Developer Supermassive Games has long striven to recapture the magic of their 2015 blockbuster, “Until Dawn.” That game featured a hugely variable narrative where player characters could live or die depending on their choices throughout the story. In 2019, the studio embarked on a new initiative, “The Dark Pictures Anthology,” to mixed success. Across four years, four games were made, each tackling a different horror genre with a focus on the cinematic production values and branching narrative approach of “Until Dawn.” Alas, none of the games managed to capture lightning in a bottle quite like “Until Dawn” did, but for fans of the studio and its output, it was nice to get a new spooky adventure every year or so.
After the conclusion of Season 1, Supermassive took a break from “The Dark Pictures,” but now the series is back with “Directive 8020.” While it lacks the “The Dark Pictures Anthology” branding on the front cover, it’s very much the start of the next phase in the series. The omnipresent Curator is still here (if in a greatly diminished cameo appearance that’s more akin to a secret Easter Egg than the core framing device of the narrative), and the game still revolves around trying to keep five playable characters alive through a horror scenario. However, some under-the-hood changes and new twists to the formula show “Directive 8020” attempts to make the case for “The Dark Pictures 2.0.”
More News: Every Game In ‘Marvel MaXimum Collection,’ Ranked
More News: Hands-On With ‘Mina The Hollower’ and Developer Interview
Instead of the typical introduction from The Curator, the player gets thrown right into the action. This time, the setting is deep space. Earth is increasingly uninhabitable, and the player characters comprise the crew of the Cassiopeia, a scout ship meant to pave the way for Andromeda, a proper colonization vessel. Of course, things don’t quite go as planned, and the team soon finds themselves in a mashup of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and “Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” with a smattering of other influences here and there. I won’t spoil anything here, but the story is pretty derivative up until a late-game twist that I genuinely didn’t see coming that recontextualizes the whole game in a truly clever way.
While the story itself may be derivative, it’s never boring. Supermassive Games has always been great at delivering moment-to-moment scares, and that’s still true here, to an extent. When the Quick Time Events occur, there’s an earnest fear that one wrong move can mean the permanent death of a crew member. Even if many sequences feel lifted directly from one more or another, getting to play through them yourself, with actual consequences for failure, is delightfully harrowing on a first playthrough.
This time around, there are two notable changes to the formula: first, you have more control and interactivity during the non-QTE segments. Unlike the fixed cameras of prior “Dark Pictures” entries, you can now fully rotate the camera to explore with more agency. It makes the “walking around looking for clues” portions of the game a lot more engaging, controllable, and intimate. On the other hand, the forced stealth sections are an unwelcome addition. They pop up too often, and it’s easy to escape even if you’re captured. Once you realize you can’t fail these sequences unless you really want to, the tension is completely drained.
The other new addition to “Directive 8020” is the ability to rewind and undo plot-altering decisions. At any time during the game, you can go back to any point in the story to try again from that point. This feature is optional, and I recommend leaving it off during your first playthrough. Even if there are a couple of moments where your intent may not line up with what actually happens (one late-game “go left or right” choice had an unfair ‘point of no return’ that felt antithetical to the point of the choice), you’re better off being forced to live with the consequences of your actions. There will be plenty of time to play around with different outcomes after you’ve experienced the story from start to finish.
That being said, the ability to rewind makes exploring the branching narrative easier, more accessible, and more fun than ever before. Those of us who’ve played “Hidden Agenda” still have PTSD over having to restart the entire story after making a single mistake in the endgame. In “Directive 8020,” if you want to see all the spectacular ways your heroes can die horrific deaths, it’s just a couple of button presses away. Likewise, it’s equally easy to revisit chapters to search for collectables to unravel the various storylines and conspiracies, as well as suss out secret connections to prior “Dark Pictures” entries.
For the first time in the series, “Directive 8020” is a current-gen exclusive. There’s no PS4 or Xbox One version. Rather than Unreal Engine 4, the game runs on Unreal Engine 5, and looks a treat on PS5 Pro, with 30 FPS, 40 FPS, and 60 FPS modes. I recommend the 60 FPS mode due to the improper frame pacing on the 40 FPS mode (confirmed by Digital Foundry) making the game feel less fluid than it should on that mode. While the character models themselves look as detailed as ever, there’s often a disconnect between the acting and the character animation. Many games suffer from this, but it’s exacerbated by the cinematic ambition of “Directive 8020.” It’s a shame to hear Lashana Lynch and the rest of the cast deliver award-worthy performances when their avatars often look like automatons from a Disney theme park ride, complete with robotic facial animation. I’m sure doing facial capture for every line of dialogue isn’t cost-effective, but there’s got to be a better solution than what Supermassive is currently employing.
“Directive 8020” deserves credit for trying new things while maintaining what worked in the past, even if the added focus on stealth and exploration sometimes feels like padding. That’s how an anthology series like this should work. Maybe next time, there will be fewer stealth interludes and more opportunities to look for clues, detective-style. If you’re already all-in on Supermassive Games, “Directive 8020” is a must-play. It’s familiar in many ways, but iterates enough to make it feel like a new era for the series, even if things aren’t really all that different. If you’re looking for a true successor to “Until Dawn,” however, this ain’t it. It’s also sadly lacking the online “Shared Story” multiplayer mode, which was a standout feature of previous games and is sorely missed here.
All told, “Directive 8020” is more “Dark Pictures.” If you like the series, warts and all, you’ll like this one. If you don’t like it, then none of the additions in “Directive 8020” will change your mind. Well, except for the rewind mechanic. That’s actually really cozy and goes a long way towards articulating the consequences of the choices you can make. Personally, I could play one of these games every year until the end of time. They’re not perfect, but they’re engaging while they last, and when they’re done experimenting with alternate endings and morbidly checking out the myriad death sequences, you can move on to the next thing, knowing that another “Dark Picture” will be ready next year. Maybe the series will never be more than that, but at least it’s not less than that, either.
Newsweek Score: 6/10
But, ya know, like, a fun 6/10. A 6/10 that you might never revisit but will always regard fondly in your memory.
Reviewed on PS5 Pro. Newsweek was given review code by the publisher.
Read the full article here
