So disappointed in Directive 8020...am I missing something?
I am a huge fan of all of the Dark Pictures games and adored the Quarry. I enjoyed how the characters were not black/white and had flaws and backstories you can discover while also uncovering the mystery of the plot. When we discovered the Easter egg in Devil In Me that the next game may be in space, I was intrigued! I was so excited for this game!
Directive 8020 was so disappointing. It was almost unbearable to play, I'm shocked we even finished it. It was so different from all of the other games. This one had terribly written characters, boring and repetitive gameplay (having to find that stupid power cell to open doors 10 times was so grating), way too long of cut scenes for redundant reasons....like I feel like cut scenes were 80% of the game, and yet I could not describe to you a bio of any of the characters outside of simple generic words. Multiple cut scenes consisted of "what are we gunna do guys?".
We learn almost nothing about any of their backstories except Young and Stafford. The messaging mechanic could have easily yielded this, and yet it is another way the developers dropped the ball. The messages are again, redundant and pointless, you basically ask "how're you holding up?" 6 different ways. Totally broke immersion anyways for such pointless messages to be sent when you are apparently being hunted down by monsters.
Am I just completely not understanding why people like and defend this game? Besides the lack of character development of any kind, again the gameplay was very redundant and contrived. (Sneak, find power cell, repeat, sneak, find power cell, repeat). Even the clues are not as creative as other games, we found ourselves exploring empty rooms with zero clues or discoverables... what even is the point of exploring?
I just sincerely hope they do not continue in this direction with future games...
Edit to add: I will say the graphics (especially the ship) were pretty incredible, but for me personally that is one of my last priorities to how enjoyable a game is. For me, while the body horror was pretty great, the designs for the infected were still pretty underwhelming imo.