Recent reviews by Revenant VoDomino

Bisexuality dropped a sequel everyone

Absolutely. Has a few uneven edges, but it's fun and the story is something I really enjoyed. It's cute, and it really takes me back to the rpgs I used to play as a kid. Also, love the artstyle for this game

Do you like DND? Do you like CRPGs? Do like fun? Do you like killing monsters? Do you like getting your teammates killed because someone had a stupid idea?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then do I have a game for you!

Really enjoying this game, and kudos to the devs for not making the same game again. Combat is improved, animations are better, the game is not as unforgiving when you lose an entire team, and I look forward to the Steam Worshop for this game! Hero paths are also a nice addition that allow greater customization for builds.

All that being said, I do have a few gripes that are stains against this games enjoyable moments.

It feels like the devs were really focused on not making the same game again to the point that they tossed out mechanics from the first that worked. For example, no weapon or armor upgrades for your team. Skill upgrades reset after a chapter, and sure, memories can give options for them but they're always random and your better off spending candles on different things like hero paths and the stagecoach than something temporary. It's hard to feel attached to a hero you're building up as a result.

Hero relationships are a mixed bag. It's better than it was in EA but the fact that having a negative relationship between two heros can make the game unequip a skill in favor of a negative one is annoying and can kill a run. It feels arbitrary and sure, this is DD2 and rng can kill you sometimes, but the illusion of choice needs to feel like an illusion, not a penalty.

I really enjoy this game and think it does a lot super well for a sequel. However, there are little things that build up and get annoying over the course of your runs that you start seeing the seams and get frustrated.

Also, while Hero Shrines are an interesting idea, it only gives you a one time mastery point per chapter and nothing more. No stress heals, no goodies, nothing. And a lot of the shrine combat mechanics are confusing as ♥♥♥♥ as there's sometimes no explanation on what you have to do to complete them. Some of them will give you useless/red herring abilities in the story chapters. Others you need to fail. And others have really confusing mechanics that you're only going to figure out through trial and error or going online to read guides.

For now, I'm just waiting for them to rebalance the occultist, vestal, and more to be more viable.

I enjoy this game and would recommend it. But I can see the problems and some of them can get frustrating.

I feel less suicidal after playing this. And that, my friends, is ♥♥♥♥♥♥' impressive.

Being kind to each other and trying to help others in hard times can help me get through some rough days. And sometimes, it just helps to listen and let someone know that you hear them. This is one of those games I'd love to see a sequel, but then again, it's not really a game and this game does everything incredibly well, so I'm not sure what a sequel/evolution of this game would look like.

Still, I just wish I could write back to thank some people and had a few more lines to share advice/requests.

Be kind to yourself and stay hydrated folks.

Callisto Protocol is a third person sci-fi survival-horror made by the same creative minds behind Dead Space. What the starts off as a simple cargo run for the protagonist, Jacob, turns into a nightmare as he's imprisoned in Black Iron Prison on the moon of Callisto. A virus has ravaged the inmates and Jacob is now facing hordes of infected as he attempts to find a way to escape this frozen hell.

The game has had, well, a mixed reception. Yet, for survival horror fans, is there anything worth salvaging from this game? While I enjoyed a lot of the aspects of what the team at Striking Distance Studios have attempted in this game, ultimately this game is a frustrating experience that will start to feel a bit monotonous as you creep through the shadows.

To start, the game is good-looking. It succeeds in building a believable world with a meaty physics engine that reacts to you slamming hordes of infected with both your baton and bullets. If there's one area that the devs succeeded in, it was in making a good-looking game.

Second, the combat, which has divided some players, seems to work for me. Most of the time, you're looking to to drag enemies close to you so you can bash their brains in before the rest of their pals show up. Shooting them limbs has an effect and can cripple them, leading to creative solutions when you're confronted with a horde. The only negative I'd point to the combat is the auto-aim feature that tends to target independently when you're confronted by more than one monster. You can generally deal with this with clever dodges and your grip tool, but it can get annoying on harder difficulties.

Side thing, I love the Grip Tool, which for those of you unaware, it's the Kinesis Tool from Dead Space. Being able to pick up and throw enemies into meat grinders, off the map, or in each other is incredibly satisfying and feels like a necessary tactic when you start getting swarmed by infected.

Finally, the audio and atmosphere are creepy and hearing things rustle in the vents as you'r bashing a group of enemies is anxiety inducing, in what I'd consider in a good way. The sounds echo all around you and feel dynamic as you move around, letting you know if something's creeping up behind you or if there's something hiding around the corner.

That being said, we should address the problems in this game. And sadly, there's quite a list.

Unfortunately, the biggest one, if you haven't already read the other reviews, is the PC optimization. I don't have what the cool kids consider to be a powerful PC, but it can hold its own. And unfortunately, this game even on the lowest settings, was causing my frame rate to crash and stutter, even in cut-scenes. It got the point that I thought my game crashed a few times before it 'caught up' after 10 seconds. It didn't happen a lot, but enough that I was starting to get annoyed.

