Directive 8020

Directive 8020 is by far one of the best games Supermassive has made, with an engaging story and characters and choices that carry a lot of weight.

Directive 8020 is a major step forward for The Dark Pictures Anthology. The story is engaging, the production values are excellent, and the added gameplay mechanics make this the most interactive entry in the series so far. The stealth sections can become a bit repetitive, but they never get in the way of what is still a tense and highly entertaining sci-fi horror survival adventure.

With Directive 8020, Supermassive comes out of the gate strong: a compelling story with a solid, diverse cast that makes for a horror adventure that slowly unfolds. The formula of making choices and living with consequences is somewhat undermined by the Rewind feature. Given the claustrophobic and tense nature of this story, the emphasis on stealth gameplay is a very smart decision. By constantly shaking up its gameplay elements, Directive 8020 never grows stale – helped in no small part by the fact that the game can be completed in six to eight hours. If you're a fan of Event Horizon or The Thing, this game is a must-play. All other horror fans will find a capable game, where the developers take their time building towards something truly impressive.

Supermassive Games leaves haunted houses and slashers behind to embrace cosmic horror in Directive 8020, a deep-space adventure heavily inspired by Alien and The Thing. The result is the studio's smartest branching narrative to date and its most beautiful production, held back only by repetitive stealth sequences and a few rough technical edges.

It's dingy and it's not without some mutations, but Directive 8020 is definitely worth exploring - just expect the mundane along the way.

The Dark Pictures Anthology resumes its journey grounded in certain constants—its horror roots, its focus on plot and character, and its narrative branching—but also introduces significant new elements, chief among them a fresh setting and revamped gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, this ambition to innovate was not fully realized; the stealth mechanics in *Directive 8020* prove too rudimentary to sustain the sheer volume of sequences that rely on them, while the sci-fi setting remains anchored to stylistic conventions so ordinary that they prevent the title from standing out from the crowd. The narrative fails to build the sense of gravity that ought to define a mission to save the entire human race, though it recovers slightly thanks to a body-horror-infused finale and an intriguing concluding twist. The new map system, based on "Turning Points," is a godsend for completionists, who can finally explore every nook and cranny of the story without having to needlessly replay entire chapters; meanwhile, on the graphics and performance front, Supermassive has done a solid job, despite the lackluster nature of the art design.

Directive 8020 falls into a gameplay loop that is frankly tedious and unsatisfying. While the narrative elements offer some light entertainment, the overall sense of progression is a major letdown.

One of Supermassive's best-told stories — when it seems like it has already revealed what it is about, which may seem uninspired, it turns into something unique with some characters that are deserving of their spotlight.

Works really well for the most part. The story is really ambitius and interesting for the most part. While I wish a little more was done with it, it does allow for some pretty cool moments throughout the game. The characters are pretty solid, even if the voice acting does feel a little off at times. The graphics are really just amazing and the story does allow for some pretty great twists and turns, as well as many different paths to explore. Also love the way you can jump back and forth through the story.

Directive 8020, the new game from Supermassive Games, which is notably responsible for the much-loved Until Dawn, is a decent experience, but far from memorable. Here we find ourselves in our spaceship, the Cassiopeia, alongside our crew on a mission to save humanity.From the beginning, we are very quickly immersed in the atmosphere, the scenario is quickly set up (compared to previous Dark Pictures) and the characters are still well "written", less clichés, fewer insufferable or completely stupid characters and it feels good even if it remains very **** regret that the evolution of relationships between our various characters is still based on exchanges via text messages (yes); they are not very useful and break the rhythm. Graphically, the game is beautiful, the artistic direction remains rather generic and the facial/general animations are better than before. The gameplay is finally moving in the right direction, we can really "run", the characters react better to our movements and it’s nice. However, the different phases of gameplay are very repetitive over time; we’re on a "hide-and-seek" mechanism with entities, or an exploration one with riddles that have been seen and reviewed to move forward. So we’ll note the effort to improve the gameplay, but it’s still quite simplistic and warmed up in 2026... On the other hand, the scenario remains breathless; I often sat down to theorize and reflect on the outcome. We will still regret a significant decrease in QTE which actually decreases the fear of losing a character. Everything will really be decided only at the end (as very often). Directive 8020 remains a good experience in terms of choice and continues in the line of The Dark Pictures, nothing surprising, but enough to spend a good evening alone or with friends.

I’m a huge fan of the Dark Pictures franchise, but this one was not what I expected… It felt really different, but not in a good way for **** game was kind of boring and only became interesting around the middle of Chapter 6. I truly had fun only during the last chapter. Chapter 8 finally felt like a Dark Pictures game. The positives: Good story. The negatives: The new mechanics (hide and seek) were overly used… It’s nice maybe 2 or 3 times max, but after that it becomes repetitive. There wasn’t enough tension, not enough QTEs (except at the end, where they were great), no Curator anymore, no more premonitions… I hope the next game will be better !

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]