‘The Callisto Protocol’ preview: deadish house

Let’s tackle the monstrous alien elephant in The Callisto Protocol’s room. The Callisto Protocol is a religious successor to Useless Area. It’s even directed by Glen Schofield, who was the manager producer of the soon-to-be-remade horror recreation. He’s joined by Steve Papoutsis, who led the Useless Area franchise after he left, and several other different key group members from Visceral Video games have joined to work on that successor to their horror basic.

This wouldn’t be a difficulty, usually, – we haven’t had a Useless Area recreation in years, and that westernised splatter-punk fashion of horror has been sadly absent. However, now EA is bringing a Useless Area remake out in January – we’ve performed it – so it feels a bit bit like that 12 months when White Home Down and Olympus Has Fallen got here out in the identical 12 months, besides as an alternative of White Home Down’s vest-wearing Channing Tatum we’ve bought Callisto Protocol’s Josh Duhamel.

Callisto Protocol wears its inspiration fairly overtly, too. There’s a glowing well being bar on the again of important character Jacob Lee’s head, that over the shoulder digital camera will really feel instantly recognisable, and even the truth that you stomp on enemies to ensure they’re lifeless and get their loot is a mechanic lifted straight out of Useless Area 2.

However, now that that elephant has been crushed with vigorous stomping, I’m right here to ship the excellent news: The Callisto Protocol is a grindhouse gorefest that feels distinct from Useless Area and performs completely completely different. There’s an emphasis on melee fight and a push to have the participant preserve ammo. Black Iron Jail, positioned on Jupiter’s moon Callisto, has a grim concrete vibe that makes it really feel extra like Brawl in Cell Block 99 than Occasion Horizon, particularly whenever you begin struggling with the alien beasties which have assailed the jail.

Fight additionally feels a good bit tougher, with fight usually feeling like a determined battle to outlive as enemies descend on you from all instructions. Utilizing the sport’s GRP device, an anti-gravity glove that permits you to choose up enemies – precisely like the same system from Useless Area – you’ll be able to usually flip the tide in attention-grabbing methods by tossing an enemy into a giant gap, or lobbing an explosive barrel into the midst of them.

The beasties you struggle in Callisto Protocol are uniquely spooky too: contaminated with some type of alien virus that causes them to sprout tentacles after which mutate, you’ll need to prioritise capturing the mutation-causing tentacles earlier than they mutate in real-time in entrance of you. That is cool to see, however that’s earlier than the creature you have been combating up shut grows an enormous mouth and tries to eat your whole head.

This new fight means it’s even probably you’ll see a few of The Callisto Protocol‘s savage loss of life animations. These are slickly produced and infrequently wince-inducing, as you watch Lee get bitten, sliced, torn, eaten, and generally simply straight-up punched to loss of life within the goriest approach doable.

In any other case, all of it performs as you would possibly anticipate, and is an ideal love letter to an period of mid-00s horror video games. Sadly, this does embrace a stunning sequence the place you’re tumbling headlong down a chute full of water, making an attempt to roll your character left and proper to keep away from some spinning fan blades. Miss, and also you’ll die immediately. I missed so much and it felt extremely unfair till I realised that making an attempt to keep away from the followers themselves is a distraction and also you principally simply must hurl your self towards one wall after which the opposite to get via. This type of puzzle fixing – by hurling your personal corpses on the downside – is irritating, and was a low level of my demo.

To this point, I’d say The Callisto Protocol was “fairly alright” – it’s enjoyable to play and has a couple of respectable scares. My fear is that it seems like a barely remixed biggest hits assortment and I might need to see some extra authentic concepts that present that Callisto can mutate into one thing a bit extra attention-grabbing.

The Callisto Protocol launches on December 2 for PC, PlayStation and Xbox.