The Next Dark Pictures Horror Game, Directive 8020, Will Change How The Series Plays

The Dark Pictures Anthology, Supermassive's long-running horror franchise of games that tend to play like interactive movies, is getting some major overhauls to its gameplay mechanics with Directive 8020, as revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live. The next game in the series will be the first to be set in outer space and stars Lashana Lynch from Bob Marley: One Love and The Woman King.

Supermassive revealed a new trailer for the game during Gamescom Opening Night Live, that hinted at its story--a doomed spaceship, a crew of future victims, and an everpresent alien threat. It surely sounds like Alien, but that's surely on purpose too. The game's monster is also capable of disguising itself as other lifeforms, so there's even a wrinkle of The Thing here.

But what's most notable is how Directive 8020 will build on the game's traditional mechanics of exploration, decision-making, and forming relationships with other characters that impact the story. Though these elements remain intact for the movie-like game, new twists have been revealed, too. This includes the way the monster poses a "real-time" threat, which seems to call back to Alien: Isolation's way of having the monster almost constantly able to leap into any moment of the game and eat you alive.

New stealth gameplay and improvised weaponry will further separate it from past games in the horror anthology, and because the creature (or is it creatures?) can shape-shift, your decision-making will be tested more than ever before, as you may align yourself with a monster in disguise.

Directive 8020 is scheduled to arrive in 2025 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. It marks the fifth game in a series that seems to have intentions to make eight or more games before it concludes. Tragically, the actor who portrays the series' Cryptkeeper-like host recently passed.