In 2008, EA launched the original Dead Space to rave reviews, with the game going on to become one of the most beloved sci-fi horror titles of all time. Despite the acclaim surrounding Dead Space and its immediate sequel, the franchise died off after the lackluster Dead Space 3 and has been dormant for nearly a decade. While EA has announced plans to move forward with a full-blown Dead Space remake, franchise co-creator Glen Schofield isn't waiting around. Schofield and his team at Striking Distance Studios have created a Dead Space spiritual successor in The Callisto Protocol that borrows heavily from EA's franchise while also firmly establishing its own unique identity.

In The Callisto Protocol, players take on the role of Jacob Lee, who finds himself falsely imprisoned at Black Iron Prison right when a mysterious outbreak starts mutating people into horrific monsters. Lee uses the chaos to escape his cell and soon aligns himself with other inmates in an attempt to get out alive, all the while trying to discover the truth behind the outbreak. Callisto Protocol's story borrows heavily from survival-horror cliches, so longtime fans of the genre should be able to predict how it all turns out, but the acting by Josh Duhamel, Karen Fukuhara, and Sam Witwer helps elevate the material. That being said, don't go in expecting anything groundbreaking from the story and be prepared for an unsatisfying ending, as the developers leave a lot of loose ends to set up sequels.

The Callisto Protocol's story is fairly by the numbers, but players will still find themselves invested in it because of the great acting by its stars and its jaw-dropping visuals. The Callisto Protocol looks tremendous, with highly-detailed environments and near-flawless character models. Callisto Protocol's monsters are incredibly impressive as well, with one in particular that stands out but is best left mysterious to preserve the experience.

For most of The Callisto Protocol, players will find themselves exploring Black Iron as Jacob, contending with the horrific monsters that lurk around every corner and the imposing security robots that are best avoided. Jacob is not defenseless and has a variety of tools to help him fight back against these foes, including the obligatory prison shiv that can be used for stealth kills, a devastating stun baton that can easily hack away enemy limbs, and the GRP, a tool that lets him grab enemies and fling them into hazards for spectacularly gory instant-kills. The GRP trivializes many combat scenarios, but the pure fun factor it provides makes up for any lost challenge.

Players will find it difficult to put the controller down for most of The Callisto Protocol, especially survival-horror fans who have been starved of big-budget entries in the genre outside of Capcom's Resident Evil games. Dead Space fans especially will get a kick out of Callisto Protocol as its visual style borrows heavily from the classic sci-fi horror series, and while there are similarities gameplay-wise, Callisto Protocol certainly does enough to stand out on its own.

Whereas Dead Space's combat largely revolved around shooting off necromorph limbs from a distance, The Callisto Protocol is more about close-quarters melee combat. Jacob's guns certainly give players an advantage in combat, but most of the time they will find themselves dodging enemy attacks and responding with whacks from the stun baton. Callisto Protocol uses a dodge system where players have to flick the stick left or right at the right time to avoid incoming attacks, and while it may seem simple on paper, there's definitely a specific rhythm to it, and it takes time to learn how to do it properly.

The Callisto Protocol forces players to confront enemies head-on, unlike other survival horror games that encourage players to run away and conserve ammunition. Despite this more aggressive approach, Callisto Protocol does not overwhelm players with resources. Ammo and healing items are limited, so players still need to be smart about how they approach each combat encounter.

For the most part, Callisto Protocol combat is tough but fair. Players have to be aware of their positioning and need to master its dodging mechanics if they want to be successful. However, there are some sections that are cheap, with Jacob really not standing a chance at survival until players already go through the area and memorize where the enemies spawn in. This trial and error worsens in the late game and hurts the momentum quite a bit.

The Callisto Protocol is great for the first three quarters or so, but the last quarter of the game is where things start to come apart a bit. There are basically three bosses in the game, and they all show up in the second half, with Jacob having to fight two of them multiple times. One recurring boss is particularly durable and can kill Jacob with a single hit, which, needless to say, can lead to a lot of deaths. Challenging bosses aren't a bad thing, but the feeling of triumph players will get for beating the boss the first time is stepped on when it becomes apparent that they'll have to repeat the lengthy fight a few times.

