The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 - Tendrils, Pods, Screams & Decapitation! Are we about to meet Space Vampires in the Cetus Constellation?
Image: Directive 8020/Supermassive Games
Directive 8020 will be the next game in The Dark Pictures Anthology series developed by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Teased at the end of the season 1 finale, The Devil In Me, it looks to be a sci-fi horror set in Space.
The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of survival horror adventure games, which along with Supermassive Game’s Until Dawn and The Quarry, have a unique narrative driven style which feels more like an interactive movie than a classic RPG or shooter. Your choices and reflexes, when responding to quick time events, determine how relationships change and who survives.
Starting with Man of Medan in 2019, titles within the series have been released annually, so Directive 8020 is hopefully likely to have a release date towards the end of 2023. It will be the first instalment in Season Two and the fifth game overall.
Image: The Dark Pictures Anthology Season One Bundle/Supermassive Games
Four other titles along with Directive 8020 were trademarked by Supermassive Games in 2022: The Craven Man, O Death, Intercession and Winterhold. Each logo already hinting at their themes. Notice that the House of Ashes logo has an eclipsed moon whilst Directive 8020 has what appears to be a sun or sunlit planet with dark spots or craters creating a skull.
(These are all complete guesses…but fingers crossed for folk horror reminiscent of The Wicker Man for the Craven Man, maybe related to Little Hope in some way as that was the only other folk horror-oriented chapter within the game series revolving around witchcraft and death by fire. O Death is perhaps part 2 to The Devil In Me, seeing as the main villain walked away alive at the end of the game and his signature bowler hat seems to feature on the playing card of the logo here, and maybe something Satanic for Intercession with its inverted cross t and the definition of intercession being to pray on behalf of others. Winterfold is referenced at the end of House of Ashes, when the agents in hazmat suits are finding out what has happened. They say that the incident is like Winterfold all over again. And the logo looks like a town sign. So, this may be the location of a prequel to House of Ashes ? )
Image: Supermassive Games
First Glimpses of Directive 8020
Our first glimpse of Directive 8020 was from a premonition in The Devil In Me, in which two astronauts in space suits appear to be walking on the outside of a spaceship before an explosion from within blasts one of them off into space.
The main teaser trailer unveiled a little more about the setting for the game but next to nothing has been revealed other than that. So, all that we can do is speculate.
Video: Premonition (House of Ashes) and Reveal Trailer (Directive 8020)/Supermassive Games/GameTyrant
In the clip we are floating through the corridors of a spaceship, the lights are flickering which does not bode well. In the bottom left-hand corner these words appear:
Image: Directive 8020/Supermassive Games
(CDC standardly means the Centre for Disease Control which is an immediate red flag. This is no ordinary transport ship. And the Cetus Constellation is where the alien species in House of Ashes are thought to have originated from, according to notes and star charts found within the Star Chamber. )
We drift forwards until reaching an electronic door which opens with a burst of sparks, the ship seems damaged. As it opens, a dusky, brown planet with an eery purple glow is visible through the windows of a viewing deck of some sort. A helmet with a tinted sun visor, too reflective for us to see through, drifts across. The edge of the glass is smashed, suggesting a struggle, and droplets of blood are trailing behind it, the unknown wearer’s head seemingly still present inside it, decapitated.
Image: Directive 8020/Supermassive Games
Throughout this a recording is playing that says:
Image: The Devil In Me/Supermassive Games
“This is Commander Stafford of the forward reconnaissance vessel Cassiopeia. After successfully rendezvousing with the Charybdis marker, we have detached the booster ring and spirits are high, as we make our final approach to Tau Ceti f. The ship has suffered a hull impact, but damage is minimal, and our technicians are restoring full functionality.”
(Tau Ceti f is a real life planet that was discovered in 2012 and is considered one of the most potentially habitable exoplanets orbiting the Sun-like star, Tau Ceti, which makes up part of the constellation Cetus. A plaque commemorating the SS Cassiopeia, a ship which crashed and sank, can also be found in The Devil In Me. Acting like a premonition or parallel dimension warning of what may happen here.)
