John Carpenter's 1982 horror sci-fi movie The Thing is unparalleled – it's as cold and irreplaceable as a snowflake's crystal fingerprint – but my 15 minutes with Supermassive Games' sci-fi interactive drama Directive 8020 at Summer Game Fest makes me confident it can evolve as efficiently as the alien flesh inside it.
Directive 8020 is the latest installment of Until Dawn developer Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology, a standalone game series that pairs the studio's signature choose-your-own-adventure format with different horror genres; Directive 8020, due October 2 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, is Supermassive's first stab at sci-fi, though the game is an obvious The Thing homage. While the pale walls and high shine of Directive 8020's spaceship setting is visually different from Supermassive's typical cabins in the woods, the Carpenter connection brings Directive 8020 back to Supermassive's usual schlock.
And thank God for that. For years, I have been disappointed by Supermassive games like Dead by Daylight collaboration The Casting of Frank Stone. More recently, I've been confused by IP holder Sony's decision to make the Until Dawn movie barely based on Supermassive's 2015 game, and I was sad about a studio "reorganization" last year that impacted nearly 100 jobs at Supermassive. But, no matter where bureaucracy and bad decisions may put the developer, I will return to the Supermassive's side like a puppy that doesn't know any better.
"Welcome to the human race," Snake Plissken says at the end of John Carpenter's 1996 movie Escape from LA. Humans – we like things that feel familiar. We want to feel safe, so we can convince ourselves that we're in control – that's the instinct that attracts me to Supermassive titles, and it's also what's truly scary about the decisions that make up their core gameplay. Something that seems like nothing – responding to a question defensively rather than with forgiveness, for example – could march half a game's cast members straight to their bone-snapping deaths.
And still, because Supermassive always gives you a choice – a means to prevent uncomfortable, unpredictable chaos – I continue to feel like I have power, and like I'm not as subject to cruel fate (and Supermassive devs) as the guy next to me.
There's no way this is true. But this ridiculous self-possession – some may know it as hope – is exactly what drives the plot of Directive 8020, in which crew members aboard the Cassiopeia spaceship become desperate to distinguish themselves from the alien slime impersonating them. Similar to The Thing, in which Antarctic researchers are instead impersonated by a primordial goo, the Directive 8020 alien seems like a little innocent mold at first.
Shortly into my demo at Summer Game Fest, the pulpy, grayish-pink organism has already filled the Cassiopeia's hydroponics bay, and I think, Hey, maybe things aren't so bad yet, but then the alien takes control of a crew member and – oh, God, there goes every muscle in his cheek.
I run from the lumpy beast the alien creates, which doesn't induce queasiness as easily as Carpenter's infamous practical effects, but it's still a formidable pile of what looks like eyeballs, long legs with no skin, and microwaved oatmeal. I panic as I realize I've accidentally taken the long way around the spaceship while running from the monster – choices! – but I relax my jaw, relieved, when I survive a quick-time event skirmish and squirm up a ladder to safety.
But I'm playing a Supermassive game that's a John Carpenter movie, so of course there's no actual safety.
It turns out the Cassiopeia's other crew members have learned of the alien's ability to create doppelgängers, so they want me to decide if I should shoot the colleague they suspect to be one of them, or if I should let him live.
Picking an option abruptly, so that the in-game timer doesn't run out and select indifference for me, I allow my crew mate to live. A mechanic brand-new to Supermassive games called Turning Point informs me that I could retry making this decision if I want to, but a genetic scanner proves my colleague was human as I suspected.
The Supermassive dev that's been watching me play is surprised – most people who've finished the demo, he says, decide to fire the gun. This is the moment I know I need to play more of Directive 8020. Nothing makes me feel more certain of my destiny than doing the unexpected.
