Developer Supermassive Games really made their mark on the horror game landscape with 2015's Until Dawn, but the Dark Pictures Anthology really brought the heat by offering gaming's closest analog to Netflix's Black Mirror series. With the latest installment on the way, the developers have plans for an ambitious return that finally ventures into sci-fi horror while also putting players in more direct control of the tense encounters that await the characters in this dark story.
At Summer Game Fest 2025, we got to play a particularly fateful encounter from the upcoming Directive 8020, which continues the Dark Pictures saga. We also saw just how the sci-fi horror adventure game mixes things up with more real-time gameplay encounters that bring the series and its strong narrative hooks closer to a true survival horror experience.
Taking place in the far future, where Earth is on the verge of collapse, a crew of scientists and space colonists travel to a distant planet poised to become humanity's next home. But as you'd guess for a horror game, the planet is home to another malevolent entity, and the crew is forced to survive against a mysterious alien presence that can mutate and take the form of any living person on board their ship.
Actress Lashana Lynch – seen in The Day of the Jackal and Captain Marvel – leads the cast of characters as the pilot of the ship, and her early scenes in Directive 8020 make her such a compelling lead in this bleak story. The game leans into similar themes of paranoia, isolation, and fear of the unknown – which makes for an excellent setup for a Dark Pictures game. The developers were particularly inspired by sci-fi films like Event Horizon, Alien, and John Carpenter's The Thing, which helped establish the style of horror and sense of dread that Directive 8020 goes for.
According to game director Will Doyle, who guided me through the SGF demo, Directive 8020 will still feature many of the hallmarks of a Dark Pictures experience. Still, it will also mark the start of more active gameplay sequences and choices that aim to increase the fear factor within this extended episode.
"I've had this idea for more real-time threats in my mind for a long time and throughout season one of the Dark Pictures, and the main reason we wanted to do it was to increase the fear factor for the games," said the game director. "There's nothing more scary than when you're in direct control and the creatures are trying to hunt you down and kill you. That gets your heart pumping, and that was a significant part of our motivation. We also wanted to expand our audience with more engaging gameplay. It's still a cinematic, story-driven game, but it does have moments where you are making those decisions and actions with more direct control."
I got to see this real-time action sequence during a story segment where the Captain and another crew member were confronted by their alien impostors. Playing as the second crew member, the imposter mutates into a grotesque monster, and I have to evade it from within the maintenance area of the ship. This played out in a tense and unnerving stealth sequence that felt similar to Dead Space or Resident Evil, which lends Directive 8020 a classic survival horror-like feel. As this is a Dark Pictures game, permanent death is a thing, and if I hadn't gotten this character out away from his imposter, the main story would have evolved differently.
However, Directive 8020 heightens the sense of paranoia and tension when making fateful survival choices. Given that Supermassive Games' pedigree of horror adventure games is about making decisions to keep a group of survivors and friends alive to the end of the story – the added twist in Directive 8020's story with your crew being replaced by alien imposters presents an unsettling wrinkle.
A fateful moment occurred when the Captain returned to the crew and had to decide where to shoot a crew member who had seemingly come in contact with the alien entity. Much like the games from the developers, these flashpoint moments are among the most consequential points in the story. Without giving away spoilers, I made a decision that I would come to regret. Still, according to the game director, these moments can also be rolled back using the turning point system – which acts as an optional story tracker and rewind system, allowing players to view different moments and choose a different path if they wish.
So far, Directive 8020 is set to be a welcome return to the Dark Pictures series. And with the focus on giving players more direct control of the action while also heightening the sense of distrust in your dwindling party of survivors, the next game looks to offer one of the more unique and game-changing episodes the series has seen yet.
