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At first, death inThe Callisto Protocolis a sickening wonder.
Then, slowly, it will shut.
What starts as a sharply effective tool becomes blunted byThe Callisto Protocols end.
The year is 2320.
Lee deliberately opens the spacecrafts hull to thwart their efforts knowing it will cause the ship to free-fall.
The freighter crashes amid a billowing snowstorm only to be quickly boarded by prison personnel.
Suffice it to say, they ask few questions.
Where is there to go when everything is cranked to 11 at the outset?
Taking place within the prisons intestinal, claustrophobic passages, these elements sustain uncertainty and a sense of vulnerability.
The result is a roller coaster of steadily diminishing shocks, even when experienced for the very first time.
That said, the game has its fair share of unnerving moments.
These often occur as Lee strains to pry open a jammed door.
Or theres the stomach-churning instance when Lee discovers a blood-red room full of severed bodies hanging from the ceiling.
Its fun to experiment with such techniques, but any sense of vulnerability is completely undone.
Each implement is a further opportunity to manipulate virtual matter indeed, to decimate it.
Does anything lie beneath all this photorealistic ick?The Callisto Protocoltoys with ideas of colonization.
The bodies of prisoners are not only occupied by the infectious outbreak but the technology of this corporation.
But none of these philosophical questions ever feel anchored.
Theyre simply tossed into the death-soaked atmosphere only to dissipate like its beautifully rendered fog.
Dani (played by Karen Fukuhara), the most interesting character, is given too little a role.
For Lee, his journey through the virtual meat mixer can be read as an act of penance.
For the player, a masochistic test of endurance.
Neither is that deep.
This is horror interested in the spectacle of its chosen genre above all else.
