A Story Analysis of The Callisto Protocol 

nice to see Starkiller getting honest job as prison guard

As a concept, I like the idea of melee combat in a horror game since it forces you to get up close to monsters and potentially reinforces hectic, caught on the back foot feeling. The problem here is that the combat is so bare bones that it feels like a bad rythme time game

My main issue with the story is how characters pop in and out of the prison like with Ferris the main antagonist. Sure the guy kills Aliza and is at the start but he's never seen through out the game he just pops in and out for boss fights and dramatic scenes. The Warden however shows up thought out the story in holograms and audio logs slowing revealing his insanity making him feel like he's part of a bigger plot(duh) while Ferris is nothing but a jobber. I wanted Ferris to show up more like the Warden does taunting us in order to remind us that this guy was after us, chasing us, and there's nothing we can do to slow him down truly showing how far superior he is, instead he's just bulletproof and forces us to fight him with our meaty body's until his final form.

I feel like if they let you explore and get to know prisoners, guards, and what black iron prison is like before the disaster it would add more to the story, and also show Jacob grieving over Max more, and gone deeper into Elias, Dani's, and other characters plots. It would make the story feel a little more different from dead space. And they should've made the enemies attacks different. All of the enemies attack patterns are slow, and the only way u can really get killed is from a surprise of an enemy or being overwhelmed by too much enemies. The bosses weren't even hard, they just did a lot of damage. But the game wasn't the best but it's good if u want a cool fun experience, see amazing graphics, gore, and the amazing actors. It feels like it does better as a movie other than a game tho. 7.5 out of 10 in my opinion

The story in this game reminded me so much of The Expanse seasons 1-3. The Expanse: a mysterious alien thing was discovered while mining on Jupiter's moon, Io. A shady secretive cabal exposes a large population of an asteroid colony to the thing just to watch what happens and to learn. They try to blame the attack on the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA). As the story progresses you discover that the shady cabal is trying to use the thing to evolve humanity. Callisto Protocol: a mysterious alien thing was discovered while mining on Jupiter's moon, Callisto. A shady secretive cabal exposes a large population of a colony on Europa to the thing just to watch what happens and learn. They try to blame the attack on the Outer Way. As the story progresses you discover that the shady cabal is trying to use the thing to evolve humanity.

Hey Gingy, actually at 10:27, according to the audio series Callisto Protocol: Helix Station, it actually does confirm that you can implant memories into other individuals through their technology. You got it spot on. Also, that series does provide some backstory, although I don't believe that important story context should be explained outside the game itself, but I thought you'd should know. Keep up the great work!

I honestly really hope they don't give up on this. The story and universe is interesting so far and the art style for all the weapons, gear, armor, etc. is just amazing. This series really has potential to be among the greats.

One of the original concepts for Dead Space was a prison escape. This is still, somewhat, visible in the structure of the final game, with the overall plot focusing on escaping the Ishimura. So, the idea that Callisto feels like a replication of Dead Space 1 probably comes from Callisto being (effectively) a rough draft of Dead Space 1.

I don't even have any interest in half the games you review but I watch ALL of your videos because of how clearly you explain things. Your ability to communicate with words is extraordinary. Thanks for another great video Gingy!

Early in Dead Space's development, the setting of being trapped in a prison was at the forefront, until it was later dropped for the Ishimora, I feel that Callisto Protocol tried to shoehorn in that original premise too much. The studio wanted to create Dead Space again, but wasn't able to take anything that made that series unique and amazing. It feels like Callisto Protocol got the leftovers in regards of the story and world.

If they do extend the story into a sequel, it’d be interesting to explore Dani as a playable character. The fact she escaped gives the writers the option to expand the world building in a new location, and her CORE data link with Jacob opens up a ton of narrative potential. Maybe she can still communicate with him, or maybe she gets the occasional memory bleed into her consciousness. Jacob’s fate at the end of TCP is uncertain; Dani could bring her character arc full circle by going on a quest to find him. He could even be captured by the Circle to be experimented on as the new Subject Alpha and become the antagonist. There’s a lot of potential with what was left at the end of the game.

It feels like a lot of AAA games are trying way too hard to be like movies they leave the fun parts of the gameplay by the wayside.

