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There are a total of eight episodes in Directive 8020, but with the classic Supermassive choose-your-own-adventure playstyle, you might want to play through some scenarios more than once.
If you're wondering how long that might take you, then, I've rounded up the details on all the episodes and how long it takes to 'beat' Directive 8020 once, with a rough estimate of how long it might take to see every outcome. There are, of course, spoilers ahead, so don't say you weren't warned.
How long is Directive 8020?
One playthrough of Directive 8020 should take around eight hours to complete, but this will depend on your decisions, and whether you choose to look for collectible items.
If you want to experience everything Directive 8020 has to offer, though, you'll need to play through two to three times, leading to around 30 hours of gameplay. While you can use the turning points system to experience alternative outcomes to those you experienced during your first playthrough, some outcomes don't reveal themselves until later, meaning you may have to replay entire episodes to see the full effect. For example, if you kill a character in Episode 2, you have to fully play on from that scene to see their story play out in full.
How many Episodes are there in Directive 8020?
There are eight Directive 8020 Chapters, or Episodes, as they're known in game, each taking a different length of time to complete, getting longer as you near the end. Here's what to expect from each episode:
- Episode One - Little Star
- Little Star is mostly linear and will take around half an hour to complete. The only alternate outcome here is whether you save Simms or let her go. This has a major impact on what's to come, and I'd recommend saving her for the story to make more narrative sense.
- Episode Two - Best Laid Plans
- Now you get to meet more members of the crew as they're rudely awakened alarms. Again, this is a fairly short and relatively linear chapter, but you might want to take a look at my guide to saving everyone in Directive 8020 before you make a major decision during this episode.
- Episode Three - The Sample
- In Episode 3, things start to kick off, and you can witness your first death here if you're not careful. Otherwise, it's another linear chapter with only a few alternate cutscenes, but that death has massive consequences going forward, so you may again want to check out the guide linked above.
- Episode Four - Dragnet
- This is where a lot more impactful decision start to arise, and you can lose some more crew members here. While there isn't a lot of non-linearity here, there are more outcomes for your decisions, and more replayability.
- Episode 5 - Mr. Williams
- Ultimately, most decisions in this episode don't hugely derail the story, so you can pretty much do as you wish. There is a potential death here, but it's mostly locked in from episodes 2 and 3. Otherwise, this lengthy chapter builds on the story more than anything.
- Episode 6 - Hostile Takeover
- As we start to approach the game's climax, Episode 6 branches out more than any other so far, though much of this depends on which crew members have survived to this point. If you want to get the most out of this Episode, you'll need to replay the game a good two or three times at least.
- Episode 7 - Revelation
- Episode 7 is a tale of two halves, split across an adventure outside of the Cassiopeia and dealing with the consequences of your actions back inside. While mostly linear, there are a couple of 50-50 decisions here that will change your overall outcome.
- Episode 8 - Come True
- The big one. Reaching the ending of Directive 8020, you'll be faced with a lot more quick-time events that are the difference between life and death. Meanwhile, there are a lot of carrying outcomes in Episode 8 that depend on your previous actions, so seeing everything here requires a few playthroughs at least.
As you might expect from a Dark Pictures Anthology entry, then, there's a lot to see here. Ultimately, though, nothing impacts the ending massively, as I touch upon in my guide to choosing between sending a warning or a distress call, so don't worry too much about the choices you make, especially if you're not planning on experiencing every outcome - just play as you want to, and enjoy the consequences you face thereafter.
For more on the full experience, or if you're trying to decide whether to play, check out our Directive 8020 review to read Jasmine's thoughts.
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