The kings of narrative episodic horror are back with a new game that is out of this world. For years, Supermassive Games has been known as one of, if not the best, horror game storytellers in the modern gaming era. Since its foundation in 2008, Supermassive Games has released games such as Until Dawn, The Quarry, The Casting of Frank Stone, and The Dark Pictures titles (Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, & The Devil In Me). Each of these titles received critical praise for its deep and thrilling stories and variety in potential outcomes. Will Supermassive Games’ Directive 8020 live up to the studio’s reputation and fans’ expectations? Find out in our Directive 8020 review!

Game: Directive 8020
Developer: Supermassive Games
Publisher: Supermassive Games
Platforms: PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: May 12th, 2026
Players: 1 to 2 online, up to 5 local
Price: Base: $49.99 USD

Directive 8020 is the story of eight humans sent light-years away from Earth to scout and study a mysterious planet to see if it would be hospitable for human life before the main ship arrives.

Based on early interactions, it is revealed that Earth is in ruin and that Mars, which was previously colonized, is not far behind it. Four years into the expedition and nearing the planet’s orbit, the Cassiopeia is struck by a meteorite. 

Despite fixing the breach, unexplained things start to happen on the ship when a contaminant from the meteor starts to spread throughout the ship. This issue causes the emergency response system to wake the crew early, and leaves them to figure out why the two members who are responsible for waking the crew are missing. 

Upon investigation, the crew quickly discovers that the mysterious contamination is worse than originally believed. This organism is able to replicate the likeness of the crew and even retains their memories. Throughout the game, the alien impersonator blends into the crew, and players must decide if their actions are organic or something that is leading them to their doom.

Like other Supermassive Games titles, there are a ton of moments where the player’s actions can determine if a crew member lives or dies. The story of Directive 8020 feels like there is something missing, especially when you compare it to other games in the Dark Pictures franchise.

There are jump scares in the game, but I did not get the same sense of dread or nervousness that I felt in previous titles when playing Directive 8020. In fact, it was not until picking up the Curator’s coin and seeing a shadowy presence lurking in the background that I got any sense of dread. The story itself didn’t feel very rewarding when completed, either

When starting a new game in Directive 8020, players can choose between Forgiving, Challenging, Lethal, or Custom. On Forgiving, the game will help players easily evade real-time threats with warning indicators and fast parry recharge.

The Challenging game difficulty will throw real-time threats at players, with each attack potentially meaning life or death. In Lethal difficulty, players will have shorter response windows for critical interactions; threats can be lethal or debilitating.

In Custom difficulty players can change the quick time event (QTE) difficulty, turn on or off danger warnings, change recharge speed (parry, and turn on the threat indicator, then choose which color it will be from five presets. Out of these five presets, white felt like the best, and that it would be the most helpful.

Directive 8020 features turning points where the player can rewind to in order to change potential outcomes. Depending on the difficulty chosen, the player can rewind during the story to undo a mistake or alter the timeline. This gives a variety of possible endings and helps players who may have slow response times or indecisiveness decide on the outcome they would like.

Regarding accessibility, Directive 8020 has semi-limited options. Players can remap some of the key buttons, but cannot take movement out of the left stick on the controller. The game does feature closed captions and subtitles; there are five audio languages and twelve written languages.

In the accessibility menu, players can change it so that all QTE reactions use the same button, eliminate QTE timeout, hold button vs tapping it, and are able to change fonts in different ways to make it easier to see/read. The game does not feature any colorblind settings, so those afflicted may have difficulty playing, especially since there is a heavy reliance on red and blue in the game. 

While Directive 8020 has pretty graphics, nothing in it really wowed me. Out of all the models and designs, only the different monster variations were visually impressive.

A lot of the assets felt like they could have been reused and slightly altered from the other Dark Pictures games. The ship itself felt like it drew inspiration from other space games, such as Halo, Mass Effect, and even Dead Space; it never screamed originality.

The character models within the game looked similar to their actors, but it did not feel like the same level of detail was put into their character models as in other games. The visual models for the side characters felt like they were an afterthought and weren’t finished. This could be written off as signal dropping when sending messages light-years away, but felt like they were just low-effort designs.

With the ability to remap the controls in the game and slow down or even stall out the QTEs, the gameplay in Directive 8020 felt somewhat satisfying. Accomplishing goals without failing and causing a crew member to die felt like you actually accomplished something. Although the game still had a ton of quick time events and jump scares, it still felt like it was missing something.

None of the early possible deaths in the game really felt believable. In other Dark Picture Games, it is very easy to accidentally die by making a choice that seems logical to the general audience, but doesn’t actually fit the character’s personality. In Directive 8020, all the possible early deaths felt like you would have to turn off your brain or just not make a decision in order for the crewmate to die. Even on the hardest difficulty, it is still fairly easy to survive, you just need to pay attention.

While previous Dark Pictures titles had the player stealth through critical moments only, Directive 8020 feels like it is one stealth area right after another. Despite already disliking stealth missions in games, this game left me not wanting to touch a stealth game for awhile. The game also features a hacking mini-game when overriding doors. In order to successfully complete it, you would either need to get the required number of bars at the top or hit the critical unlock spot.

Directive 8020 might be an enjoyable game as a standalone title, it feels like the worst game in the Dark Pictures franchise. This could be due to a variety of factors like an over-reliance on stealth, a middling story, or just a played out sci-fi setting. Honestly, it would have been nice to explore the planet more, see other variations of the crew, or even see an outcome where the surviving crew members are thriving or causing chaos for the next group of humans to come. 

The base story is an enjoyable ride, but by the end, you kind of just want to get off and become one with the cosmos. Now, if a true ending is locked behind collecting the Curator O Death Secrets, then the ending can be forgiven, but right now it’s a mediocre ending, even when saving everyone. Speaking of saving, the save system is a little bit buggy as my save file got corrupted and I had to replay a significant portion of the game during the review period. 

While the developers did a job with the game’s sound effects, the musical score for each chapter felt a bit lacking. None of the music really felt like it set the right mood to express what happened in the prior chapter or what might happen in the future chapter. 

At the end of the day, Directive 8020 is just the first game in the second season of the Dark Pictures games. My complaints about the ending could be resolved in future games, or it might just be a one-off issue. I would have liked to see the game have a bit more accessibility options.

The game should have obfuscated the narrative choices and outcomes a bit, it was too easy to see what was coming rather than be surprised. If you are a diehard fan of the Dark Pictures titles, then you will most likely enjoy Directive 8020. If you are looking for a heart-racing horror game though, you probably look elsewhere.

Directive 8020 was reviewed on an Xbox Series X using a copy provided by Supermassive Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Directive 8020 is now available on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.