Following the launch of The Callisto Protocol earlier this week, the new horror title received a barrage of negative reviews on Steam due to the game's poor performance on PC. Even though Striking Distance's survival-horror title has welcomed a generally positive reception on consoles, it has been swarmed with negative reviews on Steam due to its extreme stuttering and performance issues. But, following its rough PC debut, the game has received its first performance patch which addresses the troubled performance partly caused by "shader compilation."RELATED: Callisto Protocol Director Says SpongeBob Was Inspiration For Certain ElementsFollowing its launch on December 2, thousands of PC players left negative reviews on The Callisto Protocol's Steam page, making the title's review description "negative" on the platform. Based on the reviews, the performance-related issues are unbearable and the low optimization renders the game unplayable.The problematic launch of The Callisto Protocol has also caused a great number of players to refund the title. Whereas others decided to wait until it received an update, which will fix and stabilize its performance on PC. And it seems like the most recent patch did improve The Callisto Protocol's frame rates as the title's review description on Steam has now changed from "negative" to "mixed".

That being said, the work on the game's optimization is still far from completion as 43% of the reviews remain negative. "After updating, you may see temporary stuttering in the game menu the first time you launch the app," reads the official Tweet. And the developers are hard at work to deliver optimization updates in the coming days to offer a stable experience.

As we have seen many times, (such as Elden Ring, and Cyberpunk 2077), the performance updates tend to do the trick in the days following a troubled launch. A great number of titles that received favorable reviews on other platforms failed to get a similar reception on PC. Which is when studios work on day-one updates and performance patches to resolve stability issues.

The Callisto Protocol, on the other hand, is the fruit of excruciating work made by the Striking Distance Studios, whose director revealed that the developers worked at least 12-15 hours every day of the week to ensure that it hits its targeted release date. But the reviews show that the game's optimization still requires a ton of work, and the studio still has a lot on its plate including the post-launch content revealed in the 6-month roadmap.

The Callisto Protocol allows players to assume the role of Jacob Lee, a cargo ship pilot whose ship crashes on Jupiter's dead moon Callisto. The game's cast includes some familiar faces including Josh Duhamel as Jacob Lee and Karen Fukuhara as Dani Nakamura. Their performances, along with the game's other aspects, received positive reviews from critics. But the ultimate verdict on the title should arrive soon after its performance and stability issues are resolved.

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