The rest of the problems I want to discuss here are from a design perspective. It may not be a deal-breaker for you, but some of these problems are rough.

To start, there's no New Game Plus. The devs have confirmed they're working on releasing this next year as free DLC, but the fact that this game released without this is a serious misstep. You're going to level up the same stuff and start fresh anytime you do a new playthrough. Also, there's quite a few QTE's and I gotta be honest, that isn't my thing. QTE's have been done to death and I'd rather just go back and bash enemies myself instead of having to mash a button to pull off a leech that's attached itself to my face for the 10th time.

The enemy design, while varied, feels a bit samey. It's always variations of some human, which makes sense, but they'll be using the same arm swings and grapples that most other enemies use, which means you're using the same tactics.

The level design doesn't work for me. There's a couple of cool set pieces and sections, but I feel that you're going to spend a good chunk of the game climbing into vents, squeezing through narrow corridors, or crouch-walking in tiny areas. I get why the devs did this; they're trying to find a way to disguise how they're loading the next area your character is moving toward. I'd be fine with it, but your character moves pretty slow, which coupled how often this happens, well, it got old. Real fast. On top of this, there is no map in your inventory and currently, I haven't found a way to play an audio log while walking around the world. Mix in with some unclear map layouts, sometimes you're not going to be sure if you're heading to a path that will progress the story or if you're on a side path to find extra loot. Sure, doing one playthrough and a good memory will help remedy this, but it doesn't feel great for a first run if you're strapped for resources, unsure which way to go because you're scared you might accidentally hit a point of no return and miss out on extra goodies necessary for your survival.

Related to this, the game is very linear. That's not necessarily a problem, but there isn't much room for exploration, so keep that in mind.

Story? It isn't bad, but it's very generic. Without going into spoilers, it's a standard plot you'll have seen before, and truth be told, it feels like the bad things that happen only occur because the plot needs it to happen. The actors and VA work is great, but I kind of wished they were in service of something more compelling. There aren't really any themes that the game is trying to examine.

Take the main character, Jacob. You get hints that he has a life outside of being a cargo pilot and that he's desperate to finish this 'one final job' and retire. But you don't really get a sense of what kind of life he led prior to the horrors he found on Callisto. He's more of a blank slate than other characters in the game, and that's a problem.

Finally, the biggest problem I found with this game is that it wasn't really scary. Sure, there's a couple of set pieces here and there that got me nervous. But a survival-horror game should first and foremost be scary and this game wasn't. At most, it got annoying when having to deal with a insta-kill miniboss or enemies who kept hiding instead of attacking. Horror is a mixture of dread and tension, and the problem is that the tension isn't there. The game tries to scare the player by having what I consider (and yeah, I'm just going to say it) cheap jump scares. There's a few cutscenes of your character examining something, only to have a spooky face do the close-zoom shriek, and honestly, it's startling and uninspired the first time it happens, let alone the fifth. There is no dread when i discover multiple enemies patrolling a room and that's frustrating; I want to be scared, but most of the time, I'm running at the enemies looking to get the brawl started ASAP.

And that's the Callisto Protocol. A beautiful game with meaty combat that's hampered by a bad PC port, a basic story, weak level design, and ultimately, it isn't very scary. A lot of careful thought and planning went into the game and I want to congratulate the devs where this game succeeds. Sadly, this isn't a game I can see myself wanting to revisit. I'd like to check out New Game Plus when it eventually releases, but as it stands, the negatives are hard to ignore. If this game gets a sequel, I'd like to play it and see what else they can do with this IP because even with all the problems the game has, I was still interested in the world they've created. The Biophage (i.e., infected) are a unique enemy and I'd want to see what DLC the devs will release. I just hope that they learn the lessons about what failed in this game.

Ultimately, that's what bugs me about this game; beneath all the problems and bugs, there's a game underneath here that I would love to play. But it's not quite there.

Great RPG, and even better with 2-player coop. This game is essentially Divinity OG Sin 2, but in the post-apocalypse. Only negative? No 3 or 4 player coop.

A great minimalist cosmic survival horror game. The devs took all the mechanics of old survival horror (ala old-school Resident Evil/Silent Hill, etc.) and updated it, while also having a compelling story with a strong artstyle. Also, some fun puzzles.

This game is really good stuff. And this is coming from a miserable old goat.

Like survival horror with good controls, great artstyle, and a good story? This here hits all the big numbers and does it well.

Great game, great soundtrack, and you have a talking pet cat. What more do you want from a game?

Fun game, and while it has a few problems here and there (solo play progression which the devs are looking at fixing, difficulty seems harder than the Beta, specials spawn rates), the basics are a ton of fun and the card system is layered and has depth. As long as the devs avoid micro transactions, this game will appeal to a lot of folks.

Only big sticking point? It's better with friends.