The Callisto Protocol is just a few weeks away; despite this, Striking Distance has shared details about the game’s new area, Below. The studio also detailed the game’s atmospheric setting, unique characters, and monstrous creatures that will be present in the final product.
The Callisto Protocol is an upcoming survival horror video game developed by Striking Distance Studios and published by Krafton. Announced at The Game Awards in December 2020, the game is the brainchild of Dead Space creator Glen Schofield, the former head of Sledgehammer Games and Visceral Games, who was appointed CEO of Striking Distance in 2019. Despite being a new IP, the game is one of the most heavily anticipated horror games in recent memory, matching the hype of Alan Wake 2, which is slated for a 2023 release.
Revealed via the PlayStation Blog, the studio detailed that an essential aspect of any survival horror game is the environment, where players either survive or die. They stated that their game is filled with fear-inducing locations such as “Below,” a series of long-abandoned tunnels under a prison that once served Arcas, the game’s first human colony.
The developers went on to state how Below is a showcase of their game’s lighting, which gave their environment team a challenge to design a unique location that was still thematically similar to the prison above and offered environmental clues to its creation and the original colony. Below is unique because most of it is based on real materials and shapes instead of the gritty sci-fi design cues that dominate many of the game’s other environments. Below allows the player to feel grounded in something familiar and relatable while allowing them to glimpse at the past of humanity’s first attempt at colonizing Callisto.
Striking Distance also talked a bit about the game’s narrative, stating that they’ve created a compelling story and complex characters to heighten players’ sense of fear and dread in the game.
The Callisto Protocol will launch on December 2nd, 2022, for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
