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The Callisto Protocol |OT| Galaxy of Terror

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
Can i play this on my pc in 1440p max settings without RT at 60fps? i5 13600k, 32gb DDR5 and a 3070ti. I still gonna wait for a few more patches to let them optimize and fix some of the complaints about the game tho

I think you should easily be able to achieve that. I am on a 3080 and 4k is great as long as all Ray tracing options are not max. Even then it does achieve 45 odd fps most of the time.
 
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Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
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tommib

Member
Just finished the game on PC, hardest difficulty. It's not a bad game by any means but, as I'm sure everyone here already knows, it is a deeply flawed game. As I was playing, it often reminded me of Evil Within 1 (which I also completed recently for the first time), in that it's an extremely frustrating game, and I was constantly wondering why certain aspects were designed the way they were. For instance, the sheer amount of vent crawling/squeezing/shimmying in this game is unprecedented and I kept wondering "why?"

Alas, I hope the dev team learns some lessons and takes all the feedback to heart for the DLC and/or sequel.

7/10

Edit: Forgot to mention that I did enjoy the combat for the most part. I liked the dodging and melee aspects, but the mutation/evolution mechanic was a poor substitute for Dead Space's dismemberment system.
It’s a real throwback to evil within 1 without the brilliant set pieces from Mikami. I enjoyed it immensely and I’m grateful we got a horror game with visuals that are up there with all the big boys if not even surpassing. We won’t see character models and classy RT techniques like that for a while. Still not sure if my number 3 or 4 in GOTY list. It’s competing with Ghostwire. :D
 

tommib

Member
The more I play and enjoy this the more I realise how little published reviews are worth nowadays….
It’s a gory horror game with an almost silent protagonist with no quests. It was bound to have this reception. And also people struggled with some of the mechanics. At least it’s out and we can treasure it for a full year with new modes coming and DLC.

I’m 100% convinced this won’t have a sequel due to the reception and that’s a-ok.
 
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SLESS

Member
It’s a gory horror game with an almost silent protagonist with no quests. It was bound to have this reception. And also people struggled with some of the mechanics. At least it’s out and we can treasure it for a full year with new modes coming and DLC.

I’m 100% convinced this won’t have a sequel due to the reception and that’s a-ok.
Only thing I might change is make the dodging actually skill based on timing. But I am enjoying the mechanics and no quests, just push forward and survive the mayhem.
 

Neff

Member
The more I play and enjoy this the more I realise how little published reviews are worth nowadays….

I feel like we can already see that it's not going to do amazingly sales-wise, but I think critical appraisal will be kinder once the realisation that 'it's not Dead Space' fully sets in. Too many people are comparing it 1:1 in every category to Dead Space, and not looking at the holistic experience. They're flat-out refusing to try to understand the combat system, instead playing it like a straightforward shooter and unsurprisingly getting clobbered. Yes it's channelling Dead Space visually, conceptually, and narratively for all its worth, because that's their sales pitch, but it deserves credit for its own contributions to the horror TPS genre and it's not yet getting it. But I think with time it will.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Yes it's channelling Dead Space visually, conceptually, and narratively for all its worth, because that's their sales pitch, but it deserves credit for its own contributions to the horror TPS genre and it's not yet getting it. But I think with time it will.
See, that's the problem. There is obviously some elements in TCP which reminds us of Dead Space (I won't name them all, you know what I'm talking about), but Dead Space is a better game overall and TPC is nothing like it.

First of all, I can't call Black Iron or Callisto a character in TCP, cuz they simply are not, not even close. There's barely any lore and worldbuilding, overall design of the game is very straighforward - you're always going from point A to point B, there's no sence of scale (even when you're out on the surface of Callisto), there's barely any interesting and unique environemnts with something other than walking and shooting for you to do. There's almost nothing in TCP to ground you into the world, environments and make you believe in it in a way Dead Space did it.

