When you’ve already burned by all of the greatest house horror video games out there for the time being, don’t fret, as The Darkish Photos Anthology: Directive 8020 is coming into our orbit within the not-too-distant future.
First unveiled in 2022 with a post-credits teaser on the finish of The Satan in Me, Directive 8020 would be the fifth installment of the Darkish Photos anthology sequence and marks Supermassive Video games’ first enterprise into outer house. It appears tremendously influenced by horror classics resembling The Factor and Prometheus, and whereas there’s an actual danger of it turning out a bit too by-product, we’re excited to see what Supermassive can pull off with this sci-fi horror journey.
Wish to develop your wishlist as we have a look at 2025 and past’s greatest releases? These are the upcoming house video games you must keep watch over. We have additionally acquired franchise-specific online game lists for all the massive names, together with Alien, Star Trek, Warhammer 40K, and Star Wars.
Directive 8020 launch date
So far as we all know, Directive 8020 has been in growth for over two years, with full manufacturing doubtless kicking off after The Satan in Me launched in late 2022.
For now, all we all know is that Directive 8020 is slated for a 2025 launch window, which supplies Supermassive loads of time and house to shine the sport earlier than it launches.
The waits between previous Darkish Photos installments have been noticeably shorter, however Directive 8020 is supposed to start out Season 2 of the anthology sequence and introduce a extra formidable method to the moment-to-moment gameplay — on high of a swap to Unreal Engine 5 — which explains why Supermassive is taking further time with this one.
Directive 8020 platforms
Directive 8020 is confirmed to be releasing on PC, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PS5.
Directive 8020 — and season 2 of The Darkish Photos Anthology as an entire — can be leaving the previous technology of consoles behind because it lastly transitions into Unreal Engine 5, which permits for denser visible particulars and improved illumination throughout all characters, objects, and areas, but additionally much more complicated degree buildings and general recreation design. Which means it will not be exhibiting up on the Xbox One or PS4.
Directive 8020 trailers
Advertising and marketing will certainly ramp up within the coming months, however for now, just one Directive 8020 trailer has been launched to the general public. It arrived on August 20, 2024, throughout Gamescom 2024, and it launched each the sport’s protagonist and the fundamental premise (in addition to the spooky tone).
Watch it under:
We’ll maintain this text up to date with extra trailers and gameplay previews as they arrive.
Directive 8020 plot & setting
Straight from Supermassive Video games and bodily distributor Bandai Namco, this is the official plot synopsis for Directive 8020:
“Hunted by an alien organism able to mimicking its prey, the crew of the Cassiopeia should outwit their pursuers to make it dwelling alive. To assist them survive, the alternatives you make are extra necessary than ever! Evade real-time threats the place any step could possibly be your final. Determine who to belief in a world the place anybody could possibly be a lethal alien impostor.”
The builders have described the brand new recreation as “The Factor in deep house” up to now, which indicators the studio is sporting its influences proudly fairly than shying away from space-themed horror motion pictures everyone knows and love. As for the setting, the primary location is Tau Ceti f — an actual exoplanet within the Tau Ceti star system.
In an interview with FandomWire, we realized that within the timeline of the sport, the Earth is dying and the Cassiopeia is a reconnaissance ship despatched out to discover potential new properties for humanity. “After all, as this can be a Supermassive Video games story, issues do not go to plan, and your crew finally ends up crash touchdown. That is the place their experience, relationships, and belief are actually examined.” Artistic director Will Doyle additionally teased that every one characters can die, with the story shifting ahead in a similar way to what occurred in earlier Darkish Photos entries.
We anticipate extra gentle can be shed on each the plot and forged of characters as we method its mysterious 2025 launch date. For now, solely Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel, 007: No Time to Die) has been confirmed to star as Brianna Younger, an astronaut and pilot who serves as the primary protagonist. That stated, anticipate extra playable characters like in previous Darkish Photos video games.
Directive 8020 style & gameplay
Whereas previous Darkish Photos installments already gave gamers some extent of direct management over the characters, Directive 8020 plans to take issues a bit additional, giving gamers complete management. Which means fewer ‘quick-time occasions’ to get out of harmful conditions and extra plentiful ‘hands-on’ sections that land nearer to classical survival horror titles than the studio’s previous narrative-centric video games.
“That stated, it’s nonetheless very a lot a story recreation! All the things you like about Darkish Photos remains to be current: cinematic sequences and pacing, QTEs, significant decisions, secrets and techniques to seek out, and narrative branching,” stated Doyle. Previous Darkish Photos video games (in addition to a number of different Supermassive-developed titles) have been outlined by their distinctive model of versatile and extremely replayable cinematic storytelling, superb to method as an ‘interactive horror movie night time’ with associates, and Directive 8020 is not dropping all that regardless of its evolution.
