The Callisto Protocol's first tiny bit of gameplay is like Dead Space but with Mortal Kombat's gore
Revealed exclusively at the Summer Game Fest: some blood
At tonight's Geoff Fest (which I understand is officially called Summer Game Fest) we were treated to a first little sliver of gameplay from upcoming space survival-horror The Callisto Protocol, and boy-howdy you shouldn't watch this if you don't like gore, or if you're sitting accross from someone currently eating a rare steak for humorous narrative metaphor purposes.
Yup, that sure is your player character getting sucked into an engine, there. I was watching this on stream with subtitles, and they read "[machine worrying noises]". Me too, little engine, me too.
Once you get over that, of course, you notice the similarities to Dead Space: the shooting monster limbs, the suit with a little health light meter on the back, the whole abandoned tunnels in space of it all, and so on. This is not surprising, because the developer (Striking Distance Studio) was founded by Glen Schofield, who is a Dead Space co-creator. And it's not like Dead Space had no gore - far from it - but The Callisto Protocol is definitely enjoying it much more. All those mutant prisoners loved the spine ripping in Mortal Kombat.
There are other differences too, and although we haven't seen much of anything in The Callisto Protocol yet (it was first properly teased in December 2020), the gameplay appeared to show some kind of grav-gun thingy which you can use to pick up and throw baddies a bit like wot you can do in Half Life 2. The baddies seem quite meaty compared to yer standard necromorphs, too, and I am into the sort of frozen doomed vibe of the prison - kind of like a stranded icebreaker ship, y'know?
We got an extended reveal trailer too, which has even more creative deaths. See the camera linger, with the sensitivity and longing of a lover, on a head being chewed half off. The blood spurting in the light. Ah, Summer Game Fest.
The Callisto Protocol is set 300 years in the future, and the titular Callisto is Jupiter's frosty little moon, on which you were a maximum security prisoner. Now you are a maximum insecurity survivalist, because your fellow inmates are mutating into big head-eating monsters. Fun! Currently The Callisto Protocol is going to be out on December 2nd this year, just in time for you to play it with all the children and elderly grandmothers in your family. Although having said that, both children and elderly grandmothers are pretty hardcore, so who knows?
Not E3 2022 is in full-swing - see everything in our E3 2022 hub, as well as our complete round-up of everything announced at Summer Game Fest 2022. Many more big game showcases and streams are still to come this summer, so make sure you stay up to date with our summer games stream schedule.