Ishimura, on the other hand, was a character in Dead Space and even more so than Isaac was. There is a sense of scale to Ishimura and sense of place. Design of Ishimura is more ambicious and interconnected - that's why there's a map. Ishimura is a huge ship with various unique and memorable places and environments for you to explore, there was also variety in terms of gameplay to immerse you into the world and offer you something beyond just walking and shooting (in case of TCP - walking, shooting and beating everyone to death). There's way better worldbuilding and lore in Dead Space to emphasize the sence of place and make you believe in it, that it was alive not that long ago and is alive now with all those audio logs, environmental storytelling etc.

That's the key difference between Dead Space and TCP. Now, I've nothing against linear games, far from it, but TCP suffers from straightforwardness in terms of design which is not allowing to fully flesh out the potential this IP had before the game was released. I think SD oversimplified things too much in comparison to Dead Space and I wish a I had an opportinity to talk to Glen and ask him why they did what they did this time around and what they were thinking while deciding what to do.

I mean, I already said that TCP is ultimately disappointing game to me, there's quite a few things that are wrong about it and they're very obvious. But at the same time, I think that it's a good game which potential simply was not fully realized. SD can fix and improve combat (add more moves and counters to fight with multiple enemies at the same time using melee option) with patches, same goes to bosses (3 of which needs to go and the rests needs to be reworked to feel more unique and less BS), but they can't fix overall design and vision for this game, not without very serious rework which can take up to 1 year if not more.

I don't think the game will get better with time and be at the level of the first Dead Space, they can and probably will fix some stuff as I've said, but they can't and won't fix the most needed things to improve the game overall - it's a lot more work and Idk if Krafton will allow them to and will finance this endavour - my bet is that they won't. What I would've done after all this not so great reception is 1) cancelled most of the season pass content (let's face it, no one cares about horde modes, boss rush etc. especially in a game of this genre - it's just BS content), 2) focus on delivering way better story DLC with a proper ending, character development, lore and worldbuilding 3) maybe try and overhaul some stuff in the main game beyond just patches - CDPR did it 4 times already over the course of almost 15 years.
 
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ungalo

Member
Everything about the setting, scenario and tone of The Callisto Protocol feels pretty generic compared to Dead Space but i knew that from the first trailers.

But after finishing the game i can say the gameplay is subtly but very different and after some worries i think overall it works well and doesn't resemble any other game. It's a strong quality, but i think they would have trouble to reiterate on it, add new mechanics etc if they make a sequel. Even new enemies that have a specific purpose, i think it would be hard to make it work with the flow of the game.

But yes just the gameplay (at least when there are several enemies to fight, fighting the two head boss when he's alone is laughable) and the fact it's visually stunning makes it a pretty solid game, not anything incredible but not bad at all.
 
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Bojji

Gold Member
I completed it yesterday, overall it's a good game but 7\10 quality, nothing more (reviewers were right).

Amazing graphics, good atmosphere, story is ok but generic and I don't remember anything about the music... Gameplay is not bad at all, combat is like nothing else on the market (including dead space) but that goes out of the window when (stupid and annoying) forced boss fights appear, i fucking hated all of them. Game without bosses would be 8\10 from me, next title from this studio could be amazing (if they learn from their mistakes).
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Game without bosses would be 8\10 from me, next title from this studio could be amazing (if they learn from their mistakes).
By “mistake” you mean you want no boss fights in next game!? God no, I enjoy boss fight in my games.

what they need to do is better and more varied boss fights.
 
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ungalo

Member
The game is not designed in a way that fighting a single enemy is interesting so it's hard to make good bosses with this gameplay.

They had an idea with one encounter with the two heads and the final boss, to add "trash mobs" in the fight with a bigger arena, which was probably a good idea, but it's under-exploited.
 
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I want to like this game but I find it so goddamn boring I don't even wanna finish it.
i've come to understand that the factor that'll kill a game for me is simply this: am i still interested in seeing what's around the next corner? it could be graphics, it could be story, it could be several things in combination, but it all basically breaks down to this one thing. if the answer is no, i'm not? then that's it for me. the game's dead at that point. no point in continuing to play any further...
 

Bojji

Gold Member
By “mistake” you mean you want no boss fights in next game!? God no, I enjoy boss fight in my games.

what they need to do is better and and more varied boos fights.

Yes, the best solution is to have awesome boss fights but if they can't achieve that it's better to not have them at all in my opinion. For this game enemy encounters are very satisfying (especially on dual sense) but bosses are...

