The Callisto Protocall - No Protocall

CriticalGaming

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Okay, let me be perfectly frank up front. No. Just no. Not for any price, not on sale, not on free, not for any reason. DO NOT PLAY THIS PILE OF TRASH!

The CP fails on many many levels, so many levels that it makes you wonder how this game got off the design floor. I'll start with combat since that's the biggest failure, the gameplay in this game. Combat does NOT work, not only because its broken and bad but also because the controls for the game do not work.

Let me ask you a serious question. IF you game has a dodge mechanic, would you reasonably expect there to be a dodge button? You would right? How about we make dodge left and right on the analog stick? That sounds good let's do that. What about moving? Oh that's the analog stick too. Wait so you are putting a combat mechanic on the same stick as basic movement? YES! So in combat movement is unreliable, and dodging also becomes unreliable because dodge will not work if you are accidentally moving a little bit when you need to dodge.

So what does this mean, well in order to dodge you need to be standing completely still and wait for the enemy to come to you and wind up an attack then hold right or left. Then maybe you dodge, and sometimes you'll do the dodge animation and get hit anyway.

But let's say for instance you dodge, now you can start to melee the monster. You get two hits TOPS before it will recover and start to hit you again. So dodge, dodge, hit, hit, repeat. Then do this three to four times per enemy even on easy mode. Oh joy.

So combat's core does not work. Period. On hard it's fucking impossible because the monsters do not stagger which means they'll hit you through your attacks and this will kill you because two hits and you die on hard.

But bad combat is not where this game stops being terrible. Throughout the game there are chests and various containers you can open for loot like health, ammo, money, sellable items (which are just money), or sometimes a mutant grub thing will jump out and take some of your health away unavoidably. On hard this means it's half your health because fuck you, or if you weren't at full health you die for no reason and you can't avoid it so fuck you. Not to mention that later in the game there are egg sacks with tenticle grubs that launches unavoidably at you just to take some of your health for no reason.

The final problem with the game is that the environment doesn't make sense. So you land on the moon, and are taken to jail for no reason. You are knocked out and thrown into a cell, when you wake up the whole prison has gone to shit, like weeks worth of breakdown shit. Doors are broken, debris is everywhere, things are busted, power is messed up. The environment is very much a lot like Dead Space and the ship that the game took place. However the destruction of the Ichimora made sense, because Issac and his crew arrive months after the marker starts turning people into monsters.

This game happens hours after you arrive. There is no way everything is this destroyed after a couple hours. It ruins any sense of emersion immediately.

But hey, it is graphically very good looking. But....absolutely not worth a fucking minute of anyone's time.
 

BrawlMan

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This game happens hours after you arrive. There is no way everything is this destroyed after a couple hours. It ruins any sense of emersion immediately.
I haven't seen the full playthrough, but in the beginning, it's implied a few weeks to barely a month had passed, because Jacob's hair had been completely shaved off. Plus, the time fade implied weeks had passed, and Jacob had been there for a while. I know some audio logs might mention this, but I can't full confirm on them.

Let me ask you a serious question. IF you game has a dodge mechanic, would you reasonably expect there to be a dodge button? You would right? How about we make dodge left and right on the analog stick? That sounds good let's do that. What about moving? Oh that's the analog stick too. Wait so you are putting a combat mechanic on the same stick as basic movement? YES! So in combat movement is unreliable, and dodging also becomes unreliable because dodge will not work if you are accidentally moving a little bit when you need to dodge.

So what does this mean, well in order to dodge you need to be standing completely still and wait for the enemy to come to you and wind up an attack then hold right or left. Then maybe you dodge, and sometimes you'll do the dodge animation and get hit anyway.

But let's say for instance you dodge, now you can start to melee the monster. You get two hits TOPS before it will recover and start to hit you again. So dodge, dodge, hit, hit, repeat. Then do these three to four times per enemy even on easy mode. Oh joy.
I find it funny that Evil Within 2 (you can buy an upgrade that allows Sebastian to dodge attacks) and Shadows of the Damned have better dodge mechanics than a 2022 game. Both games I mentioned have a dedicated dodge button not tied to the left stick. They're on [O] or B depending on which console you're playing. I do know the easiest way to dodge in CP is to just hold left and right. You don't even have to match the movements as long as you time your dodges. There is even accessibility option where Jacob dodges automatically when in melee. They knew and were aware of this problem. Still not the best idea.

Okay, let me be perfectly frank up front. No. Just no. Not for any price, not on sale, not on free, not for any reason. DO NOT PLAY THIS PILE OF TRASH!
I'll take your word for it, but I still might get it on a super cheap sale, if that big NG+ update allows you to skip cut-scenes, adds more checkpoints, and allows you to backtrack to areas to grab items/ammo you couldn't pick up.
 
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CriticalGaming

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I haven't seen the full playthrough, but in the beginning, it's implied a few weeks to barely a month had passed, because Jacob's hair had been completely shaved off. Plus, the time fade implied weeks had passed, and Jacob had been there for a while. I know some audio logs might mention this, but I can't full confirm on them.
They shave him while he is passed out. Because Jacob later says that they knocked him out and threw him in here and now everything's fucked. So if time supposedly has passed, it still shouldn't be as damaged. Because assume he went to bed and woke to it being a shithole. No matter what it doesn't work.
 
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They shave him while he is passed out. Because Jacob later says that they knocked him out and threw him in here and now everything's fucked. So if time supposedly has passed, it still shouldn't be as damaged. Because assume he went to bed and woke to it being a shithole. No matter what it doesn't work.
The only reason everything is so REKT? Cuz survival horror and Dead Space, son!
 

