Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game. Brutal?

Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game is a choice based adventure story game developed and published by ‘Supermassive games‘. Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game is said to be coming out the 12th of May 2026 on the Xbox Series X/S, PC and PS5. X35 Earthwalker tryout enjoys a choice based story game that’s done properly and real well. Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game is looking to make this their hardest and most punishing game yet of this type. Let’s take a look.

The story of Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game is actually interesting. The Earth is dying because of course it is. “Humanity is running out of time”. A colony ship called Cassiopeia crash lands on a planet. This all takes place in Tau Ceti about 12 light years away from what they call home. So already things are looking real bad in the grand scheme of things. It does get worse though. the planet they landed on… they are not alone…

More on that later but let’s remind everyone that the developers of Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game are also the creators of Unreal Dawn and The Quarry. So come on, gamers should know what to expect from games like these. Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game is another one of those games where you are watching a story play out in front of you and must make decisions. These decisions is where the action is at. These choices you make, matters. One simple decision can get everyone killed. Trust us on that.

Remember that we said the cow of the crashed ship are not alone. There are aliens here (no Amanda Ripley). A alien organism that has the ability to mimic its targets… or should we say prey. So everyone’s life is in danger. So make all your choices count and not just the meaningful ones. There’s off course multiple endings as well. Now will gamers play honestly and do a no undo play through where you must live with your choices, or will cheat like some pathetic streamers and youtubers who undo, restart or get help from their chat.  

It seems like Supermassive games are going for an actually difficult game this time. We want a choice based game that’s ruthless. With many surprises and makes players never feel that safe. Caught off guard. A mixture of obvious and not so obvious. All these other similar games, even from other developers are all easy mode. We want truly difficult. They are dealing with mimicking aliens where they must rely more so on intelligence to survive. High stakes like risking everyone on earth to save themselves. It needs to be hard. You miss one fast quick time event and someone dies. Be cruel this time.

We checked out some gameplay and it’s what we expected. They have their style still clearly in this game with a some awkwardness but it’s nothing major at all. Definitely has a serious tone. The surface of the planet looks barren and bad weather. Only dangerous things live on this planet. The design works here. Of course it’s best to keep things secret and mysterious. X35 Earthwalker himself likes to be surprised, especially with games like this. The less you know, the better.

Overall Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game looks like it’s going to be great. Games like this are usually fun and bring players for a good ride. Paying attention to the details to know what choices to make. Exploring everywhere to make sure to find important items. Paying attention during chase scenes to hit those quick time events and fail nothing. It’s actually hard to mess up games like this. The developers ‘Supermassive games’ have done an excellent job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an eye open for this game. Now Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game may have deceptive aliens but they can never fool… the ‘Earth Walk!’