Directive 8020 is perfect for those seeking sci-fi survival horror, tense character choices, and cinematic danger aboard a doomed spaceship.
Directive 8020
Release Date: May 12, 2026
Genres: Adventure
Supermassive Games is moving The Dark Pictures Anthology into space, with Directive 8020 focusing on the crew of the Cassiopeia as they face an alien organism capable of mimicking its prey. Before jumping into that paranoia-filled sci-fi nightmare, these Supermassive games are the best way to understand the studio’s style of branching horror, player-driven deaths, and cinematic tension.
TL;DR – Games Like Directive 8020
Table of Contents
Directive 8020 looks like a natural evolution of what Supermassive Games has been building for years: cinematic horror where every conversation, quick-time event, hidden clue, and split-second decision can change who survives.
The big difference is the setting. Instead of a mountain lodge, summer camp, ghost town, war zone, or murder hotel, this time the danger is locked inside a sci-fi survival horror scenario where trust itself becomes a mechanic.
That makes the studio’s earlier games especially useful preparation. Some teach you how Supermassive handles ensemble casts, some focus on creature attacks and military tension, while others are better for understanding paranoia, unreliable perception, environmental exploration, or group decision-making. Here are the best Supermassive games to play before Directive 8020.
Until Dawn
Until Dawn is the game that defined Supermassive’s modern horror identity. It follows a group of young adults returning to an isolated mountain lodge one year after a tragedy, only for the night to spiral into slasher scares, supernatural panic, and brutal survival choices.
What makes Until Dawn work so well is its mixture of horror tropes and meaningful consequences. Characters can die permanently, relationships shift depending on dialogue choices, and small decisions can have major payoffs hours later. It feels like playing through a polished teen-horror movie where your mistakes actually matter.
It fits perfectly before Directive 8020 because it teaches the basic Supermassive rhythm: explore carefully, watch how characters treat each other, do not ignore clues, and never assume a choice is harmless. Directive 8020 may trade snowy cabins for deep space, but the pressure of keeping a full cast alive clearly comes from the same design DNA.
Until Dawn is also a great reminder that Supermassive horror often hides more than one kind of threat. What begins as one type of story can shift into something stranger, deadlier, and more complicated once the truth starts coming out.
Until Dawn
Release Date: October 04, 2024
Genres: Adventure
Why You Might Like It
- Strong choice-and-consequence structure where characters can permanently die
- Classic cinematic horror pacing with mystery, scares, and survival tension
- Excellent preparation for managing a full cast under pressure
- Great mix of exploration, relationship choices, and sudden danger
The Quarry
The Quarry is Supermassive’s spiritual follow-up to Until Dawn, built around a group of camp counselors trying to survive one last night at Hackett’s Quarry. It leans hard into teen-horror energy, with a large cast, stylish presentation, and plenty of branching outcomes.
The game does a great job of giving its characters room to breathe before everything falls apart. You spend time learning their personalities, relationships, insecurities, and conflicts, which makes the later life-or-death choices feel more personal. When the horror escalates, it is not just about surviving monsters – it is about protecting characters you have slowly learned to understand.
That makes The Quarry useful before Directive 8020 because Directive 8020 also seems built around group trust, character survival, and pressure inside a dangerous location. The Quarry shows how Supermassive handles a larger ensemble, how small dialogue choices can affect relationships, and how cinematic horror can branch without losing momentum.
It is also one of the most accessible Supermassive games. If you want something polished, readable, and easy to play before moving into Directive 8020’s darker sci-fi survival setup, The Quarry is one of the best picks.
The Quarry
Release Date: June 10, 2022
Genres: Adventure
Why You Might Like It
- Large cast with many possible survival outcomes
- Strong teen-horror tone with polished cinematic direction
- Good relationship-driven choices and character drama
- Easy entry point into Supermassive’s modern horror formula
Man of Medan
Man of Medan is the first game in The Dark Pictures Anthology, and that alone makes it important before Directive 8020. It follows a group of young people who end up trapped on a ghost ship after a diving trip goes wrong, mixing maritime horror with hallucinations, panic, and shifting perspectives.
As an anthology entry, Man of Medan is shorter and tighter than Until Dawn or The Quarry. Its structure focuses on replayability, multiple paths, and different ways for characters to survive or die. It also introduced many of the systems that define The Dark Pictures, including shared story play and a more compact cinematic horror format.
It connects well to Directive 8020 because both games trap a group of people in a hostile, enclosed environment where fear spreads quickly. The ship setting is not sci-fi, but the feeling of being isolated, confused, and unsure what is real makes it a useful warm-up for Directive 8020’s spaceship paranoia.
Man of Medan is also a good lesson in how Supermassive uses information gaps. One character may know something another does not, and the player often has to make choices with incomplete knowledge. That kind of uncertainty should feel very relevant when Directive 8020 starts asking who can be trusted.
