If you've been necromantic dreaming of a Callisto Protocol sequel, I'm afraid the monkey's paw didn't just curl up – it stuck itself up your nose and scratched a FU on your hypothalamus. Developers Striking Distance and publishers Krafton have revealed [REDACTED]a roguelike sci-fi dungeon crawler set in the same universe.
The hooks are part of the title, yes, and they also call it “punk rock”—a combination of factors that fills me with such suffocating rage that I can barely hear the trailer, below. It’s a machine-gun montage of comic book panels and searing melee arcs and “there’s a lot of wankers between you and the sweet taste of freedom” quips. I didn’t even like The Callisto Protocol much, but still, what have they done to you, boy? Where did all the horror gaming go?
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In [REDACTED]You're a lone security guard trying to escape Black Iron Prison, the Jovian correctional facility from the original game. In The Callisto Protocol, you're sneaking and weaving through crowded, shadowy hallways, fending off scaly mutant convicts in a passable facsimile of Dead Space. [REDACTED]you face hordes of colorful monsters in frenetic Hades-style arena battles. There are skills to improve, metas to hone, “experiences” (mods, I guess?) to equip, weapons and costumes to loot.
“This game is about fighting, dying, dying again, dying again, and adapting, taking the classic roguelike formula and cranking it up to eleven,” the press release reads, because nothing says “punk rock” like an unironically quote from a mockumentary dialogue that was originally intended to be a joke about the absurdity of increasing numbers. At the very least, I wish video games would start cranking the number up to 12. Maybe next time.
I'm probably being too mean. Or at least, I'm over-expressing myself in the press release and not saying enough about the game. Forgive Poochie The Dog's presentation and judge it purely as a genre piece with no affiliation with Callisto, and [REDACTED] seems pretty capable. The graphics are very Void Bastardy and, well, the melee combat certainly looks more entertaining than The Callisto Protocol, which is kind of like saying running a cheese grater over your face is more fun than sitting on a blowtorch. The game does at least have one clever idea, though I don't think it's unique to [REDACTED]:When you die, your corpse comes back to life as an enemy equipped with all the equipment and upgrades you were carrying.
In other words, each game is an exercise in creating a boss fight, and I wonder how that might affect your tactics deeper down: if you're confident of success, should you throw away all your powerful gear to make life easier for your successor? In addition to your own reanimated flesh, the game also features other human survivors locked in the same race for the very last prison escape pod. They'll either try to kill you outright or throw “unexpected challenges” at you. Typical old-timer shenanigans. When will they learn?
[REDACTED] will be released on October 31st. If you enjoyed the previous version of Black Iron Prison, you might be interested in hearing former Striking Distance boss Glen Schofield's thoughts on the rigors of development and their abandoned plans for a sequel.