I’m not great with spooky (or horror) games, overall. I get spooked very easily — especially when it’s a video game. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually began to enjoy horror movies. When it comes to horror in video games though, that’s a whole different beast. In a movie you can cover your eyes when things start to get creepy, or look away — my friend watches scary movies on his phone watching the spooky bits through a glass of water. In a video game, you are in control of when the frights happen.

This past week, I got into Directive 8020 — the newest game in the Dark Pictures Games anthology from Supermassive Games. The two games I have played (a tiny bit of) from the Dark Pictures Anthology were The Quarry and Until Dawn. Those two played like slasher horror movies, while Directive 8020 is more space horror (closer to the ALIEN movies or The Thing).

These games play like watching a horror film, except you control a lot of the action (or movement). You also make decisions for each character. Decisions that may lead to their demise. In Directive 8020 the decision making points in the game are called “Turning Points” — I get what they were going for, but maybe they could have gone with a different name. Every time I made a decision I immediately regretted it, since the game would ask, “Are you sure you don’t want to rewind and try again?”

My HMO | Horror Modus Operandi

My usual way of handling a spooky game is playing for a couple of nights before moving onto anything not scary at all. I also only really get in the mode for some horror games around Halloween (aka Spooky Season).

The way Directive 8020 is laid out may have given me a new take on this genre. It’s episodic. It’s like watching a season of a TV series (or streaming series for the young ones). I played (or watched) one per night this week, so I only made it halfway. Each episode runs about an hour.

I can see myself playing other horror games in this same fashion — one unsettling section at a time. If I could treat other horror games this way, then I can see myself becoming a horror game fan.

There’s also the unwritten rule of horror games:

Horror games must be played late at night.
Horror games must be played by yourself.
Horror games must be played in the dark.
Horror games must be played while everyone else is asleep (wife and cats)

Playing a horror game in broad daylight is kind of cheating, it takes the spooky factor completely out of the equation. You may still jump during certain parts, but it just doesn’t hit the same way.

The DPG | Dark Pictures Games

The Dark Pictures Games style of horror is quite impressive. I can easily see why they have a big fanbase. Until Dawn even received a movie adaptation. It’s always fun when a video game that’s inspired by a particular movie genre becomes a movie that’s inspired by a particular video game.

Directive 8020 and the other DPA games are like the new, next-gen visual novels. They can even be the new style of interactive “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. They are created the same way, with a web of choices that lead to different outcomes.

The cinematic storytelling style in Directive 8020 really grabbed my attention. It felt like a game that could have been filmed on a set with real actors. The characters feel real because they are motion captured versions of their real life actors, many times in the same likeness as them.

I enjoy jumping around the story beats, episode-to-episode. Stories don’t need to be in chronological order. As the game goes on, you are thrown in and out of chaos on this space shuttle, the Cassiopeia.

The developers have left out the classic video game trope of having to find your way to your next destination — no matter how far away. Easy episode focuses on one to a few characters. They are usually in the same area of the Cassiopeia. The next episode may jump to an entirely new location, character(s), and time, but gameplay always begins right where the action is.

In a big open world game it makes sense to travel all over a large map and find secrets along the way. In this story-driven game it makes more sense to play out the big moments and get the rest of the story through cutscenes and context clues.

Normally, I like having more control over my characters in my games. However, I do appreciate that these games exist. Supermassive has done something incredible with this series of games, and I’m happy to see them explore new places (like space).

For my next horror game I have already started a Resident Evil game.
…more on that in an upcoming “Spooky Games” post.

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*myVGBC was provided a review code for Directive 8020 by the publisher.