Something I wish is that the game could take a little more time to develop its characters and environment. I think that it rushes the sotry sometimes, for example, at the begining, Jacob gets arrested, spends a few minutes in his cell unconscious and everything has gone to hell already. Imagine if the game did something similar to Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay or Deus Ex Criminal Past DLC, and let you see the live in the prison, talk with other prisoners, guards, plan some kind of escape, reach some sewers or maintenance tunnels and then you see there's something down there and when you try to flee whatever is chasing you, you get captured by Ferris, and then the biophages attack.

First, also if you didn't know the callisto protocol was what dead space was originally supposed to be before it was changed to dead space.

For me it was more about how the story was told than the story itself. You can still tell a generic story in a really interesting way. The characters didn't feel lived in that world. They almost felt like they weren't even there. Might as well have all been hologram recordings. I don't know if the actors were expensive by the hour, but they were barely around.

I don’t remember when I found your channel but I’m glad I did. You’ve quickly become a channel that I watch new videos right away! Keep up the insightful analysis and looking forward to the next!

the thing I love about Dead Space's story is that despite it being very narrow and short, it's perfect and intentionally leaves as much as it can to your imagination and this trick of leaving it to your imagination is perfect for Horror and specially Cosmic Horror because we humans are great at making something we don't understand way more scary than it actually could be, specially if you have a decent imagination its gonna run wild with the little information the game gives you, and the other great part of it is that its already based off of other Masterpieces like Alien and Event Horizon, it's a lot easier to make a great story if its inspired and based on other already perfectly working stories.

Similarities to Dead Space aside, I feel like they crammed the entire story and lore of 3 games into 1. Imagine they'd taken Dead Space 1 to 3 and crammed it all in a 7 hour game. The story itself in CP isn't bad, but it feels waaaaay to crammed and the pacing is way too much off. The entire outbreak happened way too fast, they could've built in more prisoners trying to escape; more security forces (some trying to restore order, some trying to escape) etc. Imagine if you could've chosen to help guards or prisoners against each other and the monsters, or hell: sacrifice them to bypass harder sections to reduce enemy counters and so forth. The story could've been a LOT more to also help the game differ from Dead Space even further. There's already a prison-horror-action game that mastered this craft: The Suffering. Callisto could've been like that game, but in space.

book inbound: I feel like im one with the minority of people who have been enjoying the game BUT im really happy you mentioned the PUBG relationship being axed late in development, because it seems like they didnt really know where to go with the whole story. let me explain- Spoilers- I called the twist within the first few minutes when Jacobs uses the callsign "Charon" in the intro. Charon being the ferryman of the dead, it couldnt have been more obvious he was transporting the larve/bio pods. HE EVEN KNOWS THIS as shown by a cutscene at the very end of the game, but they play straight it all the way through like he has no idea his involvement. They even go as far as to detour through the ship w danny and check the cargo as this little "see he wasnt involved after all. gotcha" moment. making the guilty piolt reveal later cheap. also you mentioned elias and how his arc seemed out of place. I thought the same thing. He shows up as one of the only alive and uninfected in the block, and never actively contributes. He gives jacob all the weapons, and somehow always meets us at the main goals even though its like we always have to detour through danger. The classic "i need to man the controls. Ill see you there" split up set up. One odd thing i noticed was the first how elias whos whole thing is knowing the prison inside and out, but the first elevator takes us down instead of up. He says youll just have to take the long way. Why didnt Jacob go up? I say its because Jacob obviously DOESNT know his way around and im convinced elias didnt actually exist in the original story. Later Elias gives him a hologram through the underground, but he never sends any use info from the computers he "has" to stay back for? surely theres a map in the system. But that wouldve provides a marker system like dead space, and with the game being so linear, it wouldve shown hard. When falling in the elevator he says to jam the brakes. There just so happens to be a bar in front of us, almost like jacob is talking through him for us the player. When getting to the dome overlook he says "tell us what you see so we can help" as though jacob has an audience other than just him? these weird things go all the way until we free Danny and then it all changes when she acknowledged Elias, after that they cram in this murder-self defense story and kill him off. i believe elias was supposed to be a nicole-type character from the OG dead space. A guide who is never reallly alive. That would explain his character being so half-baked. Jacob emphasizes rubbing his head for the first hour or so of the game at multiple points. Elias says straight up that "they scramble your brain, but you get used to it" The cliff hanger at the end with Jacob and the Dr. saying there may still be a way off before a jump scare also lessens the sacrifice to keep sequels open. almost exactly like DS3s ending. Theres plenty more, but ill stop there. If im mistaken please let me know, because some things really felt out of place. Like 3 stories in one that just settled out to "lets just do dead space again", leaving the story shallow

