The Callisto Protocol was announced at The Game Awards, wearing its role as a spiritual successor to Dead Space on its sleeves. Little has been revealed about this new horror game since then, although perhaps the oddest confirmation is that it's set in the PUBG universe. The Callisto Protocol is the brainchild of the original Dead Space creator's new studio, Striking Distance, and as such, there's a lot of expectations.
It would seem the game is embracing those, however, as the developer wants The Callisto Protocol to be the scariest game on next-gen consoles. Since it didn't come along until December 2020, it's obvious that it remains a rather big mystery, but its official Twitter page (seen below) has confirmed that more news is coming in 2021.
This begs the question of what it'll show, but this comes with one caveat to keep in mind: it's not a 2021 game. The Callisto Protocol's current release window is 2021, so the chances of there being a ton of deep dives throughout the year are small. However, there's a few things it could show that would help establish itself as one of the most anticipated games of 2022. There's the obvious: at least a little more depth on the gameplay, story details, and more are likely to surface throughout the year. This may be fed piecemeal, but doing so would go a long way in keeping the game fresh on everyone's minds.
The biggest thing that should be shown is how it differentiates from Dead Space. It's doubtful the studio is going for an exact clone, no matter how similar it seems, and leaning into those comparisons early on makes sense. Doing so means that more eyes are on The Callisto Protocol than other typical run-of-the-mill horror games, but distancing itself from those comparisons as it reveals more and more will give it more leg to stand on as its own thing. Comparison are impossible to avoid in this scenario, but they shouldn't dominate the conversation.
Finally, horror games rely on a lot of ambience and environment to give the right chills, which is something the original Dead Space creator understands well. The Callisto Protocol has this down on paper, as a Prison colony in 2320 (dubbed Black Iron) sounds terrifying, but seeing that brought to life would be a good compliment to all of the above. Whether through new concept art, screenshots, or gameplay snippets, showing how The Callisto Protocol uses environment to bring on the heebie jeebies will help establish it as its own horror game.
The Callisto Protocol will launch in 2022 for PC and unspecified consoles.