Directive 8020 Review – Supermassive Games Nails Sci-Fi Horror

Having played the entire Dark Pictures franchise so far. It’s safe to say that ever since it was first teased at the end of Dark Pictures season 1, I’ve been excited to play Directive 8020, the newest Dark Pictures game. Finally, Supermassive Games has taken the series to space for a horrifying adventure, and despite a few oddities, it was well worth the wait after several delays.

Game Name: Directive 8020
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Reviewed On: PC
Genre: Sci-Fi Horror, Choice Based, Narrative Driven
Publisher(s): Supermassive Games
Developer(s): Supermassive Games
Release Date: May 12th, 2026

What Is Directive 8020?

In Directive 8020, you take control of a group of astronauts searching for a new place for humanity to live. However, after their colony ship, the Cassiopeia, crashes near the planet Tau Ceti f, they must find a way to survive an unknown alien threat.

As previously mentioned in my preview of Directive 8020 from a few weeks ago, the game continues Supermassive Games’ slate of choice-driven horror adventure games. It was initially planned to kick off season 2 of The Dark Pictures anthology before evolving into a bigger, more standalone experience within The Dark Pictures universe.

Having now seen the full story through, I have to say sci-fi is perfect for Supermassive Games. Directive 8020 has the right amount of genre tropes to make you feel at home, while also offering enough originality in its narrative to stand on its own two feet. While I won’t spoil the story in this review, it is important to note that narrative is the main pillar of a choice-based game like this.

What I will say is that Directive 8020 has a twist that I genuinely didn’t see coming, and that feels incredibly rare in the horror genre these days across any medium. Horror games in particular often feel like carbon copies of one another, relying on familiar story beats simply to move players from one gameplay sequence to the next. That’s what makes Directive 8020 so refreshing. It feels deeply invested in its narrative from beginning to end.

And yes, surviving in space is difficult. Several members of my crew died during my first playthrough.

Feels Like A Smoother Dark Pictures Game

Now, how does it feel to play? Well, in truth, Directive 8020 feels extremely similar to Supermassive Games’ previous titles. You walk around exploring environments, finding clues and collectibles while engaging in several mini-games along the way. Oh, and of course, there are action set pieces involving quick-time events (QTEs) as well. Most important of all are the dialogue choices, which are made using the left stick during key moments. Sometimes the game gives you unlimited time to make a decision, while other choices only allow a few seconds to react.

Choices can change character personalities, which in turn impacts their destinies. Major decisions are signified by the game informing you that you’ve reached a turning point. Depending on the difficulty settings selected before starting, you can also rewind these choices if desired. Personally, I would recommend playing without rewinds during your first playthrough, as you can revisit turning points through the menu once the game has been completed.

If you have played these games before, all of this will sound very familiar. However, a couple of things help set Directive 8020 apart from its predecessors. Firstly, everything simply looks and feels smoother, with greatly improved animations throughout. Secondly, Directive 8020 features far more active gameplay than previous Supermassive Games titles. This often takes the form of stealth sections that involve avoiding threats while solving puzzles or completing specific tasks.

None of these sections felt particularly difficult, but they were engaging enough to break up the usual flow of exploration and cutscenes. As a result, they feel like a worthwhile addition to Directive 8020.

Atmosphere Enhances Everything

Being such a narrative-driven game, it’s fair to say that presentation is key to the success or failure of Directive 8020. Thankfully, Supermassive Games absolutely nails the presentation across both visual and audio design.

From the use of lighting and shadows to the changing color palette across the various time jumps, Directive 8020 consistently creates the right atmosphere for every moment. The same can be said of the audio design. In horror, silence can be terrifying, but unsettling ambience can sometimes be even worse, and that’s before we even get to the jump scare-enhancing sound effects.

The use of audio in particular, and how it works alongside the visuals in any given moment, creates a constantly unnerving atmosphere throughout the experience. Directive 8020 once again proves that Supermassive Games are masters of the horror genre. However, there is one small blemish on an otherwise top-tier presentation.

That blemish is the character models. Lashana Lynch looks fantastic as Brianna Young, which only strengthens what I would describe as the best performance in Supermassive Games history by a country mile. Facial animations have clearly improved dramatically over the last few years, helping bring her performance to life in a far more believable way. Unfortunately, the heavy reuse of character models from previous Dark Pictures games can sometimes distract from the otherwise strong chemistry shared by the rest of the cast. This is especially noticeable because many of those returning models simply don’t look as advanced as Lynch’s character model.

Surprisingly Solid Performance

You may recall from my preview that I had major questions surrounding the technical performance of Directive 8020 heading into launch. Thankfully, I don’t know what magic Supermassive Games has been working behind the scenes, but every issue I encountered during the preview period has been cleaned up here.

Across the 6 hours it took me to complete my first playthrough, I didn’t encounter a single bug or crash. Performance was also extremely solid overall, with only very brief drops below 60fps while playing at native 4K on the highest available settings with Ray Tracing enabled.

The game also offers Path Tracing, which I tested at 4K max settings using DLSS Performance Mode. Unfortunately, I was only able to maintain a stable 30fps. While that is still playable in a slower-paced cinematic game like this, the visual improvement over standard Ray Tracing simply isn’t significant enough to justify the much lower framerate, at least in my opinion.

Jordan’s PC Specs: AMD 9950X3D, RTX 5090 Founders Edition, 96GB DDR5 6000MHz Corsair RAM

Summary

In the end, thanks to an interesting story filled with genuine choice and consequence, Directive 8020 was a genuine blast to play. Despite the reused character models slightly hurting the otherwise vastly improved presentation, I have very little negative to say about Directive 8020.

Directive 8020 represents the best that The Dark Pictures games have had to offer thus far, proving that Supermassive Games is right at home within sci-fi horror. If you’re a fan of the studio’s previous games, this is an absolute must-play.

I’m also hopeful that we eventually get a more direct sequel to this game at some point. Until then, I already can’t wait to jump back in once the online co-op mode arrives in a post-launch update.

If you enjoyed this review, explore more of our in-depth video game reviews across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of Directive 8020 was provided to us for review purposes by Supermassive Games. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.