Image: Directive 8020/Supermassive Games
The commander’s speech is sharply cut off by the sound of inhuman screeching as the screen flashes to an image of what looks like an infected ship, with corridors covered in tendrils and what could be a pod and an encased dead body. All seen through a purple haze. A separate recording kicks in as the camera moves ever closer to the planet through the window, which is revolving around its sun, gradually eclipsing it from our view, darkness racing across its surface. We then hear:
“This is Thomas Carter. Something’s wrong with Simms. She’s trying to kill me! I think –“
Image: Directive 8020/Supermassive Games
They are cut off mid-sentence amidst screeching and echolocation-like clicking sounds. And another flash of purple tinted, tendril covered, ship corridors flashes up. Before we return to the planet fully eclipsing the sun as the Commander continues:
“Our next transmission will be broadcast from orbit around humanity’s future home. Stafford out.”
(The decapitated head and half destroyed ship say otherwise…!)
Image: Directive 8020/Supermassive Games
Real-Life NASA Policy - Directive 8020
Directive 8020 is a real-life NASA regulation although it has now been updated to Directive 8700. It concerns Biological Contamination for Outbound and Inbound Planetary Spacecraft and covers their policy on Planetary Protection Requirements for Human Extraterrestrial Missions. It states:
“The conduct of scientific investigations of possible extraterrestrial life forms, precursors, and remnants must not be jeopardized. In addition, the Earth must be protected from the potential hazard posed by extraterrestrial matter carried by a spacecraft returning from another planet or other extraterrestrial sources. Therefore for certain space-mission/target-planet combinations, controls on organic and biological contamination carried by spacecraft shall be imposed in accordance with directives implementing this policy.”
Suggesting that very harsh decisions could end up being made in Directive 8020 the game, with regards to protecting extraterrestrial samples and exterminating anyone infected to protect other crew members and their new planet, Tau Ceti f, from contamination if containment protocols fail.
House of Ashes Sequel?
The trailer seems to be hinting quite heavily that this will be a sequel to House of Ashes. House of Ashes starts and ends with an eclipse that allows subterranean vampire-like monsters to wreak havoc on the surface for as long as the lunar event lasts. Throughout House of Ashes, we progressively find out that these creatures are in fact an alien race who have travelled from somewhere within the Cetus Constellation, which is where the crew in Directive 8020 have just arrived. So, the crew in Directive 8020 may be returning to the site of the source of the alien’s infection, either inadvertently in their quest for a new home for humanity or by their superior’s sinister design. The organisation in charge may be trying to seek the parasites out in order to further understand their biology and obtain the secrets behind their immortality. Tricking the main crew into going there with the smokescreen of a bright, new world to explore, when the true purpose behind their mission is far more devious. Directive 8020 could act like the prequel Prometheus does to Alien by filling in the gaps to the origin story of the aliens in House of Ashes. We even see an ancient alien in a piloting seat of some sort in House of Ashes that looks like the ‘Space Jockey’ in Alien or the Engineers in Prometheus.
Images: (Centre) House of Ashes/Supermassive Games, (Left and Right) Prometheus (2012) and Alien (1979) /Ridley Scott/20th Century Fox.
Alien Parasites
In House of Ashes, whilst travelling as ‘Cosmic Nomads’, the aliens had become infected by a parasitic lifeform, which kills its host before taking control of its zombified corpse and transforming it into a vampire like creature. The vampires feed on adrenaline, secreting a hallucinogenic substance that instils fear in those that inhale or come into contact with them, apart from taunting and chasing their prey, to make their systems surge with adrenaline so that they can drink it from their blood. Vampires make screeching cries just like those we hear in Directive 8020 during the purple cut scenes and the alien vampires use echo location to detect prey, again like the clicking sounds heard in the second purple scene in the Directive 8020 trailer.
Images: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
They spread the parasitic infection through their bite to those that they don’t kill. Allowing the alien vampires to turn humans into vampires too. Alien and human vampires alike have superhuman strength, are all but indestructible and immortal, apart from being hypersensitive to UV light which makes them catch fire. They are so sensitive to UV that even moonlight hurts them, thus their inability to roam the surface except during an eclipse or on moonless nights.
