FreshFromThaDeli
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Callisto Protocol Contagion Mode DLC
This game is the gift you never asked for that keeps on giving. I have had to play this game from start to finish 7 times. 7.....times! Now, that could have been 6 instead of 7 playthroughs but that was down to my poor planning and only learning that the game has no chapter select 3/4 of the way at launch and then deciding to just replay the game from start to finish. If only I knew that the wonderful devs at Striking Distance were going to release copious amounts of DLC and make their player base replay their 'awesome' game from start to finish upwards of 5 additional times with unskippable fucking cut scenes, slow ass crawling through vent sections, boring whack-a-mole gameplay using the baton for 99% of engagements apart from boss fights. All this in the name of getting all the trophies. I love a good rant so here goes.
Now they go and release the Contagion bundle. Oh this sounds interesting, it must new be a new horde mode or a new enemy type in the game like the Crimson Heads in Resident Evil 1 Remake? Oh no...that would be wishful thinking on my part. Striking Distance thought, "hey pal, you didn't like playing our boring plodding game for 5 times? Well...fucker, how about playing our boring game all over again but this time on permadeath" I literally shuddered when I first heard of this mode coming to Callisto Protocol. Deep down I knew that the incompetency of the Devs would come back to haunt me again as I just knew skipping cut-scenes AKA the mode requested 'feature' since launch won't be patched in for a game mode that has permadeath settings.
The permadeath mode is not really a proper permadeath mode meaning you go back to the start of the game a la Mein Leben from Wolfenstein II. It's like The Last of Us Part II where you start over from the beginning of the chapter you were on. However, the trophy for beating the mode without dying which is a bit ironic given it's a permadeath mode is to not die at all. The game forces a save in the Cloud, not the PS + Cloud but on the game's own server Cloud every time you die. Although you still start the chapter all over again from the beginning, the game logs the stat of you dying. So this meant I had to make this already unbearable playthrough even more unbearable by prolonging my attempts to try again by switching my internet connection off in the settings menu on PS5, playing offline and then uploading the console save to the PS+ Cloud by closing the game and reconnecting online just to to upload the save and then switching the internet connection off again just to have a another crack at the same chapter I died on again without nullifying one of the new trophies.
This is the third and definitely not the last time I will get the 100% on this game. I could have easily given up on this game right around when they released new game + in January but with every new wave of DLC, I will just push on to continue getting my 100% back, call it addiction or call it glutton for punishment. I'm too far gone and invested in getting 100% for this game at this point.
Contagion mode got much easier the further I got. I have a lot of experience with this game given the amount of playthroughs I have done. I memorised the particularly hard encounters and the easy ones. The best advice I have seen is to treat this mode like a speedrun and don't go out of you way to get pickups if they are off the beaten path. I lost count of how many times I had to replay the Habitat chapter and die on the Mario 64 slidathon extravaganza fuckery of a mess sewer pipe slide section. This was the hardest part on the game because it's a cheap 1 hit death that sets you back half an hour and replaying the same parts over and over again was becoming mind numbing.
I recommend to treat the Contagion playthrough as a Hardcore playthrough in terms of upgrades. Whack everything to death with the baton!
Upgrade the baton for the blocking upgrade first and then focus on power upgrades on the left hand side of the upgrade tree. Don't buy a single other gun as you only need the Riot Gun that gets given to you for free about halfway through the game and of course use the starting Hand cannon. Upgrade them both enough to get a damage upgrade attachment and put remaining upgrades into the GRP. The Two-Headed boss fight on the moving platform is the most difficult fight as at that point you can still have under powered weaponry but this boss fight is more of an endurance than a true test of skill. All it takes is one hit from this monstrosity to set you back 45 minutes of playtime of painfully slowly crouch walking through the underground cave section. Thankfully, I didn't die once on this boss fight but I can only imagine I would have been raging if I died on boss fight only to start all over again from the beginning of this chapter.
Anyways...the GOAT Resident Evil 4 is coming out in 6 days and I have Ghostwire Tokyo to complete before it comes out so I can spare myself of having to replay The Callisto Protocol....for now, until the next wave of DLC hits.
PRO'S
+ At least the 2 new trophies are Gold
CON'S
- Unskippable cut-scenes is unacceptable in modern gaming. Unskippable cut scenes in a permadeath mode is a complete disrespect of the player's time. How have they not patched this in yet?
- Paying for new death animations is a new low of DLC selling tactics
- The cool new death animations included in this new DLC were never ever seen by me once because the whole point of the mode they're in is to not die otherwise you lose your chapter progress. What were they thinking?
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The game is enjoyable on the first playthrough but the trophy hunting is what drags the experience into the pits. It is because of this I can't recommend this game in good faith to anyone on this site who cares about the 100%.
The Platinum is ok with 2 playthrough's with potentially 1 trophy that can still be cheesed with a disc copy to skip to the end.
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