You missed some audiologs, because it was stated that a few billions were spent to terraform Callisto only for it to be cancelled partway to completion. Hence there probably is oxygen in the atmosphere, just in too low a pressure to breathe longterm (like on Everest). It is disappointing that there wasn't more worldbuilding done in terms of the scope of Humanity outside of Callisto, but granted it's an isolated prison in the middle of a zombie-ish virus outbreak, that's kind of to be expected. Here's hoping the story content fixes that and expands on the characters

one of my main problems is that Warden Cole and Dani are honestly idiotic: 1) Cole is allowed to do whatever he wants...just because. He actually should have just continued testing, they might have gotten a breakthrough, but the game seems to portray him as having succeded with his "Alpha" monstrosity. All he needed to do is test if say, Ferris can react well enough. That is it, no need to destroy the billion dollar prison for stupid reasons. People even say he's mad, like the space illuminati and yet they allow him to do it? It just happens just because. 2) Dani acts unlikeable and then we are supposed to think she was a good person? She hypocritically boards Jacob's ship with armed people, blatantly willing to kill. Jacob fights back by spacing her and yet he's the bad guy to her and acts all "don't trust him." She basically mocks and desecrates Elias's corpse. And again, we are supposed to think Jacob is actually bad because he unknowingly sent helped the virus spread? I am at least glad you aren't saying he's the "main antagonist" for literally doing his job.

Man the story of the audiologs (helix station) is so much better then the actual games story... Was really hoping it would be of similar quality.

In my opinion the story started in the end of the game, it's like they going for to turn this to a series, i really hope they do CP2 :)

As far as Callisto's air goes, I'm thinking its probably just supposed to be really thin like the air at the top of mt everest. So you could be fine if you aren't moving around too much and don't require as much oxygen.

So there are a bunch of questions I have about this game's story that I want to see if chat can answer. 1. Is the infection a parasite or a virus, and how does it spread outside "facehuggers"? 2.Why was Jacob asleep for the entire outbreak? Presumably the outbreak took place over a day or two so he should have been awake by then. 3.Why did the Warden want to imprison Jacob? 4. How did Dani find Jacob's ship and why did she specifically assume he was hauling bio-weapons. 5. There are people shown outside frozen mid action; how did this happen? If the planet was so cold to the point that people would instantly freeze to the elements, Jacob and the other infected could not survive outside. 6.What is the stuff on the walls? It's clearly supposed to be something like the "corruption" from Dead Space, but I saw no explanation.

I personally love the game but they mossed the ball on somethings. But i think this franchise still has potential and shouldn’t be scrapped. I hope they learn from mistakes made and improve on sequels if it gets one.

50/50 odd's this ain't going to fulfill it's potential, 60-80% of the community have gripes with ALOT of the game, if it isn't popular, and isn't selling, it isn't getting a sequel.

I feel like this game should’ve been longer and had a hour or more buildup in black iron before the outbreak starts to establish characters and the setting and maybe doing what the dead space remake is doing and make black iron a seamless interconnected place and maybe having a hub where survivors and the cast can catch a break and maybe give you the option to get to know the characters and give it a nice rhythm like the first dead space game of repairing and exploring a part of a ship and then heading back to the tram and cut to the next chapter

Brooo its been like 5 days (if that) since the game came out and youve already finished it and made a god teir analysis. I swear youre a speed runner bro

It's such a shame too because I love the look of everything, and the immersion - like how Jacob keeps all the weapons visibly on him. And the graphics my god. Get a better story and gameplay and you're set.

In one of the audio logs you can hear that they shut down teraforming in middle of it. Since callisto has storms it probably has some kind of atmosphere. But you probably cant breath in it for long.

while i do really like this game you summed up my thoughts on the story and small holes perfectly 😭💕 and while i do love dead space i really hope they do branch out and surpass what they did to really make it its own thing

And if ya wanna game that is set somewhere near Jupiter and with quite intriguing lore- I recomend Barotrauma. You are a pilot of a submarine on Europa, fighting strange aquatic aliens, interacting with several factions (including two odd cults), fighting for your life as your submarine gets puncutred, boarded or sabotaged, delivering valuable or dangerous cargo and trying to get into the deepst parts of the European Ocean

Man when the game launched first thing on my mind was your video on it and its finally here

Thank you big dawg for making this video I didn’t want to buy the game but I sure as hell wanted to know about this story tho

YES! 23 minutes of quality! Can’t wait to start this

The real moon of Callisto only has 12.6 percent the surface gravity of Earth. They could make up some excuse like "magnetic boots" to explain why low gravity isn't an issue onboard space ships or inside the prison complex, but once your out on the surface this fact should have really come into play. Specifically, having to navigate around chasms and fences should have been trivial since you character could vault over them with ease. It could have been an interesting change of pace from a gameplay standpoint...more of an open sandbox arena...also, zombies coming flying at you through the snowstorm would have been absolutely terrifying.

