You can’t listen to audio diaries while walking, navigating the inventory menus is needlessly stiff, and swapping your arsenal is overcomplicated by a refusal to use all four D-Pad buttons like most games would for quick-select. This clunkiness extends to the entire UI. Just stick it in! Striking Distance seems to have realized this wasn't ideal, as enemies may randomly drop a bit of health you can just use, but there’s no explanation for why Jacob can’t just do this all the time. What good does having multiple healing kits do you if Jacob has to sit down and stare at the needle like it’s the first time he’s ever seen one before? He does this no matter how far into the game you are, even while a horde of “Biophage” infected charge at you from every angle. Instead, you’re caught in a perfect storm of a game that’s actively built not to scare you, but instead grind you into the dirt no matter what difficulty you’re on. Any of these design choices could’ve worked, just not in this exact combination. Many of the ideas present in Callisto aren’t necessarily in isolation. You can be staring directly at an explosive or enemy, and it'll go for the furthest refuse instead. Granted, its propensity for grabbing random crates instead of the giant charging monstrosities ahead of you doesn't help. Players also receive a truncated version of Dead Space's telekinesis, now working more like a Force Grip from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, but with such a low battery capacity that you'll rarely use as much as you'd like to. It mixes Punch-Out!’s dodging mechanics with Arkham brawling presented with a camera more firmly jammed into its protagonist’s spine than God of War on PS4. Yet shooting only takes center stage later, giving way to the real star of the show: melee combat. Shooting is perfectly serviceable, with some neat high-end perks for your guns that you’ll likely never see unless you specialize or wait for the New Game Plus update in 2023 (yes, really, they launched without it). Nowhere is this lack of focused priorities more evident than with the combat. By contrast, Day Gone's Sam Witwer co-stars as the main antagonist prison guard with so much more charm that you almost end up rooting for him instead of Jacob.ĪLSO READ: Dead Estate Is A Pixel Perfect Homage To Arcade Horror There are definitely a few scenes where his animations appear to be unfinished, such as facially responding to a spinal surgery like one might to stubbing their toe particularly hard. Considering in particular that co-star Dani Nakamura, played by The Boys’ Karen Fukuhara, has actual backstory, personal drive, and a reason to be imprisoned at Black Iron Prison, you’re constantly left wondering why Jacob Lee is here.Įven as bland protagonists go, Jacob is a gaping hole where charisma dies, and it’s hard to tell if that’s on voice actor Josh Duhamel or his mocap animations. What I can say without spoiling is that everyone outside of the protagonist, Jacob Lee, is infinitely more interesting than what he brings to the story. It’s legitimately amazing how little story there is that doesn’t constitute a spoiler, because the vast majority of Callisto Protocol is nothing but a void of creeping through similar hallways and bitter, darkened rock quarries.
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