00:00I thought the most exciting and refreshing aspect of Directive 8020, a decade on from
00:05developer Supermassive Games Until Dawn, would be its shift to sci-fi. As a fan of Alien
00:09Isolation and John Carpenter's The Thing, it seemed to be my exact lane of horror.
00:14But to my surprise, what sets Directive 8020 apart is its new turning point system, which
00:19allows you to rewind pivotal moments and erase your mistakes. It seems counterintuitive
00:23given that so much of the tension in Supermassive Games' interactive narratives have always
00:28come from the finality of your decisions. You live and die by your choices, whether they
00:32be successes or failures. Directive 8020 takes a sledgehammer to that idea with the turning
00:37point system. It shouldn't work, but it does. This is largely thanks to Directive 8020's
00:42premise, location and characters, which make using turning points a must for more than just
00:46achievement hunters. I had an insatiable need to know more about the story, and what would
00:51happen to my beloved crew if my decision making was just slightly off-kilter. I used turning
00:55points to change character personalities from playful to professional, to unlock new endings
01:00by tweaking the conditions needed beforehand, and experience all of the gorious death scenes
01:05of course. I was not disappointed. There are 44 death scenes in Directive 8020, and some
01:10of them are so disgusting I had to cover my screen with one hand. As time goes on, the
01:14entity, the shape-shifting alien, realises it doesn't need to infiltrate the group to kill
01:19them. The life form spreads through the ship, engulfing it in tendrils, flesh, teeth, bones,
01:24eyeballs, basically any biological matter you can think of, and it is yucky. I have been
01:29quietly hoping that Directive 8020 would be great for quite some time now. After a slew
01:33of Dark Pictures games that failed to hit the mark for me, I've been waiting for Supermassive
01:37to deliver on a game that's utterly captivating from start to finish. After playing Directive
01:418020 for over 20 hours, finishing multiple endings and killing the crew in all sorts of morbid
01:46ways, I'm really happy to see that hope manifest into reality. Follow PC Gamer for more rapid
01:51reviews, news and previews.
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