The Callisto Protocol: PS5 Review

Developed by Striking Distance Studios
Published by Krafton
Platform: PS5

A spiritual successor to Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol is a horror that both celebrates the genre it's from, but also falls foul of some its pitfalls.

The game follows Josh Duhamel's Jacob Lee who finds himself trapped in a prison by mistake, with infected prisoners taken over by an unknown disease. As Lee tries to escape and also survive, a wide-ranging conspiracy emerges...

If you're after a game which offers jumps and jolts, there's no denying that this is a cinematic experience that aims for the stars and most of the time hits. There are moments that performance issues hit the quality of the game, but for a large part of what transpires, the game's desire to lull you into a sense of deep-space security and then send you screaming is truly effective.

While it's puzzling that killed off creatures yield odd health packs and "Callisto credits", the game has a fairly chunky and obvious lilt toward combat. Using a wrench to beat the living daylights out of an enemy is surprisingly effective thanks to the rumble of the PS5 controller. Using the left and right stick to avoid attacks is a little like being in a boxing match, but visually it looks like a movie moment or two, that benefits from slow motion.

There are elements of Alien and Dead Space within and while The Callisto Protocol doesn't quite do enough to bust free from the mould to make it its own beast, it does work well as a game which benefits from atmospherics, stereo headphones and a 3D sense of sound.

The intriguing story may hit a few cliches here and there, but with its stars Duhamel and The Boys' Karen Fukuhara, there's plenty of showbiz pull to see you through the odd Resident Evil and The Last of Us overtones.

Visually the game's extended death scenes are impressive, but the gruesomeness may grate if you're keen for them to end. There's a feeling of repetition as you plunge through corridors and combat, but The Callisto Protocol feels like the kind of game that's worth sinking your time into - it's a B-movie of a game, and not quite as superior as it should have been - but it's worth boarding this rollercoaster ride of a sci-fi horror mesh and enjoying the somewhat shallow jolts when they come.