Directive 8020

Steam Reviews

Read all reviews on Steam

• Not recommended Posted May 13, 2026 on Steam This review is not negative because of the lack of shared story. It is not negative because I thought the story was bad, in fact, I thought it was pretty good and made better by having played all of the other games in the series. It isn't even negative because because they went more experimental with this one. It's negative because this game has the same copy/paste stealth gameplay that you will do for the 6 out of 9 hours it will take you to beat this game. It doesn't iterate, it irritates. The game, sadly, just isn't fun.
• Not recommended Posted May 13, 2026 on Steam It started off good, but took a turn. I’ll keep this spoiler-free. [h1]I wanted a paranoia-driven social horror mystery, but the game gradually pivots into more conventional monster horror, and that’s where it lost what made it interesting for me.[/h1] The early chapters were genuinely strong because they played on trust, fear, and uncertainty—not just fear for the characters, but fear for [i]you[/i] as the player. [i]"But I saw so-and-so over there... so who the hell is THIS?"[/i] That kind of tension is awesome. Rarely do games really lean into social fear like that—questioning who you can trust, whether people are actually who they say they are, and letting [i]you[/i] piece that together instead of shoving giant neon clues in your face like [b]"GUYS THIS PERSON HAS A THIRD LIMB I THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG."[/b] And I was [b]LOCKED IN.[/b] I was actively tracking how characters talked, how they thought, how they reacted under pressure, what they believed in, and how they made decisions. I knew what kind of horror game this was supposed to be, so I was in full counterintelligence mode trying to figure out the rules. How does this thing spread? Air? Touch? How fast? Can people be cured? What are its limits? If someone says or does X... does that actually help the alien? That’s fantastic player engagement. The problem is: the game teaches you to engage with it that way, then eventually stops rewarding that engagement. [h2]The core tension shifts from:[/h2] [b]"Who are you really?"[/b] to [b]"OH GOD THERE IS A HUGE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ THING RUN."[/b] Now, that kind of horror is fine. Plenty of games do it well. But for me, it replaced the more interesting horror instead of building on it. And once that happened, I stopped caring as closely about the characters. When the threat is social, the characters matter—you care about what they say, how they act, whether they’re lying, whether they’re still themselves. When it becomes immediate survival horror, that dynamic changes hard. Cooper was actually a standout for me. "Marine turned doctor" sounds weird on paper, but honestly that made her more interesting, not less. The messaging system was also a genuinely cool addition. Optional, but useful if you paid attention, and it rewarded observation—which is exactly what I wanted more of. [hr][/hr] [b]Overall:[/b] I still had an enjoyable time gameplay-wise because I generally like these kinds of games. But I’d issue some caution before buying, because this really depends on what kind of horror experience you want. If you’re expecting paranoia, suspicion, subtle social horror, and psychological tension, just know the game eventually shifts away from that. If you already enjoy games from these developers and this style of interactive horror, there’s still enough here to have a good time. I’m still a fan of the Dark Pictures creators and absolutely want to see what they do next.
• Not recommended Posted May 17, 2026 on Steam 8 hours of the same sneak and stealth event. They didn't add any breathing and aiming sections, so every level feels like a never-ending stealth tutorial. The design is cool, but the story somehow manages to be both painfully predictable and completely incomprehensible at the same time. The ending felt less like a conclusion and more like the writers just gave up halfway through. ( I liked all the previous games, just not this one. )
• Not recommended Posted May 28, 2026 on Steam In the first half I was excited and loved what they were setting up, in the second half I lost my mind over how hard they fumbled the setup. Having the mimic aliens almost felt entirely pointless, outside of a few short scenes with barely any build up or tension there is almost nothing done with this concept. The only time you have to test someone on being a mimic or not it's basically just a "click the button on the obvious mimic" instead of you needing to actually test anything interesting to figure out who's real. And the other time there was a mimic amongst the crew it was so unbelievably obvious you are just screaming at your screen for any of the idiots to finally notice the obvious mimic. But they genuinely never question any of the obvious signs and just take the mimic with them which leads to bad things obviously. I'm supposed to believe these are highly intelligent astronauts sent on a special mission to save earth?
• Not recommended Posted May 18, 2026 on Steam I genuinely love The Dark Pictures Anthology as a franchise and that’s exactly why this ended up being so disappointing to me You can clearly see the huge graphical improvement and honestly it's probably the biggest technical jump the franchise ever had. The new branching system is also really good, exploration feels smoother and replaying chapters doesn’t feel as repetitive anymore. But at the same time, it barely even feels like a Dark Pictures game anymore. One of the biggest things I missed was the relationship system between characters. In the older games, conversations and character bonds actually felt important. Here, it feels heavily reduced. I also didn’t really like the traits system, imo it did more harm than good and made interactions feel simpler than before. And then the game replaces a lot of that with stealth sections… way too many stealth sections. After a while it honestly started getting tiring, sometimes it felt like I was playing Alien Isolation more than The Dark Pictures Anthology. The ending was another issue for me. Even tho I love Little Hope (probably my second favorite in the franchise), I feel like using a somewhat similar “your choices mattered less than you thought” feeling again doesn’t hit as hard here. Little Hope worked because the emotional payoff and symbolism were strong enough to support it. Here, it mostly left me feeling like no matter what I did, the crew still ended up in almost the same overall situation, which made some choices feel less impactful than they should in a choice-based game. Not to mention the lack of Shared Story, Curator Cut, and even the absence of our old Curator. Those were part of what gave The Dark Pictures its identity and charm. I genuinely love this franchise and I don’t want Supermassive to give up on it. That’s exactly why I think criticism is important too. For me, evolving a franchise shouldn’t mean removing the things that made people love it in the first place. As a standalone sci-fi horror game, I enjoyed it, as a Dark Pictures game, I found it disappointing.
• Not recommended Posted May 17, 2026 on Steam Instead of "The Thing - In Space", it's more of a stealth game with few good ideas. The only part I really liked was the setting itself and contacting the crew members and see how they respond. Sadly, it's another horror game ruined by bad gameplay and a mediocre story.