The Callisto Protocol (survival/horror)

Domingo said:
I have no idea how long the game is, but beyond length I don't think it's good. It seems like it should be, but it's like a weird Dead Space/Punch Out!! hybrid with performance issues that actual affect gameplay. Playing it for 10-15 minutes at a time, I get sick of it and want to play literally anything else. At this point I'm committed to getting through it, but it's a struggle.
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I enjoyed watching others play it on stream than actually playing it myself. The movement is not great and so little of the environment is interactive despite it having remarkable level design. Everything looks spectacularly interesting, but its like everything is behind a glass wall.
 
Droc said:
I recently started playing the PC version of Days Gone and holy shit, that is a port done right. Game looks and runs amazing.
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i loved this game.. but my god playing it on the ps4 pro was so awful.. 30fps with stutters and fps drops.. REALLY was brutal. Only to find out its coming to PC later.. and i get 120fps all the time in it :(
 
Why is the Digital Deluxe Edition cheaper on Steam than the standard edition? Is it like this for everyone? It's been like this since launch for me, if I am not mistaken.

 
Looks like it's only the AED where it's flipped. In USD it's correct:

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I'd take advantage of it before they realize their mistake.
 
The further I get into this game, the stranger it gets. I feel like the gameplay improves a bit once you start to get more firepower. You're no longer stuck melee'ing everything because you only have one gun and no ammo. It's still oddly more powerful, though. At the same time, the voice acting and maps fall off a cliff as you progress. There are entire levels that look like a disguised loading screen. You're needlessly crawling around and moving super slow for no apparent reason at all. Then all of a sudden you're in a shooting gallery the next level. Cheap scares and cheap hits abound. The pacing is strange, and the difficulty is, too. Performance improves dramatically in the middle sections (less lighting effects), but then gets almost unbearable when you hit the colony. I don't even know how I feel about it. Some things are getting better, some things are getting worse. Nothing is great, but nothing is quite horrible either.
 
1/19 Patch Update- New Game Plus

New Game+

Users who previously completed the game will have access to NewGame+ after the patch
-Application restart may be required
-Requires an active save file from game completion

PC

-Fixed low frequency crash in the Tunnels level during the Two Head fight
-Skip Cinematics button has been mapped to the Interact/Pickup input
-Fixed a long hitch when enabling Ray-Traced Shadows in the main menu
-Prevented mouse cursor from displaying during some area transitions

Global

-Fixed an issue where some users were not correctly granted the "The Protocol is About Life" achievement
-Added New Game Plus. Complete the game to unlock New Game Plus and carry your pression over to a new save. All weapons, upgrades, and Callisto Credits can be collected at the first Reforge
-General performance optimizations across all platforms
-Players no longer take damage when vaulting over obstacles
-Fixed multiple issues where certain camera angles or progression paths could cause environments to stream out and allow Jacob to fall through the ground
-Consistency pass on cabinets, lockers, and shelves to display correctly in High Contrast mode
-Voice leveling and subtitle mismatch adjustments across localized languages

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1544020/view/3666527187712947652
 
Beyond gameplay fixes, I'd look for an update that specifically mentions the awful performance in the Colony level.
 
Ray tracing still runs like shit and still looks worse with it on than off.

And is anyone else still having the game crash? I fired up the game last week and it froze up after changing a setting then went to desktop with the UE crash window. Same exact thing this week even after the last update and on newer drivers.
 
I only had the game crash once, although I did have an autosave in the final level where my character was stuck in the floor. Considering how poor this game runs in certain areas out of the gate, I never even attempted to play with RT enabled. The colony is like a damned slideshow even with a 4090.
 
Domingo said:
I only had the game crash once, although I did have an autosave in the final level where my character was stuck in the floor. Considering how poor this game runs in certain areas out of the gate, I never even attempted to play with RT enabled. The colony is like a damned slideshow even with a 4090.
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What resolution?
 
Yup, it's a 4K television. Funny enough, lowering the render resolution doesn't help all that much in this game. I found that it made the areas that already ran well run even better, but it didn't help (much) with the areas that struggled. It helped, but looking around is still super choppy.
 
Callisto Protocol Update 3.02 Packs Ray Tracing Improvements and Adds Hardcore Mode

Hardcore Mode

A challenging take on The Callisto Protocol’s survival-horror experience, intended to push you to your limits, Hardcore mode is not for the faint of heart. Here’s what you can expect;
  • Ammo, health and credits are harder to come by and not every Biophage will drop loot.
  • Increased enemy damage
  • Decreased Stun Baton damage
  • Increased enemy mutation speed
  • Contraband value is reduced
  • Hardcore Mode New Game+ (requires completion of standard Hardcore Mode playthrough)
  • New Achievements / Trophies to hunt
Global
  • Players that were not correctly granted the "The Protocol is About Life" achievement upon completing the game will be automatically granted the achievement
  • Localization fixes for leveling and VO/subtitle mismatches
  • Optimized enemy combat AI when player is surrounded by multiple enemies
Steam Deck
  • Updated font rendering and UI elements for readability
  • Created a rendering functionality profile specifically for Steam Deck with the best settings for smooth gameplay
  • Updated control schemes for SteamDeck controls
PC Specific
  • Ray tracing performance improvements
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1544020/view/3671032056808576919
 
