Dead Space successor The Callisto Protocol is free on Epic Games this week

Alongside MOBA hero shooter Gigantic: Rampage Edition

Striking Distance Studios

Every week, the Epic Games Store offers a free game for all of its users — you don’t need to spend a cent or subscribe to a service, just log in and grab it. This week, that game is the spiritual successor to Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol. 

Epic Games has revealed its next batch of free games, with The Callisto Protocol coming in as top billing. It comes alongside Gigantic: Rampage Edition, a cartoonish MOBA hero shooter from Abstraction Games. 

The Callisto Protocol was first released in 2022 after having spent about 3 years in development at Striking Distance Studios. The game was headed up by Glen Schofield, the original creator of Dead Space, and is widely seen as a spiritual successor to the series. It was originally set to be part of the PUBG universe, but eventually pivoted to be an original game. 

Unfortunately, the game launched to somewhat mixed reviews, with many critics saying it was a bit repetitive, unpolished, and somewhat outdated in its design. Our own The Callisto Protocol review called the game "a swing and a miss," saying that while there was promise, the combat was borderline broken.

It was later revealed that the game was released 3 months earlier than Schofield and his team intended, due to pressure from developer Krafton. 

It didn’t help that it launched within a year of a very faithful and mostly well-received Dead Space remake, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had with it. And hey, free is free, right? You can’t really argue with that. 

The Callisto Protocol and Gigantic: Rampage Edition will be available for free until August 29, 2024, after which they will be replaced by the Fallout Classic Collection and Wild Card Football. 

Speaking of spiritual successors, though, a spiritual successor to Goemon was announced to be getting a US release date earlier in the month. The game, called Bakeru, is developed by GoodFeel, which was founded by the former Goemon series director. It’s set to be released later this month on Nintendo Switch and PC.