The Callisto Protocol (survival/horror)

[Mchart]

I still wonder why he wouldn't just get back with EA in some capacity and do Dead Space 4. EA is dumb like most of the big publishers, but I feel like a new Dead Space with the original team would have been an easy sell to EA, and they likely would have gotten the funding they needed.

Shit, with the work Motive is putting in with the remake - It would have likely been much easier to make a new game using the groundwork they made there.

Whatever. Completely missed opportunity. I doubt this development studio will make anything again. I don't see there being a second game here.

 

[DPI]

Like Amnesia famously and super successfully tricked players into getting in their own head. There is basically none of that here.

Alien Isolation also comes to mind - the genius there was the slow build of dread crawling up your spine because of what you didn't see. You only heard distant sounds, or just silence, while the Alien was trying to find you. Anticipation was the real enemy; the alien actually finding you was just the relief valve. Wouldn't have worked if the Alien were chasing you room to room through the space station like a mexican wrestler.

 

[Armenius]

I still wonder why he wouldn't just get back with EA in some capacity and do Dead Space 4. EA is dumb like most of the big publishers, but I feel like a new Dead Space with the original team would have been an easy sell to EA, and they likely would have gotten the funding they needed.

Shit, with the work Motive is putting in with the remake - It would have likely been much easier to make a new game using the groundwork they made there.

Whatever. Completely missed opportunity. I doubt this development studio will make anything again. I don't see there being a second game here.

https://twitter.com/GlenSchofield/status/19005786835

 

[robbiekhan]

The 16GB RAM recommendation for this game in Ultra is too low. My system at 3440x1440 uses over 18GB RAM including the game. So with that in mind if you have 16GB then you will be paging to disk if you have background apps, OS etc using up chunks of RAM which is normal practice. I guess the devs had barebones gaming rigs with nothing else running when coming up with these specs. 32GB should be the recommended for Max/Ultra not 16GB.

 

[Flogger23m]

So it seems like this is more of the monsters jumping out at you and you beating them up type of "horror" game? It can work sometimes but generally if the combat is very frantic and lots of enemies are popping out of places it isn't that scary. While some people don't like it, horror games that make the player a bit weak and force them to run a bit tend to be a bit better. Otherwise you don't fear the enemies much.

 

[socK]

So it seems like this is more of the monsters jumping out at you and you beating them up type of "horror" game? It can work sometimes but generally if the combat is very frantic and lots of enemies are popping out of places it isn't that scary. While some people don't like it, horror games that make the player a bit weak and force them to run a bit tend to be a bit better. Otherwise you don't fear the enemies much.

Yes, there's a lot of beating the shit out of everything. You can't really run, so you're mostly relegated to whacking the snot out of the locals and stomping your way across the prison.

Occasionally you get mobbed, but it seems like a bit of a crapshoot whether you get dogpiled, or they circle around like a school yard fight and take their whoopings 1v1.

 

[Vega]

Ya I would say the game is more of a "splatterhouse' type horror game.

 

[StryderxX]

Ya I would say the game is more of a "splatterhouse' type horror game.

View attachment 531837

I miss my TurboGrafx 16

 

[robbiekhan]

The graphics get even ,more impressive later in the game, quite remarkable how good it is really.

 

[staknhalo]

oh the main guy is josh duhamel the army guy from the transformers movie i knew he looked/sounded familiar

 

[polonyc2]

the character models and facial animation look excellent but overall I don't see it as some sort of PC graphics powerhouse...being that it's an AMD sponsored title, are they even using full resolution RT or is it quarter resolution like Far Cry 6?...I never trust an AMD sponsored RT title...hopefully Digital Foundry does a deep dive into the PC graphics

 

[KazeoHin]

Ok I always hear that game devs supposedly have people that play the games in their final form for weeks if not months before release for feedback. If that is true then how in the hell do we keep getting broken ass games that anyone that has played for 5 mins will know should not have been released.

Beacause

People

Keep

Buying

Their

Games.

