The next title in Supermassive Games’ horror seriesThe Dark Pictures Anthologywill change things up from its predecessors, as a science fiction game set in outer space, butDirective 8020threatens to completely jump the shark for the franchise. The four core games that make up Season One ofThe Dark Picturesall follow a similar theme, as crimes of the past lead to lethal consequences in the modern era.Switching to afuturistic setting absolutely clashes with the established vibe and tone. The framing device of The Curator and his library may feel anachronistic when juxtaposed with sci-fi.
The first season of the franchise ended on a high note, asThe Devil In Medelivered scares, solid character development, and genre-appropriate storytelling. An anthology video game series likeThe Dark Pictureswas a novel idea, and Supermassive has executed the project masterfully up until now. Actor Pip Torrens’s portrayal of The Curator provides a narrator who is something of a cross between Rod Serling’s moral musings inThe Twilight Zoneand The Crypt Keeper’s gallows humor inTales From The Crypt. Ashift to science fiction horror inDirective 8020could undo everythingThe Dark Pictureshas built.
The Dark Pictures Has An Established Tone
The First Four Games Have Shared Themes And A Similar Vibe
With the announcement thatThe Dark Pictureswas going sci-fiwith its next entry, many fans were filled with dread, and not the kind the franchise aims to create. The anthology format is one of the trickier ones to pull off successfully. Anthologies rely on self-contained stories, but theyneed more than a shared narrator acting as a bookend to their stories to feel cohesive. The most famous and successful anthology series of all time,The Twilight Zone, featured a mix of science fiction and fantasy narrative premises, but its tone remained consistent, regardless of an episode’s specific story focus.
However fans mayrankThe Dark PicturesAnthology’s gamesto date, they have consistently shared similar tone and themes across all four titles. There is a clear tonal difference between the cryptic moralizing of Rod Serling and the themes clearly reflecting on social justice and societal ills of the day in theTwilight Zoneand the more nihilistic dark comedy ofTales From The Crypt. Similarly,Supermassive has done an admirable job keeping itsDark Picturesgames distinct from its other projects, likeUntil DawnandThe Quarry. These distinctions go beyond game length, or the presence of The Curator.
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There is both atonal consistency and a shared storytelling format that is common across each game in Season OneofThe Dark Pictures. Some horrific or tragic decisions are made in the past that get people killed, and in the modern day, a group of people venture somewhere they do not belong (willingly, or otherwise) and the past repeats itself in some form.The Devil In Metook this to an extreme, as its antagonist was obsessedwith real-life killer H.H. Holmes, and recreated that murderer’s modus operandi.The Dark Picturesgames have all felt likeDark Picturesgames.
Sci-Fi Often Spells Doom For Horror Franchises
Taking A Horror Series To Space Usually Feels Desperate
Any franchise that takes a big swing and moves outside its comfort zone takes a considerable risk. Fans of horror movies are familiar withthe pattern of horror series that are consistently set in the modern day suddenly making the leap to science fiction settingsand how this is usually a very bad sign. DespiteThe Casting of Frank Stonedisappointing fanswith a weak narrative, Supermassive has maintained the quality and narrative integrity ofThe Dark Pictures, so far.
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TheFriday the 13thandLeprechaunfranchises took their slasher stories into spacewithJason XandLeprechaun 4: In Space, and these are both strong examples of how this can go wrong. Far from treasured entries in their series, the decision these films made to transport their murderous icons into space was clearlyseen as a gimmick for franchises running out of ideasby most fans.
The fourthHellraisermovie did the same, and though it had ambitions of a hellish epic spanning generations, production woes turned it into a movie that had worse reviews thanLeprechaun 4: in Space. While thetrailer forThe Devil In Meexcited fans,Directive 8020may cause flashbacks to these earlier horror missteps, where asequel set in outer space confirms a series has jumped the shark.
The decision to force an outlier likeDirective 8020intoThe Dark Picturesdoes not feel like a decision by writers and creators, but a corporate-level mandate.
It is possible that the same themes and tone could transition into a futuristic setting, but the framing device of Pip Torrens’Curator and his archaic library feels bizarre when juxtaposed with science fiction horror. The first season showed sins of the past being revisited in the present. It is hard to imagine a deep-space horror game that has the same elegance in showing the sins of the present impacting the future.The Dark Picturesstarted strong withMan of Medan, kicking off a successful season of games.Directive 8020could doom Season Two to thematic and tonal incoherence.
Directive 8020 Could Be A Separate Game
Making It A Dark Pictures Game Feels Like A Corporate Decision
Video game fans have shown their love for sci-fi horror in the medium, ranging from classics likeSystem ShockandDoom, toAlien: Isolation,The Callisto Protocol, andthe recent excellentDead Spaceremake. Many of these beloved genre-blending games were original intellectual properties, not sequels, licensed products, or titles nested within a series. Supermassive has had some uneven titles, but there is every reason to be optimistic about the quality ofDirective 8020. The bigger question iswhy it needs to be a part ofThe Dark Picturesrather than a stand-alone gamelikeUntil DawnandThe Quarry.
While publishers are often sequel-hungry, eager to turn everything they can into an annual iterative franchise, video game fans, particularly horror fans, tend to judge the quality of individual works, not on name recognition. The decision to force an outlier likeDirective 8020intoThe Dark Picturesdoes not feel like a decision by writers and creators, but a corporate-level mandate. There may be a notion that the established reputation ofThe Dark Picturesname might aid sales forDirective 8020, but it might be devastating for the established tone the anthology has worked so hard to build.
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The Dark Pictures Anthology
The Dark Pictures Anthologyis a series of interactive drama and survival horror video games developed by Supermassive Games. Each installment presents a standalone narrative inspired by various horror genres, emphasizing player choice and branching storylines. The anthology is planned to consist of eight games, with each game inspired by a different horror genre.