Man of Medan
Release Date: August 30, 2019
Genres: Adventure
Why You Might Like It
- Best starting point for The Dark Pictures Anthology format
- Claustrophobic horror set on an isolated ghost ship
- Strong focus on uncertainty, panic, and incomplete information
- Good preparation for Directive 8020’s enclosed survival setup
House of Ashes
House of Ashes is one of the most important games to play before Directive 8020. Set during the Iraq War, it traps soldiers and intelligence operatives underground after they discover an ancient, creature-filled nightmare beneath the desert.
Unlike some other Supermassive games, House of Ashes has a stronger action-horror identity. The characters are armed, trained, and hostile toward each other at first, but the situation forces them to cooperate against something far more dangerous. That combination of military pressure, creature horror, and uneasy alliances gives it a very different flavor from the studio’s teen-horror stories.
This is probably the closest match for Directive 8020 in terms of survival tone. Both games involve a team facing a terrifying non-human threat in a location they cannot easily escape. House of Ashes also plays heavily with trust between characters who begin on opposing sides, which makes it especially relevant to Directive 8020’s alien mimic premise.
The game also shows Supermassive at its best when balancing spectacle with character stakes. The monsters matter, but the emotional core comes from deciding who deserves trust, who gets saved, and whether old enemies can survive together.
House of Ashes
Release Date: October 22, 2021
Genres: Adventure
Why You Might Like It
- Closest Supermassive match for creature horror and survival action
- Strong team tension built around distrust and cooperation
- Darker, more intense pacing than many other anthology entries
- Great preparation for Directive 8020’s alien-threat atmosphere
The Devil in Me
The Devil in Me follows a documentary film crew invited to a replica of H. H. Holmes’ Murder Castle, only to realize they are being watched, manipulated, and pushed through a deadly maze of traps. It is more grounded than House of Ashes, but it is one of Supermassive’s strongest games for exploration and environmental tension.
What stands out here is the focus on being hunted inside a controlled space. The hotel is not just a backdrop – it is a weapon. Rooms shift from safe to threatening, characters become separated, and survival often depends on paying attention to the environment rather than simply reacting to jump scares.
That makes The Devil in Me a smart choice before Directive 8020 because Directive 8020 also seems to be about surviving inside a dangerous location where the threat can appear at the worst possible moment. While The Devil in Me uses a human killer instead of an alien organism, both stories are built around vulnerability, surveillance, and the fear that safety can disappear instantly.
It also expands the anthology formula with more exploration tools and a longer runtime, making it useful for players who want to see how Supermassive has been evolving its gameplay beyond dialogue choices and quick-time events.
The Devil in Me
Release Date: November 18, 2022
Genres: Adventure
Why You Might Like It
- Strong environmental horror inside a trap-filled location
- More exploration-focused than earlier Dark Pictures entries
- Great sense of being watched, hunted, and manipulated
- Useful preparation for Directive 8020’s survival-horror direction
Little Hope
Little Hope is the second game in The Dark Pictures Anthology, following a group of students and their professor after they become stranded in a fog-covered town with a dark history. It leans into psychological horror, witch-trial imagery, and repeated encounters with nightmarish figures tied to the characters.
The game is less about physical survival against one obvious monster and more about confusion, guilt, identity, and perception. It constantly makes you question what is happening, why certain characters are connected, and whether the danger is supernatural, psychological, or something else entirely.
That makes Little Hope relevant before Directive 8020 in a slightly different way. Directive 8020’s alien mimic threat is built around paranoia and uncertainty, and Little Hope is one of Supermassive’s clearest examples of horror driven by mistrust in what you are seeing. It trains you to look for clues, question assumptions, and understand that the obvious answer may not be the full answer.
It may not be the closest match mechanically, but it is a strong pick if you want a Supermassive game focused on atmosphere, mystery, and characters trapped inside a reality they cannot fully explain.
Little Hope
Release Date: October 30, 2020
Genres: Adventure
Why You Might Like It
- Psychological horror built around mystery and unreliable perception
- Strong foggy-town atmosphere with supernatural dread
- Good for players who enjoy decoding clues and hidden connections
- Useful for Directive 8020’s themes of paranoia and uncertainty
Which games come closest to Directive 8020?
Final thoughts
Directive 8020 is exciting because it takes Supermassive’s choice-heavy horror formula into a sci-fi setting where paranoia, survival, and trust can all collide. The alien mimic premise gives the studio a strong reason to make every conversation and character interaction feel dangerous.
The best games to play first are House of Ashes, Man of Medan, Until Dawn, and The Quarry, because they cover the most important parts of the Supermassive experience: creature horror, enclosed locations, branching deaths, group tension, and cinematic storytelling. The rest are worth adding if you want the full studio picture before boarding the Cassiopeia.
Author Recommendations
The list is quite extensive, so choosing the right title might be a bit difficult.
That is why I honestly recommend checking out House of Ashes first – it is the closest match for Directive 8020 thanks to its creature horror, tense alliances, military pressure, and survival-focused pacing.
On the other hand, if you want the most iconic Supermassive experience with branching deaths, mystery, and a full cast to protect, then Until Dawn will be the best choice.