Resident Evilhas a handful of memorable locations, even if some of those locations are as explicitly nondescript as rural Europe. The franchise is largely known for its elaborate interior settings, though, such asthe original game’s Spencer Mansion or the sequel’s Raccoon City Police Department. This formula was particularly great for claustrophobic corridors, fixed camera angles, and intricate puzzles where key items would be needed to gain access to different areas. But whenResident Evilopened itself up to areas outside, it still adapted that formula well to the streets of Raccoon City.
Indeed, Raccoon City plays a fairly large role in bothResident Evil 2andResident Evil 3: Nemesis, andthe latter entry opens the actual city up for Jill Valentine to explore. Players return to the RPD in this installment and also visit Raccoon Park, a hospital, and the clock tower, but it is in the city’s streets that the franchise opens up the most to a new iteration of level design that is distinguished apart from other memorable settings.The Callisto Protocolhad its own opportunity to present a network of neighboring streets on the Europa moon, but unfortunately only used it as a noninteractive set piece.
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The Callisto Protocol’s Europa Could Have Been Its Own Take on Raccoon City
The remake ofResident Evil 3was understandably lambasted for not adhering enough to its source material and cutting corners with its content. The remake’s Raccoon City is beautifully rendered and does provide backstreets for players to explore, which can be especially daunting whenResident Evil 3’s Nemesisis hunting them, but is a relatively small part of the game in comparison to the original.
Further, the fact that nearly this entire sequence was playable early inResident Evil 3’s demo diluted any surprise or luster it may have had if players had their first experience with it in-game at launch. Because this area and others were disappointing to many fans,The Callisto Protocolhad an opportunity to upstage it and earn a positive comparison for itself.
The Callisto Protocolbears great resemblance toResident Evil, and its commercial, neon-lit Europa streets are comparable toResident Evil’s own Raccoon City. However,The Callisto Protocolfor some reason decides to only include Europa as a set piece that players see in the game’s prologue and then briefly wade through in an illusory sequence later on. It is then disappointing that Europa was not explorable itself because that could have wonThe Callisto Protocola much-needed edge.
The Callisto Protocol’s Europa Would Have Offered Environmental Diversity
The Callisto Protocol’s rigidly linear environmentsinevitably boil down to identical dim corridors that are all indistinguishable from one another. This is at least until players reach the snowy exterior of the prison and trek around outside in a full suit. Europa is beautifully rendered and a refreshing change of pace fromThe Callisto Protocol’s interior eyesore, but players do not actually spend any legitimate time there.
It seems like a prologue taking place before Dani Nakamura arrives at Europa would not have any significance because she seemingly shows up after the bioweapon outbreak has already claimed everyone’s lives and the city is a wasteland. Likewise, it would be strange now to have a sequel set on Europa since that would mean a second outbreak would need to be let loose there. It is possible that a sequel forThe Callisto Protocolcould introduce a new location that emulates Europa and Raccoon City similarly, but it is nonetheless a missed opportunity that Europa was not explorable as its own engrossing location.
The Callisto Protocolis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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