The Calisto Protocol: A Genre of Games and Myths: 7/10 “A Strong Captivating Game in the Dead Space Genre, by the Original Team”
-For the Uncensored!
John W. Campbell once said in his famous short story, Who Goes There, “Blair has described the microspic life forms biologists find living even in this cold an inhospitable place. They freeze every winter, and thaw every summer—for three months—and live. The point Norris makes is—they thaw, and live again. There must have been microscopic life associated with this creature. There is with every living thing we know. And Norris is afraid that we may release a plague—some germ disease unknown to Earth—if we saw those microscopic thing that have been frozen there for twenty million years.”[1]
This paragraph, published in 1938, proves that science fiction itself has always been a form malleable to the oddest imagination ever. It’s why I identify with science fiction. It allows the imagination to take apart society and their qualms, mores far more than literary fiction could achieve. What makes Who Goes There an astounding little gem is because science fiction lives in the shadow of all its predecessors. Just imagine a space ship and how many times you see a space ship. Everyone can come up with their own interpretation of a space ship, and they don’t have to have a degree in mechanical engineering to do so. What science fiction does brilliantly is bring to light what we truly fear. And Calisto Project doesn’t plum new depths, but gives it a new twist, which is Science Fictions basic questions. How can we kill it, and how far can we run away from what we truly fear.
Plot
The Calisto Protocol, inside much of the Dead Space community, was released by Striking Distance studios and published by Krafton, on December 2nd, 2022, was a game that proves a few things that many games right now don’t do. Jacob Blake, the main protagonist, is a freelance delivery service, but from the beginning, nothing is known. The opening scene of a girl walking through a deserted massacre on Europa. Jacob’s friend Max is bothered by the massacre, but Jacob doesn’t say a word. Only his ship is boarded by the girl, Nakamura, who attacks Jacob. Only his ship crashes on Calisto, as it’s turned into a prison planet, as the Warden takes Jacob hostage, too.
But right on time, the prison goes haywire, and Jacob, with the help of a prisoner, Elias, gets him through the prison, until they join up with Ms. Nakamura. The villain, Captain Ferris, is infected, and appears throughout the game, to break up the tension. As the story progresses, Max, Jacob’s friend, haunts him, with certain jump scare scenes, as Jacob, in his own time, has to face a grim reality. He might not be the person he thought he was. Only as they find a way to call a ship, the Warden shoots down the ship, and results in Jacob falling off the landing dock, and catching himself on a pole. Taking him down to the lower part of the prison. What Jacob and Yuri find out is that the zombie like creatures were weaponized by a large alien that broke out of the mine. The Warden used the prison outbreak to test his mad experiment out. When Ms. Nakamura is sick, the onus of Jacob’s mission turns to curing her, and with her memories, finds out, or at least remembers, that he transported the alien virus back to Europa. Ferris, is known as the Alpha, and has the cure he needs. It ends with Ferris and Jacob facing off, as he takes the cure from Ferris, and injects it into Ms. Nakamura. Only there escape, coincidentally, only has one escape pod. Jacob pushes Ms. Nakamura into the pod, as he tells her, “I’m where I belong.” Only the game ends with Ms. Nakamura narrating that “Jacob gave me the evidence that I needed” and ends with “I hope he found the peace he wanted.” The final end teaser shows that Jacob might be able to find a way to get out, and Ferris screams in Jacob’s face.
While this might be a little too bare boned for most open world players, the tightly woven narrative proved that this was made for the Deadspace players, who were begging for an “heir” for so long. The thing is, this game is not the heir to Deadspace, as there were three games in the genre. The Calisto Project, in its entirety, is a game that exists in the Dead Space universe, and probably more personal than the later Dead Space games became. The tight strict story line is meant, even if the game does not sell, would be able to tell a story that both future players and history would rediscover. Jacob, in his own way, doesn’t really aim to fix anything that happened, because he’s emotionally not equipped to care, until the end. When he has learned a lesson, and becomes a better person, accepting his punishment. As Ferris echoes, in his final Resident Evil style boss fight, “There’s always a price.” But the price of the Calisto Protocol is that you can’t shit on a game that knows what it is. A game about guilt, and what Jacob, and the player, must do in order to cleanse there soul.
