After Gamestop screwed me and did not give me my video game four days after I had purchased it, it was hard for me to get onto a schedule to actually play the game alongside taking my vacation. Nothing went well but I did manage to play just over half of the game and I want to get some things off of my chest about The Callisto Protocol.

MEET THE LIST

PROS:

• Absolutely gorgeous-looking video game.
  • Every ounce of The Callisto Protocol oozes a spooky atmosphere.
    • I was genuinely terrified during the snowstorm section.
  • The monsters and environments are fucking gross and the dismemberment can sometimes make me sick.
• The story is fine, nothing to write home about, but so far it is engaging.
  • The characters feel real and the inclusion of the audio logs, makes me feel like engaging in the game more.

CONS:

• The camera is complete ass.
  • The beautiful skyboxes and environments show themselves when the game feels like taking a step back from Jacob Lee’s back.
• The combat is lame and gets monotonous pretty quickly.
  • I thought that the dodging was going to be skill intensive, but just move the stick, THAT IS IT.
  • It is known early on that the baton is the weapon to upgrade because guns are only there to provide a little extra damage.
• Enemy variety is also boring five hours in.
  • The ranged enemy really strains patience when the game is designed to be closer-quarters combat and they drop in a bad guy that screws the whole pooch.
• Enemy spam makes me want to stop playing the game entirely.
  • The combat does not feel like it works when more than two baddies are on the screen at a time.
    • The camera swings back and forth, turning 360 degrees in a flash. The camera knows when an enemy is dead before I do, so it will automatically switch to another target without me knowing. Very frustrating.

Overall:

The Callisto Protocol is a fine video game. The game looks phenomenal, and the characters and story are strong enough for me. Everything else though hinders the game so much that it makes it hard to play and want to finish. Combat is pretty bad and it has not gotten any better. The enemy variety makes the combat a slog and, during the latter half of the game when introduced to the tentacle giving more HP, makes the combat even worse.

Score:

If you can buy The Callisto Protocol for $5 then it is worth playing, but in other regard, it is a 7/10 solely because when the heavy swing makes contact the hit feels and looks so good.