Many gamers looked forward to the release of “The Callisto Protocol” and wished for a game that would follow in the footsteps of Dead Space. However, the game flopped on Steam and did not meet the high expectations. In the meantime, it seems that things are looking up for the shooter.
The Callisto Protocol is a survival horror game with shooter elements and a futuristic sci-fi setting.
You take on the role of the main character Jacob Lee, who is in the high-security prison “Black Iron” on the Jupiter moon Callisto: There, some of the inmates turn into creepy monsters. Subsequently, you try to escape the prison alive and uncover the secrets of Callisto.
Here you can see a trailer for The Callisto Protocol:
Why was The Callisto Protocol seen as a hope? The game comes from the developer “Striking Distance Studio”. Two well-known faces worked on the game: Glen Schofield and Steve Papoutsis. Both made a name for themselves in the industry with the popular sci-fi horror game “Dead Space”. The franchise is considered one of the best horror game series, having gained numerous fans with its creepy atmosphere and exciting gameplay. Therefore, a new hit was expected from the creators.
The settings of the two games also sound quite similar, as both are horror shooters in space where the main characters fight and survive against nightmarish creatures.
Accordingly, the expectations of the fans for the new title The Callisto Protocol were high, and many hoped for a “quasi-sequel” to the popular horror game with which the creators had already been so successful. For example, numerous comparisons to Dead Space can also be found in the Steam reviews, against which the new game was measured – and often could not keep up.
What lies behind the failure
After its release on December 2, 2022, on Steam, the horror shooter initially received a lot of criticism. Especially technical problems and the short playtime were highlighted as negative points and hindered the successful launch of the PC version.
What do the player numbers of The Callisto Protocol look like? Player numbers for the Steam version of The Callisto Protocol can be viewed on the SteamCharts page. Here you can clearly see how the player count quickly dropped after the release.
The highest peak was reached with 15,556 people on December 3, 2022, just a day after its release on Steam. After that, it quickly went downhill. Compared to the release period, the highest number in the last 30 days was just 1,430 people, which is significantly lower (as of January 20, 2023).
However, it should be noted that only the Steam player numbers can be viewed through the analysis website, excluding all console players.
There is hope for the horror shooter
Is there still hope for The Callisto Protocol? In fact, things seem to be looking up for the shooter right now. For example, if you compare the ratings of the game on Steam, there has been an increase in positive reviews:
If only 61% of the total ratings are positive, meaning the game is generally considered “mixed,” it looks a little better in the last 30 days: Here, 70% are already positive opinions, allowing The Callisto Protocol to climb to a “mostly positive” rating (as of January 20, 2023, via Steam).
What might the better ratings be due to? Between December 2022 and the writing of this article on January 20, 2023, new patches and bug fixes were gradually released that, according to some reviews on Steam, improved the game and fixed the technical problems.
So, I am now able to play the game without major technical issues, even though its gameplay and horror factor are still rated rather mediocre by some.
It is often recommended to wait for a special offer and then get the game at a lower price.
- mkinG: ‘The game has become much better after the latest patches and is definitely more fun now. The graphics, atmosphere, animations, and sound are really great. The story is pretty mediocre, though, and the combat is repetitive. Overall, it’s a decent game, but seriously, don’t buy it at full price!’
- Sittenstrolch: ‘Well. After about 30 hours of gameplay, the mystery of Callisto’s Protocol was solved on medium difficulty, but the big horror unfortunately didn’t come. After the game was unplayable at release, it is now quite playable after several patches. If you want to dodge through endless linear levels, enjoy the controls, and stay calm when 3 enemies come at once, you are very well off here. My recommendation: Buy the game only in a 50% sale. In my opinion, the content is too little for the full price.’
“Dismissing The Callisto Protocol as a mere graphical high jinks would not do justice to the title from the creator of Dead Space. There’s simply too much skill involved in the intense play of light and shadow. However, this visual opulence comes at an enormous hardware cost, which not only angered customers at release with brutal shader compilation problems but also subjected the entire level design to this.
While the latter is so integral that it can’t be changed with updates, the glaring technical deficiencies have now mostly been addressed. The frustrating battles against enemy groups have also been mitigated, and the New Game Plus mode encourages players to fully develop protagonist Jacob Lee into an overpowered telekinesis warrior.
So, has The Callisto Protocol become a better game in the past two months? Not quite. It is now more accessible, having been made enjoyable on more hardware configurations. Its greatest strength, the atmosphere, still shines brightly but fails to completely overshadow the design weaknesses in the save system, the boss battles, and the B-movie story. It’s a horror trip worth experiencing but far from a masterpiece.”
Here on the GameStar site you can find his detailed follow-up test on the current state of The Callisto Protocol.
Note from the editorial team: We slightly adjusted the headline of the article to make the classification of the game clearer. In an earlier version, it was referred to as a “shooter hope,” which we expanded to “horror shooter hope”
