Although there are many similarities that The Callisto Protocol shares with the franchise that inspired it, namely Dead Space, Striking Distance Studios' newly released IP does stand out in some significant ways. Chief among them is the fact that players are allowed to choose their preferred tools of destruction from a not-so-limited array of weapons and upgrades, making the gameplay loop inherently more intriguing because there is more variety and a degree of customization and choice-making. Forging new weapons in The Callisto Protocol may soak up a lot of resources, and with limited Callisto Credits, players are called to pick their preferred combinations from the get-go, even not knowing the full arsenal list for the game.
While The Callisto Protocol's death animations go out of their way to introduce creative ways in which Jacob may die or kill his enemies, they add little to the combat loop itself, which sometimes can feel shallow for a number of reasons. The core combat loop is mostly fun thanks to the options it offers and the multiple enemy types the game features, and while these are great features to have, it can feel like The Callisto Protocol invests a lot of resources into gore for gore's sake. One could argue that the gore makes the game truly shine thanks to its next-gen graphics, but there are some cases where fighting enemies takes away something from the overall experience, such as the sense of tension.
Why The Callisto Protocol's Combat Needed Fewer Animations and More Balance
One of the main reasons why combat in The Callisto Protocol is far from optimal is that, precisely because players have access to so many different weapons, they can make short work of any enemy type all the time. There are even some borderline game-breaking options, such as the GRP gauntlet, which can immobilize enemies midair and give Jacob the opportunity to just fling them against traps and contraptions that kill them on contact.
There are also many times when recurring to melee combat can be not only great for saving resources, like ammo, but it is even more powerful than using firearms. For example, The Callisto Protocol's stun baton can be upgraded to break the arm of an attacker, and this mod alone can make melee combat much easier and more forgiving. Players can simply avoid an incoming enemy attack with the game's dodge feature, then hit the creature with a flurry of powerful blows, killing any non-boss enemy in a matter of seconds.
As such, it almost feels out of place to include a plethora of death animations that make a spectacle of gore to entertain the players when most animations will never even play, to begin with. It also feels weird that, when Jacob is facing blind biophage enemies in the colony, he can assassinate them while sneaking, but then when the animation plays out, the protagonist makes a lot of noise that could easily attract other creatures in the area. Instead, this doesn't happen, and it could be yet another case of The Callisto Protocol's plot armor for its main character.
It doesn't help that The Callisto Protocol's new game plus will launch in February, which means that many players will have to wait and see if there will still be a reason to boot the game and replay it further down the line. Especially with new game plus being a thing, adding all these death animations serves little-to-no purpose in regard to the actual experience, and possibly detracts from it because players might have to purposefully let Jacob die just to see them, and dying is quite hard with all the powerful weapons players have. Overall, there's a lot that The Callisto Protocol could have done better, and this is one of those cases.
The Callisto Protocol is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.
