The Game Awards 2020 gave us our first peek at one of the show’s most exciting world premieres: The Callisto Protocol. If the trailer immediately gave you Dead Space vibes, partially due to the inmate’s status display resembling Isaac’s spinal cord health indicator, that isn’t by mistake. The developer, Striking Distance, is led by Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofield. His love for horror is apparent in the cinematic trailer and it looks to finally provide us a worthy success to EA’s dormant series.
The Callisto Protocol is a third-person horror game set on Jupiter’s dead moon, Callisto, wherein a prison colony resides. As you can see, all is not well at this interstellar penitentiary. Terrifying monstrosities are roaming the institution and are also converting humans into their grotesque form. What is not immediately obvious about this initial reveal is that there is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds connection.
The Callisto Protocol resides in the same universe as PUBG. Despite not being a battle royale title (or a multiplayer game in general), Striking Distance is creating the single-player game in the same continuity as PUBG. That said, The Callisto Protocol takes place 300 years into the future, giving it a notable gap from the setting of the competitive online phenomenon. The extent of the ties between the two are currently unknown, but it’s hard to believe PUBG won’t embed nods towards Striking Distance’s game down the road, either as Easter eggs or in-game events.
We won’t be seeing The Callisto Protocol anytime soon, as the trailer says “coming 2022” with no target quarter divulged. We will be following the game with eager interest and will be sure to provide updates as the developer begins pulling back the veil on their frightening project.
