My impressions after a couple hours with The Callisto Protocol (PS5):
- This is visually probably the best game I've ever seen. Character models, enemy design, environment, lighting, shadows, character animations, everything.
- The audio is also top notch, and in my opinion, it is what really sets the tension in the atmosphere, rather than the lighting and shadows (although those are certainly great). Many times, you're going to hear an enemy before you see them, which makes the zoomed in third person camera (basically the same as Dead Space) even more stressful. The voice acting has been great, too.
- The game is tense, and there are jump scares galore, even from the opening cinematic. That being said... I expected the game to be scarier. Thus far, it doesn't really feel that way, at least to me personally. Again, since this is widely seen as the spiritual successor to Dead Space, it feels closer to 3 than 1. Of course, that could change as I progress further into the game.
- Combat takes a little getting used to, especially the dodging mechanics. As this is a survival horror game, it's not surprising that it can feel a little bit cumbersome and slow by design, in order to drive up those levels of stress.
- Speaking of combat, the enemies in this game hit pretty hard - even the regular, garden variety mutants. Depending on the difficulty you're playing at, don't be surprised if you die a few times within those first couple hours. Difficulty only seems to affect the amount of damage you do and the amount of damage enemies deal, not enemy AI or placement.
- Buckets and buckets of gore and gratuitous violence, right from the jump.
8/10 feels about right for this one. Overall, I'm having a great time with it. If you were a fan of Dead Space, I recommend it.
