Supermassive Games has released plenty of great video games over the years, but there’s no denying that its most notable titles are Until Dawn and The Quarry. These two story-driven and decision-based games gave players a ton of choice, a nightmare-fueled narrative, and a focus on replayability that kept players coming back for more.

Until Dawn and The Quarry are Supermassive Games in its prime and truly showcase what this talented studio can do. However, the studio rarely ever reaches the heights of those games, earning it the label of a “hit or miss” developer. That’s not me saying that all their other games have been bad, as some of the Dark Pictures Anthology entries, such as Little Hope and House of Ashes, have been decent, but they are simply forgotten about soon after release.

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By Matin Nasiri

Supermassive Games’ upcoming release is Directive 8020, set to launch on May 12, 2026. The game follows a group of astronauts who encounter a mysterious organism in space, and it's up to the player to help the crew survive the dire situation and get them back to Earth safely. However, this is not as easy as it sounds, as not everything and everyone is as it seems.

I was lucky enough to go hands-on with Directive 8020, and I’m excited to share my impressions with you in this preview. From what I’ve experienced of the game so far, I have high hopes that Supermassive Games has another hit on its hands, though I do still have some reservations.

Make A Choice

If you aren’t familiar with Supermassive Games’ titles, just know that most of them focus on making decisions that shape how the story pans out. Some of these choices you make can lead to their own branch in the storyline that affects the ending, determines whether a character lives or dies, or influences the relationship between two characters.

Directive 8020 follows this same formula, and while there are more “gameplay elements” compared to the developer’s other games, decision-making is at the forefront of the experience. While I only got a taste of the depth of this mechanic in Directive 8020, I was left impressed by the weight of each decision I made. In other words, choices seem to matter, and they don’t just lead to a unique cutscene. Instead, they shape the story.

Directive 8020 follows this same formula, and while there are more “gameplay elements” compared to the developer’s other games, decision-making is at the forefront of the experience.

The biggest change in Directive 8020 is a new mechanic called “Turning Points,” which are essentially decisions that have the biggest consequence and have a huge impact on the story. The game tells you when a Turning Point appears, allowing you to think carefully before making your final decision. Luckily, if you don’t like the outcome of a Turning Point, you can simply go into the menu and rewind to see the other outcome.

I actually found the Turning Point feature to be very refreshing for an experience like this, because even though the main purpose of these games is to technically live with your decisions, making a choice that is detrimental to your favorite character can turn the whole game sour. So, it’s nice to know it’s an option here to reverse things.

More Interactive Than Ever

Directive 8020 is turning out to be the most interactive of all Dark Pictures Anthology titles, thanks to its immersive stealth sequences. During my preview, I was able to engage with one of these stealth encounters and was left impressed by just how tense they can be. They aren’t just tense due to the fear of being caught, but the fact that getting caught can result in a character dying for good.

Yup, you read that right. Failing a stealth encounter can result in a character’s death, removing them from the story for good. I found this mechanic to be a very smart way to combine gameplay elements with the consequences of your actions that these games are known for. It’s a great way to get the heart pumping, as the stealth section I encountered was with one of my favorite characters, and I did not want them to die.

Failing a stealth encounter can result in a character’s death, removing them from the story for good.

However, it’s also a super-easy way to kill off any character in the game, granted that all characters have their own stealth mission in the full release. This may be a turnoff to players who like to see their characters die gradually from making a bad decision, rather than being able to sprint head-on toward a pursuer to get their body ripped apart. It’s less fun than trying to figure out a way to kill a character you don’t like.

I’m a bit worried about the extent to which Directive 8020 will go when it comes to its stealth sequences. While it's designed very well, I’m worried that the stealth encounters will become stale if there is one or multiple in all of its episodes. To put it bluntly, I’m afraid that it will ruin the pacing of the story, since throwing a stealth section in the middle of a high point of the story will lessen its impact.

A Lopsided Cast

Supermassive Games has released the full cast of Directive 8020, and the names behind the title are nothing short of stellar. The most notable names on the cast list include Lashana Lynch of No Time to Die and Captain Marvel, and Danny Sapani of Black Panther.

From what I experienced of Directive 8020 so far, the voice acting is great on one hand, and pretty mediocre on the other. Lashana Lynch and Danny Sapani both bring their A-game, both being at the height of their voice work, but the other characters can sometimes sound like a robot.

Those “robot-sounding” characters seem to have gotten way less attention than the lead roles in both their script and voice work. While this is understandable to a certain degree and not the end of the world for most games, the type of game Directive 8020 is makes it even more detrimental since you’re supposed to care for or despise some characters. Otherwise, if you have no feelings towards a character, you don’t care whether they live or die.

I’m hoping that there is more character development in the full game for the characters I have no feeling for right now. I want to feel some sort of connection with all the characters, just like how it was for me in Until Dawn and The Quarry. When this is the case, the player is more careful about the decisions and choices they make.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Directive 8020, and I have high hopes for the full release. As I said earlier, I have my reservations when it comes to some of the cast members, and I have my worries that the game will force me into stealth encounters constantly, but the game showed me enough positive aspects, leaving me wanting more. If the full release puts my worries to rest and proves otherwise, then Supermassive Games has a hit on their hands.

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By William Butterworth

Survival Horror

Psychological

Horror

Adventure

Systems

OpenCritic Reviews

Released: May 12, 2026
ESRB: Mature 17+ / Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s): Supermassive Games
Publisher(s): Supermassive Games