Directive 8020 Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: Add-On Content

I’ve enjoyed all the interactive horror games developed by Supermassive Games recently. For me, the standouts have been Until Dawn, The Quarry and House of Ashes. Directive 8020 is the first game in season 2 of The Dark Pictures Anthology developed by Supermassive Games. Just like all the other games, this one is very decision based and it has some gameplay segments in between the cutscenes. Overall, I’ve got to say that this one is up there with the greats in terms of overall story.

The Earth is dying and a group of colonizers (aboard the Cassiopeia) are sent to Tau Ceti F to survey the planet for colonization. This is a four year voyage and the Andromeda crew will meet up with them in another six years. A meteorite hits the Cassiopeia and the awakened crew members (that oversee the ones in hypersleep) investigate and seal the hull breach. After awakening from a four year sleep, the rest of the crew begins their mission but notices something strange about the two crew members that watched over their hypersleep. The crew eventually runs into a shapeshifting organism aboard their ship.

Directive 8020 closely resembles John Capenter’s The Thing only in space. The organism in the game can mimic the entire crew, so there is always a matter of trust that is questioned throughout the game. This makes for some very interesting cutscene-based decisions at times. You have to get to know the crew and their personalities well in order to tell the difference between them and a copy of them. Just like other Supermassive games, the game has a bunch of cutscenes with button prompt decisions and QTEs. All characters have a unique “Destiny” that can be unlocked based on the decisions you make. Every character has two traits and a destiny is unlocked based on which trait you lean toward the most.

In other Dark Picture games, you meet up with a Curator in between segments, but he is not in this game and I feel the decision to not include him is for the best. The game has great pacing and he would only interrupt. Where other Dark Pictures games have a slow start, Directive actually does a flash forward to let you play future segments before the chaos actually starts – this is another great decision since it throws you into the middle of the intense sections while you’re still just learning about what is going on. Sometimes you’re still learning the characters and get to play as a yet introduced character! The game also has flashbacks at certain points.

Directive has the most actual gameplay of any of the Dark Pictures games. It has the usual exploration gameplay and it also have plenty of stealth sections. The stealth sections allow you to crouch and sneak by enemies. You can take cover behind objects and create distractions in the environment. Each character has a device that can be used to turn on electrical devices from a distance and in stealth sections, these can be used to distract enemies. You can’t attack enemies with guns in the game, but each character carries around a type of stun rod that can be used for defense and it can also be used to open doors. You play a little minigame to open doors.

While exploring environments, you can scan the area with a scanner to see all electrical components through walls. This allows you to see power boxes for routing power and it also allows you to see possible secret areas and objects. Just like other Supermassive games, there are many collectibles to be found and possible bonus pathways to find. Directive introduces a text messaging system to the gameplay. During gameplay, you can use a messenger to contact other crew members and interact with them. Besides building extra character, this also allows you to gets points toward character traits. The real beauty of the messenger system comes when you have possible copies of your crew members trying to contact you when the existing crew member is still on the list.

Directive introduces Turning Points, which is basically a flowchart of key decisions made throughout the story. If you play on Explorer mode, you can rewind to any of the key decision and make a different decision if you don’t like the way the current story is going or you just want to correct a bad decision. Something like this is really good for those that are playing the first time. Directive doesn’t have as many troll decisions or QTEs as most of the past Supermassive interactive horrors, but they are there at times. The best part about the Turning Point flowchart is that it shows you just how many possible decisions can be made at certain points and give you all the “if’s, and’s, and but’s” based off past decisions and how they affect future decisions. Once the game is completed, you can go to any decision in any chapter and start from there with a different decision then play out the story however you like. Players can still play on the game’s survival mode, which prevents rewinding if you like.

Unlike other Supermassive Games, Directive has no true main characters. Sure, Lashana Lynch’s character is the standout because she is the most popular actor, but this game gives a good amount of screen time to all main (playable) characters and the side characters. I really feel like no character is neglected much in this game (besides maybe the two intro characters). Characters can die pretty early in the game as well. No matter which character it is, they are all susceptible to death and the story will continue as long as possible without them. This means, you can have several situations where a live character is substituted for a character that is already dead, leading to different interactions. The game can be played solo or with other (local) players. Online co-op is supposed to follow in a later update.

Fans of The Thing will absolutely love this game’s later areas. The ship becomes overrun with organic growth along the walls. The growth has human arms, rib cages and heads in the substance where it is trying to mimic. Inside of the growth, monsters can spawn at any time. The game has some really good jump scares caused from sudden things leaping out of the environment. The game’s overall sound is great also. Voice actors are very much on point with their characters. All characters have their own unique personalities. There are times where it is a little hard to pick between the real character and their copy.

For a game with a rewind feature, the decisions in the game are often very obvious. I only found about two decisions that were actually hard to make. You would think a game like this would try to trick you more with all the different possible character copies it could have, but it really doesn’t. For the most part, all you really got to look for is a sudden absence of personality in most characters to pick out a copy. It’s really too obvious the majority of the time. Making bad decisions can really add some steam to the story though. It’s actually good to “go along” with misleads just to see what unfolds. If I were to make a game like this, I would make it harder to pick between the actual character and their impersonator. When you have a known sarcastic character saying “Dude, get me the f- out of here! I’m in a large cave with a giant boulder” and you have to choose between him and another one saying “Help me. I’m in danger. You’re going the wrong way”, it’s kind of obvious which one is the impersonator. These aren’t direct quotes, but just an example of this game’s dialogue at times.

Directive 8020 is definitely up there with some of the better Supermassive Games releases. It has its faults, but it introduces some great new additions, such as the text dialogue and the stealth gameplay segments. The Turning Point flowchart is excellent for replays also! The game is very tense at times and the overall story dealing with a shape-shifting organism is very fun to follow. Fans of The Thing and fans of other Dark Pictures games need to give this game a try.

The Good:
+ Good story and characters
+ Turning points allow you to follow the decisions better
+ Overall more actual gameplay than past games in the series
+ Optional text communication during gameplay

The Bad:
- The majority of the decisions are obvious
- No online play yet (supposedly coming in an update)