Taking the Supermassive formula and applying it to Ridley Scott’s mix Alien and John Carpenter Something that’s why I was surprised to check Directive 8020.
I’m a big fan of both movies, and the idea that I have to decide if my co-worker is my employee, or a murderous alien, again then living with the consequences if I’m wrong, it felt like an amazing narrative experience.
Sadly, Directive 8020 delivers only a fraction of that potential, leaving me excited but ultimately depressed.
The story follows the crew of Cassiopeia, an astronomical spy, en route to Tau Ceti f, a potential new home for humanity. Before you get there, the ship is hit by a meteorite, and now a life-like condition is spreading throughout the ship.
Since I haven’t played a Great Game since Until Dawn back in 2014, I’m impressed with how many choices the game throws at you. Even 20 minutes into it, you see some of the consequences of your actions, the game reminds you every time on the screen with the “result” tab.
Playing in a group of up to seven different people, your choices will range from how to answer questions to decisions about how to deal with each new situation, and finally choosing which will lead to the survival or death of certain characters.
In between, you’ll control characters for a random quest, a rare quick-time event, and some shallow dungeon segments – the latter of which gets old quickly.
In the end, the format hasn’t changed much since Until Dawn, but it has become more complex. First, characters now have endings that can be unlocked or missed depending on your choices.
These endings can determine whether a person becomes a hero or a confidante, for example, each ending opens up new ways for the character to progress. again narrative branches. The problem is that the characters are good good. I’ve never disliked anyone (unless I had to), but I’ve also never cared about anyone.
Through various conversations and finding text-logs that fill the articles, you simultaneously learn about the character and decide who they are in the process, which I enjoyed. But because of that, everyone feels like a blank slate, which is a waste if you have talent There is no Time to Die Lashana Lynch in your group.
But the biggest crime of the game is its setting. Despite its various references Alien, Cassiopeia, where almost all the play takes place, is dull.
Look, I’m not expecting something along the lines of the USCSS Nostromo, but its gunmetal futuristic aesthetic lacks any identity. Throughout my nearly seven hours exploring the empty hallways, copy-and-paste offices, and unhealthy staff quarters, I never got a sense of scale or space.
Things are improving, visually at least, as all hell breaks loose in the latter part of the game, but I think it’s clear that Cassiopeia didn’t focus on Supermassive, which is a real shame. Whether it’s the USG Ishimura in Dead Space, the Pathos-II in SOMA, or the Sevastopol Station in Alien Isolation, a giant spaceship (or underwater base) can be useful in a sci-fi horror game.
I will say, despite the slow start, the narrative really picks up in the last half. There are some great twists in there, some awesome horror I loved your design, and many of the choices you make seem to start to have an impact on the later parts of the story.
Although I would have liked some more, there are some of those keys Something times, as you must decide whether the person standing before you is human or a murderous alien. These moments are great tension, and they’re the little pockets of magic I’ve been looking for in this game.
And of course, like the Supermassive game, there’s ample replay value here. There are different endings, characters can live or die, and you will experience all this through options or a bunch of quick time events. One misplaced button and it lights up your favorite character.
Unless, that is, you want to try the rollback system introduced with Directive 8020. This allows you to go back in time and choose a different path. There is still a survival mode for those who want to live with their mistakes, but this allows you to see more of the story without having to replay it from the beginning.
I’m a bit conflicted about this feature, though, as it’s nice as an option and you can obviously ignore it, but it feels like a contradiction. Each time a decision is made to “change,” you will be reminded that you can change that decision.
However, many big decisions do not have immediate consequences. There are choices you can make in one episode, and the consequences aren’t felt until the next, or later. So the game encourages you to change your mind before you know the impact of your decisions.
Then, if you undo to change your score, you just need to replay the whole game anyway. So for me, it would just be much cleaner to start the game from scratch.
There is a branching tree, of sorts, that allows you to explore how different time periods can diverge, but I felt like this took away from that branching narrative mystery. It can be detailed, in some cases, how time changes, which comes down to whether that character survives or not.
There’s a part of me that’s interested in going through it all again and trying other options, to explore the extent of narrative freedom. However, the idea of having to finish it all over again does not please me at all.
I was able to test the game on both the PS5 and PS5 Pro for all of my playthroughs, and I was surprised that I had no issues on either version. There is a standard quality mode that runs at 30 frames per second and a smooth performance mode that runs at 60fps. For VRR demos, there’s also a balanced 40fps mode on both consoles, which is the version I chose. There are also some great haptics here for the DualSense lovers out there.