As Supermassive Games continues to iterate on the branching narrative formula through itsDark Pictures Anthology,Directive 8020promises to be its most ambitious yet.Preview footage ofDirective 8020has proven promising for its mechanics - stealth, defensive tools (returning fromThe Devil in Me), and otherwise - though the lingering question of just how involved player choice will be in the anthology’s upcoming entry remains a point of speculation. With the many permutations that branching narratives need to consider,Directive 8020looks to be heralding player agency more than ever, though how its five-player co-op will factor into its premise will be interesting to see.
Multiplayer is no new feature ofThe Dark Pictures Anthology. Co-op has, after all, been one of the biggest selling points of its titles, from its couch co-op “pass the game off” style to its online features. In the latter’s case, however, the anthology has only ever accounted for two players acting on the story concurrently, whileDirective 8020is set to accommodate up to five. With five main characters in the Cassiopeia crew, it stands to reason that each player might control one character, though this would be incredibly ambitious if they were all playing the game simultaneously. Some fans have speculated that its online co-op will function instead as an extension of couch co-op, though if the former is true and players are indeed acting concurrently with each other, thenDirective 8020’s multiplayer could be the perfect conduit for its ‘The Thing’ premise.
Directive 8020’s Multiplayer Could Take its Premise to Further Heights
Speculating on Directive 8020’s Online Multiplayer
Multiplayer in games poses inherent mechanical challenges, a feat thatThe Dark Pictures Anthologyhas had to considerin its QTEs and dialogue choice structure. Couple that with branching narratives, and there is a lot to contemplate in making these plots work. It is perhaps why earlier titles likeMan of Medanhave struggled a bit in their approach. AsThe Dark Picturestitles have employed story twists that are tantamount to their respective plots, multiplayer runs the risk of revealing these twists too early, with players naturally expected to communicate with each other throughout the course of the game. Some might argue that this is intentional, though it can lessen the impact of later decisions down the road (at least, if players are trying to keep everyone alive).
Now, inDirective 8020’s case, there’s a fundamental reason why players might be working to the inverse of its characters' survival. Set to embody a type ofspace cosmic horror with an alien that both mutates and mimics, the game will mess with players' perceptions of who they are really interacting with. If players are acting online concurrently with one another, then they could both help and hurt other players' causes; perhaps prematurely dying in the game could cause a player to swap to the alien version of their character, enabling them to go on and actively sabotage those remaining. This is, of course, speculation, though it would make sense considering that players would be left hanging if they otherwise died earlier on in the course of the game.
Co-op Working to Directive 8020’s Narrative Premise, Subverting Expectations
Directive 8020’s main narrative conceit is set to contend not just with the Cassiopeia crew’s survival, but also the home they have left behind.Its game pageemphasizes this: “to save themselves, they must risk the lives of everyone on Earth.” It is an interesting point to highlight in a game set aboard a claustrophobic spaceship, where choices will reverberate beyond the main characters and onto the planet they are twelve light years away from. If thismoral point is highlighted inDirective 8020to the extent that fans should aim to have their characters all die rather than survive, then it could be an equally interesting subversion of the pastDark Pictures' formula while working to the strengths of its multiplayer, should players be allowed to deceive each other.
Regardless of howDirective 8020winds up structuring its multiplayer, it is clear that the title will be atThe Dark Pictures' most iterative. With a release date set for later this year, it is also refreshing to see how Supermassive has given its developers more time to work with healthy pacing, accounting for the hurdles evidenced in the anthology’s past. As Supermassive continues to take fan critique into account and work to adapt accordingly,Directive 8020is shaping up to be an intriguing start to the next of whatThe Dark Pictureshas to offer, though how much death it packs into its space horror premise could be left up to players to determine.
