The Callisto Protocol now lets you skip the grisly death animations

(Image credit: Krafton)

After many years in the making, Dead Space spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol launched and… wasn't quite the slam dunk we were hoping for. Our review found it to be "engaging, linear sci-fi survival horror", even if pretty stressful, but a bigger issue was that the game launched on Steam with severe stuttering issues for many users (now fixed, and which Glen Schofield, CEO of developer Striking Distance Studios, blamed on "freakin error")

Performance stuff aside, there's also been a common theme among those on the team who've played it. I loved Dead Space but the sheer oppressiveness of this sometimes feels a bit much and, while I enjoy a good grisly death animation, the protagonist here really does get ripped apart in horrifically detailed and gory fashion. You couldn't skip past these and some of them genuinely make you wince. It can reach a point where, as our Fraser said, they start to ruin the overall experience.

A new patch has streamlined some elements of the game's combat system, and added the ability to skip the death animations (seriously: some of these things feel like they take minutes). The main in-game tweak is that healing is now faster. Jacob heals by jabbing his neck with a stim and the animation at launch was slow enough that it was hard to heal mid-fight: which was obviously intentional, but clearly the studio felt they'd been a little bit too mean.

The patch notes don't go into detail but read: "Look for combat improvements, performance and stability fixes, localization optimizations, and general quality of life changes. We’re listening and grateful for your feedback. More to come". Striking Distance Studios also promises further PC-specific optimizations are "in the works".

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."