Directive 8020 adds online multiplayer for up to five players

Available since October 19

The update has been available since Monday, October 19, according to Supermassive Games’ official announcement on Steam. Gematsu, MP1st and Push Square report that it’s free, and MP1st identifies it as version 1.000.010 on consoles and PC. The studio had said on September 30 that online multiplayer would arrive in October, and its announcement thanks players for their patience.

When the game launched on May 12, group play was limited to the same couch through Movie Night Mode, and the official website already noted that online multiplayer would come in a post-launch update.

Up to five players, in any combination

The new online mode lets up to five people play together from different places in any split: five players in five separate locations, two in one and three in another, or whatever combination suits the group. As in Movie Night Mode, each player controls a member of the crew of the ship Cassiopeia, but now takes their turn on their own screen and device.

There are two important conditions: every player needs their own copy of the game, and online multiplayer does not support cross-play.

Two ways to share control

In Custom Mode, each player picks a character at the start and takes over when that character is in play: the local co-op experience brought online. Round Robin Mode drops character allocation and passes control from one player to the next after a set time, while the others can help or hinder through a new online voting feature.

Decisions can be put to a vote, too. With Choice Voting, on-screen prompts show who voted for each outcome and which way, so the player can follow the majority or go their own way.

Retro suits and new Premonitions

The update also includes a customisation DLC with retro silver space suits for the characters. Supermassive jokes that you may not escape the horrors aboard the Cassiopeia, but at least you’ll look good.

Premonitions, a classic feature of The Dark Pictures series, also come to Directive 8020. There are 13 new collectibles scattered through the game that offer a glimpse of a possible future and can help inform decisions; the studio warns that ignoring them is risky.

About Directive 8020

Directive 8020 is a sci-fi horror adventure from Supermassive Games, the studio behind Until Dawn and The Quarry, and part of The Dark Pictures series. The colony ship Cassiopeia crash-lands on Tau Ceti f, a planet 12 light-years from Earth, and its crew finds itself hunted by an alien organism capable of mimicking its prey. Lashana Lynch plays pilot Brianna Young. Developed and published by Supermassive Games, the game is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.