The trill audio cues, hissing pipes and constant presence of clattering air vents all lend themselves to the sense of unease Black Iron prison creates but it’s at its most horrifying when that tension has been viciously cut upon a fail state.

The manner in which main protagonist Jacob Lee is put through the mill, both literally and metaphorically, is not only genuinely unpleasant to experience, but made me feel bad for the likeness of Josh Duhamel, who lends more of himself to this role than most actors would be expected to.

There aren’t many forms of media where I can claim to understand the actor’s headspace, but having seen Jacob Lee forcibly departed from his mandible countless times, I’ve seen more of that space than I would care to stomach. It’s hard not to feel a pang of sympathy, particularly when the fault lies with my inability to react quickly to threats.

The Callisto Protocol is a vicious action-horror game that will draw obvious comparisons with other entries in the genre but it swings for the fences with its promise to deliver a memorable and unnerving experience.

For our full review, keep reading below.

How we tested

Our review of The Callisto Protocol is based on the PS5 version of the game. We were able to complete the main campaign in around 12 hours, along with finding some of the game’s hidden collectables.

‘The Callisto Protocol'

Release date: 2 December 2022

Publisher: Krafton

Developer: Striking Distance Studios

Age rating: 18+

The Callisto Protocol takes place in the far-off year of 2320, with cargo pilot Jacob Lee (Josh Duhamel) crashlanding on Jupiter’s second-largest moon, which has been turned into a prison colony. The leader of a terrorist cell, Dani Nakamura (Karen Fukuhara), is found on board as a stowaway and they are quickly incarcerated without a trial.

Upon being processed, the prison is quickly overrun by an unknown disease that has mutated the inmates and guards alike, and Jacob must find a way to escape the prison and the cold, desolate moon on which it’s located.

By making his way through the various prison facilities, Jacob is given free reign to explore the grizzlier aspects of life on the inside, with the few surviving inmates running amok. While the setting is futuristic and lends itself well to a space-age storyline, each of the explorable areas within the confines of Black Iron feel industrial, inhospitable and overbearing. There are few tools at Jacob’s disposal but, with enough ingenuity, he is able to fend off attackers with a suitable level of vulnerability.

Much of The Callisto Protocol’s combat relies on hand-to-hand encounters, if only to keep the spend of valuable ammunition down to a minium. Getting up close and personal goes against every instinct when facing a biophage capable of removing appendages as though taking apart a Mr Potato Head but it’s one of the safest places to position yourself, thanks to the intuitive combat system.

Pushing the analogue stick left or right means Jacob is able to affectively bob and weave between enemy attacks before responding with a riot baton noggin bonk. This works particularly well when dealing with enemies of the bipedal variety in a one-on-one scenario but it’s easy to get swarmed by a large group, which is far more difficult to escape.

Luckily, Jacob Lee can also create space between enemies using the “GRP” – an anti-gravitational device that can lift up items or creatures for a limited time before converting them into a projectile. Jacob can use this device to turn a large group into bowling pins, or, if there happens to be a large industrial fan or spike-laden surface (something Black Iron has in abundance) nearby, there are plenty of opportunities to use the environment to your advantage.

Along with a baton and the GRP, Jacob is also able to make use of the prison guard’s inmate countering arsenal, ranging from pistols and shotguns to assault rifles and other heavy weaponry, all of which can be upgraded in exchange for credits mostly found by selling contraband back to vendor posts. The upgrade system and corresponding inventory means carrying a number of resources at a time can be limiting, so there’s always a risk/reward of what’s worth picking up and leaving behind when space is short.

But even with extended firepower, the biophage are able to quickly transform into an even deadlier threat. When tentacles erupt from an infected host, Jacob has to quickly shoot the tentacles to eliminate them. Failing to do so leads them to transform into a larger hulking mass that is faster, stronger and much more formidable than before.

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Throughout Jacob’s journey on Callisto, through the gates of its prison to the eternal tundra outside, and deep below the moon’s surface, the history of its inhabitants are slowly picked apart through personal accounts of the recently deceased, as well as the long-dead that make the futuristic setting so compelling and more worthy of exploration.

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Verdict: ‘The Callisto Protocol’

While The Callisto Protocol runs somewhere between 12-16 hours, none of that time is wasted in making an intriguing narrative that hopefully acts as a foothold for more new ideas in this world to come. It’s up against some tough competition, particularly with the remake of Dead Space next year, but the new ideas it brings forward make it a game horror fans won’t want to miss.

Looking for another upcoming horror game? Read our buying guide for the Dead Space remake