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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Relyonhorror gave it 9/10

If you go into the game looking for a Dead Space clone, you’re going to be sorely disappointed, but if you’re interested in playing a brand new AAA horror game with a lot to offer, The Callisto Protocol is a very engaging and satisfying experience that pushes production values to a new high for horror games.

 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Damn this game got pretty easy after getting the stun baton upgrade to break blocks and the gravity weapon.
It will even the playing field
👍
 
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i've come to understand that the factor that'll kill a game for me is simply this: am i still interested in seeing what's around the next corner? it could be graphics, it could be story, it could be several things in combination, but it all basically breaks down to this one thing. if the answer is no, i'm not? then that's it for me. the game's dead at that point. no point in continuing to play any further...
Exactly where I'm at.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
The game is not designed in a way that fighting a single enemy is interesting so it's hard to make good bosses with this gameplay.

They had an idea with one encounter with the two heads and the final boss, to add "trash mobs" in the fight with a bigger arena, which was probably a good idea, but it's under-exploited.
Putting minions in a boss fight is the cheapest method to make a fight more interesting, a shitty boss remain a shitty boss even with minions since they are just distractions.
 

TrebleShot

Member
Eh initially I was into this, but since I'm growing less and less interested. I am about 3 hours in and I see the same tropes over and over again, there is no sense of progression and it feels pretty crap to play.

Disappointed as I wanted to love it but I'm at the point where I am forcing myself to play it but can't is arsed. I think ill move on.
 

ungalo

Member
Putting minions in a boss fight is the cheapest method to make a fight more interesting, a shitty boss remain a shitty boss even with minions since they are just distractions.
For most games i would agree but for Callisto not necessarily. You can't design anything mecanically interesting and challenging when the dodges are automatic and it's not based on your reflexes or your ability to aim, the game is just not about that.

Whereas one very deadly enemy but slow as fuck surrounded by many small enemies you can kill quickly so you have to move around carefully in the arena and use the environment is what Callisto is about, it's not just distracting it's stressful, you have to be in full awareness. Either you think the entire game design of this game is garbage which i can conceive, or you want the boss fights to be coherent with the design of the game. I don't think there is a middle way where the game suddenly become Resident Evil or Dead Space during the boss fights.
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
For most games i would agree but for Callisto not necessarily. You can't design anything mecanically interesting and challenging when the dodges are automatic and it's not based on your reflexes or your ability to aim, the game is just not about that.

Whereas one very deadly enemy but slow as fuck surrounded by many small enemies you can kill quickly so you have to move around carefully in the arena and use the environment is what Callisto is about, it's not just distracting it's stressful, you have to be in full awareness. Either you think the entire game design of this game is garbage which i can conceive, or you want the boss fights to be coherent with the design of the game. I don't think there is a middle way where the game suddenly become Resident Evil or Dead Space during the boss fights.
So maybe they should fix the core combat before thinking about the rest? Just a stupid idea...
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
You can't design anything mecanically interesting and challenging when the dodges are automatic and it's not based on your reflexes or your ability to aim, the game is just not about that.
Generally yeah you can dodge by just holding left and right and it will do the job most of the time
But you can't really say the dodge is not about reflexes when there's literally a trophy for perfectly dodging 5 times in a row or aiming isn't required when to quickly kill an infected to stop it from mutating you hit it in a targeted area.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
I played about four or so hours. It's got some really good ideas, but some really baffling design choices. The biggest issue for me is that it fails as a horror game in a way that a lot have in recent years. I've worked through a lot of sections by test and learn, which means you end up learning lay-outs and patterns by rote and all the tension just vanishes. The devs have created quite a few scenarios which seem designed to be failed a several times over before figuring out the solution. In other genres, this is cool - if not ideal - but in a survival horror game, you need to feel like you're constantly scraping by.

