“I hate this fucking place,” says protagonist Jacob Lee after sliding down a waste water pipe, dodging turbine blades, mutated human abominations, jutting rocks, and all method of different hazardous shite. You’ve simply needed to cave within the head of what was assumedly an outdated inmate acquaintance, however you don’t know for certain, as a result of he had tentacles the place his face ought to be. You’re now waist-deep in human waste, wading by a sanitation plant simply so that you simply may, possibly, stay to see one other day. I hate this place, too, buddy.

For our The Callisto Protocol hands-on preview, we performed a degree fully set within the sanitary system of the jail. You’re in a penal colony on Callisto, the second-largest moon of Jupiter, and one thing has gone flawed. A virus is ripping by the inmates and workers right here, and you look like one of many few people left in a locked-down industrial constructing stuffed with stuff that desires to kill you. But the violence isn’t the scariest bit – not likely. It’s the masterful approach Striking Distance performs with pressure that will get its hooks in your mind and refuses to let go.

Whether it’s steam vents depressurising at you, noises from pipes clunking proper subsequent to your head as you stroll, skittering and scuttling in vents above and beneath you… there’s sufficient in simply this one degree to shred my nerves and preserve me with a twitchy finger on the DualSense triggers all through my playthrough. It’s a superb job Jacob is as stoic as he’s – he would not even flinch when a steam valve pings proper subsequent to his head! – as a result of I used to be doing my anxiousness respiration workout routines and rattling close to reaching for a Propanolol by the point the demo was up.

The Callisto Protocol is tight. The digicam hugs Jacob actual arduous, and because of this, his hulking ex-pilot body takes up a meaty third of on-screen real-estate. This offers Striking Distance a lot freedom to play with scares that get actual shut earlier than you even see them. It makes you, participant, really feel like every of the scares you maybe didn’t clock early sufficient are your fault – that you simply obscured your imaginative and prescient and should get a pleasant, agency smack to the temple from zombie’s meaty fist.

When you’re not desperately checking how a lot ammo you’ve left and calculating whether or not you possibly can survive one other wave of rotting undead carcasses, there’s a heavy emphasis on exploration. The complete demo has you following an enormous pink pipe by the behind-the-scenes sanitation amenities of the jail. You go on a tour by sewage, filtration programs, you identify it. En route, you’re subjected to claustrophobia, scat, the specter of drowning, sharp issues close to your eyes, rusty blades… it’s a rogue’s gallery of all of the topline fears and phobias somebody may need (after which some extra obscure ones, simply in case).

Simple puzzles tug you away from the golden (or pink) path, however you all the time have a by line telling you the place it is advisable go which you could come again to for those who get spun round. It’s much less invasive than Dead Space’s goal marker line that Isaac may summon from the palm of his hand on a whim, and extra in-keeping with this horrible, brutalist-industrial world. Veering from the trail may reward you with a clip of ammo, however punish you with one other tentacled ghoul intent on sucking your brains out by your eye. Is the trade-off price it? It’s as much as you.

If you do go for extra fight than is strictly mandatory, you finest watch out. You’re only a pilot – a standard human man – and might actually solely take a couple of hits. Timing to dodge and block is essential. You’re a person that’s in all probability seen his justifiable share of jail fights and handbook labour; you’re heavy, imply, and gradual. That feels nice while you’re preventing on your life, but it surely’s one more a part of the large image that performs into you feeling weak. Dodging and blocking and reacting by caving a bloke’s head in with a baton feels approach, approach higher than any of the bodily encounters in Dead Space (however which may have simply been the adrenaline dump you get while you handle to efficiently stave off a zombie with one blinking little bit of pink well being left).

And you don’t rely solely on melee, even when it’s the essential approach of getting issues executed in right here (the jail shiv feels significantly gratuitous while you land it proper in a wayward undead inmate’s neck). You have a reasonably good armoury at your disposal, all of which might be upgraded with 3D-printed bolt-ons for those who scavenge sufficient flotsam. Unlike a number of different survival horror video games, ammo isn’t non-existent; it’s pretty frequent, and is available in clips. This means you realize you’ve all the time obtained sufficient left to sink a clip right into a physique… however whether or not that’s sufficient to complete a foe off earlier than it evolves or bites the mud is a special story. Because these assholes use cowl.

And they’re good. They react to you. If you try to bludgeon all of them to loss of life, they’ll be taught and flank you or rush you in numbers. Or possibly they’ll cloak and are available at you while you aren’t trying. If you retain capturing, they’ll duck and dodge and weave while you goal down sights. These bastards are robust, and it makes you genuinely fairly nervous of any encounters to come back – even for those who did clock the explosive barrels and environmental hazards in your first journey by this space.

But it’s not all horror; the sport is humorous, too. You know, in the best way that the scariest issues are – they offer you fun and make you are feeling a mite extra comfy earlier than sucker punching you with one thing powers extra terrible than you have been anticipating. Whether it’s a understanding nod to Visceral/EA forbear Dead Space with a blood smeared message of “Kill the Virus” above an indication that claims “keep this area clean”, or a wonderfully comedically-timed spray of blood from a fan after you kick a zombie right into a wood-chipper, The Callisto Protocol is aware of the best way to make you loosen up earlier than ramping it up with much more squeaky-bum time another time.

Glen Schofield and his crew at Striking Distance know what they’re doing in The Callisto Protocol. Every encounter, each mechanic, each time your eyes widen, and your fingers grip your pad a bit tighter… all of it feels intentional and well-orchestrated. The breaks within the pressure are well-placed, and the explosive payoffs work to maintain you scintillated as your coronary heart climbs and settles, making you are feeling eternally on the sting of a cardiac occasion.

“I hate this fucking place,” mutters Jacob once more, as we respawn after a very nasty ‘murder dessert’. I’m sorry, mate, as a result of I can’t wait to make you reside by all of it once more.

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The Callisto Protocol is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on December 2.