The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 Review - Space Horror Breathing New Life Into The Series? Gamerant's Take

Imagine yourself aboard the Cassiopeia, a colonial ship trying to reach Tau Ceti f in order to save a dying humanity on a suffering, agonizing Earth. You manage the crew, a gallery of disparate and battered characters, caught as so often in the nightmare of horror science-fiction. Directive 8020, the latest installment in Supermassive Games's The Dark Pictures Anthology series, takes horror fiction into space with contagious ambition. Now that introductions are out of the way, let's take a look at Gamerant's analysis.

According to the journalist, the gameplay stays true to its roots: tense QTEs, and existential choices leading to bloody deaths or miraculous survivals. Now brace yourself to discover the big new addition, the Explorer mode and its Turning Points allowing you to go back on a botched decision. Say goodbye to the frustration of failed runs; exploration of multiple endings and freely discovered collectibles awaits. Stealth against body-horror aliens heavily inspired by Alien and Dead Space is on the menu, and the innovations are rather interesting, even if the sequences can sometimes feel monotonous.

Graphically, it's seriously impressive, says Gamerant: the ship's textures pop, the shadows of the pitch-black corridors are chilling, the facial animations are surgically precise on faces frozen in terror (Bethesda, take notes! Well, that's just my personal opinion...). The sound, from stifled screams to blaring alarms, is backed by an oppressive score that drums up cosmic dread. The plot unfolds over eight episodes of about an hour each, so around ten hours to see everything, ideal for a marathon session.

Still, it stumbles a bit: the plot reeks (not necessarily in a good way) of déjà-vu, and the characters flirt with cliché. Directive 8020 nonetheless revives the series after Devil in Me and banks on gameplay and atmosphere. A giant leap into the unknown? Gamerant's journalist seems to think so!