The issue here is the combat balance: 2-3 hits from any standard enemy is enough to put you down - sometimes, just one'll do it. Because healing is essentially impossible mid-combat, it means consistently scraping by isn't really possible, you have to learn encounters through test and learn, which just nukes the tension.
The example is a gondola crossing early in the game, where you're being ferried towards a door with three monsters and you only have about ten seconds to figure out what to do. The first time I tried taking pot shots but my gun wasn't loaded and by the time I'd reloaded it, they were on me. Second time, gun was loaded, but the pistol could only pop a few heads before they got on me. Third time I tried to sprint through and use the space inside to fight. I never made it past them and was killed in two hits. Fourth time I had a sudden brain wave and used the GRP to grab the two strongest enemies and pull them off the platform, leaving just one regular dude to pound once the doors opened. It was funny, but it didn't feel tense at all.

I think good survival horror hinges on getting people through the experience with the illusion that they're always close to death, without actually killing them all that often. Callisto on the other hand, spent a lot of time animating those elaborate death sequences and they want to get their money's worth.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Dudes I am probably restarting the game, I can't beat the moving platform. I beat the shit out of everyone, it takes quite a bit and then the fucking two headed motherfucker, I have zero rounds and he just SLAPS.

FUCK, the game was good to that point, now I don't know.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Just finished it
ZO2p7gP.gif

That was fantastic, seriously if it didn't have the issues I posted before this would easily be my GOTY.
and that ending 😳
Guess I need to buy the Season Pass 😞
Also that song at the end has grown on me.
Love it!


4A7O17k.jpg

Final Score
8.3/10
Awesome!
 
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Neff

Member
Mark my post. This is one of those games that will mature into a classic over the years.

I wouldn't go as far as classic but I agree that in the years to come people will be more open to it. They just need to accept that it's not Dead Space 4 even though it looks, sounds, smells, tastes and feels like it, and make peace with the fact that it's slightly under-cooked in terms of content and level design. But what's there is a great little ride and will find its audience, especially when it gets cheaper.
 

K' Dash

Member
Dudes I am probably restarting the game, I can't beat the moving platform. I beat the shit out of everyone, it takes quite a bit and then the fucking two headed motherfucker, I have zero rounds and he just SLAPS.

FUCK, the game was good to that point, now I don't know.

Don’t have money to buy rounds?

The game gives you what you need, so you should receive a lot of rounds in the 3 boxes around the platform.

Can’t you jus load another save file 1 hour before the platform or something?
 

The_Verecocha

Neo Member
Dudes I am probably restarting the game, I can't beat the moving platform. I beat the shit out of everyone, it takes quite a bit and then the fucking two headed motherfucker, I have zero rounds and he just SLAPS.

FUCK, the game was good to that point, now I don't know.
Just throw them all off with the GRP, no need to fight or shoot a single one if you don’t want. Stand next to the computer console, to the left as you look at it, then hurl them off as they come. One by one. Simple.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Just throw them all off with the GRP, no need to fight or shoot a single one if you don’t want. Stand next to the computer console, to the left as you look at it, then hurl them off as they come. One by one. Simple.
Seems like I don't have enough batteries and resources to do this, I throw pretty much first 3 waves of enemies and that's it.
 

The_Verecocha

Neo Member
Seems like I don't have enough batteries and resources to do this, I throw pretty much first 3 waves of enemies and that's it.
Throw each wave off aside from the last in each wave and take them down with the baton? That should get you through another wave without a shot fired?

Doing it in that corner makes it easier too as you can wait till the last second to pick them up and just turn to the right to Chuck them off. Saves energy.
 
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K' Dash

Member
Just finished it
ZO2p7gP.gif

That was fantastic, seriously if it didn't have the issues I posted before this would easily be my GOTY.
and that ending 😳
Guess I need to buy the Season Pass 😞
Also that song at the end has grown on me.
Love it!


4A7O17k.jpg

Final Score
8.3/10
Awesome!
arnold schwarzenegger predator GIF
 
  • Strength
Reactions: TGO

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Dudes I am probably restarting the game, I can't beat the moving platform. I beat the shit out of everyone, it takes quite a bit and then the fucking two headed motherfucker, I have zero rounds and he just SLAPS.

FUCK, the game was good to that point, now I don't know.
A lot of them try to mutate straight away so aim for their tentacle to kill them with one shot.
Throw them off if they become too much
For the two headed boss, unload on him until he drops and baton the shit out him with R2 that will stagger him in the 3rd hit.
so run to the bottom left side so he follows you then and run to the top right and unload on him don't let him get close.
Repeat running from corner to corner while unloading on him until he drops.
Just repeat that and he'll go down.
 

