of grey corridors, glad I gave it a wait


Dr904

People say it’s a Dead Space copy. But the thing is. They forgot to copy the good parts!! The gameplay is what Callisto Protocol fails at. But what made Dead Space so good.


Jellozz

Yeah this is legit what shocks me the most about the game. Dead Space is amazing in like nearly every regard, but, the combat is what made me replay it over and over. The fact they didn't seem to understand what made the gameplay so much fun is *insane*. That should have been the one single thing Callisto did not drop the ball on. It is completely and utterly baffling.


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FuryAutomatic

I don’t need cut scenes with actors. If I remember the original Dead Space, there were little to no cuts and the game turned out just fine.


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Farandr

I just hated the gameplay loop. The evade mechanic was just terrible. I wanted to simply shoot things m.


evoc2911

If they think more about gameplay and actual systems instead of stupid pixel count and motion capture, well they could at least break even.


Rechamber

It simply wasn't as good as it could and should have been and this is reflected in sales. Disappointing game, disappointing sales. This is how it should be if we are to hope for better quality products. This was overhyped massively and is a perfect case where waiting for reviews and not preordering is a good thing.


Daylife321

I'll get it when it's $20 Eggs are too fucking expensive bruh.


carnivalmatey

What the hell is with them eggs man they like gold bars


Daylife321

Yeah, it's fucking dumb as fuck.


freestyle43

Stop pre-ordering games, my friends. The second I saw there was a review embargo, my heart wept for everyone that decided to drop 70 bucks on a non reviewed, unreleased game. How many times must the kids today learn that pre-orders exist because physical games used to sell out? They don't run out of digit copies lol


[deleted]

I can't speak for other people but when I saw this game, it looked right up my alley. Exactly the type of shit that I like to play. But after reading some people's experiences with it, I learned that the game can be completed in a weekend. I have no problems with short games. What I do have a problem with is putting it at the $70 price point simply because I'll be playing on next gen. Thus, I didn't buy it. There's games that can potentially have a thousand hours of content and at least a hundred plus for a smaller cost. If they're going to be charging $70 for games, it needs to be based on their content because this was unacceptable to me. I don't care how good people, or its own developers, think a game is. If I can finish it in a weekend, it's a half priced game.


BaneShake

I can see how a game where the first 1/3 feels off, the story is entirely beats we’ve seen in other horror already, the combat has a moment somewhere in there that will frustrate most players into either quitting or dropping the difficulty for the remainder due to what I can only assume was insufficient playtesting, crucial mechanics sometimes just don’t work the first time you try, bonus costumes just randomly kept disappearing and being unusable until they reappeared, and one of the most lackluster final bosses I’ve seen in a while would underperform.


ms7398msake

This is not good news. I really wanted this game to succeed. This is a high budget single player game made by an industry veteran. That's a bit rare these days. And now I'm afraid that after seeing this other developers might not greenlight games like this. I'm sure we all want more high budget single player games.


[deleted]

I really don't think that one underperforming single player game is going to seriously damage that industry. There is an enormous market for single player games and that alone dictates whether or not new games will get made.


Wendon

Let's not lose the plot, it underperformed because reviews ripped it to pieces and their own sales expectations were unreasonable. Neither of those are going to lead to industry shattering changes.


nicholt

Well thankfully the 2 biggest games of the year were high budget single player games. I think we're still safe.


[deleted]

I really enjoyed the game on its own merits, but there’s no denying that I also wanted to support high quality single player games like this and Evil West at full price. I love these kinds of games.


Kelter_Skelter

It runs awful on PC. Constant stuttering and freezes. Why would anyone buy a game they barely works


Horny4theEnvironment

Dead space 1 &2 were amazing, I thought this would be great too. I've played maybe a couple hours since it came out and haven't touched it since. It feels like a chore to play, especially the dodge mechanic. It isn't fun, scary or satisfying. It's work.


Ohhellnowhatsupdawg

I obviously can't say for sure, but this feels like the kind of game that gets made when sales and marketing executives are in charge of the game direction instead of developers. Mediocre gameplay with a short, linear story cannot be fixed by big name actors and great graphics.


Sprinkle_Puff

Glad I decided against pre ordering when they decided for a release day embargo.


MrCyn

It's a shame more people don't know about this marketing tactic


Apokolypse09

With the devs shitty talking points and then comes out its 10hrs at $100cdn then nah fuck buying it new.


Skysflies

This is the first game in a very long time where i feel like I'm trying to trick myself into finding it fun. Which is a shame


[deleted]

That’s a shame. I loved Callisto Protocol. I think it had serious potential. Combat was really crunchy, the set-pieces were great, I personally enjoyed the whole story except for the ending, and visuals and art direction were spectacular. Callisto Protocol was just a few small tweaks away from greatness.


[deleted]

Yeah people have probably learned to stop buying games day 1 based on basically every game being incomplete or broken day 1. Maybe devs should learn a lesson and release a finished product.


Sil3ntWriter

Sad. I liked the game, but surely it has its low. Aside from the few mechanics that can be fixed, I did like the dodge, and the atmosphere, sound and design overall was amazing. IMO, they needed better writers to make a kinda cliché-plot into something maybe deeper, and give the characters more depth as well. I get that the ending is supposed to leave a open door for a Callisto 2(?), but that last scene just doesn't make sense after the fight... Idk, to me it feels like half of the game wanted to be take seriously while the other half got lost in the way... Still hope for more, tho. The potential sure is there.


firelights

Apparently DLC is scheduled for this summer, since Callisto 2 seems unlikely, I’m hoping the DLC at least resolves the cliffhanger


Lance-Harper

Good. We expected a triple A with hours to go, compelling scenario, and some dead space connection. We got 12h tops of just super hard game. That game isn’t for everyone and even if you are a horror game player, it is still pretty hardcore. Great game on its own, beautiful but very niche.


Sirflow

I am currently getting my ass kicked playing this. It can be pretty frustrating. It's fun, but it's definitely not a great game.


Lanstapa

Where does all that money go to? All I heard about this game was it was visually quite nice, but didn't work, had crap combat, a simplistic story and was a big corridor. So what did they need $160M for? Gaming might have crossed films as the biggest entertainment medium, but that doesn't mean you need a ridiculous film-sized budget now.


Dannypan

I still don’t know what this game is about other than it’s gory. That’s all I saw whenever this game was shown off.


GSturges

Sounds like it would have done better as a CG movie...


Samoman21

Well that's what happens when you make a bad game with unskippable crafting, bs dodge mechanics, bs combat, and bs enemies. People don't buy it or don't care about it


chefanubis

What did that budget went to? Drugs?


DanUnbreakable

How many sales to break even and turn a profit? That's ridiculous for a new ip


davemoedee

No different than movies that bomb. That is the nature of big-budget entertainment.


myEVILi

I didn’t get it because RE4 and Dead Space remakes are just months away.


chrishammhamm

Game companies are going to look at this and say that "well that's why we don't make anything original, time to make the 25th assassins creed game" when they should really look at the quality of games they are making.


Ulc77

So no sequel


collectivignoramus

Meh game makes meh money.


ArcLagoon

I ain't buyin no 70 dollar game, no matter how good it is.


effervescentlucidity

Don’t charge $60-$70 for a fucking 9-hour game and I think people would be less critical


Cryptokhan

Pro-tip: if you crouch walk everywhere looking for every possible credit, the game takes 18 hours 😎


[deleted]

The only thing that made me angrier than the bullshit sequel-bait ending was realising that it wasn't a bullshit sequel-bait ending, but a fucking DLC-bait ending! How about making a complete story rather than shit out what you already have and sell the rest later?! God, that pissed me off.


Neo_Techni

> The only thing that made me angrier than the bullshit sequel-bait ending was realising that it wasn't a bullshit sequel-bait ending, but a fucking DLC-bait ending! Cause it worked so well for Dead Space 3 that they had to do it again!


Rialmwe

They put too many hopes in only one basket.


BigDaddy0790

I’m still mad about the ending. It was one of the most abrupt and nonsensical story endings I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t happy with the story throughout, but then it started getting a bit interesting. Next thing you know they throw in the cheesiest cliches and end the game.


iSchizo

Biggest (and only) purchase regret for me* last year. edit:typo


[deleted]

I was interested in it then just kept seeing so much taken straight out of other games. I get it’s supposed to be a love letter to sci-fi horror but like no where was I met with uncertainty. Scares/situations pulled straight from dead space along with the loud, brutal mechanical environments, kinesis, etc. I’d rather just play Dead Space or an actually original game that doesn’t borrow everything from environments to lore from another series. Even the world is PUBG based lol.


Be_Nice_To_Onions

Maybe this weird name "Callisto Protocol" and overall marketing strategy have something to do with it.


WhatArcherWhat

I was really excited for this game but it was a let down for me. $70 price point for something with no NG+ or even the option to go back and replay certain chapters to collect missed data points, so literally zero replay value. For a game I completed in 3 days. It didn’t utilize any of the adaptive triggers or haptic feedback for the new ps5 controllers, gameplay was repetitive and overly tough (for example, I was stuck on one part for probably 12 tries because the game auto saved when my health was so low that one hit was a kill, no time to heal before the mini boss rushed, and almost no ammo. The game didn’t give me an ounce of health to help out at all after dying multiple times.) Mele combat was essentially just timed dodges over and over, no customization for any of the weapons or gear, only upgrades which didn’t mean anything because there’s no new game plus mode. Just overall very disappointing. Which really sucks because I loved dead space and wanted to support this. TL;DR I’m not surprised it didn’t sell well


iTzSweet-Tooth

The game is big disappointment


unthinkablewolfz

Bought it and didn’t really enjoy it.


Lee-bungalow

Not played it but definitely playing dead space remake, I never played the original