Directive 8020 is not just a strong start to the new series of Dark Pictures games, but also the strongest one to date.
Some might call me biased on this, as I actually quite like the Dark Pictures Anthology, but Directive 8020 is an excellent addition to the series. Going all in on science fiction is a new direction for the franchise and one I’m glad they’ve taken. Whilst, I don’t for a second believe that this will change the minds of the doubters who never liked the style of game that Supermassive have been putting out, those who have previously found some fun will very much enjoy this one.
Being as Directive 8020 is so story focussed, I’ll avoid spoilers as far as possible. Much like other games in the series, you take control of a number of different characters who may or may not meet an untimely end based on your decisions. This time, you’re in charge of the crew of the Cassiopeia, a ship sent out ahead of a colony vessel to scout and prepare the ground on Tau Ceti F. This new planet is the big hope to save humanity from a dying Earth, so the Cassiopeia and the following Andromeda cannot afford to fail. Obviously things go wrong.
In the opening segment, you play as Simms and Carter, two sleep technicians who keep the ship running whilst the rest of the crew are in stasis. A meteor carrying some sort of organic matter hits the ship, and after managing to repair the damage, things start to go drastically wrong. When the rest of the crew awaken, they find that things start to go from bad to worse very quickly.
Science fiction fans will be right at home here, and those that are paying attention will probably pick up on the movies that provide inspiration for Directive 8020, but I’ll leave that for you to find out. Suffice to say, this is a solid sci-fi story about unprepared humans trapped on a ship with something that wants to do them harm.
In terms of characters, this does have that Dark Pictures issue of many of them being pretty unlikeable. The likes of Simms and Young come across as believable, relatable people, but Mitchell and Eisele seem to lack people skills, and billionaire donor Williams is a demanding jerk. Actually, the latter does sound realistic. With that said, they are often well written and performed, even with the challenge of their personalities needing to match up to the choices you’ve made for them throughout the game so far.
Gameplay is pretty much what you’ve come to expect from the series. You’ll wander around the environment, finding secrets and other information, solving the odd light puzzle, and conversing with other characters. Deciding how characters will respond will alter their personality traits which in turn change how they may respond when you aren’t in control of them. Certain decisions are called Turning Points that will have more significant consequences down the line, leading to potentially more difficult life or death choices later. There’s a new stealth mechanic too, in which you need to sneak around and avoid detection, lest death follows. This is used a lot, and whilst it isn’t particularly challenging, it does become a little tiresome when you have to do so many of these sections.
So the gameplay is mostly something I still enjoy, as that choose-your-own-adventure system is something I’m always drawn to, and the story is right up my street! What I like less is the way some story elements are presented. I think the devs know that the story pacing is a little slow in some parts, so there are these occasional flash-forward scenes in which you control characters a few hours after the initial events. This is all well and good, but it does make it very clear that some characters aren’t under threat as they survive until much later in the game. It does bring the danger level down quite considerably when you go back to the present. I also wasn’t a fan of the fact that the Turning Point system is given to you right off the bat, allowing you to just go back and redo a choice you didn’t like. I chose to switch this off, but it really feels like something you’d have for a follow-up playthrough. It cheapens the failings you have in your first run.
The other downside is the performance on PC. Directive 8020 looks gorgeous for the most part, with some glorious vistas and very James Cameron inspired fans lit with blue lights. Characters are well animated, especially with some of the twitching, monstrous movements of things that are out to kill you. But with ray tracing on, things started to really struggle. My PC is no spring chicken, but it manages visually stunning games like Clair Obscur with no problem at all, whilst this struggled to hit 30fps at times. Eventually I turned it off and went without for the sake of smoother gameplay.
The audio is excellent though. Everyone has excellent voice acting throughout, and aside from the occasionally stilted line due to my choices needing to line up, things were consistently fluid. Ambient noise is used really well too, with bumps and clanks throughout the ship keeping you on edge when things seem calm. I liked the music too, and whilst it isn’t for everyone, the between chapter songs were a fun inclusion.
Directive 8020 isn’t changing the minds of those who have never liked Supermassive’s offerings, but lapsed fans can dip their toe into the space faring adventure with confidence that they’ll have a good time. I love that they’ve gone in a new direction with something completely different to the themes of their previous games and I’m hoping they keep going with the science fiction horror approach as it feels quite underexplored.
Directive 8020 is available now on PC, Xbox, and Playstation.
