It’s well known that no matter how distinct the original material may be, when you make copies of copies, over time, degradation is inevitable. Such is the case with Directive 8020, the latest interactive horror game from Supermassive. The game’s shapeshifting, along with its other sci-fi tropes, only makes that copying more pronounced.
It doesn’t help that Directive 8020’s manifest—a skeleton crew of the science survey ship Cassiopeia, on a mission to exoplanet Tau Ceti f in the hopes of finding humanity’s new home—is far from distinct. From all-business officer Laura Eisele (Lotte Verbeek) to do-gooder sleep technician Tomas Carter (Frank Blake), the characters are nothing if not one-dimensional. Your reward for surviving predictable stealth sequences, overcoming quick-time events, and making the “right” decisions is that you can see how much less they have to do as the game’s branching narrative soldiers on, regardless of who’s still kicking by that point.
Supermassive’s Dark Pictures games, including House of Ashes and The Devil in Me, have always cribbed from popular movies, and Directive 8020 is no different, borrowing from The Thing, Moon, and more. But while the studio’s first foray into sci-fi terrain provides some lush visual environments, from the organically infested Cassiopeia to the beautifully dangerous dust-purple skies of Tau Ceti f, and introduces a neat chromatic aberration effect whenever an alien gets too close, it doesn’t feel like Directive 8020 has anything to say.
Some of these issues come down to the thinness of the characters. Each of the game’s protagonists is broadly described by one of two archetypes, a “destiny” they’ll realize due to your choices. But whether Nolan Stafford (Danny Sapani) is defined as “The Father” or “The Commander,” he’s going to have the same mid-game meltdown. Elsewhere, there’s no real difference between “The Hero” and “The Pragmatist” or “The Philosopher” and “The Engineer.” If these characters ever feel deep, it’s only because the NPCs are less than one-dimensional by comparison, including entitled C.E.O. LaMarcus Williams and high-strung pilot Noah Mitchell.
On the interactive side, Directive 8020 introduces stealth scenes where your unarmed character must manipulate objects, reroute electrical systems, collect power cells, and override doors while hiding from one lifeform at a time. But apart from changing the environments and adding broken glass as an additional obstacle to avoid, these scenes all bleed together. You crouch and avoid, scan and wait, and occasionally, impatiently, run for it.
Don’t expect all the trial and error you have to do throughout the game to stir up the terror conjured by, say, Dead Space and Alien: Isolation. A few cheap jump scares aside, nothing about Directive 8020 is surprising: In fact, if you glimpse at the game’s Turning Points menu, a shiny flowchart of events, you can see everything that’s going to happen in a given chapter. Browsing this menu to see how to trigger (or avoid) a death scene is something that feels more appropriate for unlocking fatalities in Mortal Kombat than a sci-fi horror game. The lack of horror and meaningful choices are just some of the ways in which this gorgeous game about hideous shapeshifters demonstrates that looks alone can be deceiving.
This game was reviewed using a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.
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