I hope he eventually does the metro trilogy. I have no words for how much I enjoys those three games.

Idk how much of Visceral is in the studio who made Callisto Protocol, so far I know there is one- the writter for Dead Space (I think)- and my thinking is that people gave Callisto so much clout just because this one person, disregarding that Dead Space was a group venture, it was not just a One Man Show And it shows in the lost potential of this game- the overcinematicised gameplay, the story that's "skin deep Dead Space" and the game that isn't even scary. Yeah, people still have some hope- since Negative Atmosphere is still in works - but at this point I think people should just go buy and play Signalis if they want an intriguing story, horrible monsters, horror and no hand holding. I will stand by this- Signalis is far more worth your time than Callisto Protocol. Addendum: excuse me... what the fuck is the lore of PUBG? And why does it have "Deep lore" ? It's a fkin BR title, all it needs is a small snipet explaining why people kill each other. Big storytelling doesn't work in BR titles- they are too scaterbrained and too unfocused to do a coheasive story. If someone wants a big, deep story- then sorry, you can't make a BR game, unless you want to deal lore as cards or some other outside the game method.

I was wondering what the story was in this game and kept thinking in my head if you made a video about this game. Literally as soon as I boot up RU-vid I get this. Respect the grind and amazing content man!

I really like your analysis overall about the game Your optimism is very thoughtful

I feel like from the first hour or 2 into the game you could absolutely tell where the story was going

My favorite part was the end when Jacob said "Winner winner chicken dinner"

Hey man, love your videos. When are you putting out the Mass Effect 3 video?

Is that Sam Witwer? The guard holding the protagonist with the telekinesis? And I think Dani played on that show "The Boys" that super hero show were the super heros are the bad guys and there's a superman knock-off called homelander.

When I saw the warden talking about humanity not being able to survive out in space it made me think of the Ousters from the Hyperion Cantos they basically modified themselves genetically and mechanically to be able to survive the vacuum of space

I wonder if game devs and writers watch videos like this one to understand their endusers better. This video is MASSIVELY valuable for any prospective game dev. Great constructive criticism, and not just talking about the problems but rather proposing solutions and looking ahead to the future of the IP.

also it really sucks that you cant listen to audiolog on the fly you have to stay stuck in the menu

The podcast gives a backstory to everything leading up to this game. Apparently, some mugger was trying to rob Elias of his wife's wedding ring. He killed the mugger (in self defense), but was still sent the prison. The podcast has great reviews and definitely expands the story and made everything make sense. What they should've done was put everything in the podcast as recordings or gave us a separate game, kind of like MGS V ground zero.

Honestly I am interested where the story goes from here like sure it was bland but I always like mysterious alien stuff and always like to see it more explored and explained over time

There were 6 boss fights, Wich 4 of them were the two headed infected 💀💀😭

Dead Space 1: what if Resident Evil, but Aliens and the Thing? Callisto Protocol: what if Dead Space, but Resident Evil?

They did release 6 audio episodes on their channel leading up to the release of the game that has a lot of world building.

Imagine if Ferris becomes the "Hunter" of Callisto Protocol, which evolves as the game goes. First a thinking person, thus easier to evade. Then he mutates and turn into a monster identical to the monster pursuing Isaac

Need a DLC as a security guard character in this game for part of the story

MY MAN. The game just came out. Did you find a way to compress 10 hours into one?

Gingy, wtf the game just released. Jk amazing work as always.

