The Callisto Protocol design director says players will mostly need to get really close to the monsters to take them down.
When faced with the dangers lurking around the environment in horror games like Resident Evil or Dead Space, most players want to keep their distance from that dangerous creature. However, some of these creatures need melee combat to take them down permanently. It seems that The Callisto Protocol is no different as the game’s design director says about “half” of the game’s upcoming battles will focus on melee.
The Callisto Protocol is the debut game from developer Striking Distance Studios, with Dead Space creator Glen Schofield serving as the lead director of this new game. As the name suggests, the game is set in a prison colony on Jupiter’s moon Callisto more than 300 years in the future and puts the player in the role of prisoner Jacob Lee. Lee is forced to survive an alien invasion of the prison colony, an invasion that turns its victims into monstrous creatures that roam the colony’s halls.
Striking Distance Studios recently lifted the curtain on their upcoming horror game, introducing some details like what players will need to battle the creatures lurking around Callisto. In a recent interview with Game Informer via IGN, design director Ben Walker talked about the game’s battle design and what it will affect players trying to survive the invasion. Walker said the studio is “tilting the survival side of things” by making ammo more scarce, forcing players to do everything it takes to survive.
“Nearly half of our battles are melee,” is what Walker says. He added that there will be “melee combos” to “push enemies away” to give players more time to prepare for another attack.
The emphasis on melee combat has been revealed in the gameplay trailers that have been released so far. As mentioned above, the studio is emphasizing the survival aspect with players having to make use of everything in dark, stuffy corridors surrounded by mutant monsters. An easy but effective way to enhance this sense of survival is for the player to consider whether an encounter is worth the use of ammo, or whether to risk using fists and save ammo for this. something could be worse.
This will also set the game apart from Dead Space, which players have compared since The Callisto Protocol was announced. This comparison is not without reason, as several members of Striking Distance Studios have worked on the Dead Space series and the overall style of the two games is similar. However, the emphasis on close-quarter combat rather than gunfight could set The Callisto Protocol apart as Dead Space focuses on “tactical division” choosing the right use of a wide range of tools and guns.
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