Cold Start: The Callisto

The best way I can describe this game is "scuffed". It feels very much like the GIB Games first attempt at a Unity project. The first puzzle, required to actually get into the game proper is bugged in such a way that the panel that you need to pull down gets stuck on an anchor point. At one point, I managed to glitch the wall out of it's stuck pivot point, and continue the game. From there, I managed to make it into the lobby, pick up an important card that had exposition. It took entirely too long for me to notice the very small text that I needed to pull the trigger to play the audio. As I went to pull the trigger, the card flew out of my hand, and would not replay the dialogue again for life or money. I then proceeded to teleport past the door into the elevator entrance, and fall out of the world entirely. This got me an achievement for dying. The physics tries to fight you any time that you try to pick up any object. The first puzzle, required to actually get into the game proper is bugged in such a way that the panel that you need to pull down gets stuck on an anchor point. At one point, I managed to glitch the wall out of it's pivot and the game graciously allowed me to continue. Once I entered another room, a pole kept trying to fling itself out of the small room that I was in. Thankfully, it respawned when it hit the kill plane, but after that point I got stuck in the floor and had to reload at the lobby to continue. It originally took me a significant amount of time to even be able to play the game, because when I purchased it, it wasn't able to support WMR headsets at all. As in, I could not remap a control to be able to click the "New Game" button in the main menu. Despite assurances from the devs that they were looking into WMR support, it was never mentioned again, and the game has only received a single update since that point. It very much feels like a test project for the team that was then swiftly abandoned when they had gotten bored with it and didn't want to support it any longer. They're currently working on an SCP game, and while I wish them the best with it, I'm almost certain that if it ever comes out, it'll be just as scuffed as this one.

Are you ready for a space sci-fi adventure, where you are a detective for an interstellar police force? Where we must investigate a murder case at a seedy hotel on a moon orbiting Jupiter. The Callisto is a sci-fi VR exploration puzzle game, with a very rich storyline that unfolds as you explore. The puzzles are escape room style, and you will be doing a lot of detective work. Finding clues, reading documents, listen to the interactive story. The game is not laid out for you with direction, or hold your hand and walk you through it. Instead you will have to explore The Callisto and uncover clues and puzzles yourself in any order. You will have the aid of Reggie, someone who keeps in contact with you through coms. He will help research the clues you find, and feed you important information. This is not an action game, you will not be fighting or using weapons. This is a slower pace exploration game, where finding and solving clues and puzzles is the main objective. You will feel like a detective in this game, solving a crime. The game gives me vibes of detective movies sliced with space sci-fi movies. You will be immersed into the role in no time, and will be itching to find that next important clue. As I said its not an action game, you really need to listen to the plot unfold and read the information you gather. The story is good, and will keep you exploring the hotel to find more clues. Just when you think you are putting things together, you get a plot twist and new leads to follow. I found the game very enjoyable. Its not a game you will beat in one play through, but it will keep you coming back for answers to the many questions you will have. One thing I would add to the game is, your own section to write down notes. I found myself trying to remember a lot of things I found exploring and wanted to make note of. If doing detective work, reading and listen to the story plot. Solving puzzles, and freely exploring a big hotel excites you, this is a must have VR title for your library. The puzzles and clues can be hard to find and solve time to time. But if you do the work, you will solve it. The game is a bit on the tougher side, but will keep you playing and coming back for more. Watch my preview here, https://youtu.be/7MZcxs7S_98

[h2]I'm Puzzled 😜[/h2] This game is super well thought out. It has puzzles that are unique and don't even feel like puzzles . The graphics are pretty good, it has really good voice acting and a decent story. There are some times where it starts to feel a bit more "open world" than "puzzle solving", but many think that's part of the charm. It's a hidden gem, tbh, and better than many other games out there. If you have any questions, or you want to play some VR, stop on by our steam group. 🔥►Meet PUZZLE'N people now (in group CHAT link below) 💬►Great GFX, lots content, story, strong voice acting 🏆►VR Giveaways and CHAT 🏆 https://steamcommunity.com/groups/JoinUsInVR”