Umbral

Member
The core combat loop, melee, is simply not complex enough to keep anyone entertained. There’s almost no challenge.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Just put the difficulty on minimum for that one section then change it back.

After beating this game, enjoying it, it really is weird the negative reception it got from a lot of people. I think games far less impressive reviewers were way easier on. It's kind of odd. It's not a perfect game, but some people thought it flat out sucked and I didn't get that at all. And I'm pretty impatient on games.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Dudes I am probably restarting the game, I can't beat the moving platform. I beat the shit out of everyone, it takes quite a bit and then the fucking two headed motherfucker, I have zero rounds and he just SLAPS.

FUCK, the game was good to that point, now I don't know.
Just use the grabby thing in the moving platform.
You can just shot them outside of the platform and save ammo.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
New patch coming soon (check your consoles, maybe it's already available - if not, in 1-2 days it will be).

Patch 1.08:​

  • Addressed ray-tracing related bugs.
  • More fixes for stuttering issues.
  • Addressed crashing issues.
  • Fixed random fps drop issue.
  • General gameplay performance improvements added.
  • Added general stability fixes.
  • Other minor fixes.
 

ungalo

Member
Generally yeah you can dodge by just holding left and right and it will do the job most of the time
But you can't really say the dodge is not about reflexes when there's literally a trophy for perfectly dodging 5 times in a row or aiming isn't required when to quickly kill an infected to stop it from mutating you hit it in a targeted area.
Perhaps that's on me for playing on normal difficulty and on console (will replay on hard), but i never had to do any perfect dodge (same for the blocking mechanic, it is showed as something important but except for projectiles maybe i don't understand why i would use it). And there's crazy aim assist in this game, fortunately in a way because enemies are pretty fast (although aim assist can work against you sometimes). You get enough ammunition during the entire game to not worry about 1 or 2 wasted bullets. Usually when i need to kill enemies quickly i don't have to think too much about how i am aiming to stop the transformation.
 
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Umbral

Member
Perhaps that's on me for playing on normal difficulty and on console (will replay on hard), but i never had to do any perfect dodge (same for the blocking mechanic, it is showed as something important but except for projectiles maybe i don't understand why i would use it). And there's crazy aim assist in this game, fortunately in a way because enemies are pretty fast (although aim assist can work against you sometimes). You get enough ammunition during the entire game to not worry about 1 or 2 wasted bullets. Usually when i need to kill enemies quickly i don't have to think too much about how i am aiming to stop the transformation.
As far as I can tell, there is no point to perfect dodge. The game goes into slo-mo, you can get off one hit, then it’s back to left-right-left-right on the stick.

Blocking is similar. Why use it? You take chip damage, so what’s the advantage over dodging when dodging is so easy and zero damage? There isn’t one. There is one move you can unlock that allows you to sweep the enemy off their feet after blocking but only on their last attack. I don’t know if that does damage or just opens up a window for a swing while they’re down, so again, why do it instead of dodge? The other upgrades on the block branch are just take less damage and cause damage back.

The aim assist is annoying. I turned it off in the settings and turned on motion aiming, which is way better, but when you get that quickshot opening it still auto-aims.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Can someone advise?

Might be in the 16 pages but cannot see wood for the trees.

Looking on store on PS5 there is a version for £55 but I thought there was a dedicated PS5 version for slightly more money? No matter how I’m searching on the store, the only version on offer (that I can see) is the £55 version.

Is that the PS5 version it says PS4/ PS5 but I thought it was more money.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Can someone advise?

Might be in the 16 pages but cannot see wood for the trees.

Looking on store on PS5 there is a version for £55 but I thought there was a dedicated PS5 version for slightly more money? No matter how I’m searching on the store, the only version on offer (that I can see) is the £55 version.

Is that the PS5 version it says PS4/ PS5 but I thought it was more money.
It isn't Smart Delivery, so I don't expect that it would be different on PS5, thus you would only get PS4 version of the game for cheaper.
 
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