PLEASE NOTE: This article contains MASSIVE Spoilers for The Callisto Protocol. Proceed at your own risk.
The Callisto Protocolis a survival horror game that successfully builds upon the foundations laid by other similar titles in the past, chief among them Dead Space, which shares plenty of similarities with Striking Distance Studios' new game also thanks to Glen Schofield’s past work. The game starts on a seemingly ordinary cargo ship with the protagonist,Jacob Lee, as the pilot, but things quickly go south as the spacecraft is boarded by Dani Nakamura and members of The Outer Way who are looking for something important. This rapidly leads to the ship crashing into Callisto, with Jacob and Dani as the sole survivors.
This is just the first of a long series of deus ex machinas, a narrative function that aims at resolving a difficult plot point with something unexpected and even implausible, at times, such as crashing a ship into a planet as the inciting incident, with only the protagonists alive.The Callisto Protocoldoes this time and time again over the course of its rather short campaign, and with Jacob being the true protagonist of the story, he often narrowly escapes with his life from otherwise impossible situations. This is problematic, however, as it contrasts themain point aboutThe Callisto Protocol, which remains a survival horror game at its core.
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Why The Callisto Protocol Saving Jacob at Every Turn Can Ruin the Experience
Survival horror games don’t always have protagonists that wear the so-called “plot armor,” which means that they are meant to live on because the story wouldn’t work without them, and so they survive against all odds.The Callisto Protocoldoes that repeatedly, however, with Jacob going through action-packed sequences that would otherwise likely lead to the protagonist’s early demise if they occurred in real life, such as the flooding of the sewers ofBlack Iron Prison.
Here, Jacob has to avoid cement pillars as he is caught in a powerful stream of water in order not to die, and then he is ejected into a seemingly bottomless pit where he grabs a chain hanging from the ceiling, all while midair and dealing with abiophage monster. This alone is a situation that may provide players with an adrenaline boost due to how tight it all feels, but it does remain a deus ex machina that saved Jacob by a hair just to keep the story going.The Callisto Protocolhas many more of these moments, and they make the whole premise less realistic, even for a sci-fi game set in a future where mankind has successfully mastered space travel.
The problem is that survival horror games make their characters go through hardship both story-wise and in terms of gameplay, andThe Callisto Protocoldoesn’t shy away from that by employing plenty of horde-like encounters throughout the various chapters. So, while this is part of the experience and actually one of the best bits of the game, that sense of accomplishment and survival is eventually taken away by the story making Jacob seemingly immortal.
EvenThe Callisto Protocol’s endingdoesn’t let go of Jacob, although he willfully sacrifices himself to save Dani’s life by pushing her into an escape pod while he remains at Black Iron Prison as it is collapsing. But the final sequence shows Doctor Mahler telling Jacob that there might be a way out for him, after all, making his sacrifice and his redemption arc less interesting just to save a character that would have never survived in the real world. Overall, while the deus ex machina is an interesting concept that can work very well despite its premise, abusing it doesn’t helpThe Callisto Protocolat all.
The Callisto Protocolis out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.
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