Despite the first day of performance issues which were rectified for me the next day with a prompt response by the dev team, I enjoyed the 8 hours I spent on Callisto. I had some qualms with the melee system and how dodging worked but warmed up to it after awhile. Combat felt very satisfying especially with how visceral the visuals are, coupled with amazing sound design throughout, the short journey I had with Jacob left me wanting more.

This is at its core a survival horror game, resources are scarce, jump scares might happen around any corner adding to the already increasing tension you feel when walking down dimly lit fogged filled corridors obscuring your vision. Not to mention how the sound design complements this perfectly, for example the sounds of enemies creeping around in vents are actually enemies crawling around in vents and not just something to throw the player off. With any survival horror game nowadays there is a small arsenal that can be upgraded by the player at apt 3D printers scattered around Callisto and watching the machine in action is a pretty satisfying sight to behold. Be it the reaffirming nod from Jacob after its done or how the weapon actually changes in looks/design as you upgrade, the combat does not only limit itself to its advertised melee gameplay.

Finally it is worth mentioning just how uncanny the character models look from their real life counterparts, the performances were also, evidently, top notch be it with voice acting or motion capture. There was definitely a lot of love put into the visuals, not forgetting the entire game, but its sad to see how the performance issues still managed to creep through at launch. Still, it was definitely enjoyable to see how good the game looked even with RTX off, which by the way does not add much to visual fidelity.

For what its worth, for the price Striking Distance studios is asking for, the game should have been slightly longer instead of ending it on a cliffhanger. Could the narrative have been better fleshed out? Maybe, but this is more dead space moving into the future and I'm all for it.

Despite the first day of performance issues which were rectified for me the next day with a prompt response by the dev team, I enjoyed the 8 hours I spent on Callisto. I had some qualms with the melee system and how dodging worked but warmed up to it after awhile. Combat felt very satisfying especially with how visceral the visuals are, coupled with amazing sound design throughout, the short journey I had with Jacob left me wanting more. This is at its core a survival horror game, resources are scarce, jump scares might happen around any corner adding to the already increasing tension you feel when walking down dimly lit fogged filled corridors obscuring your vision. Not to mention how the sound design complements this perfectly, for example the sounds of enemies creeping around in vents are actually enemies crawling around in vents and not just something to throw the player off. With any survival horror game nowadays there is a small arsenal that can be upgraded by the player at apt 3D printers scattered around Callisto and watching the machine in action is a pretty satisfying sight to behold. Be it the reaffirming nod from Jacob after its done or how the weapon actually changes in looks/design as you upgrade, the combat does not only limit itself to its advertised melee gameplay. Finally it is worth mentioning just how uncanny the character models look from their real life counterparts, the performances were also, evidently, top notch be it with voice acting or motion capture. There was definitely a lot of love put into the visuals, not forgetting the entire game, but its sad to see how the performance issues still managed to creep through at launch. Still, it was definitely enjoyable to see how good the game looked even with RTX off, which by the way does not add much to visual fidelity. For what its worth, for the price Striking Distance studios is asking for, the game should have been slightly longer instead of [spoiler]ending it on a cliffhanger[/spoiler]. Could the narrative have been better fleshed out? Maybe, but this is more dead space moving into the future and I'm all for it.