CriticalGaming

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The only reason everything is so REKT? Cuz survival horror and Dead Space, son!
It's really trying to be Dead Space, you can even stomp on bodies for loot but there is no emphasis on dismemberment so the mechanic is simply there because Dead space had it.
 
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FakeSympathy

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And i had such a high hope for the game.

Unlike Mighty No.9, it didn’t try to use fan-hype to bait them for a terrible product and the creator wasn’t a incompetent fool.

Unlike Evolve/B4B, it didn’t use the studio name only and had the actual original guy take the charge.

I also noticed from gameplay clips that the game has Korean in the various in-game interface. I really hope there’s a reason for this
 
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It's really trying to be Dead Space, you can even stomp on bodies for loot but there is no emphasis on dismemberment so the mechanic is simply there because Dead space had it.
Have you tried shooting the legs? I've noticed in a couple of reviews some give advice on just shooting the legs and then shooting them in the head or stomp on them afterward on them so you wouldn't have to do as much melee.
 

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And i had such a high hope for the game.

Unlike Mighty No.9, it didn’t try to use fan-hype to bait them for a terrible product and the creator wasn’t a incompetent fool.
Considering Mighty No. 9 wasn't a terrible product and was in fact a perfectly competent Megaman-like game I have no idea where you got that.
 

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Considering Mighty No. 9 wasn't a terrible product and was in fact a perfectly competent Megaman-like game I have no idea where you got that.
Barely competent. Not to mention the Wii U version was the most broken version of the game. Even with the patches, there were still framerate issues. There plenty of combat mechanics people did not like.

I changed my mind, after seeing a playthrough (Seraphim17's stream from 3 days ago) and what this game has to offer. I am not getting this on a sale, nor at all period. NG+ or not.

 
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laggyteabag

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I said in another thread that this was the biggest disappointment of the year for me, because this was my most anticipated game of 2022. As someone who doesn't really like the Souls games, I didn't get Elden Ring, and im not really interested in God of War either, so I didn't get Ragnarök. All of my eggs were in this game's basket, and it fumbled it, so 2022 has been a bit of a let down for me as a result.

Luckily I didn't pre-order it, but still, I was really excited for it.

But what I think sucks the most, is that this doesn't seem like a cynical cash-grab game. Effort has obviously been poured into this game, but it seems like that effort was simply misplaced by some poor design choices during development. I really believe that the team at Striking Distance genuinely tried to make a great spiritual successor to Dead Space, and it just really sucks to see that they didn't stick the landing.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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I've seen a bunch of people defending this game, usually with caveats. Which is fine, sure. But then they go shit on reviewers or people who didn't like the game. Fuck off with that shit. It sucks that the game you were so excited was disappointing, but keep your delusions to yourselves.
 
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Silvanus

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I was pretty excited for Callisto Protocol when it was first announced... that hype is dampening quickly.

I'll probably get it in a sale in a year.
 

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Let me be frank here:

I don't think the Dead Space games were actually all that good.
I agree. They were okay.
Don't downplay with the series accomplished. The first game is the best modern System Shock you'll ever get that's in third person. It had some flaws, but nothing game breaking or that frustrating. It's an overall neat concept that did its own thing, and was considered in some cases to be a better Resident Evil game than RE5, if you didn't like the latter. Dead Space 2 really knocked it out of the park and ended up being one of the best games of the seventh generation. We already all know about the story on the third game at this point I do you like it or you don't, but either way there was a compromise problem with the game. I usually just pretend the series ends at the second game, as there's enough for there not to be a sequel hook aside from that little teaser audio clip at the end of the credits.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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I've seen a bunch of people defending this game, usually with caveats. Which is fine, sure. But then they go shit on reviewers or people who didn't like the game. Fuck off with that shit. It sucks that the game you were so excited was disappointing, but keep your delusions to yourselves.
To quote the vernacular, there's a lot of copium being smoked lately.

Let me be frank here:

I don't think the Dead Space games were actually all that good.
The second one was far better than the first at actually being a horror game, but that wasn't the highest bar to clear.
 
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The second one was far better than the first at actually being a horror game, but that wasn't the highest bar to clear.
There's a reverse opinion on that now with people saying that Dead Space 2 is not scary enough or too gory to be scary. Granted, this has always been a conversation going in the fandom, but now a lot more are changing their opinion back for whatever reason or letting their nostalgia guide them.


 
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The Rogue Wolf

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There's a reverse opinion on that now with people saying that Dead Space 2 is not scary enough or too gory to be scary. Granted, this always a conversation going in the fandom, but now a lot more are changing their opinion back for whatever reason or letting their nostalgia guide them.


I really don't know where that's coming from, except maybe nostalgia goggles, yeah. The monsters in the first DS were just so happy to be there that they'd jump out in front of you going "rawr"; admittedly, DS2 had a fair bit of that too, but there were a number of areas that worked tension far better- the Unitologist church and the Ishimura being memorable sections.
 
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I really don't know where that's coming from, except maybe nostalgia goggles, yeah.
Not everyone is doing this, but there are a few.

The monsters in the first DS were just so happy to be there that they'd jump out in front of you going "rawr"; admittedly, DS2 had a fair bit of that too, but there were a number of areas that worked tension far better- the Unitologist church and the Ishimura being memorable sections.
I remember where Yahtzee kept complaining Dead Space as a whole is not scary. Everyone has their own fear sparks or limits, but the fact the usual suspects hung on to his every word, shows how everyone's got an opinion (even when they never played the game someone is praising or criticizing) and that he can't get them all right. I do admit that both games have moments where they got me with some scares, and knew how to build the attention.