I was recently invited to attend a hands-on preview for Supermassive Games‘ latest horror adventure, Directive 8020. During this event I got to play one section of the game which took between 30-45 minutes. The preview left me feeling both excited to play more and apprehensive of Directive 8020’s launch on May 12th, 2026.
If you want to see my exact run-through of this section, I will be posting it on our YouTube channel as soon as I’m allowed to.
What Is Directive 8020?
Directive 8020 continues Supermassive Games’ slate of choice-driven horror adventure games. Initially planned to kick off season 2 of The Dark Pictures anthology before becoming a bigger, more standalone game.
In Directive 8020, you take control of a group of astronauts who are trying to find a new place for humanity to live. However, after their colony ship, the Cassiopeia, crashes not far from the planet known as Tau Ceti f, they must find a way to survive an unknown alien threat.
While you’ll take control of multiple characters and make decisions for many of them throughout your playthrough, the true standout is Lashana Lynch. Best known for portraying Maria Rambeau in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she also made history as the first Black woman to take on the 007 mantle alongside Daniel Craig in No Time to Die.
Lynch is known for bringing a grounded realism to all her roles, which makes her characters easily relatable regardless of the events surrounding them. From the section I played, Lynch is able to inject those qualities into her character, Brianna Young, the co-pilot of the Cassiopeia. I can’t wait to see more of her story and performance across the full game.
It Feels Different To Play
If you have played Supermassive Games titles before, then Directive 8020 will offer you an immediate familiarity, especially for those like me who have played all of The Dark Pictures Anthology. Certain elements of the UI, such as making choices or the game signalling character trait change, look and feel very similar, if not identical, to the other Dark Pictures games.
That being said, actually playing Directive 8020 feels quite different in the moment to moment action. Animations are greatly improved and more fluid; the HUD is minimal and never distracts; mini-games for things like lockpicking and other interactions feel immediately intuitive. Even when I was thrown in partway through the game, I never felt like I needed a tooltip or tutorial.
One thing I particularly enjoy was being caught by enemies didn’t result in immediate failure or death. I was able to use the stun gun type weapon to escape their clutches and get back into stealth. Speaking of stealth, in Directive 8020, you are free to crouch at any time, which isn’t always the case in these games, but it makes such a difference to the playability. When I got caught, I didn’t feel like the game was cheating me; I actually made a mistake.
Now, you might be wondering how impactful the choices can be and while I don’t want to give away too much. I will say that it was very clear that one particular choice I made had life-saving implications. You’ll see exactly what I mean if you watch my gameplay.
Stunning and Atmospheric
The thing that immediately stood out to me was just how stunning and atmospheric Directive 8020. Sure, certain characters don’t look quite as good as the leading cast, but even then, their models provide a noticeable step-up from other Dark Pictures titles. Then we have the environment itself, with fantastic lighting and lots of shiny surfaces, but many dark, unnerving corners. Directive 8020 is a beautiful game, and when combined with the haunting audio design and music, early signs suggest it could be in that top drawer for atmospheric horror.
Some Technical Concerns
Not everything was perfect during my preview. While I’m not sure what settings the game was running at, we were playing on very capable PC’s that vastly exceeded the recommended specs for the game (as listed on Steam), and yet I was occasionally seeing massive frame drops on camera movement. This was noted by the dev team that was present, so it’s very possible that by the time the game is released, it will be much more optimized. However, with release only a few weeks away, the technical stability of Directive 8020 is definitely my biggest concern about the game right now.
Conclusion
Overall, I can’t wait to play more of Directive 8020 when it releases on May 12th, 2026. It seems to nail what Supermassive Games already does well, while making smart improvements to make the experience more active and dynamic than their previous games.