The first sentence of this video is perfect. Nice job Gingy

The most interesting thing in Dead Space 1, IMO, is the plasma cutter AKA the first weapon you're given. Isaac is a engineer, and his weapon is a tool he rigged to cut off limbs from necromorphs, which I have yet to see ANY game set the tone like that. He is not a guard, or enforcer, or anything like that, he BARELY managed to put together something to fight back, he stomps on corpses and beats them with his heavy suit. How could a pilot do the same? While yes, Isaac can pull some feats out of his ass (shooting asteroids), you could reasonably let it pass since he could reasonably understand some parts of it and just hope it works, but Callisto heavily lacking in creativity.

i found the max difficulty really made the game a lot better, like 5 times better, the combat was so much closer and a lot more tense, because of how quick something could fly around the corner and fuck you up, the grunts seem to throw a lot more mix ups in the fighting, which will catch you out very often.

Literally in the first scene when they tell you to check the cargo hanger for a yellow light, I looked at my buddy and said I bet he was the reason the outbreak on Europa happened cuz of the radioactive symbol on the containers. Then we laughed because there's no way they'd make it that easy to guess the plot. Then made it halfway and only saw the med supplies and I actually double guessed my self but then the vision in Danis memory and I was laughing my ass off I couldn't have been the only one who saw that shit coming in the first 10 minutes of the game it was so cliché but for some reason I still really enjoyed the game even with its flaws I'm hoping the dlc does some good for the game.

4:32 As for the air conundrum. I chalked it up to something like the Avatar where the air is sort of there but poisonous. I mean their mask they wear at the beginning of the game are damn near identical to the ones in Avater. plus I believe it was mentioned at one point humanity was trying to terraform Calisto.

I’m glad that people are accepting of the game, even with its early issues with story and performance. I think a sequel can definitely help. Definitely expand the political implications of the UJC and Black Iron, the Outer Way and the space-wide reveal of the infection that was released on Europa and Callisto. And also the combat. DEFINITELY improve the shallow puddle that is combat.

nice video, just pointing out that in the beginning you mentioned Europa as a planet, but it's actually another moon of Jupiter, not planet.

12:40 I do think a sequel could “iron” this out. I see what you did there lol

Callisto: "Hey man, can I see your notes?" Dead Space: "Sure, but change it a little so it's not obvious."

Wasn't the Callisto Protocol confirmed a couple months ago that it was the first draft for Dead Space?

2:02 to make a correction here. It's noted that Callisto protocol was the original idea for dead space. The original idea for dead space was the scifi prison break in a zombie apocalypse and slowly changed into scifi ship repair in a zombie apocalypse.

5:06 THANK YOU! I was thinking the exact same thing during this part.

Aye any chance we’ll be getting a mass effect 3 soon? No rush but I’d love it

🔥🔥🔥 very cool video Gingy

m8 is uploading so much with such high quality, can't wait to look back on this comment when he has a mil subs

I was literally waiting for your video

The experiment in BIP was basically a Battle Royale. I think you might be right in saying the IP's were severed very late in development

GREAT IDEAS! IF WE could see how they died we could get hints and clues! Like a batman arkam detective vision investigations.

rn i just got to the oxygen section of the game after watchin this video. and found only one room of the circle so far. and listened to 4 out of 5 episodes of helix station. my issues so far is the dodge and hearing how bad it was to learn i went for auto dodge and even that to me feels off. however having the limited space of 6 slots for inventory although like dead space feels like a hindrance. anyway i hope we can get more from this universe as helix has good writing im sad this game dosnt pull enough on its own but if we get more story in the dlc and a sequal that helps it will be intresting. i hope jacob survives the dead moon.

Great video but I interpreted a couple of beats different: Mahler's change of heart isn't strange because you find an audio log of her, sounding horrified by the Warden's actions re Europa and the Protocol. In essence she is lad based, and while is fine experimenting in a closed environment, she finds the idea of unleashing the virus to be 'madness'. This also ties into subject zero - this was a result of the original outbreak 75 years ago in arcas - so again she didnt have anything to do with Europa, she was just building off a past tragedy.

Wasn't there something about the line "There's always a price to pay.." 3:52 in Dead Space or something similar to it. Sounds familiar.

Tried at one point to reconcile the incoherent and inconsitent oxygen problems with the terraforming efforts, perhaps responsible for a somehow breathable yet harsh atmosphere (like in high altitude or on top of mountains) but when your world building is less convincing than Total Recall's (the OG one) and the infamous scene where Arnold is "suffocating" on Mars' surface while oxygen slowly fills the atmosphere, you gotta ask what's this "renewal of survival horror" IGN, Gamespot and the VG press worldwide lambasted us with for months up to release

Gingy, wanna make a complete elden ring retrospective? You know the base lore, lore of main bosses, lore of dungeon bosses, endings, the freenzy, vvyke, and basically the rest of the game. Also wamted to say that I absolutely love your videos!

