STACK #218 December 2022

GAMING FEATURE

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We had to ask Schofield whether any particular horror stories, movies or TV shows influenced The Callisto Protocol … “Modern horror in general has been a big influence. Things have just gotten more and more brutal. You used to watch horror movies and wonder who was going to live, and now you just assume everyone is going to die – it’s more about who dies first! There’s also a lot of really cool horror coming out of places like France and Korea that just ratchet up the brutality. Movies like Train to Busan and Martyrs really stand out to me as being particularly disturbing.”

It’s a top time for fans of space survival horror, with the arrival this month of The Callisto Protocol .We chatted with legendary game director Glen Schofield of Striking Distance Studios about the original new project. Words Amy Flower H aving co-created the classic Dead Space , and with several people who worked on that now along for The Callisto Protocol players to have fun with. It took us more than two years to get it right and there’s no way we could have done anything close to this back in the day.”

always see that last scrap of humanity in all of my creatures, no matter how deformed they look.” Of all the classic horror tropes featured in The Callisto Protocol , we wondered which tickles Schofield’s fancy the most. “That’s a tough one – we try to blend so many different kinds of horror and scare moments, that it’s hard to pick,” admits Schofield. “One area that I do tend to spend tons of time on is the audio, though. Audio is so important in horror games that I think about it like it’s a feature – as important as combat, story, or anything else. We do a ton with the audio to just mess with players, and I can’t wait to see how they respond.” As with all game developers, Schofield and his team’s ultimate aim is to entertain. “We’re making a scary game so, of course, I hope we can get players to jump out of their seats from time to time. We spend a lot of time working on how we build and release tension, so we hope it feels like a rollercoaster for players.”

ride, Schofield doesn’t so much feel outside pressure to deliver, as he and his team are doing a great job of that themselves. “We never want to disappoint the fans, but honestly, no one puts more pressure on us than we put on ourselves,” Schofield reveals. “We don’t think of The Callisto Protocol as a spiritual successor to Dead Space . We think of it as a new game, with new characters, new mechanics, and a new story. We find that when we just keep our heads down and focus on making the best game we possibly can, the rest tends to take care of itself.” Despite the Dead Space heritage, The Callisto Protocol , which Schofield describes as “a tense, scary, brutal science fiction survival horror game with a great story and interesting characters” bears little resemblance beyond genre. “I directed both games, so naturally they share my creative DNA,” says Schofield. “There are certain things, like the way I use audio or my focus on diegetic UI, that are just part of my style, and you’ll see in both games.” This history has allowed Schofield and his team to realise some things that just weren’t possible back in the day. “ Dead Space was more than ten years ago and there were a ton of things that we wanted to do back then that just weren’t possible,” Schofield tells us. “A great example is the gore system that we’ve built. We wanted to make it possible to literally tear the monsters apart and really make a brutal, immersive system for

This gore system will be on full display when taking on the big bads of The Callisto Protocol , the grotesque Biophage. “The Biophage are all humans that have been infected by a mysterious outbreak that has taken over Black Iron Prison,” Schofield explains. “The virus ravages the human body, transforming them into terrifying creatures. I always base my monsters off of humans because there’s nothing scarier to me than just a deranged person. You have no idea what they’re capable of. That’s why you can

• The Callisto Protocol is out on Dec 2

DECEMBER 2022

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