Graphics/Visual/Sound
Without spilling too much into good territory, the visual aspects are stunning. The game is a eight hour long cut scene, to me. The way the cut scene doesn’t require black bars to then separate from the game play. It’s amazing to see how far technology has come to make the Calisto Protocol into a visual masterpiece. Krafton really did take what they learned from Deadspace and Resident Evil, almost turning it into their Escape from Mars type of story, where every little smidge of blood almost makes you gag if you stare at it long enough. The sounds of Jacob’s foot smashing the bloody-aliens-that-used-to-be-prisoners is like hearing all the sounds of death sluicing through a meat grinder. The chunky wet splattering almost makes the guts turn inside out, as the bodies, when impaled, can be stomped, stabbed, and stunned off the alien bodies. It’s almost a lesson in how a game has blended the Kojima style cut scene viewpoint but deliver a game that people can play, and not just experience on youtube, or up in the clouds. The tense subtle sounds of a pipe hissing air can get me lost in the world and make me remember why I love visual media. It’s when I put the phone down and just start forgetting about the worlds problems. Graphics and visuals have to embue the sense of horror for the player to continue. It’s how a combat loop can make or break a game. What atmosphere achieves is like staring into a Lovecraftian/Eldritch nightmare in space that could force John Carpenter out of retirement to direct. But otherwise, graphics and sound is where Krafton studios excels. This could mean Krafton studios did see the influence of Joseph W. Campbell’s “The Thing” as their main inspiration, as the cold steel Calisto prison walls holding Jacob hostage, as many will say “you gotta be fucking kidding me” while pushing Jacob through the nightmare that holds him together, and the visuals keep in tone with the guilt pushing him through steel corridors with blood and sinew sprayed across the walls with messages like “don’t make a sound” as it instructs Jacob and the player of the dire consequences.
(The soundtrack is definitely for those who loved Ennio Morricone’s motion picture soundtrack of John Carpenter’s The Thing")
Gameplay/Difficulty
For my own playthrough, much of the game consists of deliberate dodge mechanic moments, which to me, is the best dodge mechanic idea for a video game, ever. The dodging mechanic, one on one, is amazing, but in a group, is when the dodge gameplay becomes rather clunky. Or at least not given enough test play to make sure the mechanic can flow without any disturbances. Ranton, a youtuber, called the linear malfeseance, the golden path, too undefined for him.[2]But he is wrong. The Calisto symbol on the bottom right appears, as it’s a subtle sign to let the player know there’s no return. The dodge gameplay, while revolutionary, and fluid, itself is concerning when facing a large tank boss, who within two feet, forces you into a dodge moment. And if you don’t you’re dead. So, this to me, while great, needed some more love. But the blood spatter is still amazing, as many players can smash the dead in order to get ammo or Calisto credits.
Gameplay on Normal has three range difficulties. Minimum, Medium, and Maximum Security. Which are all designed to give the player a taste before they accomplish the Hardcore mode. And on my run, I wasn’t allowed to lower the difficulty on Hardcore mode, either. If the player utilizes stealth in a stealth section, you will be all right. Just conserve ammo, and increase the stun baton power. But the gameplay itself on Hardcore can be achieved, if the player maneuvers Jacob out of enemy striking distance. The dodge mechanic, in a middle of a fight, can be sticky at times, not allowing multiple dodge move sets in order to accomplish the move the designers originally implemented. The question of said difficulty is that playing on Normal difficulty is not even a smidge difficult compared to Hardcore mode. Don’t let the youtube reviewers fool you. On Hardcore mode, the difficulty can’t be changed, either, so the player should be used to the game by the third playthrough on a New Game Plus mode.
Jacob takes so much damage in Hardcore it turns him into a red piñata. The accomplishment of having a full health bar is in turn how the player wants to approach the combat. Either through upgrading the weapons, GRP, or the stun baton. If the player can successfully dodge, you can play the Calisto Protocol. Maybe it will be fixed later, but the dodge mechanic, while wonderful, is still rather messy in its original state.
In Hardcore mode, you definitely must evade when you can. Trying to fight the robots on your Hardcore playthrough is not recommended. As if you were in real life, as always. But at one point, in the first fight, the robot, who you are blocking with a wall, can shoot through the wall. Which loses points, in that respect. Maybe it’s a bug but it doesn’t make sense.
