If You Don’t Like Dark Pictures Games, Directive 8020 Might Still Be For You

Cinematic narrative games like the Dark Pictures Anthology are a different kind of animal that just isn’t for everyone. Whereas the primary purpose of the gaming space is to turn digital entertainment into an interactive experience, narrative games find a middle ground between active interaction and passive observation, where players spend the majority of their time watching the story unfold and only occasionally tapping a button on the controller or clicking a mouse to make a choice or attempt a QTE. Because of that, these experiences don’t appeal to the broader gaming audience. However, Supermassive Games is hoping to change that with Directive 8020 and a slew of new features that it believes will extend its reach beyond its current niche.

GameRant recently spoke with Directive 8020 director Will Doyle about the game’s attempts to expand the franchise’s reach—specifically, its space setting, live gameplay sequences, and the developer’s decision to market it as a standalone game. During the interview, Doyle was very candid about the developer’s desire to see more players introduced to the series through these methods, and judging by what the latest installment has in store, the Dark Pictures Anthology has never felt so accessible.

Directive 8020 Aims to Be the Most Accessible Dark Pictures Game to Date

Directive 8020’s Space Setting Gives It a Broader Appeal

The first element Directive 8020 has going for it in terms of appeal and accessibility is its space setting. Previous Dark Pictures games leaned heavily on niche horror subgenres like maritime ghost stories and witch trials. However, sci-fi horror taps into something broader by sharing a setting with popular films like Alien and The Thing. Immediately, that lowers Directive 8020’s barrier to entry, because even if they’ve never played a Dark Pictures game, they already understand its premise.

“We have this cool sci-fi horror world,” Doyle said, “which is quite attractive to people.” And he’s not wrong. Many people are fascinated by space, and that alone can increase interest in the sci-fi horror genre. But there are a couple of other reasons people might be more interested in Directive 8020 that go a little deeper than “space is cool.”

For one thing, in most horror settings, there is a sense that the people in danger can still escape. In space, on the other hand, there’s no way out. If a group of scientists is trapped on a ship with an alien threat onboard, generally, their only choice is to defeat it or survive until help arrives. But sci-fi horror also mixes fear with curiosity. Space is something that many people want to explore, but the fear of the unknown can simultaneously drive them away from that wonder. Directive 8020 pulls from all of these elements, giving it a chance to reach a broader audience than any Dark Pictures game to date.

In fact, according to Doyle, Directive 8020 has already seen increased interest compared to previous Dark Pictures games, even before interested parties have had a chance to play it. When asked if he foresaw a big batch of series newcomers thanks to Directive 8020, he replied:

We hope so. That’s one of the things that has worked well for us. There’s not many horror series out there that get to 5 entries. And one of the things we always notice is that when one of our new games comes out, there’s a spike in the other ones. So, yeah, that’s our hope, of course. But we’ve definitely seen, just with this one, the interest in it has been off the charts compared to the previous ones, and I really think we are intentionally trying to broaden the audience a bit.

Directive 8020’s Live Gameplay Sections Make It More Interactive Than Previous Entries

But Directive 8020 can’t hope to expand the series’ appeal through its setting alone, and that’s where one of its most defining features comes in. In the past, Dark Pictures games have been largely passive, cinematic narratives where players occasionally engage to make plot or character-altering choices and attempt QTEs. However, Directive 8020 is aiming to bridge the gap between those experiences and modern gaming audiences who prefer a little more action. While Supermassive has a great appreciation for narrative games, it also understands that not everyone does. Doyle even confirmed that, as well as how Directive 8020 plans to solve that problem:

I strongly believe that narrative games are really, really special. Telling stories is just amazing, right? And being part of those playable stories is really, really unique. But I think a lot of gamers, for various reasons, will dismiss that and say, “Those games aren’t for me.” So, we’re trying to kind of push it a little bit and bring in some of those gamers with some more “on the sticks” features, so they can go, “Oh, yeah, okay. I can relate to that. I can play that.” And then they experience the wonder of narrative games, and they say, “Oh, this is a huge branching story. Oh, wow, it’s got characters I like.” Things that they may not have seen if they hadn’t seen those new features.

These “on the sticks” moments that Doyle referred to are regular live stealth sections sprinkled throughout Directive 8020’s narrative. In the past, Dark Pictures stealth has been limited to simple actions and QTEs, but in Directive 8020, players will be given direct control over characters and tasked with evading patrolling threats as they would in a different horror game like Resident Evil Requiem. According to Doyle, that’s not only how Supermassive aims to increase interest in the Dark Pictures Anthology but in narrative games overall, if not just to show the current unreached audience what they’ve been missing out on this whole time.

There is concern, though, that these moments could alienate those who are only in it for the classic Dark Pictures cinematic experience, where they aren’t required to do an extensive amount of manual heavy lifting. Should Directive 8020 lean too far into action, those who have followed the series up to that point might lose interest, and although the game could bring in newcomers, it could lose just as many veterans. However, Doyle said Supermassive anticipated this push and pull and accounted for it:

The big new thing we’ve got for direct control is real-time threats. So, monsters prowl around the environment, and you’ll have to evade them. Again, another feature that’s got a lot of attention towards the game, and I think everyone that’s been playing it has really enjoyed it. But when you come across these creatures in the environment, it is down to you on the sticks to survive, and we know that certain people among our gamers are in it for the choices, they’re in it for the narrative stuff, and that kind of worries them a little bit. So, one thing we’ve done is we’ve put in a whole load of settings. You can tailor it however you want through difficulty. You can make those moments really, really easy, or you can make those moments where you can’t die in them.

That’s really the tradeoff Supermassive is trying to navigate. If players can tune those moments to be easier or even remove the threat of failure altogether, then the concern about alienating longtime fans starts to fade. At the same time, those same systems and even Directive 8020’s space setting give new players something to grab onto in a way previous games didn’t. That balance is what makes Directive 8020 feel different. It’s still built on the same cinematic foundation, but for the first time, it feels like the series is actively trying to meet players halfway instead of asking them to fully buy in upfront.