The only cure that we have witnessed so far is if UV light is shone on a bite victim in the early stages of infection, this causes the parasite to vacate their host by crawling out of their mouth. Their secretions appear to make them highly flammable so vampires can be destroyed with fire. Destroying the parasite by impaling vampires through the chest cavity or severing parasite control over the brain by crushing the skull or cutting off the head, are the only other known ways to kill them. This could be why in Directive 8020 we see a floating head in the teaser, it might be a slain human vampire…or an unfortunate crew member beheaded by a vampire!
Images: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
In House of Ashes the fighting that then occurred on the alien spacecraft as the infected attacked the living, caused them to crash-land on Earth, somewhere in the Zagros mountains bordering Iraq. Where, surviving in caves beneath the surface, they encountered Ancient civilisations like the Akkadians, who offered them sacrifices to try to quench their thirst and this continued all of the way up to Iraqi shepherds and drug-smuggling cultists in the early 2000s, living during the Iraq war in which House of Ashes is set, who were still capturing travellers and tourists to feed to the vampires, to save themselves and their livestock from being slaughtered.
Image: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
Which is the location which the marines that are the main protagonists in House of Ashes, mistakenly infiltrate, believing there to be a weapon silo hidden underground, when what they have actually discovered are the labyrinthine remains of an Akkadian temple atop a parasite riddled alien spacecraft. In the bowels of which are enormous vaults with hive-like mounds of thousands of cocoons, each containing infected dead alien vampires, interconnected by a network of tendrils which act like motion sensors, once trodden upon they trigger a chain reaction of cocoons being hatched and vampires awakening.
Images: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
Amongst these the marines come across human bodies, encased in the substance from the cocoons, which preserves the lifeforms within for millennia without aging or decaying. The cocoon pods and bodies encased in a weird resin, interconnected by fleshy tendrils, look much like those in the hazy purple scenes that flashed up in the Directive 8020 trailer.
Images: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
The fact that the spaceship Cassiopeia had suffered a hull impact is the perfect moment for the parasite to have boarded the ship. Whether in vampire form within a host or through spores or secretions of some sort on an asteroid. We don’t yet know what form the parasite that had infected the aliens in House of Ashes originally took. Much as in the Alien franchise where Xenomorphs started off as a genetically engineered bioweapon which had several stages to their lifecycle and progressively evolved into different forms with each successive host.
Image: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
Parasite Bioweapon, Space Travel and Immortality
The appeal of using the parasite from House of Ashes as a bioweapon or unlocking the key to advanced space flight or even immortality would likely drive people to resort to any means necessary to obtain them.
Image: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
So, it is quite possible that the storyline will involve a Weyland-Yutani like situation, the company in charge of the missions throughout the Alien movies, that coordinates exploration and colonisation outside of the solar system, and that prioritise capture of a Xenomorph for use as a bioweapon over all else. In Alien, Special Order 937 is issued to the android Ash by ‘MOTHER’, the central computer onboard the spaceship Nostromo. ‘MOTHER’ acts as voice for Weyland-Yutani’s requests and Special Order 937 states:
Image: Alien (1979)/ 20th Century-Fox
The officials at the end of House of Ashes, who are interrogating the survivors, seem to be of a similar mentality. In the cutscenes that make up the epilogue to the House of Ashes, we follow two agents in hazmat suits entering a containment facility that has been set up within Camp Slayer, the base that the game started at. We observe research team members examining remains and extracting a parasite from a vampire carcass. We also clearly see a canister of alien fluid that they have collected, labelled X-1172.
Images: House of Ashes/Supermassive Games
The agents proceed to question any of the protagonists that the player has managed to keep alive. It becomes very apparent that they are more interested in the parasite than they are in the survivors and their wellbeing. There are dozens of different interactions depending on the manner of each character’s survival or death. But pretty much any of the dead who are infected or became vampires are bagged up to be studied in greater depth elsewhere or are having their parasites removed for analysis. And the majority of the dialogue is related to the agent’s obsession with obtaining information about or samples of the parasites.
Potential Setting and Gameplay
The organisation involved here could very well be the progenitors to the organisation in charge of the SS Andromeda’s mission. Presumably some form of stasis technology will have had to have been invented to permit the crew to survive for the length of time taken to reach Tau Ceti f, as it is about 12 lightyears away. For which they could have incorporated the alien fluid from the cocoons. Although they may also have learnt a faster form of space travel through repurposing or replicating the alien spacecraft’s technology.
