Final Transmission. A DLC with a story conclusion that this game didn't need.
Phew, well that was something. Let me just say right off the bat that this DLC was a fun ride. It wasn't just more of The Callisto Protocol, but it actually focused a lot more on Horror. There was much more psychological horror going on in this DLC, which was great. You as a player didn't really knew what was going on in this trippy experience until the very end, but this game still gave you some hints on what is actually going on, so that you might get an idea that things are not right at all, which is the whole Point of this DLC. So that you actually FEEL like Jacob in this whole situation. While all of this sound good, there are some big problems that i had, which i will all list below.
There is a new Enemy Type.
A Biobot. It was an cool and scary new enemy, but i would've wished more than that one new enemy. The reason for that is the fact that this enemy was a little bit "overused" in certain places, where you basically only fighted these Biobots with your new kinetic Hammer, which brings me to:
The new DLC Weapon.
The Kinetic Hammer is a new addition to this DLC. But there are some big Problems.You only get this Hammer towards the last third of the DLC, before that you still have your baton.The Hammer can't be upgraded like all the other weapons, which is a big shame. Why didn't the devs just gave us the Hammer at the beginning of the DLC, and made it upgradable instead? All of this seems like a lot of wasted potential. But it was still really fun to use nonetheless.
The Story
***Warning, Major Spoilers bellow***
Well well well. The Story is a double-edged sword. On one end we get the true ending, which – even though it's really shocking – we all expected. On the other end this whole DLC becomes completely obsolete once we figure out what all of this was even about. So after Jacob sacrifices himself to safe Dani in the main game, the story ended pretty much in letting us the players think that Jacob died heroically, and at the same time we got shown that the Data Transmission went both ways, meaning that Dani recieved all the Data from Jacob, just like he did from her. So his death was not for nothing. BUT THEN, we get shown that Jacob actually survived the end, where he recieves a Message from Dr.Mahler for his "One last Job", followed by a Jumpscare from the second-stage mutated Ferris. So the ending gave us two questions: 1. What is this one last Job and 2. How did Ferris turn back into his previous form?
This DLC basically only gives us an answer on Number 1. at the very end of the DLC, at the last Cutscene, where we see that Jacob actually didn't really survive his last showdown with the Biophages, because he was brutally mutilated and was being kept alive by Mahler, so that all the Data from his head actually reaches Dani before he dies. After the Final Transmission is complete, both he and Mahler die. This showed us that the whole DLC was just a hallucination from poor Jacob, whose body was kept alive just a little bit longer. Sad and shocking. But what made this DLC so obsolete is the fact, that we didn't even need it at all. We already knew that Dani got all the Data and we actually saw Jacob "dying". So what was the reason for this DLC? Just to tell us: "Hey, maybe you haven't got it before, but Jacob's dead and Dani got the Data!"
We didn't even got told what happened to Jacob at all. It would be obvious if not for Ferris at the end of the main Story. HE WASN'T EVEN MENTIONED ONCE IN THE DLC. SO WHAT WAS THE JUMPSCARE FOR? Some people say that the jumpscare-ending was a hallucination aswell, but i think that's just copium from the fans, because of how this DLC went. On top of all that, this DLC Ending just ruined the main games ending.
The only thing this DLC did, was killing off Jacob, and thus a potential Franchise.
All in all i can only think that the devs actually planned a different route for this DLC, but all these negative critiques ruined that route and made them just kill of Jacob. I personally think that originally the true ending was supposed to be Jacob actually flying away, just like he did in his last moments while hallucinating.
Do i recommend it? Well.... i guess i do. Why? Because it's fun enough and a unique experience. It wasn't the gameplay elements that made this DLC so bad for me, but rather the whole Story-aspect of this DLC, that's why i still give it a thumb up. But honestly a "mid" rating would be more fitting.
This DLC wasn't a conclusion, but rather a statement to all those negative reviews. What a shame.