I did it. I just beat Striking Distance’s The Callisto Protocol. After finishing the studio’s debut game, I wasn’t feeling elated or celebratory, but rather, I felt disappointed. I felt annoyed at how a game with this much potential got dragged down by questionable game design…the kind we shouldn’t be seeing in a game released past the PS3 days, and certainly not in year 2022.

While we gave it a decent enough score, that wouldn’t be the case if it was up to me. The Callisto Protocol has a long list of issues that make it a chore to play, and most of it is how it was designed. I can live with the game only running around 8-9 hours to complete. I can even turn a blind eye to the weak story, but the rest of the stuff that pulls it down? Yeah, those are hard to swallow.

Why did The Callisto Protocol fail to live to expectations? Let us dive deeper.

Faulty Save and Checkpoint System

While The Callisto Protocol offers a “manual save” feature, it doesn’t work. Nope. All it does is transport you to the last checkpoint you got, which means that if you cleared a room and/or bought upgrades to your guns, etc., and then you die, you’ll need to repeat this process all over again.

Checkpoints and timed auto-saves were perfected in games since the PS3/Xbox 360 era, and I fail to see how Striking Distance could fumble this up. It becomes a chore in some instances since not only do you need to repeat battles, but also selling/buying/modding as well.

Out of Sync Inventory and Mod Station Locations

In most games that offered limited inventory space, players would have the option to sell or store their items in strategic locations scattered around the map, thus offering a good balance of inventory management and letting the player explore so they can snag some cool items, power ups and the like without having them needlessly backtrack so far away.

Well, in The Callisto Protocol that’s not the case. Not only can you not backtrack to most mod stations, but they are placed so oddly that you’ll go for long durations where you won’t even sniff one, which means you’ll be wasting resources, sell items, etc. by not being able to carry them.

What’s even baffling is, in other parts of the game, mod stations are available near each other a tad too much that you probably haven’t earned enough items actually need it. I’ve lost count how many times I left bullets, health and other items behind wishing there was a station nearby. In some cases, though, the game placed a mod station near an area, and then had another one just a few rooms/phases apart, which was baffling given the game’s linearity. I mean, it’s not like you can farm for items or anything, so the devs knew your inventory space and still made it this way. 

Enemies From Loot

(Light spoiler warning)

During your adventure in The Callisto Protocol, players will stumble upon loot boxes, lockers and other stuff that contain loot. However, Striking Distance has boobytrapped some of these, so instead of loot, these small, worm-like enemies attack you instead. 

It’s startling the first time, but seeing it happening over and over? Yeah, not so much. It fees like a cheap way to chip away on the player’s health, and it doesn’t add anything of value to the game at all. It’s not scary, you can’t avoid it (unless you knew beforehand that the locker/chest housed an enemy), and just feels cheap.

Paths That Close Off Without Any Warning

Do you remember games from before that had branching paths and when you encountered a specific “trigger,” the game would go into a cutscene or something, thus completely blocking you from accessing the other area? Yeah, glad we outgrew that, right? Well, that’s back in full force in The Callisto Protocol! 

Unless you’re using a walkthrough, prepare to come across multiple paths that’s all about guesswork on whether it will move the story forward or not. While that in itself is fine, the fact that there are sections that once you move past a certain point will trigger story-related scenes isn’t. There are instances where you’ll want to backtrack but won’t be able to since the story won’t let you. This will result in areas you won’t be able to explore, which means lost items and whatnot.

It wasn’t cool then, and it’s odd to see it used in a modern game. Mind, this wouldn’t be that big of an issue if it wasn’t for…

No Chapter Select

…the fact that the game has NO chapter select of any kind! Yes, you read that right! If you miss an area to explore, an item or something, and you can’t backtrack, you’ll have to replay the entire game up to that section just to get that item or check what that area has to offer.

Same with the checkpoints and save system, chapter select has been around for ages in games, and Striking Distance for some weird reason chose not to include it int.

Boss Fights? What Boss Fights?

In almost every game that has a story and a linear path from beginning to end, one of the main draws when it comes to combat is going up against bosses. In The Callisto Protocol, there’s only two bosses in the main game, with one boss fight reused, I shit you not, three times! 

Outside of that one redundant boss fight (since the tactics used to defeat it are the same for all three encounters), there is one boss fight against the major baddie and that’s it.

To call it disappointing is an understatement.

There you have it! Mind, these aren’t all the game’s transgressions, but these are just the ones that stemmed from game mechanics that the gaming industry has moved past from. Have you played The Callisto Protocol? Got anything to add to the list? Leave a comment and let us know.