What makes these boss fights especially frustrating are Callisto Protocol's elaborate death animations. Like Dead Space before it, The Callisto Protocol is full of graphic deaths for unlucky protagonist Jacob, with every enemy in the game having their own special way of absolutely brutalizing him. Throughout The Callisto Protocol, players will see Jacob's arms ripped off, his head crushed, his body ripped in half, and more. Some of the most disturbing and unique of these death scenes happen during the boss fights, but it gets tiresome having to watch them every single time one mistimes a dodge and falls victim to the boss's one-hit kill. One can only watch Jacob's head get stomped into oblivion so many times before it gets old.

An option to skip these scenes after being subjected to them so many times would have been a nice quality-of-life feature, and it's easy to think of other quality-of-life features that would have gone a long way in helping The Callisto Protocol reach the next level. For example, it would have been nice if the manual saves actually saved at the time they were recorded instead of relying on the latest checkpoint. While this isn't a huge deal most of the time, there are instances where players find themselves in a safe room before a tough fight and have the opportunity to upgrade Jacob's gear. If they die during the fight, they will need to re-upgrade all the gear, which is a time-consuming process since they can only buy one upgrade at a time and each one has its own animation. One would think manually saving after spending the upgrades would solve this issue, but it does not.

It would have also been nice if players could listen to audio logs outside the inventory screen, but that's not possible in the current version of the game. Sitting around in menus is not particularly exciting, and so it's easy to see how many players may simply ignore the audio logs that they collect while exploring Black Iron. The final quality-of-life improvement that could have made The Callisto Protocol a much better game would have been the option to skip cutscenes, as that is not currently available and weighs down subsequent playthroughs.

Replay value is an area where The Callisto Protocol struggles in general. Not only are players forced to sit through all the cutscenes again when they decide to start a new save, but they are also unable to retain any of their weapons or upgrades that they earned in their first playthrough. Sadly, The Callisto Protocol does not have a New Game+ mode at launch, which seems like a huge oversight, especially since the feature was so integral to Dead Space. Without New Game+, the only reason to replay is to find the collectibles or unlock all of Callisto Protocol's achievements, but players should have nearly all of those after their first playthrough anyway.

The lacking replay value makes The Callisto Protocol's short length sting a bit more than it would have otherwise. Horror games are typically on the shorter side, and that works in the genre's favor. The Callisto Protocol is really no different, as it enjoys a fairly brisk pace and keeps players engaged from start to finish without having to resort to slow periods or filler content. While it's been said that The Callisto Protocol takes about 13 hours to beat, the in-game clock claimed that it only took a little over seven hours for us to finish our initial playthrough, and this included making an effort to explore each area thoroughly in search of collectibles and resources. The Callisto Protocol's seven-hour runtime makes for a fast-paced and consistently entertaining first playthrough (discounting the repetitive boss fights), but the lack of a New Game+ feature makes the short runtime seem like more of a detriment.

New Game+ is supposedly coming to The Callisto Protocol next year, and Striking Distance Studios has plenty of other updates planned for the game as well. The Callisto Protocol has a Season Pass that will give players access to premium DLC that should improve things further. Some may be better off waiting for New Game+ and other new content to release for the game next year, but diehard horror fans may still want to take the plunge and spend the $70 to pick up The Callisto Protocol right now.

Considering its short length and current lack of replay value, it is somewhat difficult to recommend The Callisto Protocol at full price, but it is a must-buy when the price comes down a bit. The Callisto Protocol is an excellent game let down by some hugely important missing features, but hopefully future updates will help it live up to its full potential as a worthy successor to the Dead Space franchise.

The Callisto Protocol will launch on December 2 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided an Xbox Series X code for this review.