That it's a good game on it's own premise

It doesn't really even manage that. It's not bad, there's a lot to like, but playing it I ran into a lot of stuff I wish was there, but wasn't.

The story was one thing, but it completely fails at bulding tension. DS1 fills you with adrenaline at regular intervals, but in Callisto Protocol the second I realized the "sound-sensitive" blind enemies don't react to the noise of melee combat, it was like all the air went out of the balloon.

That's a perfect microcosm of the whole game. Really neat ideas, really good execution, but only to 90%. And that last 10% matters. A LOT.

The combat system is great, but it doesn't lean into it at all. The final boss is just a bullet sponge that makes no clever use of any mechanics, and the game is so obsessed with trying to be DS (and TLOU) with boring stealth sections and puzzles.

You end up spending a lot of time wishing combat was happening.

I feel like a Callisto Protocol 2 that leans into the things worked, and fixed just a couple small things that get near working, could be amazing.