Cold Start: The Callisto is a detective puzzle game where the main focus is on observing your surroundings, gathering clues and putting together whatever the heck happened at hotel Callisto. The game aims to be as immersive as possible and you can interact with most objects (including pushing buttons on wall panels). Expect to do a good bit of walking as you scour the hotel for clues and evidence while you are being guided by a police advisor who gives you relevant (and sometime irrelevant) information. You can also gather case and lore information from text and audio logs scattered around the place. From the playable part you really get the feeling of multiple undercurrents running behind this high profile murder case. All the information and logs get added to your data bank which you can consult at any time. As the The Callisto is in Early Access it only contains the first part of the story and the first area of the hotel complex (the hotel proper + maintenance). Some bugs and some missing polish are to be expected and they are addressed as the game is being developed, but the current content is playable virtually hassle free. The devs run a Discord server where bugs can be reported as well. The game now also features an experimental desktop mode, so a VR headset is not required to play it, however at the time of writing some of the puzzles were inaccessible. In its current state the game is incomplete and a work-in-progress (as expected from an Early Access title), but it has a lot of potential and a hard working dev team behind it, so if you like detective puzzle games, don't mind waiting for the rest of the content and like to support an independent developer, grab this.

Disclaimer: I've received this game for free via Curator Connect. Cold Start: The Callisto is a sci-fi VR adventure/detective game. CS:TC has an interesting premise but currently is unpolished and buggy. It would require a lot of bugfixes and streamlining to become good. And it is not getting any of that, since the game development was "postponed indefinitely" and most likely just abandoned in favor of another project. The idea of sci-fi VR detective game is actually great, and I am puzzled why no one has successfully made it yet. The blueprint for an immersive and fun gameplay mechanics is right there: in almost every detective sci-fi movie you can see an investigator opening several virtual screens/workspaces in front of them to toss photos, articles and clues between folders with hand gestures. CS:TC does none of that: all of the gathered data is handled on one tiny virtual screen that looks like it was made for a flat game rather than VR. There is no way to sort, group or archive anything, it's just a plane clunky list that you have to scroll down to find anything relevant to the case. This list quickly gets filled with useless lore articles and outdated information, until it has dozen of junk lines to scroll through to find 2 or 3 important notes. The gathering of clues, which is the second half of any detective game, is also not streamlined. Some times you get data by just walking into a room and triggering a scripted event, other times you scan things with special palm scanner or grab them, or worst of all stand very close to them and stare at a newly appeared 2d icon. It's always inconsistent, you never know for sure how to interact with an obvious clue. And in addition to main gameplay flaws, the game is riddled with minor bugs and overall jank: from texture popping and audio crackle to almost every item (especially lockers) going insane with collision physics when you try to grab it. Works on Reverb G2

Seems like it has the potential to be pretty solid. The major bugs I noticed were loading issues when walking through doors, and audio issues where it would cut out and sound robotic. The performance is really great, i had no frame rate issues whatsoever. In terms of design, I find it hard to know what I'm supposed to do next at some points, it isn't exactly clear and I find myself wandering without a clue what I'm doing. Other bugs I noticed were tips being covered up by geometry and I couldn't read them. It would be nice if there was a map and potentially quest markers, something to help lead the player. Sometimes I can walk through geometry and sometimes geometry will unload. It would be nice to have a menu where I can see the controls as well. Other than that, it was a fairly enjoyable experience for what I've played so far.

I haven't gotten that far into it yet, but I absolutely LOVE the environment art! I also like the concept. Really cool idea!

Nuh uh.

Its a really fun game that's much better with VR than on desk top but with lots of little Easter eggs and an intriguing story. I hope I get to see the final product. Definitely going to look at VR headsets now so i can pet the robots

Mi piaceva l'idea di avere un puzzle game ambientato nello spazio. Ho amato la saga di Lone Echo e volevo rivivere quelle esperienze ma The Callisto è ben lontano dall'essere un degno sostituto. È lontano da tutto, a dire il vero, anche dall'essere un titolo godibile a causa dei tanti bug e del gameplay un po' goffo. L'idea sembra buona ma a livello tecnico c'è ancora tanto da fare. ================================== I liked the idea of having a puzzle game set in space. I loved the Lone Echo saga and wanted to relive those experiences but The Callisto is far from being a worthy replacement. It's far from everything, to be honest, even from being an enjoyable title due to the many bugs and somewhat clunky gameplay. The idea seems good but on a technical level there is still a lot to do.