Supermassive describes Directive 8020 as "The Thing in space," but even with the survival horror elements, it's a Dark Pictures game through and through
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Small step for man, massive leap for Supermassive
For a developer like Supermassive, proven experts in the realm of cinematic horror, I did have some immediate concerns aboutanyformat changes. Any fan of the Dark Pictures Anthology knows the games as interactive movies of sorts, removing the onus from the player to be technically “good” at anything in particular – except, perhaps, having sharp reflexes for quick-time events. The unique blend of immersion, interaction, and just enough arm’s length security reassures players that there is no wrong way for the story to play out, no matter who lives or dies.
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It’s quite controlled, in a cinematic way, but at the same time, it encourages you to play it differently each time you go.
“We were very much initially inspired by the movie The Thing, in terms of a creature that can morph its body and warp itself to look like anyone from your crew,” Doyle says, “but we’ve created a unique thing. We’ve taken it further. And there’s a whole load of different forms that it has that we can’t show you, and there’s various bits about it we can’t talk about right now, but understanding its motivation is part of the story.” The 20-minute hands off demo showed this malevolent creature in action, using mimicry to lure its prey in while spreading a thick, fleshy webbing around the infested spaceship.
Fans of the Dark Pictures shouldn’t be afraid.
But balancing these new survival horror elements with the cinematic core of Dark Pictures is no spacewalk in the park. “One of the real challenges we’ve had, and one of the things we’re really happy with, is getting that driving pace of a cinematic experience. So it still feels like a high end movie or TV show that you’re the star of, but we also managed to weave through it all these moments for player agency, and survival horror gameplay.
“We call them encounters,” Doyle says of the moment-to-moment opportunities for players to get more involved in the action, “and we need to signal to the player really, really clearly that you’re in this kind of moment. It’s very cinematically paced so that you’ll be put into this situation with a very clear goal of where you need to get to. But within that environment, it is much more dynamic than we’ve done before.” With the creature moving through its growths and able to pop up almost anywhere, the player has “a number of different ways to get past it, mainly through use of your tools. It’s quite controlled, in a cinematic way, but at the same time, it encourages you to play it differently each time you go.”
With real-time stealth needed to evade the creature at times, greater player agency might be making some more timid fans balk. Thankfully, the fear is still yours to tinker with. “We’ve already got a load of accessibility options and difficulty settings,” McDonald confirms, while Doyle goes on to describe it as “an experience that you can tailor to your own skill set and preference.” He mentions a “forgiving mode that sort of slows down all your quick-time events and so forth,” leading right up to a lethal mode to amp up the danger tenfold. “We’re developing systems that will allow you to tailor the behavior of the monster to your preference as well. You can still have the presence of the creature, and you can still have all the intensity of that moment [without the danger], which is what we’re really trying to do. We’re trying to give you that extra fear, but if you don’t want [the creature] to take you out as easily, you can adjust that.”
Supermassive Games is responsible for some of thebest horror gamesever.
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