Hopefully the ray tracing will look better. It's odd that I don't really see anyone complaining about the ray tracing visuals so I assume the average person must be blind as hell because ray tracing looks worse overall. I'll gladly post some screenshots or even a video later if someone wants to argue that fact but I've played it on two different systems and ray tracing indeed has some strange anomalies that look way worse than running without ray tracing.
 
jobert said:
Hopefully the ray tracing will look better. It's odd that I don't really see anyone complaining about the ray tracing visuals so I assume the average person must be blind as hell because ray tracing looks worse overall. I'll gladly post some screenshots or even a video later if someone wants to argue that fact but I've played it on two different systems and ray tracing indeed has some strange anomalies that look way worse than running without ray tracing.
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We've had that discussion a few pages back. Because of all the baked lighting in this game and lack of transformative effects like RTGI ray tracing really does nothing for this game. I think the ray traced transmission would have been more impressive combined with RTGI, though it is used to good effect at the start of the game when you first escape your jail cell.
 
Considering the performance hit, I doubt most people ever enabled RT for more than a minute or two. It took something already bad (or at least up and down) and made it far worse.
 
So ray traced shadows still look like shit and the game still runs like shit with ray tracing on. And I still seem to have about a 33% chance of it crashing when I change a setting and go back to the game.


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I wanted to like this game, I can't handle the gameplay anymore. It's so much worse than dead space from way back when. I don't understand how they thought this style of combat would be fun, I had to shut it off. Looks absolutely amazing, kind of a shame. Would maybe make a more interesting VR game with the melee TBH.
 
Yeah, I could see this game actually being much better in VR. At least if it ran worth a damn.
 
weird that during the current Steam Spring sale the base game is not on sale but the Digital Deluxe Edition (which includes the DLC) is on sale
 
polonyc2 said:
weird that during the current Steam Spring sale the base game is not on sale but the Digital Deluxe Edition (which includes the DLC) is on sale
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I'm seeing the base game is 30% off same as the digital deluxe version. The season pass is also 30% off. Maybe they updated it since the last time you looked as I've seen that happen before.
 
jobert said:
I'm seeing the base game is 30% off same as the digital deluxe version. The season pass is also 30% off. Maybe they updated it since the last time you looked as I've seen that happen before.
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yeah it's been updated now with both on sale...
 
The game started running like shit for me again after the patch a couple weeks ago. With ray tracing on its a complete mess with nearly every action or effect causing a hitch. Without ray tracing its so much better but the hitches still occur and sometimes cause massive framerate drops for a split second. DX11 sems to be the best way to play it but even that has hitches.
 
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jobert said:
The game started running like shit for me again after the patch a couple weeks ago. With ray tracing on its a complete mess with nearly every action or effect causing a hitch. Without ray tracing its so much better but the hitches still occur and sometimes cause massive framerate drops for a split second. DX11 sems to be the best way to play it but even that has hitches.
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Haven't played it in about a month, so that is disappointing if performance regressed like that.
 
The game seems dead for the most part with hardly anyone playing it or posting on steam forums. A couple people chimed in to say the last update jacked up the game a little bit for them too bringing back some hitching like I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

That said I got to the final boss and gave up for now but I actually did enjoy the game more than I thought I would. The combat was a little tedious and was also janky at times with the aiming and melee. The graphics would have been a 10 if not for the 30 fps animations on some effects and a couple of other niggles. That fire effect was just laughably bad and some fog/smoke effects looked lower res. Also there were a few spots where the lighting made the character look odd as hell for some reason. If not for the technical issues I would give the overall game a 7 or maybe even an 8 but those hitches really bothered me at times.
 
polonyc2 said:
you made it all the way to the final boss and then decided to stop playing??...just finish the game since you're already at the end
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I said I gave up "for now". I was having trouble with it and have put a lot of hours in the game in the last two days so I took a break and will go back later and finish it.
 
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Fully upgraded hand cannon is your friend in the last boss fight.
 
New update adds Dismemberment Mode, which is the easiest difficulty with the ability to shoot limbs off "Dead Space" style. You were already able to shoot limbs off before, so I don't know what the point of this update is. You can also now skip cutscenes and adjust HDR brightness with an in-game calibration menu. It's a 15GB update just for this, by the way.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1544020/view/6649043810473319096
 
Interesting. They’re still working on this game?

The Dead Space re-make turned out so well that I decided to uninstall Callisto halfway through. I had pretty big hopes for Callisto too.

Do I want to re-install and have a second look?
 
Hershy said:
Interesting. They’re still working on this game?

The Dead Space re-make turned out so well that I decided to uninstall Callisto halfway through. I had pretty big hopes for Callisto too.

Do I want to re-install and have a second look?
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sounds like a game worth playing for the right price...the graphics seem like the real highlight...the gameplay and story seem a bit meh as they made a mistake focusing on melee combat versus the Dead Space style weapon dismemberment
 
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