 

[polonyc2]

The Callisto Protocol PC Patch Slightly Improves Stuttering

We can confirm the shader compilation problem is alleviated, although other forms of stuttering and slowdowns are still present in The Callisto Protocol on PC

One area that could definitely use improvement is the CPU optimization...according to Digital Foundry, the game might be badly optimized for multi-threading, and all about the highest end CPU will suffer...The Callisto Protocol on PC has several other shortcomings, such as badly implemented HDR display support (which is also only available in DX12 mode), the inability to change graphics settings after loading into the actual game, and unoptimized (not to mention rather unimpressive) ray tracing effects...

https://wccftech.com/the-callisto-protocol-pc-patch-slightly-improves-stuttering/

 

[robbiekhan]

The Callisto Protocol PC Patch Slightly Improves Stuttering

We can confirm the shader compilation problem is alleviated, although other forms of stuttering and slowdowns are still present in The Callisto Protocol on PC

One area that could definitely use improvement is the CPU optimization...according to Digital Foundry, the game might be badly optimized for multi-threading, and all about the highest end CPU will suffer...The Callisto Protocol on PC has several other shortcomings, such as badly implemented HDR display support (which is also only available in DX12 mode), the inability to change graphics settings after loading into the actual game, and unoptimized (not to mention rather unimpressive) ray tracing effects...

https://wccftech.com/the-callisto-protocol-pc-patch-slightly-improves-stuttering/

The CPU op is accurate, on my 12700K I am seeing 15% total utilisation, so just a single thread being used at any given time. I was expecting to see Cyberpunk levels of CPU use, where all cores are sharing the workload with a total CPU use around the 65% mark, but nope, just one core in this game hitting high% use lol.

I bet you once they sort that out, the 1% lows and average fps will rocket upwards as the GPU can sing freely.

 

[Comixbooks]

Beacause

People

Keep

Buying

Their

Games.

Not me I refund them

 

[Armenius]

So the patch also fixed FSR not working. With all ray tracing enabled and the Ultra Preset, the game is now smooth and playable with FSR Performance. In Quality/Balanced the framerate is a little lower, but Performance mode I find more usable for quick movements etc. Also note the frametime line on the higher FSR modes, Performance mode has the flattest frametime line in scenes like this.

Examples:

FSR Quality:
View attachment 531680

FSR Balanced:
View attachment 531681

FSR Performance:
View attachment 531682

No FSR, no Temporal AI:
View attachment 531683

The framerate range with just Temporal AI enabled is not much different to no upscale at all (the last one above), so I didn't bother screenshotting that.

Post-patch gameplay:

Still doesn't look like it's working to me. Average FPS is worse in Balanced compared to Quality, and it's only 12% better in Performance compared to Quality.

 

[Armenius]

Protip: Dismemberment is effective as it is in Dead Space. The hand cannon with upgraded damage can take off arms with one shot most of the time, and enemies go down for good when you take off both their arms. Meaning you can take them down in 2-4 shots instead of trying to beat the snot out of them for half a minute. This is on Maximum Security difficulty, so it's probably easier on normal. The harder spitters need to have their head taken off to put them down for good with the hand cannon. This makes me confused as people were saying that the guns were useless. This is why you shouldn't take reviews at face value.

 

[robbiekhan]

Still doesn't look like it's working to me. Average FPS is worse in Balanced compared to Quality, and it's only 12% better in Performance compared to Quality.

Ignore the average fps figure, it is not relevant for this metric because the CPU use is single threaded and even the slightest thing seems to throw off the fps average. The main focus is on the actual fps which is more true to reality.

 

[Comixbooks]

Opening area where you can control your Char.

Unreal still make my Skin Waxy?

 

[Camberwell]

Unreal still make my Skin Waxy?

You need to go outside more

 

[Comixbooks]

You need to go outside more

I heard Waxy Skin is actually a Liver thing older people get it could be built up Cholesterol or something since that is what the Skin is made of.

 

[robbiekhan]

13 hours to the finale for me. Experience was decent.

 

[Mchart]

Still waiting for a proper nvidia driver & another patch.. The performance with raytracing enabled is just absolutely dismal - Even with something like a 4090.

 

[Comixbooks]

I did get a stutter when I vaulted off the boxes at the start was pretty noticeable playing at 1080P.

