THE CALLISTO PROTOCOL

A gloriously gory spiritual successor to Dead Space

- Mollie Taylor

Five seconds into my demo of The Callisto Protocol and I’m already slapped with a (very successful) jump scare. A mutant appears from nowhere, tentacles brutally ripping out of its chest as it lets out a blood-curdling scream. Protagonist Jacob hesitates, and the tentacles slosh back into its body. But that’s no sign of safety. It morphs, in an unsettlingly believable way, growing larger, badder, and a whole lot scarier.

Developer Striking Distance wants to keep you on your toes. The team pulled inspiration from Alien Isolation’s stalking antagonist to ensure you almost never feel safe. “Things track you in our game, the grunts sometimes find a way,” chief technical officer Mark James tells me. “They don’t always attack you, they’ll move into a grate and you’ll hear them around you, and they’ll pop up in another grate somewhere else where there’s a better attack spot for them. So they’re looking for spaces in which they can actually make the jump happen, rather than just attacking.”