The Callisto Protocol

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” said Mark Twain and that is one of the biggest reasons why I feel very strongly about The Callisto Protocol. Let me explain.

Sure, the mastermind behind Dead Space, Glen Schofield, now has Carte Blanche at his new studio, Striking Distance, to create his next vision unimpeded. This was likely not the case at EA during his years with Visceral and likely not the case at Activision during his time with Sledgehammer.

In the recent footage we have seen of The Callisto Protocol, there is a lot to be excited about from the abilities the character has, to Josh Duhamel being the lead, to the dual antagonists with the biophage and the security bots, to the extremely, pardon the pun, visceral death animations from being sucked into a turbine or having 3/4 of your head bitten off.

Everything I have mentioned so far are all good enough reasons to be excited but the biggest reason I am excited and the reason I brought up someone who was born almost 200 years ago is because of the story. Even though it might seem like we don’t have any story information so far, there might be a hint as to what we can expect.

From the trailer we may have gotten a slight glimpse into the source of inspiration. “The call Callisto the dead moon, just like you would’ve been if I hadn’t fished you out of that wreck” From this small line of dialogue, I am instantly reminded of The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells. A classic piece of literature about a madman who is challenging the evolution of the species. The main character of that book is also rescued from a boat that is shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which is why using the words “fished you out of that wreck” seem too specific to be coincidental.

Even though this book was written in 1896, there are still many themes from that book that are still relevant today. After all HG Wells, is the pioneer of science fiction with stories including War of The Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and of course, The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Clearly in the rest of the trailer we can see the adverse effects of human engineering gone wrong. This is the main reason that Callisto will be more than just a Dead Space clone. If The Callisto Protocol continues to follow in the footsteps of what we have seen so far then its likely that we will befriend some people along the way who are trying to help us and are very opposed to what is happening on Callisto. Only time will tell how much HG Wells inspired the game if at all. Maybe it’s all a stretch, but the wait won’t be too long as The Callisto Protocol has a release date of December 2, 2022. See you on Jupiter.