Ramée, Jordan (December 2, 2022). "The Callisto Protocol Review - I Don't Belong Here". GameSpot. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022 . Retrieved December 2, 2022. Blake, Vikki (December 2, 2022). "The Callisto Protocol review - a Dead Space-alike built on simpler pleasures". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on January 7, 2023 . Retrieved December 2, 2022. Hurley, Leon (December 2, 2022). "The Callisto Protocol review: 'An impressive game derailed by unforgiving combat' ". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023 . Retrieved December 2, 2022. On October 27, 2022, the Japanese release was canceled when the game did not get a CERO rating due to the game's violent content and the developer refused to make the necessary changes. [28] [29] [30] The game was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on December 2, 2022. [31] Prequel podcast [ edit ] The final piece of the jump scare jigsaw is the sound design, mixing and execution. The electric fizzle of an earthing cable. The hydraulic pressure of an opening door. Fans that create a Doppler effect as you walk closer, accompanied by screen shake and controller vibrations. The meaty squelch as heads pop, limbs break and much much more. The use of sound and silence is incredible as you can hear the screech of enemies in the distance, but sometimes the sound of silence scares you the most. Music is blended in at times, with a clear John Carpenter-like synth mix that has more than a nod to the Thing. Voice acting from all is top notch and although it can be cheesy and cliche at times, it often takes twists and turns you do not expect and is never holding your hand or running on too long. I often say that sound is 50 percent of the experience in games and films, and here that may be understating its impact. It is an impeccable piece of work from the sound team that complements the game’s art, technical, animation and storytelling. Summary

a b "PC Players Report The Callisto Protocol Is Plagued With Performance Issues". Kotaku. December 2, 2022. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022 . Retrieved December 2, 2022. However, as much as we enjoy the feeling of the combat here, as satisfying as it is to batter the Biophage to itty-bitty pieces, there are problems, problems that are exacerbated as the game shifts from an engaging opening to a latter half that drops the ball in rather spectacular fashion. Yes, it brings us absolutely no joy to report that The Callisto Protocol is a bit of a let-down overall. This is a game that puts all of the important pieces in place; the flashy motion capture and next-gen graphics, the fantastic cast, the cutting-edge lighting system and 3D audio tech, and a premise that's engaging enough to draw us into its world, but then it all just...kinda falls apart. We'd wager most players will be enjoying everything about this adventure for the first five hours, before becoming frustrated and underwhelmed as it winds to its conclusion. It's frustrating stuff, and it gets worse. The final third of Jacob's ordeal is peppered with dull and repetitive showpiece encounters that make the already strained combat feel like a tedious ordeal. There's a large mutated enemy with two heads that shows up during a moving platform sequence, a huge beast that takes an age - and all of your ammo - to kill. Fair enough, but the only way to deal with this thing is to circle around and around the available play area, get enough distance, turn around and shoot a few times then keep moving, rinse and repeat. Getting anywhere near to your foe ends in instant death. It's a combat sequence that throws away all of the game's best action hooks in favour of very basic, messy and frustrating shooting. I said "vast majority" because I did run into some problems for one very brief section, around the two-thirds mark. In this area, I experienced massive framerate problems for about five or six minutes, with the game slowing down and chugging. It was only a tiny portion of the experience, but the severity makes it worth noting.West, Josh (December 1, 2022). " The Callisto Protocol release date, gameplay details, and more news on 2022's spiritual successor to Dead Space". Games Radar. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021 . Retrieved December 1, 2022. The RT shadows make for a very obvious visual upgrade, in my opinion. Self-shadowing looks much more detailed, relative to either last-gen console or the PS5 in performance mode. Fine geometric details now cast accurate shadows even at extreme angles, shadows that would be prohibitively expensive to resolve using shadowmaps. Larger shadows showcase realistic shadow penumbra, like on this character shadow, which looks synthetic and overly sharp in shadowmap form. Looking ahead, The Callisto Protocol will getting a season pass, with DLC including new story content, death animations, and a Horde-type mode. Time will tell if that extra content is worth your money, but the base game absolutely is.

From the outset, and playing on Xbox Series X, The Callisto Protocol is a genuinely jaw-dropping visual assault. It might have the most detailed interiors of any game I’ve ever played, and the variety in art that accompanies these is staggering.

a b c d McWhertor, Michael (December 16, 2020). "The Callisto Protocol is a return to sci-fi horror from Dead Space creators". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 16, 2020 . Retrieved December 17, 2020. This mode has two main boosts, Ray Traced Shadows and Reflections, with the shadows running on both Series X and PS5. They not only dramatically increase the amount of shadow casting light sources within a scene, they also allow smaller objects to now cast shadows. The accuracy here is incredible as light and shadow now react more realistically, and less light bleeds through geometry. Darker areas now contrast better with the light, and shadows cast right off into the distance, whereas in Performance mode, they can pop in close to the camera and cast no shadows off into the middle and far distance. The way light casts across faces is so good, making it one of the main reasons that the game has such a high-quality CGI look and feel. The other big boosts are in the gameplay, as the lighting design works much better with the sheer wealth of shadows, particularly since some jump scares and tells in the game are designed with Ray Traced shadows in mind. This means in Performance mode you will simply not see a shadow of a monster in the distance, whereas in the Quality mode it is like Michael Myers popping up from behind the sofa. Kuskov, O.L.; Kronrod, V.A. (2005). "Internal structure of Europa and Callisto". Icarus. 177 (2): 550–369. Bibcode: 2005Icar..177..550K. doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2005.04.014.