There is a lot of potential for UV light being used to save characters from vampires or parasite infections. They would be likely to have UV lights within an aeroponic system for growing food in the onboard greenhouse. As well as possibly being equipped with them if they have learnt from the previous encounters with the parasite on Earth. Slamming open shutters on windows or reflecting sunlight are other possibilities.
As the parasites kill and then reanimate their hosts, we are yet to find out whether or not they need oxygen to survive. If not, then the protagonists within the game are definitely going to be in for an unpleasant surprise!
The fact that the crew cannot leave the spaceship will make the sense of isolation and claustrophobia infinitely worse than in previous games within the franchise. And being confronted with the risks of zero gravity, no atmospheric pressure, oxygen or light should be interesting. Along with the risk of becoming irradiated or the main generator or propulsion system exploding. Humans are so much more vulnerable in Space!
And if they do make it to the planet Tau Ceti f then there are all sorts of scenarios that could work in the parasite’s favour. If the planet has no moon, then when night hits there will be no moonlight to keep them in hiding. There could be cave networks beneath the surface. And as with the ‘Bioraptors’ in Pitch Black, the first film in the Riddick franchise, planetary alignments could result in perpetual darkness which would permit vampires to erupt out onto the surface. That or the planet could be tidally locked to the sun, like the moon is to the Earth, meaning that one side of the planet would remain in permanent darkness. So, landing there would be hell for a survivor but paradise for parasites and their vampire hosts. Even in the Directive 8020 logo, the skull is fainter in sunlight and more distinctive on the dark side. Perhaps suggesting that darkness brings death.
Final Unity
It should also be interesting to see whether all of the chapters are tied together by a central theme by the end. Like perhaps some humans have worked out how to harness the power of the alien fluid to obtain immortality but with the side effect of still needing to feed upon adrenaline. Acting as explanation for the serial killer in The Devil In Me. The family in Little Hope could have been exposed somehow or the little girl infected with the parasite. Fire is one of the few ways to kill vampires, so burning the house down would work to kill the infected. And the main protagonist Andrew survived the fire but lost his memory because of a concussion and has very vivid hallucinations. Side effects of exposure to parasite secretions include hallucinations. The parasite can also be killed by damage to the brain or exposure to UV light. So, he may have been infected too but his parasite died, and he is suffering from the aftermath. The gas known as ‘Manchurian Gold’ in Man of Medan was a hallucinogenic bioweapon that could have been developed from the alien secretions. There could be lesser forms of different species of the parasite that have evolved or been created through experimentation by the undisclosed governmental department that the agents in House of Ashes represent. Who knows?! There is no end to the possibilities.
The Dark Pictures Anthology cross-story connections are expertly done. There are no doubt many more hints and relationships to be found between each game if you look closely enough. And with Season 2 premiering soon, many more to come.
As much as the majority of this article is pure speculation and may turn out to be entirely off track, the space setting of Directive 8020 opens the doorway to a dimension of horror sci-fi thrills unlike anything that we have encountered in the games that have come before. And if we do indeed find the echolocating, eyeless, alien vampires from House of Ashes that will in all likelihood infect, kill and transform half the crew, then loosely quoting Event Horizon which the style of the reveal trailer brings to mind, “Where we are going we won’t need eyes to see!”
References
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (2021) . PC/Mac [Game]. Bandai Namco Entertainment.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me (2022). PC/Mac [Game]. Bandai Namco Entertainment.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 (n.d.). Pc/Mac [Game]. Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Supermassive Games. (n.d.). Supermassive Games - Games. [online] Available at: https://www.supermassivegames.com/games
Alien. (1979). [Film] US/UK: 20th-Century Fox.
Pitch Black. (2000). [Film] US: USA Films/Universal Pictures.
Event Horizon. (1997). [Film] US: Paramount Pictures.
thedarkpictures.fandom.com. (n.d.). The Dark Pictures Wiki. [online] Available at: https://thedarkpictures.fandom.com/wiki/The_Dark_Pictures_Wiki
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