 

[Lateralus]

Protip: Dismemberment is effective as it is in Dead Space. The hand cannon with upgraded damage can take off arms with one shot most of the time, and enemies go down for good when you take off both their arms. Meaning you can take them down in 2-4 shots instead of trying to beat the snot out of them for half a minute. This is on Maximum Security difficulty, so it's probably easier on normal. The harder spitters need to have their head taken off to put them down for good with the hand cannon. This makes me confused as people were saying that the guns were useless. This is why you shouldn't take reviews at face value.

I've been sitting on the fence contemplating a purchase but have been getting extremely mixed vibes after reading here and elsewhere. I had darn near GOTY expectations from this one (probably my fault, but space horror is one of my favorite genres and Glen & crew hyped it up in all of the pre-release vids) so I hope history will be kinder to the game than its initial reception.

What are your overall thoughts? Wait to see if it gets discounted during the Steam Christmas sale?

 

[Armenius]

I've been sitting on the fence contemplating a purchase but have been getting extremely mixed vibes after reading here and elsewhere. I had darn near GOTY expectations from this one (probably my fault, but space horror is one of my favorite genres and Glen & crew hyped it up in all of the pre-release vids) so I hope history will be kinder to the game than its initial reception.

What are your overall thoughts? Wait to see if it gets discounted during the Steam Christmas sale?

I'm about half-way through the game at this point. I think the gameplay loop is fun and the environments are interesting. I also like the character interactions between Elias and Jacob. My biggest issue is that the game is just too linear. It also isn't scary at all, to me. There are paths occasionally that are off the main path where you can find extra credits and such, but they just basically loop back around to exactly where you wandered off.

There is definitely more depth to the combat than reviewers gave the game credit for. It is admittedly easy to fall into a close-combat loop that is hard to break out of, but I think that is kind of the point. As the game goes on the game is probably expecting you to try and weaken and/or thin the herd before it gets to that point. It makes sense in how the arenas evolve with more complexity as the game progresses.

My issue with the enemies is they don't give any sense of dread. They look too human, even as their mutations get more grotesque as you progress. In the Game Informer interview Glen said they started from real renders of people and twisted them to make them grounded in reality, believing that would make it scarier. I disagree. The necromorphs from Dead Space and their various forms were far more frightening in that they looked familiar, but their mutations twisted them into something non-human. Combined with the way the move and sound just adds to that kind of dread.

I reiterate what I said earlier in that this game feels more like Doom 3 than it does Dead Space.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10 that isn't on the journalist review curve, I give it a 6. If they fix the remaining performance issues it will be a solid 7. As it is now it's probably worth it at $40-50, not $60.

 

[Lateralus]

I'm about half-way through the game at this point. I think the gameplay loop is fun and the environments are interesting. I also like the character interactions between Elias and Jacob. My biggest issue is that the game is just too linear. It also isn't scary at all, to me. There are paths occasionally that are off the main path where you can find extra credits and such, but they just basically loop back around to exactly where you wandered off.

There is definitely more depth to the combat than reviewers gave the game credit for. It is admittedly easy to fall into a close-combat loop that is hard to break out of, but I think that is kind of the point. As the game goes on the game is probably expecting you to try and weaken and/or thin the herd before it gets to that point. It makes sense in how the arenas evolve with more complexity as the game progresses.

My issue with the enemies is they don't give any sense of dread. They look too human, even as their mutations get more grotesque as you progress. In the Game Informer interview Glen said they started from real renders of people and twisted them to make them grounded in reality, believing that would make it scarier. I disagree. The necromorphs from Dead Space and their various forms were far more frightening in that they looked familiar, but their mutations twisted them into something non-human. Combined with the way the move and sound just adds to that kind of dread.

I reiterate what I said earlier in that this game feels more like Doom 3 than it does Dead Space.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10 that isn't on the journalist review curve, I give it a 6. If they fix the remaining performance issues it will be a solid 7. As it is now it's probably worth it at $40-50, not $60.

