At the start of this game I wasn't sure I liked the story. I found the characters grating. I got the 00s flash game inspiration, but it didn't click. I was playing it for the speedrunning. That feeling of "just one more run... one more run and I'll cinch the high score". That itch in the back of your head that says you can always shave a few more seconds off, you can always find a more efficient route.

And then something happened. A couple hours into the game it all clicked together. I wasn't just playing for that gameplay and the slick style, but... I honestly loved these characters and was invested in their story. The game grabbed me completely. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

Boggles the mind how people can play FromSoftware games and be like "Oh these games are amazing, they don't hold your hand or tell you where to go and they're incredibly hard to master but so rewarding when you do" then they play OG Tomb Raider and just instantly assume it's shit because the controls are hard to get used to.

Maybe it's because platforming in AAA games has been dumbed down to an insulting degree or maybe it's because modern Tomb Raider is more action focused, but these games have always been primarily exploration, puzzle and platforming games with a specific control set designed for that, not action games with shit controls.

If you're new to this trilogy then please, take your time to get to grips with it and you'll experience some absolute masterclasses in level design and atmosphere.

What an absolutely beautiful remaster so clearly made by people full of love for the source material. Tomb Raider fans spent well over a decade begging for this to happen and it's far better than I could have ever imagined. Fingers crossed for The Last Revelation, Chronicles and Angel of Darkness next, then even Legend, Anniversary and Underworld.

Lara Croft is back, baby!

It's a huge red flag when a spiritual successor to Dead Space nearly guts out the predecessor's brilliant design of mutilating enemies to kill them. The Callisto Protocol, while having potential for improvement, is an underwhelming product.

Probably the highlight of this game for me is the production of everything. Performances from Josh Duhamel and Karen Fukuhara are both excellent, the animation mixed with Sony's Visual Arts motion capture technology is exceptional (with some cool suit designs and visual effects when using the GRP), and the overall fidelity of everything is quite impressive for a game built with last-gen in mind. Some other things I enjoyed include the great implementation of haptics, neat enemy encounters involving mutations, and some stupid, cheesy jump scares to keep me entertained. It's all surprising for such a small team.

The rest of this game is a mess though. Like stated at the beginning, the biggest flaw I found with The Callisto Protocol is in its combat; a design that's lacking to the point where it feels repetitive and easy at times. I found myself attacking most enemies using my melee weapon, and with a dodge/block mechanic strictly attached to the movement of the left stick, there's barely any challenge here (especially with enemies later on with pretty rough detection AI). Among that, other annoyances like an abrupt and incomplete narrative, which is disappointing because its revelations in the third act make for some cool sci-fi, as well as other small issues like audio logs not playing at all unless you leave the menu open.

When compared to Dead Space, the flaws here are apparent. The Callisto Protocol isn't awful, but a really mediocre survival horror game that does all the right things wrong and the wrong things right. Needless to say, with an attention to production design here, this should've been placed in a different game genre.