For whatever reason, some games seem to get the short end of the stick upon release only for player perception surrounding those titles to warm in the months and years following their launch. Such is the case with Striking Distance’s The Callisto Protocol, which had the unfortunate position of both launching in a less-than-ideal state and arriving just ahead of the remake of Dead Space, a game originally created by The Callisto Protocol director Glen Schofield. The Callisto Protocol may have failed to garner an audience in its original release window, but thanks to a hefty PS5 Pro update and a roguelike spin-off, the title is back in players’ sights once again.
Despite some mixed reviews regarding the game’s content, The Callisto Protocol always maintained a bit of a cult following thanks to its intriguing universe and atypical survival horror combat, which acted as a sort of play on the old Punch-Out!! games from Nintendo. Striking Distance has seemingly kept up with the following that Callisto Protocol has, enough to both launch an excellent roguelike taking place in the same universe [REDACTED]. as well as deliver a massive performance update for the title on the PS5 Pro. The Callisto Protocol was already a visually impressive game on the base PS5, but now it stands as a graphical showpiece for Sony’s new Pro model hardware.
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[REDACTED] Should Open the Floodgates for The Callisto Protocol’s Universe
Striking Distance Studios is pushing ahead with [REDACTED], and this should only be the first step on the road to The Callisto Protocol’s redemption.
The Callisto Protocol’s PS5 Pro Enhancement Delivers The Best-Looking Version Yet
The release of the PS5 Pro has paved the way for several games to receive massive updates to enhance them for Sony’s mid-gen hardware refresh, and few titles are capitalizing on the opportunity quite like The Callisto Protocol. Along with Gran Turismo 7, F1 24, and No Man’s Sky, The Callisto Protocol is one of the few games to offer 8K support on Sony’s Pro model PS5, provided players actually have an 8K-compatible display. Still, it’s a noticeable jump in fidelity that is already resulting in plenty of side-by-side video comparisons on YouTube.
That 8K resolution does come at the cost of The Callisto Protocol being locked to run at 30 FPS, but Striking Distance has accommodated for the dip in performance by also offering a new PS5 Pro-enhanced mode that sees the game running at 4K, 60 FPS. Perhaps what’s most impressive is that both the 8K/30 FPS and 4K/ 60 FPS modes see The Callisto Protocol using full ray tracing, really squeezing every bit of performance from Sony’s new console. Callisto Protocol was already a great-looking game, but it’s now among the best-looking visual benchmarks for the PS5 Pro.
Playing The Callisto Protocol Makes [REDACTED] Even Better
Beyond the visual enhancements to Callisto Protocol made possible by the PS5 Pro, the game also recently got a surprise spin-off in the form of [REDACTED]. An action roguelike instead of a survival horror game, [REDACTED] has already proven to be both critically and commercially successful in ways that The Callisto Protocol struggled to be following its release. It’s undoubtedly one of the year’s stronger roguelikes in an increasingly crowded genre. Fittingly, [REDACTED] is even more enjoyable as a companion game to The Callisto Protocol than a standalone experience.
Both titles take place in the same universe and center around the fictional Black Iron Prison, but they also happen to feature similar combat, even if the actual mechanics and interactive elements propping up each game’s combat differ. Playing The Callisto Protocol prior to playing [REDACTED] gives some important context to the situation at Black Iron Prison as well as greater appreciation for [REDACTED]‘s more irreverent tone compared to Callisto Protocol‘s. [REDACTED] is a great game made even better by having played The Callisto Protocol, and in turn, it is helping to bring a new audience to Striking Distance’s survival horror title that might have skipped over it initially.
In this narrative-driven, third-person survival horror game set 300 years in the future, the player will take on the role of Jacob Lee – a victim of fate thrown into Black Iron Prison, a maximum-security penitentiary located on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto. When inmates begin to transform into monstrous creatures, the prison is thrown into chaos. To survive, Jacob must battle his way to safety to escape Black Iron Prison, while uncovering the dark and disturbing secrets buried beneath the surface of Callisto. Using a unique blend of shooting and close-quarters combat, Jacob will need to adapt his tactics to combat the rapidly evolving creatures while scavenging to unlock new weapons, gear, and abilities to outrun the growing threat and escape the horrors of Jupiter’s Dead Moon.
- Released
- December 2, 2022
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- How Long To Beat
- 10 Hours
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair