System requirements

PC System Requirements

The system requirements for The Callisto Protocol are broken down into two categories: minimum and recommended. The minimum specs include a GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580 graphics card, which is the same card used in the entry-level PC in this comparison. The Intel Core i5 8400, has six cores and threads, while the Ryzen 5 2600 has twelve threads but may be slower in games. A modest 8GB of RAM and a standard 75GB storage space are required. The recommended specifications are primarily distinguished by the recommended video cards, with Nvidia's GTX 1070 being an older generation compared to AMD's RX 5700.  The game is the first title developed by Striking Distance Studio and runs on Unreal Engine. However, its launch was not ideal and the game was released in an unfinished state, which is a common trend with many games released recently. The game automatically enables FSR upscaling, but DLSS is not supported.

As of the game update on January, the Callisto Protocol has been tried and tested. All modern cards but the RX 7900 XT/XTX were tested with Radeon driver version 22.11.2, as the 7900 series has its own January driver. The NVIDIA GeForce drivers used are version 528.24.

There is a built-in benchmark tool that allows users to measure frame rates easily. The benchmark is a 45-second sequence that takes you through monster-infested hallways. The results are not encyclopedic and only show the average fps. The game and the benchmark should run at 45 fps or higher to avoid stuttering, which is a persistent issue regardless of the system or settings used. The menu does not provide much explanation or comparison images for the graphics options, except that the game does not require a restart when changing options, except for DirectX mode.

Comparisons were made using the game's internal benchmarks. After applying the latest patch, the built-in benchmark now achieves frame rates roughly 10% higher than the graphically taxing aspects of actual gaming. This means the benchmark is fairly representable for gameplay in the heavier comparable in-game situations. 

Plot (wiki)

In the year 2320, Jacob Lee (played by Josh Duhamel) and Max Barrow (Jeff Schine) are employed as contract freight transporters for the United Jupiter Company. They plan to retire after making one last delivery from Europa to the Black Iron Prison on Callisto, operated by the UJC. However, as they depart from the prison, their ship is boarded by the Outer Way, a group blamed for a massive biological attack on Europa. The ship crashes, leaving only Jacob and Outer Way leader Dani Nakamura (Karen Fukuhara) as the survivors. They are both captured by Captain Leon Ferris, head of security at the Black Iron Prison, and imprisoned by Warden Duncan Cole. Upon awakening, Jacob finds the prison infested with hostile biophages, inmates who have been infected with an unknown disease. He meets Elias Porter, a prisoner who claims to have a plan for escape. Jacob frees Elias, leaving Ferris to be killed by the biophages.

Elias convinces Jacob to find a hacker in the Special Housing Unit to call for a ship to escape. The hacker is revealed to be Dani, but she declines to join them. At the hanger, they are confronted by a partially-infected Ferris and are forced to evacuate onto Callisto's surface. Elias dies due to a damaged mask, but Dani comes to their rescue after retrieving Elias' memories of the Black Iron Prison. She decides to help Jacob as the biophages become more dangerous. After gathering medical supplies from the wreckage of their ship, they reach the hanger where a ship has docked. However, Cole shoots down the ship, causing it to destroy the hanger. With their method of escape gone, Jacob and Dani decide to confront Cole. The two make their way through the ruins of Arcas, Callisto's original colony before it was abandoned and the Black Iron Prison built over it. They find a lab holding a dead creature that the original Arcas miners unearthed, and learn the biophages are parasites that were found in the creature. Seeing its potential for accelerating evolution, the UJC harvested the creature's larvae and began experimenting with it on humans, causing an outbreak in Arcas; one biophage, Subject Zero, retained his intelligence before the UJC destroyed the colony. After Jacob and Dani fend off an encounter with Ferris, Dani becomes infected. Returning to Black Iron, Jacob is knocked out by a security robot and imprisoned.

Jacob is freed by the prison doctor, Dr. Caitlyn Mahler (Louise Barnes), who instructs him to meet her at her lab. She reveals that Cole is part of a religious sect called Kallipolis, with the organization attempting to find a way to advance human evolution. He ordered Mahler to experiment on Black Iron prisoners to find a subject compatible with the alien infection and replicate Subject Zero with a Subject Alpha. Mahler tells Jacob that Dani can be cured by extracting the Alpha's DNA to synthesize an antidote. When Jacob enquires about the Europa outbreak, Mahler admits that a diluted version of the infection was released; the incident inspired Cole to initiate the Callisto Protocol, causing an outbreak in Black Iron by releasing Mahler's test subjects to create Alpha. Mahler provides Jacob access to Dani's memories, where Jacob learns that Dani's sister was killed in the Europa outbreak. He recovers his own memories showing he was aware that the UJC was using his ship to smuggle alien larva samples, but he remained willfully ignorant due to the payments he was receiving.

Jacob confronts Cole, who pits him against Ferris, now Alpha. Jacob defeats and extracts Ferris' DNA. Cole attempts to convince Jacob to turn over the DNA, asserting its value in safeguarding humanity's survival, but Jacob uses it to cure Dani. Enraged, Cole activates the prison's self-destruct countdown and boasts that he has gathered enough data to carry out the Protocol. Jacob puts Dani in the last remaining escape pod along with an alien larva sample, giving her the evidence she needs to expose the UJC's experiments. Mahler contacts Jacob and informs him of a possible escape, before he is attacked by Ferris.