When’s the last time you played a decent sci-fi horror game? Would you put Aliens: Isolation in that camp? Or do you trace it all the way back to the Dead Space trilogy? If you’re a fan of the latter, then we have some good news for you. The Callisto Protocol — an upcoming game from a new outfit called Striking Distance Studios — was founded by Dead Space creator Glen Schofield.
From that info alone, you’re probably guessing this game, too, will slot right into the sci-fi horror genre. And you’re right. What you probably won’t guess, though, is which video game universe The Callisto Protocol will take place in. Like, you could probably throw out 100 names and be wrong on all of them. We’ll get to that in a bit. To start, let’s talk about when The Callisto Protocol is coming out.
The Callisto Protocol release date is set for 2022
Our first look at The Callisto Protocol came during the 2020 Game Awards. Wow, that seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? Back then I wrote for a place that doesn’t think you know who Todd Howard is. Back then The Game Awards were entirely virtual. Josef Fares had to swear from the comfort of his own living room.
Ah yes — back on topic. It was during that show that we caught our first glimpse of the tense horror Striking Distance is packing into The Callisto Protocol. While we were a bit bummed to learn the game wouldn’t be coming until 2022, well, look at us now! It’s 2022. And there’s been no news of a delay. So there’s a chance we are mere months away from getting our hands on what everyone named me is calling the spiritual successor to Dead Space.
The focus of the story in The Callisto Protocol is…
Imagine you’re in jail. That already sucks. Now imagine the jail you’re in is space jail. Even worse. Then space jail gets invaded by aliens. This is the kind of BS bad luck you can only experience in a video game. Ladies and gentlemen… this is that video game.
But what makes TCP even more wild is that bit I was teasing at the very beginning: the game’s universe. The publisher on the game is KRAFTON, which may not tell you much. KRAFTON used to be Bluehole. Getting warmer? Bluehole used to have a subsidiary called PUBG Corporation, which KRAFTON has since renamed PUBG Studios. And you’re there.
This survival horror game takes place in the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds universe. Yes, the game where you parachute out of an airplane onto an island to kill 99 other players.
The Callisto Protocol is reportedly set a far off distance into the future of the PUBG universe. But still — weird. Where’s the horror game set in the world of LittleBigPlanet?
This title is going next-gen only
Finally, to wrap things up, a bit of news on where you can expect to play this creepy thing. If you’re the owner of an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4, you’re in a bit of a tough spot with The Callisto Protocol. It’s only coming to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
To be perfectly frank, we just passed the one-year mark of the next-gen launch, so the phasing out of the previous generation is probably for the best. The longer developers have to keep supporting older hardware, the more likely it is newer games will be a little gimped as a result.
Still, I feel for those who want a newer system but can’t find one at the moment. The shortage is real. But maybe that’ll have changed when The Callisto Protocol actually releases sometime this year.
