[SGF hands-on] Directive 8020 is a space opera that sucked me in like a black hole

Supermassive’s upcoming space adventure is gripping me (with alien claws)

I love modern adventure games. The variety of subjects they dive into today is beyond comprehension, but I usually am a sucker for something that’s space-related. Maybe it’s that I love the sci-fi genre of films, or that I grew up on Space Quest (it’s probably Space Quest, yeah) but stick me in space where I get to experience a deep narrative and I’m all in. Perhaps that’s also why my time at Summer Game Fest with Supermassive Games’ upcoming Directive 8020 translated over so easily for me. Not only did it have space stuff, but it also had stellar visuals and acting, and killer idea, literally: There are clones in space, made of space biomass stuff, and we need to figure out who’s real and who’s not.

Oh, I was all in on the mystery.

The demo starts with two characters chatting at dinner, Brianna Young (played by Lashana Lynch) and Nolan Stafford (played by Danny Sapani). It’s been some time since Brianna’s father passed, and Stafford, a close friend of his, wants to catch up with her and reminisce. As the opening moments of the demo, the intent is to set up the background of the characters and their motivations. As this isn’t an action heavy sequence we’re instead selecting responses as they pop up in conversation, like how Brianna feels about her father and how his history shaped her. It’s a quick sequence, and may seem inconsequential, but it does have ramifications later.

And by later I mean 4 years later, as the next section of the demo throws us onto the colony ship Cassiopeia as something seems to have invaded it. The game is set in the future, with Earth dying due to everything we’ve done to it and humanity searching for a new home light years away. En route to one possible planet the Cassiopeia has crashed, and now things are getting weird.

Nolan, now using his higher ranking, is exploring a part of the ship that seems to have been infected by a strange biosubstance. As he explores alongside another crewmate, Josef Cernan, they encounter clones of themselves, created by the substance. The infections are everywhere, and one of the clones eventually turns into a monstrous alien hulk. As Stafford and Cernan run, they’re separated, and we need to guide Cernan around a maze-like area to avoid the beast. This is where we take control. Action isn’t a key thing in the game, the team tells me, and so we need to outwit — and escape — from this and similar situations by moving around correctly and efficiently. I’m hiding behind a few crates, waiting and watching the beast walk around the corridors of the area. Eventually a strange Space Quest moment occurs. In that original game we need to escape from a beast in desert by waiting until it passes just in front of us and then running behind it, knowing that it’s speed only matches ours but doesn’t overtake it. If we leave at the wrong time, the beast can intercept us form any angle and kill us. I employ the same tactic here. The beast moves, and just when it passes in front of me I get up and run to the other end of the corridor.

It’s noticed me, of course, and gives chase, but by then I’ve managed to sneak behind another area, crouching and running when I get the chance. After a few near misses I see a ladder up ahead, and it’s at that moment I make a run for it to try and escape, only to have the monster catch up to me and reach out and then… BLAM! A gunshot! Nolan arrived just in time and shot the beast. Whew!

That relief is momentary though, as the beast starts to reform. It’s at that moment that the pair escape, hopeful to let the rest of the crew know what’s going on.

That next scene is where this is all leading to. We’re back with the rest of the crew. They’ve placed anotehr crewmate in the brig, as he’s been antagonizing them. One of the other members mentions repeatedly how he’s been acting weird, how he’s not himself. Having come from the beast chase and knowing that the biomass can take any shape, we’re presented with a choice: kill the crew member in the brig, or let them live?

I… I kill him. He was acting weird! And yet as I was pushing the button to select my choice I knew immediately that I was in the wrong. The clones can’t talk, see, and they have strange movements. This crew member was talking back. He was acting weird, but that’s only because he was being an asshole. And I shot him. And ugh. I actually felt bad, as the scene plays out with his body hitting the floor and we see blood, human blood, drip out of the wound.

The demo ends, and I’m wondering if I can undo what I just did. Can I replay this section? I feel bad about my decision!

Thankfully that’s been thought of. A new system within the game, called Turning Point, allows us to rewind situations and revisit them. The game has hundreds of branching paths, and hundreds of performances that players may not ever see if they only play the game once or twice. In the past, to see everything, a game had to be replayed several times over to see all of the performances and unique decision moments. Supermassive are proud of these. They want people to see all of them.

And perhaps that’s what makes the game that much more exciting for me. Yes, I can make a bad choice (I think I did!) but not ony can I see that through to the end but now I can see what would happen if I didn’t make that call, if I went another way, and potentially be surprised by what happens next.

Directive 8020 arrives in October of this year for PS5, Xbox Series and PC.