The Callisto Protocol

Okay, I've got the hang of things now... Callisto Protocol is amazing!

Just kidding. I still intensely dislike Callisto Protocol, the combat is shite.

First things first, a rose tinted spectacle check, I play the original Dead Space for a few hours. It holds up, I'm having fun, I still really like this. Now onto Callisto Protocol, to begin I load the save just before the combat tutorial (again) and play through it a few times.

The tutorial prompts certain inputs and freezes action until you perform them, this gives me ample time to observe, guy trying to punch me with his left hand, I'm prompted to dodge right, to the left of his attacks. Then, I'm prompted to dodge left for a right. Babbies first punch-up tutorial then transitions into a real fight, played out in real time, an enemy rapidly moving and twitching around, it becomes something of a guessing game anticpating which side to dodge toward. Is there a specific timing? Does the direction strictly matter? The tutorial remains reticent even after a fifth viewing. After failing to dodge and getting killed again and again, it seemed that ignoring dodging and bonking them over the head was the winning move... Then multiple enemies turn up.

It's a shit or get off the pot error. Callisto Protocol opts for both a managed and un-managed combat system at the same time. Either is fine but both is normally a recipe for failure, let's explain via example. A typical managed combat system would be your classic JRPG, even Final Fantasy XIII, battles play out in a specific mode with a battle specific control and rule set. Anther example would be games like Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls, which reduce everything to just following the correct button prompts.

Examples of un-managed would be Demon's Souls for instance, the controls don't change, the button to initiate an attack always initiates an attack, the button to dodge or back-step always fulfills that function whether in battle or not. Most videogames fall into the un-managed category, it's generally preferred by most because it's more intuitive and flexible.

Callisto Protocol pretends otherwise but has a visible transition to a managed system when a melee attacker wants to fight you, the crappy dodge system only applies then. In that sense it limits the strategic possibilities available to the player. For instance sandwiched between multiple enemies I decide to run seeking a more advantageous position to fight from, nearby enemies repeatedly cause a transition to melee battle mode where I'm positioned to fight preventing my escape and forcing me to take a hit before attempting to run again.

All for the sake of what? Preventing a bit of jank in combat animations? Unfortunately the rest of the game isn't interesting enough to even justify learning or tolerating the melee combat system.