The Dark Pictures titles from horror veterans Supermassive Games have typically always been more compact adventures that enable a player, or a group of players to reach the credits in a reasonable amount of time. We've seen this before in the multiple instalments that came during the 'first season' of the horror anthology, but with Directive 8020 almost here and set to kick off the next season of stories, and featuring a more complex and ambitious design, should we expect a similar duration for this coming instalment?
This is precisely what we inquired about to creative director, Will Doyle, where it was confirmed that Directive 8020 will once again have a runtime that's around eight hours for those following the main story and well over 20 hours for those hoping to see all possible narrative options.
"If you immerse yourself in the story and really dig into the secrets and messenger interactions, it's about 8 hours long. As a choice game, it can end earlier than that if you make the wrong decisions! But your first playthrough is only the start. We have introduced a new feature in Directive 8020 called Turning Points. This "story map" allows players to rewind and revisit key decisions, tailoring the experience to different playstyles. Some players will want to uncover every possible outcome or just follow a different path by keeping a favourite character alive. So, we expect this to add many more hours to the time players spend on the game. We've had some test groups spend more than 20 hours digging into all the possibilities that the story can offer."
You can learn more about Directive 8020 in our full interview with Supermassive Games here, and you can dive into the action soon too, as the game will launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on May 12.