Supermassive Games, the acclaimed British studio behind horror hits Until Dawn and The Quarry, is boldly going where no horror game has gone before—the deepest, most terrifying reaches of outer space.
In an exclusive interview, the developers unveiled Directive 8020, the next chilling chapter in The Dark Pictures Anthology. This instalment trades the earthly settings of its predecessors for the claustrophobic corridors of a spacecraft on a critical mission to a distant, Earth-like planet.
A New Frontier of Fear
The game's premise is a masterclass in sci-fi horror. Players will control the crew of the spacecraft Dulce Et Decorum Est, a name ominously borrowed from a famous World War I poem about the grim reality of war. Their mission: to find a new home for humanity. What they find, however, is pure cosmic dread.
"We wanted to tap into that fear of the unknown you get with deep space," a developer explained. "You're utterly isolated, help is years away, and something is very, very wrong on your ship."
Classic Sci-Fi Meets Interactive Horror
Directive 8020 is a love letter to iconic sci-fi horror films like Alien and Event Horizon. The developers have meticulously crafted a retro-futuristic aesthetic, blending classic sci-fi design with the studio's signature photorealistic graphics.
The gameplay will be familiar to fans of the studio's previous work, focusing on narrative choice, quick-time events, and relationship management. Every decision will shape the story and determine which, if any, of the crew survive the nightmare.
Why Space is the Perfect Setting
The team at Supermassive believes that a spaceship is the ultimate setting for a horror story. The isolation is absolute, the environment is inherently hostile, and the confines of the ship create a terrifying pressure cooker where fear and paranoia can flourish.
"It's a beautiful, clean, pristine environment at the start of the game," the developer noted. "Watching that descend into chaos and horror is going to be incredibly compelling—and deeply unsettling for players."
With Directive 8020, Supermassive Games is poised to launch players into a new orbit of interactive terror, proving that in the vacuum of space, no one can hear you scream—or make the wrong choice.
