When Supermassive Video games’ Directive 8020 arrives in 2025, it is going to have been three years for the reason that studio’s horror anthology sequence The Darkish Footage noticed its final full launch. This new sci-fi story, the studio’s first foray into the long run, is the fifth primary sport within the franchise (or sixth, if you happen to rely 2023’s PlayStation VR spin-off). However that additional wait appears to have been put to good use, and ensured that there is a lot now about Directive 8020 to make the sequence virtually really feel prefer it’s beginning afresh.
Directive 8020
Developer: Supermassive Video games
Writer: Supermassive Video games
Availability: Releases 2025 on PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Sequence X/S
That is the start of a brand new ‘season’ of The Darkish Footage, one by which the anthology’s branding appears rather less distinguished – with the Directive 8020 title itself now centre-stage. Every sport within the franchise has at all times been standalone, however there is a sense right here that this sport’s actual developments ought to be made clear – that this is not simply one other entry in a well-known method.
After a half-hour take a look at Directive 8020 on the Gamescom 2024 showfloor, it is apparent that Supermassive has been busy. That is nonetheless a narrative-heavy journey that includes a bunch of playable characters, every of that are only one mistaken choice away from loss of life. However Directive 8020 has additionally been given visible and gameplay upgrades, to allow it to higher get up as a convincing survival horror – one with particular shades of Useless House and Alien Isolation – as you face a roaming predator on an contaminated spaceship.
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Within the part I noticed, James Bond and Marvel star Lashana Lynch – one other coup for Supermassive’s casting division – explored areas of her crashed colony ship, after an incident sees the vessel wrecked and its surviving crew scattered after being introduced out of hypersleep early. Followers of Supermassive’s previous work will spot the same old narrative selections and quick-time occasions, however these at the moment are interspersed by stealth sections, and an array of instruments at your disposal to soundly navigate round hazards.
You’ve got a scanner, in a position to spot the sport’s creepy alien that is ready to mimic the looks of crew members – one thing that permits some intriguing psychological horror – in addition to a Sonic Screwdriver-like distant to activate close by electronics to distract enemies. “It is no spoiler to say that the alien will infiltrate your crew and pose as them, and within the extra narrative sections of the sport, you will be confronted with that, and you will have to try to determine who’s who,” the sport’s inventive director Will Doyle instructed me. “Who do you belief? There are some attention-grabbing twists and turns within the story with how that works.”
Character motion has been reworked to really feel smoother and extra “on the sticks”, and is night-and-day completely different to The Darkish Footage’ origins. Lastly, whereas I did not see a lot precise fight per se, Lynch’s character may wield what seems like a sci-fi electrical cattle prod for protection.
“We want to deliver The Darkish Footage to a wider viewers, for positive,” Doyle instructed Eurogamer. “There are stronger survival horror motion journey components to the gameplay now, which we hope will deliver in additional followers to our world, whereas nonetheless carrying alongside all of our followers with us.”
It is an attention-grabbing strategy for a sequence that beforehand appeared to lean on its overarching branding for familiarity. However followers nonetheless searching for a extra informal expertise will discover settings to tune the gameplay extra to their liking, Doyle says, with extra particulars on these set to be revealed in the end. And, in fact, whereas this can be a standalone entry there are going to be nods again to earlier Darkish Footage video games for individuals who have caught with the sequence.
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“For followers, you will uncover Easter eggs on this sport linking again to earlier video games, there are story components which connect with earlier ones. However in fact, you do not have to have performed any of these video games to get pleasure from this in any respect,” Doyle says. It additionally sounds just like the sequence’ sole acquainted face, The Curator, can even seem in another way this time round. “He is a mysterious man, and we’re gonna have to stay mysterious about him for the second,” Doyle teases, after I ask after The Curator’s whereabouts. “There may be extra to return on that.”
Developments within the sport’s set of instruments right here will carry by means of to future The Darkish Footage video games, Doyle confirms. And, going ahead, it appears like every title could also be handled as extra of a standalone occasion. “There’s a mythology right here [with The Dark Pictures] that this sport expands upon, however we do not need to include ourselves to this being, essentially, half 5 of the anthology,” Doyle says. “We do not need to be tied right down to a sport each six months or one yearly or something like that. This sport’s large, and we wish it to be handled as such.”
There’s nonetheless a lot extra to study Directive 8020 – we’re but to satisfy extra of the sport’s solid, or see extra of its environs that you’re going to go to over your playtime. However for present followers of The Darkish Footage, the following chapter is lastly on the horizon. And, maybe extra importantly, merely for followers of sci-fi and survival horror, there’s one thing new to be careful for.
