PLEASE NOTE: This article contains MASSIVE Spoilers for The Callisto Protocol. Proceed at your own risk.
The Callisto Protocolis an interesting case because it both seems to want to spawn other games to follow in its footsteps, and also deliver a story told in a self-contained environment where players get to learn the origins and form expectations for the future. So, whileThe Callisto Protocol’s ending sets up two sequels and a prequelthat could expand this new universe a lot, the game also tries to answer burning questions that it asks since the beginning, such as what is happening on Callisto and what happened on Europa. Understanding the events that ensued on Europa is critical to the plot, but so is the story behind Black Iron Prison’s foundation and the original colony on Callisto.
This is because everything is connected to the biophage pathogen and how it was discovered, in the beginning, and then later used as a bioweapon with the aim of recreating the original, unintended outbreak on Callisto. Even the word biophage is descriptive of the virus, as it comes from bio and phage, which respectively mean “life” and “eater,” and that’s precisely what the pathogen does in the game, which is highlighted byThe Callisto Protocol’s enemy types. As for its origins, they stem from an event that occurred years prior to the game’s present times, and they are tied to alien organisms found on the titular moon.
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The Callisto Protocol’s Miner Colony and the Origins of the Biophage Pathogen
The very first outbreak in the game’s universe happened when the miners of one of Callisto’s colonies found an alien creature in the ocean substrate of the moon, and while this life-form was killed, its carcass was ridden with larvae carrying the biophage pathogen. Soon after the creature’s appearance, the founders of what eventually became the Black Iron lab arrived on Callisto and built their research facility, where they tried to re-engineer the virus and spread it among the population to see what would happen. This is whereThe Callisto Protocol’s Black Iron Prison was eventually constructed.
From the first outbreak, the subjects rapidly devolved into mindless creatures, but there was the so-called “Subject Zero,” who instead retained their humanity while also acquiring increased strength, resilience, and other superhuman capabilities. Because Subject Zero eventually died, and because the outbreak proved effective to create at least one “improved human being,” Warden Cole later came up with the idea of trying this experiment inBlack Iron Prisonto see if a “Subject Alpha” would emerge, given the healthy pool of subjects at hand.
This is whatThe Callisto Protocolreally is - an experiment with the intent of creating another sort of superhuman being who can face human survivors from the outbreak. In this case, the game’s protagonist, Jacob. As such, the discovery of the biophage pathogen was a random event that then escalated into a series of events leading to the outbreak on Europa first, and then the one that players can experience in Black Iron Prison. This is also unlikely to be the end of the biophage virus, as Jacob eventually discovers that he had been hauling bioweapons all along, each with a singlebiophage larvaein them.
The virus works similarly to the real-life paramo, which is defined as an “evolutionary hot spot,” meaning that vegetation and fauna can rapidly change and adapt over time compared to other ecosystems.The Callisto Protocol’s biophagepathogen is a form of accelerated evolution, where the host’s body immediately starts to change and transform when the contagion occurs. This is interesting because the game’s different enemy types are so diverse from one another precisely because of this accelerated evolutionary process. Overall, even considering that the biophage’s origins are alien, the virus is capable of immediately adapting to other life-forms, and sequels could expand on that to a great effect.
The Callisto Protocolis out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.
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