John Carpenter's 1982 horror sci-fi movie The Thing is unparalleled – it's as cold and irreplaceable as a snowflake's crystal fingerprint – but my 15 minutes with Supermassive Games' sci-fi interactive drama Directive 8020 at Summer Game Fest makes me confident it can evolve as efficiently as the alien flesh inside it.
Directive 8020 is the latest installment of Until Dawn developer Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology, a standalone game series that pairs the studio's signature choose-your-own-adventure format with different horror genres; Directive 8020, due October 2 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, is Supermassive's first stab at sci-fi, though the game is an obvious The Thing homage. While the pale walls and high shine of Directive 8020's spaceship setting is visually different from Supermassive's typical cabins in the woods, the Carpenter connection brings Directive 8020 back to Supermassive's usual schlock.
