According to the details about The Callisto Protocol on Steam, the studio is splitting around 25 different death animations across two different DLC packs. Here’s what the text on the game’s Steam page says about the season pass: Outer Way Skin Collection: Bear the armor of the Outer Way, an underground insurgency pitted against the UJC, as you fight to survive the horrors of Callisto. Contagion Bundle: Discover the ultimate survival horror experience with a new mode, Contagion. With reduced ammo and health drops, a customized difficulty and permadeath – there are no second chances to escape Black Iron Prison or the horrors lurking beneath the surface of Callisto. The Contagion Bundle also includes thirteen new Jacob death animations and the Watchtower Skin Collection. Riot Bundle: Venture into a previously undiscovered area of Black Iron Prison and battle through waves of brutal enemies. Gather credits to upgrade your weapons, or forge new ones, and survive the onslaught as long as you can in Riot, an all-new mode. The Riot Bundle also includes twelve new enemy death animations and the Engineer Skin Collection. Story DLC: Dig deeper into the horrifying secrets of The Callisto Protocol. On one hand, the Season Pass is included in the $80 Digital Deluxe Edition of The Callisto Protocol ($89.99 for the PS5 and $79.99 for the PS4). It’s not that too much more expensive considering it also adds several types of content to The Callisto Protocol on top of the new animations. But, really? It’s already 2022 and it seems silly to stick death animations behind a premium. There’s no sense in doing this unless it’s one way for the studio to bypass the ban in Japan but it’s not. This would’ve been a clever way to hide the particularly overboard gory animations as DLC content so they’re not available in the base game. We don’t know if this will work but it will atleast give The Callisto Protocol a fighting chance at launching in Japan and other markets with astringent violence standards. Having said that, it all feels like Schofield hasn’t forgotten his earlier EA ways what with his greedy monetization of content for The Callisto Protocol. You can’t help but wonder if this will encourage other studios to do the same, if the market tolerates what Striking Distance Studios is about to do. We’ve already seen SEGA do it earlier this year with Sonic Origins after it locked modes, character animations, and more content behind three separate DLC packs. At this point, the thought of what else publishers can lock behind DLCs and paywalls will be haunting us more than The Callisto Protocol. We’ll find out more if The Callisto Protocol and its DLC are worth the price on December 2. Speaking of horror games, the next few months are going to be huge for fans of the creepy crawlies and hair-raising moments. On top of The Callisto Protocol, a remake of Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 are coming out on January 27 and March 24, respectively