Honestly, if they fleshed out more parts of the story like everyone else says, it definitely would’ve been a great experience. Also, it doesn’t feel scary at all despite being a horror survival game. Between the atmosphere, the combat system, and even the enemies, there really isn’t that fear and desperation that dead space has throughout the entirety of the game.

Theory#1: the prisoners in Black Iron Prison are PUBG winners. Also, Dani as the protagonist would be interesting. 100% agree with the analysis.

It felt so much like dead space I kept looking for a plasma cutter upgrade. I also kept having this weird feeling like maybe someone from visceral games made this and since they didn't have the license rights to dead space this is what they could do instead. I also admit I actually thought this could have been in the dead space universe say 300 years before Isaac Clark time. But while the ending was good it killed that idea. Thank you for the video.

I was so confused with the scare at the end lol

I personally enjoyed the game but it sucks seeing how it was unable to deliver the expectations people had. I sometimes wonder how these things happen when an experienced team who have been making games make something so promising but end up short especially knowing a good amount of devs made the OG dead space. I hope this game gets a sequel and show how awesome this series could be.

Can you do a story retrospective of the metro series

i actually agree a ton they should of showed earth or jacob doing some runs back and forth showing how advanced the human species is by showing Europa and callisto like maybe show a the normal side of callisto and then that way u set up ur just a regular guy and then have the crash which makes where u get taken in more depressing ,i noticed there's no human earth stuff even in all the audio logs there all born Europa or some other place i haven't found one that said earth which made me think maybe did earth fail also the ending made me mad because u can tell the "True" ending is coming in the dlc where jacob escapes setting up phase 2 but also the 5 confused me because they just appeared it feels like they expect u to know all this stuff but they don't really explain anything but also there on a moon show the dang moon the hanger part was beautiful i wish there was more outside exploring the actual planet

Somehow I pieced together the full story like 1/3 into the game and I was very proud of myself.

Looks like this game is destined to go down like like The Order 1886 with it's popularity and reception.

Can you start doing a rating system with your reviews? Ether a 1-5 or must play to pass system?

Super well done 👏 +1sub

It wasn't less really, it just has that feeling of wanting more and I believe or hope that this is gonna be a trilogy or something to expand on it.

I just made a Google search and Callisto's gravity is more or less 1/8 of Earth. For the game's event to make sense either on Callisto or Europa, one has to assume that the main component of a terraforming project is to install a huge gravity amplifier near the moons' core... LOL

I have this for the PS5 and it looks and sounds damn good. The combat is ok or fair at best, I truly wish there was a map so I could see the rooms I can explore but not guide you in the direction to go if that makes any sense? I’m about half way done with the game as I’m writing this and I’m having fun with it with better combat I’d behaving more of it, but it is was it is.

I actually enjoyed the story of Callisto Protocol, though I wished some things got more light shed on them instead of being left ambiguous, maybe that's because they might make a sequel 🤔

Ive got to replay , but I think it was the whole planet of Europa. Also the zombies aren’t entirely man made, its hinted at, in the later chapters and during Dani’s infection, that there is a hive mind at work.

Such a shame that the game went the way it did, but loved seeing your thoughts on it, looking forward to when the dlc comes out and we can see if your thoughts are correct as I think set up for a sequel could go much further than just wrapping it up here and being done

Honestly I didn’t play dead space at all. So this was my first experience with a story like this and I enjoyed it, and I was SO HAPPY this wasn’t just another over the shoulder “open-world” game cuz that has gotten so boring to me. But yeah the game is definitely lacking in some areas. I’m also not the best gamer but at the beginning I found the combat to be challenging and satisfying once I got comfortable. It’s was better then just “L1 block-R1 spam” lol love the vids!

I'd argue that (at least in my opinion) it feels more like RE2 Remake than Dead Space in terms of story. A secret organization releasing a virus in a prison (city in RE2) to see what the virus does and test their weapon. Only key difference I see is that the "circle" is pushing human evolution to live "among the stars" (spaceships, suits, they clearly have a liveable atmosphere on Europa since the dead people didn't have helmets, but whatever) while Umbrella did it to test their bioweapons and to kill all witnesses in Raccoon City due to sabatoge and leaks.

Please do a retrospective or story or lore on hollow knight. I already know everything in hollow knight but would love to see it from you.