For stealth areas, on hardcore, do not fight unless you have the upper hand, too. For the first half of the game doesn’t really concern stealth as the later half, after Jacob falls into the lower half of the prison, with Ms. Nakamura helping, discover that the blind tank enemies are going to fuck you up. And on the first Hardcore run, it’s imperative to use stealth as there are no weapons to use. So the difficulty and the lack of supplies to trade will make the difference in your gameplay. Sometimes, it’s easier to lead some enemies out of the preferred area, finding it too boxed in for me to play.
A downside to the gameplay is that the machine guards, that you can shoot for a decoder, will never attack the aliens, but destroy you. So, that’s one slight mechanic that doesn’t quite gel with the rest of the gameplay. I would have like to see what the robots did to the aliens, but that’s one minor gripe that might have not been tested out properly.
Weapons
There are a series of weapons exhibited through the story campaign, a stun baton, which for the most part, is required in close quarter combat. A GRP, pronounced Grip, is a glove Calisto guards use in order to grab prisoners or objects. Upgrading the GRP, allows you to pick up the zombie creatures, and then throw them on spikes. If you play the game with a more defensive position, the GRP is the best. You don’t have to use firearms at all, but the guns themselves are amazing, too.
The Hand Cannon, the first weapon Jacob, and the player make, is definitely amazing if you need a powerful punch. Fully upgraded, you can send five shots into one enemy, and then decapitate a weaker enemy with an exploding round. Definitely my favorite, but also covet it, especially in a pinch. The tactical pistol is fine, but not as powerful, but another option if you’re out of the Hand Cannon ammo. It’s not my first go to, but dependable as you upgrade it, to a burst mode where it can unload ten shots at a time. The Riot Gun, is a standard shotgun that is great for weaker enemies, but doesn’t pull off a one kill shot on larger tank enemies. Fully upgraded leans into an explosive shell, but it uses four shells in one shot. The Skunk Gun, which is a four shot Dillinger-esque shotgun, which should be the most useless gun, becomes nice and neat in a squeeze. Especially when ammo is tight on Hardcore mode. Upgraded with swarm ammo can rip through enemies in a long jizz like motion, bouncing off the walls, too. The last weapon, the assault rifle, is my favorite go to. Fully upgraded can create a homing missle shot, sending three beams if you’re not aiming at them directly. The weak link of the weapons, for me, is the assault rifle, even at an upgraded level, which is almost worth it on a second run, and not the first.
(Thanks to Backseat guides, as this channel showed the gun, the upgrades and the gameplay at each level.)
Pros:
· The tight strict story line is meant, even if the game does not sell, to tell a story that both future players and history would rediscover.
· The chunky wet splattering almost makes the guts turn inside out, as the bodies, when impaled, can be stomped, stabbed, and stunned off the alien bodies.
· What atmosphere achieves is like staring into a Lovecraftian/Eldritch nightmare in space that could force John Carpenter out of retirement to direct.
· Strong Hardcore difficulty, as it will definitely put the player through their paces. Ammo is not readily available on Hardcore difficulty.
· The themes of guilt carries the game beyond a mere “dead space” play style.
· The chunky wet splattering almost makes the guts turn inside out, as the bodies, when impaled, can be stomped, stabbed, and stunned off the alien bodies. It’s almost a lesson in how a game has blended the Kojima style cut scene viewpoint but deliver a game that people can play, and not just experience on youtube, or up in the clouds.
Cons:
· A downside to the gameplay is that the machine guards, that you can shoot for a decoder, will never attack the aliens, but destroy you.
· But at one point, in the first fight, the robot, who you are blocking with a wall, can shoot through the wall. Which loses points, in that respect. Maybe it’s a bug but it doesn’t make sense.
· The weak link of the weapons, is the assault rifle, even at an upgraded level, which is almost worth it on a second run, and not the first.
· The dodge mechanic, in a middle of a fight, can be sticky at times, not allowing multiple dodge move sets in order to accomplish the move the designers originally implemented.
Final Analysis: 7/10
[1] Campbell, John. “Who Goes There?; the novella that formed the basis of the The Thing” Rocket Ride Books. 2009. Copyright 1938 by Street and Smith publications and 1966 by John W. Campbell. P. 28)
. “The Calisto Protocol is NOT that bad.” 01.06.2023. Ranton. Youtube. Found 03.30.2023.