The developers wanted The Callisto Protocol to be as realistic as possible, so they used inspiration from real-life horror and gore.
Since The Callisto Protocol introduced its first gameplay footage a few weeks ago, several aspects of the game have become the most prominent to the gaming community. One of those aspects is that the game is very reminiscent of Dead Space, because the game director is also the creator of the Dead Space series, after all. In addition, many gamers discussed the level of violence in the game, and it turns out that the developers relied heavily on “real-life” violence and gore to design the game.
When the game’s latest official trailer was released, some people immediately noticed how violent The Callisto Protocol is. While a lot of other games also feature all kinds of violence and gore, it seems that the developers of this game are looking for a way to make things more realistic. Even the developers have a hard time with their dedication to realism.
In an interview with PCGamesN, Striking Distance Studios creative director Chris Stone talked about some of the inspirations for The Callisto Protocol. Stone pointed to games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil as “obvious inspiration,” and he also shared that he’s also inspired movies like The Thing and Event Horizon. While adding that the game is heavily inspired by Korean and French cinema, Stone explained that the team studied real horror and gore to refine the game’s environment.
Stone went on to say that while the research was “not very pleasant,” he believes the real-life horror and gore that The Callisto Protocol’s design team brought to the table is among the most memorable and valuable. when it comes to creating an authentic look and feel of the game.
Stone’s admission that the group tried to do many things to achieve realism could provoke some backlash. Back when Mortal Kombat 11 was in development, Netherrealm made similar claims and received quite a bit of criticism for those comments. The gore and violence of that fighting game even resulted in one developer suffering PTSD from developing MK11.
While Striking Distance Studios doesn’t explicitly specify what real-life cases of horror and gore it uses to base its games on, many gamers hope that the studio will keep the emotions in mind. of developers exposed to those scenes or events. Surely the studio also doesn’t want to repeat what happened at Netherrealm with a certain developer suffering from PTSD while creating a violent new game.
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