Supermassive Games are the kind of developers that, no matter what the studio releases, I will inevitably play. I’ve been a big fan of Supermassive’s unique brand of cinematic, narrative-driven horror experiences since 2016’s Until Dawn (the original, not the remake. Or the movie). The Dark Pictures Anthology, a collection of standalone games under the Dark Pictures banner, got off to a rocky start with Man of Medan, got slightly better with Little Hope, peaked with the excellent House of Ashes, and sort of fizzled out of its first season with The Devil in Me. The series has now launched the second season of The Dark Pictures with its first chapter, Directive 8020, this time tackling sci-fi horror in outer space.

In Directive 8020, players follow a crew aboard the colony spaceship Cassiopeia, sent out to a new planet for surveillance and to determine whether that new planet is good enough to establish a human colony. Unfortunately, something awful happens and those plans are derailed once the crew wakes up from cryosleep to find out that they’ve potentially been invaded by a shapeshifting alien lifeform.



The one thing I appreciate Supermassive Games for is its obvious throwbacks to horror cinema, whether it’s Ghost Ship for Man of Medan or The Descent for House of Ashes, the studio has proven to have a good grasp of, or at least a deep appreciation, for the horror genre (which really speaks to me). For Directive 8020, there’s a unique combination of elements from Alien, The Thing and Event Horizon, with the outer space horror setting being a familiar setup.



Once again, Supermassive leans into its strengths as a developer, delivering a tense, claustrophobic narrative-driven experience – highly cinematic in nature, with the choice/consequence system driving its gameplay and story progression. Each major decision – called a “Turning Point” in Directive 8020 – spirals off into a branching path that determines whether characters will live or die. The purpose is then to secure the lives of the whole crew while coming face-to-face with an unknown alien threat that just so happens to be able to shapeshift.

Supermassive leans into its strengths as a developer, delivering a tense, claustrophobic narrative-driven experience – highly cinematic in nature, with the choice/consequence system driving its gameplay and story progression.

The storytelling in Directive 8020 is inconsistent but for the most part, it lands. There are a couple of genuinely good twists that add to the game’s story rather than detract from it (see Little Hope) and I haven’t seen it explored much in science fiction before. I just wish the characters were better written because I think the story has a lot of potential, especially once it starts throwing curveballs. Directive 8020 makes a few smart creative decisions that honestly surprised me with where it all went, though it still left a little to be desired.



The alien’s shapeshifting abilities actually come into play during the story as it can take on the appearance of any crew member. Yes, it’s very much inspired by The Thing, almost to a fault, since it plays up that feeling of uncertainty when you’re speaking to, or even playing as another one of your crew. The problem is Directive 8020 never really does anything interesting with this mechanic. It’s certainly new territory for horror video games but if you’ve seen The Thing, its remake or any other horror movie where a creature invades another person’s body or assumes their appearance, it will all feel derivative and predictable after a while. It’s disappointing because this element of the story feels half-baked in Directive 8020 and it never actually materialises into something unique or surprising in the end.

If you here for the scares, Directive 8020 offers up plenty of them, utilising its dark corridors, the quiet drone of space, and audio design very effectively to keep you on edge. There were moments that admittedly made my hair stand or a jump scare that actually got me but the horror wears off quickly, giving way to something that hurts the overall game (but we’ll get to that in a bit). I think if you know what you’re getting going into Directive 8020, you will probably enjoy it, though Supermassive’s scariest experiences are still saved for Until Dawn and House of Ashes.



The story is broken up into eight lengthy chapters that took me roughly six hours to complete. At the beginning, players can choose between Explorer or Survivor mode: the former lets you replay pivotal Turning Points by giving you all the narrative branches, so you don’t really have to worry about making the wrong decision on your playthrough since you can simply roll back your mistakes. Survivor, on the other hand, locks you into your choices and you can only revisit Turning Points once the game is over. I opted for this mode since it felt more like Supermassive’s previous games, but Explorer also seems to be the intended way to play since the studio clearly put a lot of effort in showing how complex and intricate its web of choices and decisions actually gets.

I think if you know what you’re getting going into Directive 8020, you will probably enjoy it, though Supermassive’s scariest experiences are still saved for Until Dawn and House of Ashes.

Most Supermassive games depend on how well developed or likeable its cast of characters are and unfortunately, Directive 8020 misses the mark. The actors are doing a fine job and clearly enjoying it but outside of its two leads, the rest of the crew feels a bit disposable. I know in horror, disposable characters are more welcomed than other genres, but if the entire backbone of your game depends on getting attached to the characters, Directive 8020 does little to get you to like them. Even in games like Until Dawn with intentionally unlikeable characters like Emily, you get a more three-dimensional character out of them than the cardboard cut-outs here who feel like they’re meant to die at some point, but because of the game’s mechanics, keeping them alive feels like they’re outstaying their welcome.



The game’s worst offense is its mandatory stealth sections, of which there are plenty in Directive 8020. I get that Supermassive was trying something different here but there is an over-reliance on stealth sequences to the point of frustration. Alien: Isolation, for example, is cleverly built around using stealth but Directive 8020 clearly isn’t. It pushes a narrative experience forward while bombarding players with these annoyingly simple stealth sections, and even then, I’m not sure it’s a completely refined system. When you’re caught in stealth, you're given a QTE to break out of danger, so in one instance, I got one of my characters caught and broke out. The game didn’t even let me move for cover before I was instantly caught again. In short, the stealth isn’t fun – it almost never is when it’s mandatory in a game unless the mechanics are built around it – and it brings Directive 8020 down a few pegs.

I get that Supermassive was trying something different here but there is an over-reliance on stealth sequences to the point of frustration.

On the bright side, Directive 8020’s visuals are terrific and character models are detailed, as expected from the studio. Supermassive Games put a lot of attention into building the game’s brooding, suffocating atmosphere aboard the Cassiopeia, from its foggy, dimly lit hallways obstructing your view to the slimy confines of the game’s later stages. It’s all incredibly immersive, expertly using environmental storytelling in certain situations to subtly progress the narrative. Surprisingly, Directive 8020 is also heavier on gameplay as you’ll spend a lot of time in a third-person perspective scouring areas, searching for doors and items, and confidently getting lost in them. Compared to the studio’s previous games which were harder on cinematics, this was a refreshing change of pace – as long as you weren’t in the game’s stealth sections, at least.



Performance on PS5 Pro is a mixed bag overall. Character animations can appear a bit jittery and unnatural, while the framerate struggled to stay consistent at times. Texture pop-ins were also noticeable – at one point, my game turned in a blurry mess before it crashed, forcing me to reset the chapter (I wasn’t too far in, thankfully). If you’re planning on picking it up on PS5, I’d strongly advise you to wait for further patches and updates. As it stands, it’s not in the most polished technical state and I’ve heard similar optimisation problems plague PC as well.

Directive 8020 is a disappointing entry in Supermassive’s portfolio. It’s one of the studio’s more forgettable narrative-driven horror titles despite its inspired sci-fi setting that made my inner Event Horizon fan happy for a few brief moments. The game’s half-baked stealth segments are numerous enough to hinder the game’s experience and the characters simply aren’t very interesting. If you’re looking for a decent, sometimes pretty fun cinematic horror romp with friends, this could be a good time-waster. Sadly it’s not the strongest start to The Dark Pictures’ second season, which I hope is only up from here.

Directive 8020 is now available at Nexus Hub for R1,399