Best of all, The Callisto Protocol wants to surprise you – hands-on preview

“I hate this damn place,” protagonist Jacob Lee says after sliding down a waste pipe, dodging turbine blades, mutated human abominations, protruding rocks and all manner of other dangerous junk. You just had to give in to the head of a supposed old prisoner acquaintance, but you weren’t sure because where his face was supposed to have tentacles. You are now waist-deep in human excrement, wading through a sanitary installation just so you might, perhaps, live to see another day. I hate this place too, man.

for our Callisto Agreement For a hands-on preview, we played a level that is completely set in the prison health system. You’re in a penal colony on Jupiter’s second largest moon, Callisto, and something goes wrong. A virus is sweeping the prisoners and staff here, and you seem to be one of the few people locked up in a closed industrial building full of things that want to kill you. But violence isn’t the worst — not really. This is Striking Distance’s clever use of tension, hooking in your brain and refusing to let go.

Whether it’s the steam vents that decompress you, the noise from the pipes as you walk right in your head, the vents above and below you galloping through… this layer alone is enough to rip my nerves, Makes my fingers twitch the DualSense triggers throughout my gameplay. Jacob is as stoic as he is, which is a good job – he didn’t even flinch when a steam valve rang next to his head! -Because I was doing my anxiety breathing exercise and almost got proprolol at the start of the demo.

The Callisto protocol is strict. The camera hugs Jacob tightly, and as a result, his massive ex-pilot frame takes up a third of the screen. This gives Striking Distance a lot of freedom, allowing you to get really close to them before you even see them. It makes you, the player, feel like any panic you may not have shown earlier is your fault – you blocked your view and deserved a nice, firm blow to the temple from a zombie flesh fist.

There’s a lot of emphasis on exploration when you’re not desperately checking how much ammo you have left and calculating if you can survive another wave of rotting undead. The entire demo has you following a large red pipe through the prison’s behind-the-scenes sanitation facilities. You go to see the sewage, the filtration system, you say. On the way, you’ll suffer from claustrophobia, feces, the threat of drowning, sharp objects near the eyes, rusty blades… This is a rogue gallery of all the major fears and phobias someone could have (and then the Some of the more obscure phobias, in the case).

Simple puzzles will pull you off the golden (or red) path, but you always have a through line that tells you where you need to go, and if you get spun around, you can come back. It’s not as aggressive as Dead Space’s objective marker lines, which Isaac can summon on a whim from the palm of his hand, and is more in line with this monstrous Brutalist industrial world. Steering from the path might reward you with an ammo clip, but punish you with another tentacled ghoul, intent on sucking your brain out through your eyes. Is the tradeoff worth it? it’s up to you.

If you do choose more fights than strictly necessary, you better be careful. You’re just a pilot — a normal human — and really only take a few hits. Timing of dodging and blocking is important. You are someone who has probably experienced prison fights and physical labor; you are heavy, mean, and slow. It’s a great feeling when you’re fighting for your life, but it’s another part of the bigger picture that makes you feel vulnerable. Dodging, blocking and reacting, burying a guy’s head with a baton feels better than any physical encounter in dead space (but that’s probably just a little bit left over from the adrenaline dump you get when you successfully avoid zombies flashing red health).

And you can’t just rely on melee combat, even though that’s the main way things are done here (the prison chainsaw feels especially gratuitous when you put it on the neck of a wayward undead prisoner). You have a pretty decent arsenal at your disposal, all of which can be upgraded with 3D printed bolts if you clear enough floats. Unlike many other survival horror games, ammo isn’t non-existent. It’s fairly common and shows up in clips. That means you know you’ll always have enough headroom to insert a clip into a body…but whether that’s enough to do it before the enemy evolves or bites the dust is another matter. Because these bastards use cover.

They are smart. They respond to you. If you try to kill them all with a big stick, they will learn and rush towards you from your flanks or numbers. Or, maybe they’ll hide and attack you when you’re not looking. If you keep shooting, they dodge, dodge, and weave as you take aim. These bastards are tough, and it’ll make you pretty nervous about any upcoming encounters — even if you do document exploding barrels and environmental hazards on your first trip through the area.

But it’s not all horror. Games are also fun. You know, like the scariest things – they’ll make you laugh, make you feel more comfortable, and then the suckers slam you with more terrifying force than you can imagine. Whether it’s a clear nod to Visceral/EA forbear Dead Space, a “Kill the virus” message in blood smeared over the “keep this area clean” sign, or the perfect comedic spray from fans after you’ve kicked the ball Blood turns zombies into shredders, and Callisto Protocol knows how to let you relax before starting over with more squeaky time.

Glen Schofield and his staff at Striking Distance know what they’re doing in Callisto Protocol. Every encounter, every mechanic, every time your eyes widen, your fingers grip your mat…it all feels intentional and orchestrated. The intense breaks are just right, and the explosive rewards keep you flashing as your heart rises and stabilizes, making you feel like you’re always on the brink of a cardiac event.

“I hate this damn place,” Jacob mumbles again, as we’re reborn after a particularly nasty “murder dessert.” Sorry man, because I can’t wait for you to go through this again.

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Callisto Protocol is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on December 2.