Directive 8020 Gets an 8 From IGN, but Is It Worth Buying?

Directive 8020, the opening entry in Supermassive Games' second season of The Dark Pictures Anthology, launches on May 12 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. In its review, IGN scored it 8/10 and labeled it Great, describing an eight-chapter, roughly 10-hour first playthrough that pushes the series from haunted ground locations into deep-space horror aboard the colony ship Cassiopeia.

That shift in setting is doing a lot of work. Instead of another earthbound scare ride, the game sends players toward Tau Ceti f in search of a new home for humanity, only for the Cassiopeia to crash and leave the crew trapped with an alien organism capable of imitating its victims. That premise naturally feeds the game's central tension between trust and suspicion, and according to IGN, the payoff is stronger than in earlier anthology entries. The review argues that the spectacle, narrative, technical execution, performances, and overall narrative complexity all show clear improvement, making this a strong start for Season 2 after four years away.

Just as importantly, Directive 8020 is not framed as a purely passive "interactive movie." Its design mixes stealth, QTE-driven survival, and branching narrative choices, then adds a Turning Points system that lets players undo major decisions and test different story paths. For anyone who likes replaying branches, that sounds genuinely useful. The downside, as the review notes, is that the scene flowchart can reveal branching routes, unlock conditions, and even the ways characters can die. Great for a second run and completionists, less great if you want your first run to preserve the mystery.

IGN's write-up also suggests the script itself is in solid shape. It points to one major twist that is properly set up rather than forced, with enough clues in the environment that attentive players may piece things together ahead of time. Character traits such as being serious or humorous can shift through dialogue choices and affect later events, sometimes even locking off options that appear to be the obvious "right" answer. That gives repeat playthroughs more pull, especially when only about 58% of the game's content was seen during the reviewer's completion of the story.

The criticisms are fairly clear, too. IGN says stealth starts to feel overused in the later stretch, to the point where tension can give way to repetition. Some characters also lose presence in the back half because the branching structure spreads attention too thin. On the audio side, voice work is clear and sound effects are strong, but surround positioning is not always precise and the mix occasionally drifts. In a game leaning so heavily on deep-space claustrophobia, that matters.

Longtime fans will also notice two absences: the series' signature Curator and its usual closing theme, "O' Death," are both missing here. Some players may see that as the loss of familiar identity markers, but it also reinforces the sense that this return is trying to do more than simply repeat old tricks. The game clearly pays homage to space-horror staples like Alien and The Thing, yet the impression so far is that it is drawing from them rather than merely copying them.

The recommendation is straightforward. If you like narrative horror, enjoy chasing branching endings, and are comfortable with a campaign built around stealth and QTE survival, May 12 looks like a reasonable day-one buy. If you care more about mechanical depth, or know you have little patience for repeated stealth in the late game, it makes more sense to wait for more hands-on impressions. Based on this review, Directive 8020 does not look like a masterpiece, but it does look like a dependable and promising opening for The Dark Pictures Anthology Season 2.