Thanks for taking the time to write that. Sounds like I'll definitely plan to play it, but I guess I won't be dropping the $80 for the Digital Deluxe Edition or even $60 for the base game. I'm not currently in a gaming drought, so not super thirsty to spend money on new games this month anyway (3 family birthdays + Christmas + property taxes due among other things, so December is always brutal on my wallet).

I'm one of the fans of Doom 3, so I'll likely enjoy this. Just have to go in with expectations set -- and maybe intentionally lowered -- so that I'm pleasantly surprised. I think your $40-$50 price point is about where I'd feel comfortable jumping in (for the Deluxe).

I get what Glen was going for in the enemy design, but just from what I've seen in gameplay vids I can see what you're saying. I thought the enemies in Callisto looked properly scary in still shots, but after experiencing Dead Space again on PC and looking at some of the enemies in CP vids I get what you're putting down. And it's unfortunate because I really wanted this game to be super scary, but again, for a bit less than $60/$80 I can deal with that and hope that the new Amnesia game fills that void.

Also a bit worried about performance since I'm still on a 6700K playing at 4K...I've been putting off upgrading my CPU/mobo and didn't buy a 4090 because I'd see no benefit from it, currently. Even if the game is pretty good, I won't enjoy it if it's gonna run like crap. Maybe by the time I pick it up there will have been more patches to really put some polish on this thing. If they give it even 10% of the post-launch love that Hello Games gave NMS, we'll be in great shape.

 

[Vega]

I'm really liking the game so far. Sure it helps to be playing it on the best HDR display and $15K Dolby system. 🤣

 

[celwin]

I'm really liking the game so far. Sure it helps to be playing it on the best HDR display and $15K Dolby system. 🤣

Proving once again, pc gaming is increasingly a rich man's game.

 

[Mchart]

Ok, latest patch has improved things enough that i'm playing the game now. It seems to fix the fact that not everything was being shader cached - There is even more shader cache on bootup with this patch. A lot of the smaller stutters I was getting still are now gone.

It still doesn't run great for what it is, but it's not nearly as bad. They really screwed up not just pushing the release of this thing by a week so these two different performance patches would have just been with the release of the game. I still would only rate this a solid 7/10 game, and likely not worth the $60 for most people. It's almost certain that the Dead Space remake in end of Jan will end up being the all-around better game. However, at least for me, it's not the 4/10 I would have rated it at launch due to being basically unplayable.

 

[Decko87]

Single threading being the problem implies to me all of their game systems are running on the main thread. DX 12 API is well integrated into Unreal engine at this point. So it's not like they need to do anything special for multi threading draw calls. Might just be the way the game is made which would take months to fix. I don't know, we'll see. I'll probably just turn the settings down a touch and play through. I got it for free with my GPU

 

[Armenius]

Link to new update. Not much to say about it besides improvement in PSO caching.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1544020/view/3645131284591087858

 

[Comixbooks]

Turned my look sensitivity up to 90 or so it was way too slow by default.
Died about 15 times before the Watchtower utill I discovered Dodge was better than just blocking.

Oled Monitor burn in

Most credits I found in some lockers so far.

 

[Lateralus]

Oled Monitor burn in

Que?

 

[Armenius]

Turned my look sensitivity up to 90 or so it was way too slow by default.
Died about 15 times before the Watchtower utill I discovered Dodge was better than just blocking.

View attachment 532495

Oled Monitor burn in


View attachment 532497

Most credits I found in some lockers so far.

You find 10x more credits by finding chests off the main path.

 

[robbiekhan]

I've realised that ray tracing only really adds minimal gains visually over having RT off. Some, not all, lights reflect off the floor etc with RT on, the rest work in screen space and do a fantastic job. All shadows still look great with RT shadows off. You get over 100fps with RT off....

Spot the difference folks. RT On, vs RT Off.

The only major difference is the one mirror in the whole game that's right at the start in the toilet where you can see your reflection with RT on. I have not seen any other mirrors in the whole game lol.

 

[Armenius]

Finished on Series X with all achievements over the weekend. Took a total of 13 hours. The last half of the game is pretty good, and I really liked the boss fight at the end. The two-head is not a boss despite people saying it is. I never got into a loop of dodging its attacks, either.

