Strap on your space suit and receive your prison numbers, because it’s time to serve your sentence in your cell amongst the stars. “The Callisto Protocol” is a new survival horror game, set on one of Jupiter’s many moons in the distant future. This game has been said by many critics and reviewers to be a “spiritual successor” to the 2008 “Dead Space” series, with both games having their similarities and differences.
“The Callisto Protocol” takes place in the year 2320, where the player takes the role of Jacob Lee, a contract freight transporter from the United Jupiter Colony. He, alongside his partner Max, are co-pilots onboard the “UJC Charon” - a freighter transporting volatile cargo between Europa and a Calisto-stationed Black Iron Prison. Once Jacob and Max reach Callisto’s prison and begin their descent, the Charon gets boarded by a terrorist group named “The Outerway,” which then leads to the freighter crash-landing on the surface of Jupiter’s fourth moon. Jacob and the Outerway’s leader, Dani Nakamura, become the sole survivors of the crash before they both get recovered by Black Iron’s security head - Captain Leon Ferris. Upon being rescued from the crash site, both Jacob and Dani become incarcerated in Black Iron Prison with no charges or trials under direct order from the prison’s warden, Duncan Cole. After recovering from the intake procedure, Jacob gets greeted by the sight of Black Iron being overrun by its prisoners - most of whom were infected by a foreign plague. With aid from a long-time prisoner named Ellias Porter, Jacob now has to escape the slowly rotting husk of Black Iron Prison, whilst overcoming the infected slowly filling it and the prison’s top-of-the-line security systems.
The game’s plot has been unveiled, and the next thing up are the hired voice actors. Josh David Duhamel, an American actor and former fashion model, voices the main character of the game, Jacob Lee. He has acted and voiced many characters in films, television shows and video games - a few, for example, being “Transformers,” “Batman: The Long Halloween,” “Las Vegas,” “Blade Runner: Black Lotus,” “Skylanders: Supercharged” and “Call of Duty: WWII.” Then, there is Karen Fukahara, the voice actor for Outer Way leader Dani Nakamura. She is an American actress born to Japanese parents best known for her work in the roles of Katana in the 2016 “Suicide Squad” film and Kimiko Miyashiro in the Amazon Prime original series, “The Boys.” This will be the first game Karen has voice acted in, with many more opportunities arising for her in the future. Finally, there’s Sam Witwer - the voice actor for Black Iron Prison’s security head, Leon Ferris. He, like Josh and Karen, is an American actor - well known for playing the roles of Crashdown in “Battlestar Galactica,” Davis Bloome in “Smallville,” Aiden Waite in “Being Human,” Mr. Hyde in “Once Upon a Time,” Ben Lockwood in “Supergirl,” and Rupert Chipping in “Riverdale.” Within the video game industry, Sam is also well known for playing the role of Starkiller in the “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” games.
The game’s developers, “Striking Distance Studios,” have gone full out. Striking Distance, led by Dead Space and Call of Duty veteran Glen Schofield, was founded in Jul. 2019 and has only created one solitary game - The Callisto Protocol.
The Calisto Protocol, as stated earlier, is a sort of “spiritual successor” to the 2008 “Dead Space” series, with both sharing similar mechanics and sci-fi aesthetics. One mechanic that both games share amongst each other, is the fact that the enemies in “The Calisto Protocol” act the same in the “Dead Space” games - meaning the player has to shoot at the enemy’s limbs to ensure that they stay down, whilst said enemies prove to be too dangerous if kept alive. Another mechanic both games share is that there is no user interface or UI, making both games feel as close to realism as possible. The only true differences between the two games is its settings and approach to death scenes. The main setting for Dead Space was so that the player felt claustrophobic, with tight spaces and objects that would drive them into corners - whereas The Calisto Protocol feels more vast and maze-like, leaving players guessing if the path they take leads them to the right one they’re supposed to be on. The death scenes in both games are shown time and time again to not be parallel with each other by the levels of brutality. The Calisto Protocol brings it with terrifyingly crisp and clean graphics - each death in the game feeling as though the players were the victims of a fatality from Mortal Kombat.
All and all, The Calisto Protocol is perfect for players who enjoy the rush of adrenaline coursing through their veins as they hastily navigate tight corridors with hordes of monsters who always stay right on their tails. The game has already been released on Dec. 2, with prices ranging from $59.99 or $10.00 on the Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S and Microsoft Windows.