Review: Directive 8020 - Inspired Horror Stifled By Dumb Aliens

Directive 8020 is one of the biggest horror releases of the year - developed by Supermassive Games, the studio responsible for The Quarry, Until Dawn, and Dark Pictures Anthology games.

These are cinematic horror experiences, a choose your own adventure sort of thing, where every decision has a consequence, featuring various branching pathways, multiple endings, and plenty of opportunities to have your head ripped off.

Directive 8020 is much more of the same, really, taking the Supermassive formula, and venturing far beyond Earth’s atmosphere into deep space sci-fi - a first for the Dark Pictures series.

Most of the story takes place aboard the Cassiopeia, a spacecraft sent from Earth to survey Tau Ceti f as a potential landing spot for human colonisation. 

But before the ship arrives, it’s struck by an asteroid containing a murderous alien lifeform. As it spreads throughout the ship, it is revealed to have the uncanny ability to shapeshift into near-perfect carbon copies of the human crew.

The best way I can think of to describe Directive 8020 is as though John Carpenter’s The Thing took place in a spaceship.

Never quite knowing whether you can trust your crew gives the whole experience a tense case of the heebie jeebies, because at any given moment one of them could in fact be a great big alien monster-man primed and ready for murder.

Personally, I don’t want to talk much about the story in this one, because its twists and turns are easily the best thing about Directive 8020. Going into it with as little knowledge as possible is how I’d recommend getting the most out of the game.

I’d say it starts off really slow, employing overused and predictable methods to establish danger, but by Chapter 3 the narrative picks up significantly, introduces new story elements that’ll surprise you, and concludes in a very thrilling way - depending on your choices of course.

Directive 8020 is an inspired horror, packed with nods and winks to the genre’s great sci-fi horrors, but it sadly falls short of greatness itself as a result of some questionable gameplay designs.

I’ve not played one of these games since The Quarry, but as it turns out not much has changed since 2022. 

Directive 8020 is split into eight chapters, each with its own branching pathway providing plenty of opportunity to explore different outcomes, life and death scenarios, and hidden secrets. 

Access to these various paths is through conversations between crewmates, deciding how to solve problems, pressing buttons during QTEs, and perhaps one too many stealth sections.

I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of a QTE, I think they can be a bit one-note, and tapping furiously to avoid getting snatched isn’t exactly my idea of fun, but they’re certainly better than Supermassive’s attempt at stealthy gameplay.

During the adventure several members aboard the Cassiopeia are split from the group and stalked by a mimicking menace. The goal is always to move unnoticed from point A to B without alerting the monster, interfacing with locked doors, power supply nodes, and moveable batteries to unlock alternate routes.

Some of the early moments did get my blood pumping, until I had a face to face encounter with one of the beasties and realised the AI was straight up braindead. 

Supposedly, these mimics are intelligent alien life, with access to the memories of those they copy. So you’d think accidentally making full eye-contact with one would result in a bloody mess, and not with me slinking away unnoticed.

My problem with Directive 8020 is that the enemy doesn’t feel alive in the majority of stealth sections that replace a large part of the Supermassive formula.

Until Dawn made a name for itself with one of the most heart pounding finales, where holding your controller perfectly still, and pressing the right button kept you alive. Directive 8020 is mostly sitting and watching a PS1-level AI hit its marks and look fabulous doing it.

In my initial playthrough I didn’t get caught once, which made the pivotal Turning Points a little easier to manage. The pivotal moments are when things change the most throughout Directive 8020.

Turning Points were effective for the most part, decisions like choosing where to divert the ship’s energy, who to save in a crisis, and whether to trust someone is telling you the truth, and not a big horrid monster. 

These tough decisions impact character motives, personality traits, and if nurtured can inspire a character’s chosen destiny to become the philosopher, or hero for example.

And characters acted in line with the choices I made - there aren’t any LA Noire freak-outs to catch you off guard. But I felt the Turning Points didn’t come to a head until a singular moment in the later chapters. 

A fantastic singular moment, to give it its flowers - proper tense stuff - and one I don’t want to spoil, but it’s a shame the majority of Turning Points culminate in this one moment rather than sporadically throughout the whole game.

It’s my belief Directive 8020 could have been more brutal with the fates aboard the Cassiopeia. QTEs were notably easier to navigate than previous games, and in explorer mode you can opt to rewind a bad decision and go from there. Something I didn’t want to do for my first run.

Rewinding is fine if you immediately want to change your outcome, but maybe not for the earlier Turning Points, because ultimately you’ll still need to play through the game to see its payoff. I think I’d rather start with a new save to explore the different character destinies and outcomes to the story. 

As a setting, the Cassiopeia is a fun change of scenery for Supermassive Games. Early on the halls and corridors can feel a bit dull and empty. But as the story progresses, and the alien lifeform takes hold of the ship, that's where Directive 8020 looks its best.

Visually, it’s a gorgeous game, with stellar character models and face scans that allow its star studded cast to deliver some great performances.

Lastly, considering you only ever need to press a handful of buttons during exploration, I think a HUD toggle would benefit the immersion in this one. To be fair, I say that about every game. I played in Quality mode on a base PS5, and only had one moment of stuttering in an otherwise smooth experience.

Conclusion

Directive 8020 is an inspired sci-fi horror, a slow burn spectacle full of great performances, replayability, a memorable story, and thrilling set-piece moments. It’s packed with nods and winks to the greats of the genre, but falls short of greatness itself. Overused stealth sections, and braindead AI enemies stifle an otherwise thrilling experience.

Are you excited for Directive 8020? And what platform will you be picking it up? Let us know in the comments.

Reviewed on PS5

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