Supermassive Games has spent the last few years focusing on The Dark Pictures anthology. An exploration of the pulp horror anthology stories in the form of shorter games with branching paths. Each game received varying degrees of reception across all areas, bringing many needed criticisms and feedback. After releasing The Querry and Little Nightmares III, Supermassive returns to The Dark Pictures with Directive 8020.
Teased back at the end of The Devil In Me, Directive 8020 has undergone a drastic redesign and dropped the The Dark Pictures subtitle altogether. This is by design, as Supermassive intends to distance itself from the subtitle and present it as a standalone experience. While this is an interesting approach and attempts to reintroduce the anthology series to a new audience, Directive 8020 presents a strong allure towards the mystery with the infestation inside the Cassiopeia.
Not Everything Is As It Seems At First Glance
Megacorporations seized the stars in search of a replacement for Earth, as humanity is on the brink of extinction. One such corporation, Corinth, has led the expedition to the planet Tau Ceti f with sending the Cassiopeia to explore the surface. Of course, the expedition goes wrong, and the team brings back something unknown that begins to sow seeds of discord. The premise wears its inspirations on its sleeve, blending Alien with the Lovecraftian horror through the growth’s evolution.
As a staple, Supermassive casts a high-profile actor as the lead in this story and features a playable supporting cast. This time around, Lashanna Lynch is the lead actress for Directive 8020, previously known for her roles in Captain Marvel and The Day of the Jackal. She plays Brianna Young, one of the pilots of the Cassiopeia, who is following in her late father’s legacy. While she’s also in the cover art of the game, her introduction in the build didn’t help her stand out. Perhaps a future episode would showcase her full range, but only time would tell.
Outside of Brianna Young, there are four other playable characters and five non-playable characters that fill the rest of the cast. The ensemble does get to interact in individual segments, but each choice by the playable characters affects their stats. This can also be done during gameplay, as there’s a messaging system that offers choices and character conversations. While it’s far too early to assess the cast’s performances, from what I saw, some are still stiff. Largely, Samantha Cooper has some stiff lines during the latter half of the episode.
Elevating Actions through Consequence
The cold opening serves as a brief tutorial for the stealth sections that appear in frequency through the game. The utility panel on the playable’s cast wrist allows interaction with devices that serve as distractions. While sneaking around, a purple indicator shows the enemy’s proximity, and when caught, a quick-time event appears to subdue them with the wedge tool. When the character fails the quick-time event, a permanent injury is inflicted on them if another injury would be fatal.
When starting a new game or resuming a save, it provides a recap of the previous episodes and their choices. Instead of relying on acts, the game uses an episodic format with replayable paths enabled by the turning point system. During dialogue-heavy moments, a turning point alert appears, which can influence future choices and gameplay segments. It does allow for replayability; however, revisiting an alternate version of a cutscene requires going further back, which is tedious. I’d prefer that it would be easier to revisit the alternate version of the cutscene and see how it plays out.
Additionally, several difficulty settings and playstyles are available and can be adjusted before or during gameplay. With three difficulty settings to choose from that change the speed and reactivity of quick-time events, as well as the cooldown speed of the wedge tool. Explorer mode allows you to freely rewind past turning points, even reversing deaths, for a more forgiving experience. Survivor mode maintains the repercussions of the choices made and cannot be reversed to re-experience another route. There are also customizable options that can toggle several settings for each difficulty, which changes the game’s tempo, as Lethal makes some quick-time events too fast and strict.
Corinth’s Insurance Isn’t Assured
While my time with Directive 8020 was brief, there were a lot of interesting choices to find during this playthrough. In particular, the conversation between LaMarcus Williams, the CEO of Corinth, and Nolan Stafford, the chief officer of the mission, showed a sense of melancholy from both characters. Williams had ambitious dreams to expand Corinth’s reach and, in another instance, revealed that he was inspired by Stafford’s work. Conversations like this add the layer of tragedy that can be enhanced by the choices made through the game.
It’s also worth noting that the game runs on Unreal Engine and is solid; there were some hitches during longer sessions. These hitches also occur during pivotal quick-time events, which can lead to misinputs and mistakes, especially during lethal difficulty playthroughs. The individual graphics settings include an option to see how each change affects the main menu background. Directive 8020 will also launch with a five-player local co-op mode that lets other players choose their different characters, but for the purposes of this preview, it wasn’t available. Overall, there’s a lot of shoes to fill for Directive 8020 to stand out from the shadow of The Dark Pictures, as it releases on May 16.
Directive 8020 launches on May 16 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