Spoiler

I used the terrain to my advantage in each of the three encounters to shoot them until they fell to their knees. The way it tears off the half of itself that dies is pretty intense. Adds in the latter two fights are easily dealt with using the shotgun you get from story progression.

My one criticism is that you don't get enough money to experiment with upgrades and weapons throughout the game, at least on Maximum Security. I maxed out the hand cannon and story shotgun, baton damage, baton combo, and half of the GRP. I never bothered with the blueprints you find. If I did, I don't think I would have been strong enough to not make the last half of the game headache inducing.

I've realised that ray tracing only really adds minimal gains visually over having RT off. Some, not all, lights reflect off the floor etc with RT on, the rest work in screen space and do a fantastic job. All shadows still look great with RT shadows off. You get over 100fps with RT off....

Spot the difference folks. RT On, vs RT Off.

View attachment 532596
View attachment 532597



View attachment 532598
View attachment 532599



View attachment 532600
View attachment 532601


View attachment 532602
View attachment 532603

The only major difference is the one mirror in the whole game that's right at the start in the toilet where you can see your reflection with RT on. I have not seen any other mirrors in the whole game lol.

The game uses a lot of baked lighting. It only uses ray tracing for projecting shadows and reflections. There is minimal light bouncing going on. That, combined with no RTGI, RTAO, or light accumulation makes the ray tracing kind of pointless.

 

[robbiekhan]

Finished on Series X with all achievements over the weekend. Took a total of 13 hours. The last half of the game is pretty good, and I really liked the boss fight at the end. The two-head is not a boss despite people saying it is. I never got into a loop of dodging its attacks, either.

Spoiler

I used the terrain to my advantage in each of the three encounters to shoot them until they fell to their knees. The way it tears off the half of itself that dies is pretty intense. Adds in the latter two fights are easily dealt with using the shotgun you get from story progression.

My one criticism is that you don't get enough money to experiment with upgrades and weapons throughout the game, at least on Maximum Security. I maxed out the hand cannon and story shotgun, baton damage, baton combo, and half of the GRP. I never bothered with the blueprints you find. If I did, I don't think I would have been strong enough to not make the last half of the game headache inducing.

The game uses a lot of baked lighting. It only uses ray tracing for projecting shadows and reflections. There is minimal light bouncing going on. That, combined with no RTGI, RTAO, or light accumulation makes the ray tracing kind of pointless.

Fully agree, but what puzzles me is that you lose 60fps just be turning on the RT in this game. Maybe it's down to the lack of CPU utilisation, it's still using only one or two physical cores and then they're not even being used fully. they have said this is being worked on and we are due new new updates in "days" - Well it's been a week!

More comparison:

All RT off, Ultra settings, no upscaling:

All RT on, Ultra settings, no upscaling:

Spot the difference?

 

[Armenius]

Fully agree, but what puzzles me is that you lose 60fps just be turning on the RT in this game. Maybe it's down to the lack of CPU utilisation, it's still using only one or two physical cores and then they're not even being used fully. they have said this is being worked on and we are due new new updates in "days" - Well it's been a week!

More comparison:

All RT off, Ultra settings, no upscaling:
View attachment 533729

All RT on, Ultra settings, no upscaling:
View attachment 533730

Spot the difference?

GPU utilization is still lacking, too. I think poor utilization of hardware is what is killing performance overall.

 

[robbiekhan]

Yes the GPU is not being fully realised, it's waiting for stuff from the CPU which isn't happening since only one or two cores are being used and the whole performance bottlenecks as a result. Very poorly optimised, even with RT off as you can see from the stats.

On the lfipside I installed Death Stranding director's cut yesterday and marvelled at how well managed the CPU usage is, and as a result the GPU is breathing pretty amazingly. The Decima engine seems supremely optimised and I did some reading up, basically Kojima wanted the PC version to maximise thread usage, so even in scenes where nothing much CPU intensive is going on, the engine would allocate workloads to those idle cores to do other stuff instead thus sharing the work:

DS and Doom Eternal will forever be my benchmarks for engine optimisation and ludicrous performance.