Directive 8020 comes from Supermassive Games (creators of Until Dawn and The Quarry) and is the newest addition to the Dark Pictures franchise. Supermassive’s MO is branching narratives, cinematic storytelling, and amped up horror, which Directive 8020 delivers on all three accounts.
The story is a sci-fi horror about a colony ship, the Cassiopeia, traveling to a potential new planet to colonize for a dying Earth. As they approach, the ship is struck by a meteor containing an alien life form. The alien organism begins to engulf the ship, mimicking humans to ensure no one can trust anyone.
Directive 8020 has a large cast of characters of the usual sci-fi fare of pilots, scientists, generals, and doctors. Brianna Young, the lead character, is played by Hollywood actress Lashana Lynch (Bob Marley: One Love) and gives a standout performance.
Supermassive Games has consistent expectations when you fire up one of their games. What I appreciate about Directive 8020 is that they took a hard look at all the unique systems they have been building since Until Dawn and made them more gamer-friendly. A rewind feature, a character’s profile based on your interaction response, and easier world navigation are all resounding successes. Their decision to sacrifice immersion and ‘movie-creation’ for the sake of a more accessible gaming experience may turn off the genre’s purists, who prefer the more obtuse branch storyline deciphering and environment hunting to the streamlined checklists. Still, the changes will help more gamers stick around after they do their first run.
The rewind feature, called the Turning Points story tree, is the biggest, most positive change to their formula. Sometimes, not often, in Dark Pictures season one, there would be a decision that would have a slightly confusing question, which would cause a decision I would not have agreed to; or, because these games can be clunky, the systems would work against me, and I would lose a character on a misclick or a cheap death, which greatly diminished my experience. With the rewind feature, I was able to replay a frustrating hide-and-seek gameplay scene and get my expected outcome.
Towards the end, an extremely entertaining Thing-style game of suspicion occurs. After I made my ideal decision, I rewound and did the different scenarios just to see how the game would bend. Once I saw all of them, I jumped back to my ideal path and kept moving. Does the feature break the mindset of me ‘creating my own personal movie’? Yes. Did I engage with this game in a way I haven’t before because of how many barriers there were in previous iterations? Also, Yes.
Supermassive did something different with pacing and tempo. They were more flexible with the story structure and moved some of the climax scenes earlier to act as spots of adrenaline in the opening of the mid-chapters. The “build up” in early chapters can be a bit of a lull since it follows the rising tension of a movie, so this was a welcome change of pace and a fun way to tease upcoming story moments.
Another addition to Directive 8020‘s gameplay is the “messenger” app. At the start of a scene, you can send time-sensitive messages to other party members and gain more insight into their personalities and backstories. A small inclusion in the grand scheme of the game, but very welcome. The messenger helped reinforce key story beats (why is this one character being so dodgy?!), and I found myself quickly checking my messages whenever I got the ‘new message’ notification.
The moment-to-moment gameplay of a Supermassive Game is never the main selling point; it’s more of a walking simulator with interspersed mini-games. The primary mini-game utilized in Directive 8020 was ‘hide-and-seek.’ There were many scenes, some back-to-back, with your character having to sneak by a monster. At first, they were tense, but too many and you see them as a game and not an immersive experience, as they began to wear thin towards the end when the pathing and expectations were no longer a surprise. I never felt bored playing the game, but there were definite lulls in the walking sections that felt a few minutes too long.
Graphically, Directive 8020 is an absolute beast. The motion capture of the cinematic scenes envelops you in the experience and hooks you with the emotions of different actors. Inky lighting and long hallways make every new scene eerie, especially as the alien organism grows and settles into every location as the game progresses. The modern sci-fi aesthetic was done well, if not a bit safe.
The monster design is another story. Gruesome with a healthy touch of originality. Each iteration of the alien was more terrifying than the next, and I couldn’t believe the amount of detail that went into it as they were zoomed in and shown up close on my screen.
Directive 8020 had a story that got better as the game went on. Through my six hours, eight chapters overall, the opening chapters had a been there, done that feeling. The final third of the game, however, turns the story on its head and introduces multiple twists.
The only story downgrade coming from season one to this new iteration of Dark Pictures was the underwhelming world-building. Season one had historical, unique locations with flavor text coming in the form of old news articles, letters, and crime scene reports. The “worlds” (Iraq War, Salem Witch Trials) for each new chapter in the season were almost as exciting as the games themselves. Directive 8020 takes a backseat in this domain, where the flavor text, and subsequently the world itself, never stood out to me.
Sci-fi horror has specific tropes, and Directive 8020 checks all the right boxes. A more streamlined and inviting installment from the Dark Pictures series that boasts interesting branching narratives with some of the gnarliest horror designs in a recent game makes it a must-play for fans of the ‘cinematic adventure’ genre.
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