The developers of the Callisto protocol want you to die as much as possible so you can see all the "murder desserts"

remember in dead end, and if you screw it up, you’ll see your unhinged, long-suffering gamer avatar Isaac Clark pierced in the eye with a giant needle? Or be completely decapitated by a terrifying alien? Or was it sucked into the vacuum of space without a helmet on? It almost feels like he’s a plaything of a sadistic god; tormenting him to please viewers of PS3s and 360-degree players, who are curled up safely in a den on the sofa.

This level of sadism isn’t going away from Glen Schofield – co-creator of Dead Space and its spiritual successor, Callisto AgreementIn fact, he seems eager to be more indiscriminate this time around. In an interview with Striking Distance’s CTO, Schofield’s secondhand Mark James, I learned that The Callisto Protocol wants you to die. a lot of. It’ll even reward you with seeing your new interactive toy, Jacob Lee, in all the creepy ways.

Try the nightmares you will encounter in the full game.

“It’s a tough game and you’re going to die a lot,” James said. “But at least in death, we can give you a cool path.”

The entry is affectionately named “Murder Dessert”. That’s how Striking Distance is named for those moments when you see Jacob Lee slamming into a sharp piece of metal in the middle of a sewer pipe, or being shunted into an industrial lumberjack in the middle of The Callisto Protocol prison complex. It’s a catchy (and possibly disturbing) name, as your protagonist inevitably suffers an unprovoked, excessive death as you try to escape from Callisto.

“That’s what we say — these cruel moments when you die — that’s what we say deep down inside,” James said with a laugh. “Because, to us, it feels like an after-meal reward, you know? Glenn loved them in the original Dead Space, and we value them even more in Callisto Protocol. It feels like we’re rewarding you even if you fail.

“People would play our game and they would say ‘Oh, I haven’t died like that before, great!'”

I’ve been told that there are group meetings where developers get together to discuss the best way to get Jacob through his mortal stride. “The best are usually environmentally friendly,” reflects James. “We’d say ‘Okay, let’s put a lumberjack here!’ Someone might say ‘Why? “…well, because it’s hilarious! So we have a lot of that, and we also have unique death animations associated with different enemy types.”

James told me there’s even an achievement/trophy there that you can unlock by seeing all the deaths – when I asked if the dev team was basically encouraging you to try as much as you can and see what’s deadly , I nodded.

For this, Striking Distance has to be careful with checkpoints. In a hands-off demonstration, we see Jacob walking through an industrial logging complex connected to the prison where the Callisto Protocol is located. Using an electrified baton, a gravity-based gun reminiscent of the famous Half-Life 2 gravity gun, and some clever use of the surrounding scenery, Jacob managed to get through it all without a hitch. The clever use of physics, gravity-operated GRIP guns, and massive shredders certainly help.

But James told us that the Callisto Accord usually doesn’t go so well. “That logging area? You saw someone playing really well. I died in that area a lot – maybe four or five times. Just in that small area. So overall, how many times do you die in the game? ? It could be huge. Simply awesome!”

Trophies and achievements hunters will want to die at the hands of every enemy.

James told me that these death scenes are basically Striking Distance, allowing you to die many times and not feel bad about it. “We’re not going to give you an obvious solution to a new enemy,” he said, “when you first see it. We’re going to let you down so you can say ‘Yeah, GRIP guns for this’ The enemy doesn’t work’, or ‘that gun is a total bullet sponge’, or ‘there’s no point in using ballistics here”.

The gratuitous and numerous “murder desserts” aren’t designed purely to shock value (though, honestly, that’s a key part of their existence). They help you understand the threats in the game and serve as a trial-and-error endpoint as you try to navigate this hostile, fear-ridden prison planet.

Let’s just hope you don’t get too squeamish.

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