EA Motive’sDead Spaceremake is a fantastic opportunity for fans to see what the original game could have achieved with contemporary technology. The entire experience seems refurbished in a way that is modern yet faithful, but it is still only a remake of a beloved franchise’s original entry. There are currentlyno official plans for anotherDead Spaceinstallment to be made, though the idea of a remake may always precipitate such a decision. In the meantime, Striking Distance Studios’The Callisto Protocolis a brand-new IP and its narrative originality is exciting to behold.
Dead SpaceandThe Callisto Protocolwill receive unending comparison as long as one features mechanics from the other. Minimal HUD UI, over-the-shoulder third-person combat, and enemies who are horrifically mutated from human tissue are only a handful of similarities the two games share. To be fair,The Callisto Protocoldoes have a ton of gameplay mechanics thatDead Spacedoes not. Its environment and narrative, however, are its most compelling features, such as how much more potentialThe Callisto Protocol’s Black Iron Prison has compared toDead Space’s USG Ishimura.
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The colossal mining vessel USG Ishimura’s held a lot of appeal thanks to its nature as a blank canvas. It is an enormous landscape with eerie corridors and flickering lights, but the Ishimura’s intrigue has less to do with the ship itself and more with the horrors that have inhabited it.
The Ishimura is more of a haunted house situation, where players are invited into a dilapidated location that has unspeakable monstrosities within it. That is one of themost interesting improvements made in theDead Spaceremake, since he can now make comments on things that he sees or have a genuine response to a necromorph that drops out of a ceiling duct into the corridor ahead.
The scares come from what may be lurking around a corner, and there are consequently fewer mysteries to uncover about the Ishimura itself. It also did not help that Isaac Clarke was mute in the originalDead Space, which meant he could not inquire into curiosities himself, only serving as an agent for the player. This haunted house environment is still fantastic and atmospheric forDead Space’s science-fiction survival-horror, butThe Callisto Protocolhas an edge with a much more particular environment.
The Callisto Protocol’s Black Iron Prison May Be Harboring More Than Biophages
Black Iron Prison is compelling due to the rich history a penitentiary might have on a remote moon. This already works inThe Callisto Protocol’s favor for world-building purposes, as it may be interesting to learn what sort of criminals are locked away at Black Iron Prison.
Players will not likely get enough time to meet all of their cell block neighbors before the contagion gets loose. If they did, Striking Distance might introduce players to horrible villains who deserve to be locked up there. Likewise, it could be full of innocent travelers who were grabbed from a nearby star system or a crash-landing on Callisto and admitted, like how Jacob Lee was seemingly incarcerated.
Further,The Callisto Protocolalludes to horrible contagions aboard Black Iron Prison, and it would not be surprising for the penitentiary to have its own secrets. Inmates have been turned into disfigured, mutating biophages, resulting in Black Iron Prison’s outbreak.
It seems like this is where at least the beginning of the game will take place, since there is also a snow-capped outdoor environment players traverse. More of Callisto may be depicted than just its prison facility, and a sequel could explore its furthest reaches if the entire moon is involved inThe Callisto Protocol’s narrative.
The Callisto Protocolis scheduled to release on July 06, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
