The Callisto Protocol’s “Gore System” Took “a Couple Years” to Developer

If there’s one thing that fans of the survival horror genre simply cannot get enough of, it’s gore, and thankfully, it looks like upcoming Dead Space-inspired sci-fi horror game The Callisto Protocol is going to be well-stocked in that area. All the gameplay we’ve seen for it in recent days has quite effectively given us a solid glimpse of how brutal and gory the game is going to be, and as you may have expected, that was very much a focal point for the game’s development team at Striking Distance Studios.

In fact, speaking recently with IGN, game director and studio boss Glen Schofield revealed that a team within Striking Distance was working on The Callisto Protocol’s so-called “gore system” for as long as a couple of years, and added dynamism and variation to it to ensure that there’s plenty of variety in the way your enemies’ bodies will tear apart, and how that will happen.

“We spent a couple years on what we call the gore system,” said Schofield. “Rendering engineers, a couple of artists, they just spent time tearing each and every enemy apart. There were times we were like, ‘tear another hole in him, they might do this.’ So you may never see the same torn apart guy twice. That was part of it, too. We wanted each and every person to have a different horrific experience.”

Given the dismemberment system that Schofield and his team at the now-shuttered Visceral Games on the original Dead Space, it’s no surprise that they’re taking a similar approach to The Callisto Protocol. Of course, the standards for gore have really skyrocketed in recent years when it comes to survival horror games, thanks in large part to 2019’s Resident Evil 2 remake, so hopefully we’ll get to see something on (or beyond) that level.

The Callisto Protocol is due out on December 2 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.