All The Dark Pictures Anthology games, ranked: Where does Directive 8020 place?

The Dark Pictures Anthology provides standalone interactive horror titles where choices matter and twists may make or break your experience.

Seven years and five games to show, you can always be sure that a Dark Picture will throw tough choices your way. But which title is guaranteed to get your heart racing? Here’s our ranking of The Dark Pictures Anthology so far.

This ranking doesn’t include Until Dawn (we all know where it would place if it did), The Quarry, or The Casting of Frank Stone, as they’re not part of Dark Pictures.

5) The Devil in Me

• Personal rating: 4/10

If Ryan Murphy made a video game, it’d be The Devil in Me. It used the nostalgia of a slasher to reel in an audience before switching over to another timeline, where it’d take a while before things escalated again. The lack of memorable characters, its slow pacing, and bland storytelling that glorified a real serial killer made Devil in Me a difficult game to enjoy. It had some interesting ideas and greatly improved on exploration from earlier titles; i.e., giving each character a plot device that offered a new gameplay mechanic.

Where The Devil in Me became insufferable to me was its decision to make every choice a matter of who had what item and when. Trial and error never felt more prevalent in a Dark Picture. It’s much like Casting of Frank Stone, which punished you for guessing wrong at times when you weren’t even in danger. The entire game felt like a gory show—a torture chamber of deaths that wanted to see just how many ways they could kill their inconsequential characters.

4) Man of Medan

• Personal rating: 5/10

Man of Medan had a classic horror movie setting: A haunted ship. You can’t go wrong really. But, somehow, for the first Dark Pictures title, it did. Even though this game came after Until Dawn (having the formula for what made interactive horror a smash hit in the palm of their hands), they fumbled two crucial components; Man of Medan had boring characters and a weak atmosphere. Its jumpscare-heavy entrance into a slow-paced story made it a difficult title to invest in.

Similar to Little Hope, the biggest problem was its reveal. Man of Medan focused more on the psychological than the supernatural (though you could make the case that it was more about the latter). The ghosts certainly seemed to try to scare you until the narrative did a 180, which hugely altered our perception of what we just played through, to its detriment. A basic walking sim with an overreliance on jumpscares, Man of Medan is the weakest (not worst) entry, which makes sense as it’s the first Dark Picture.

3) Little Hope

• Personal rating: 6/10

Little Hope was…an interesting time. What started as a trippy time-warping entry that threw you into multiple timelines became all the more confusing by the time the credits rolled. Its focus was the coven and three timelines, bringing the cast together in more ways than one. This entry felt as if American Horror Story: Coven wasn’t designed like a soap opera. Sure, it had campy and infuriating characters that didn’t get much better as time went on, but Little Hope included the most interesting mechanic in a Dark Picture: The Locked Traits, which would get a much-needed upgrade in season two.

Choices mattered both in the short- and long-term, where your character was molded based on your decisions, and their fate determined by it. This Dark Picture is the scariest when taken at face value. It was high-stakes, until it wasn’t. Similar to Directive 8020, character traits played a pivotal role in how the game concluded, yet there was one big problem: The ending was abysmal. Whether the characters lived or died didn’t matter, for the reveal was so bad that it could inspire a new M. Night Shyamalan movie. And if there’s anything we’ve learned from him, it’s that twists aren’t always needed.

2) Directive 8020

• Personal rating: 6.5/10

A sci-fi adventure that takes inspiration from The Thing and Alien, Directive 8020 takes elements from its predecessors and polishes them to near perfection. Problems arise from its clumsy narrative that successfully hides the answer to its greatest mystery, ensuring you won’t figure it out until they’ve got you right where they want you.

While Directive 8020 plays it safe with their likable cast, the lack of character arcs, and ridiculous notion to try and make repetitive stealth gameplay appealing, weakened a title that had the potential to go head-to-head against the titan that is Until Dawn. Replayability is at its highest, and while the game’s conclusions are Christopher Nolan-worthy, it sadly lets itself down in its execution. It’s great that Supermassive Games are switching things up and being experimental, but stealth isn’t the right play in an interactive horror that’s supposed to build tension and instill fear.

1) House of Ashes

• Personal rating: 8/10

House of Ashes stands above the rest as the best Dark Picture. While the supernatural makes its grand entrance, this entry is action-packed with fantastic character arcs and a whole lot of bloody chaos. Paced like a blockbuster, House of Ashes is the spectacle of season one and feels most like Until Dawn with its cinematic atmosphere and how the narrative is handled in an addictive and satisfying manner.

House of Ashes blends a hyper-realistic setting of a military shooter—a throwback to Battlefield Bad Company and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare—with realistic dialogue and flawed characters pitted against an otherworldly nightmare. Until Dawn set the impossibly high standard with its decision-making and reactive gameplay, but House of Ashes is the closest we’ve ever had to reaching similar heights. A more folklore and alien take on vampires, House of Ashes has everything you could possibly need in a horror title that plays like a movie.

Dark Pictures Anthology games in chronological order

Season one

Game	Release Date	Characters	Subgenre
Man of Medan	August 30th, 2019	Alex Brad Conrad Fliss Julia	Paranormal
Little Hope	October 30, 2020	Andrew Angela Daniel John Taylor	Supernatural
House of Ashes	October 22, 2021	Eric Jason Nick Rachel Salim	Alien
The Devil in Me	November 18, 2022	Charlie Erin Jamie Kate Mark	Slasher

Season two

Game	Release Date	Characters	Subgenre
Directive 8020	May 12, 2026	Cernan Cooper Eisele Stafford Young	Alien

The post All The Dark Pictures Anthology games, ranked: Where does Directive 8020 place? appeared first on Destructoid.

There are two types of survival game players in the world: those who enjoy the thrill of survival in harsh environments and taking on enemies, and those who relax while building massive bases. Subnautica 2 is no exception, especially with its base-building mechanics changing from the first game.

How to build a base in Subnautica 2

Before you can begin making your first base in Subnautica 2, you’ll need to unlock and craft a Habitat Builder tool. Using this tool, you can access a build menu containing corridors, doors, production machines such as a Fabricator, and miscellaneous decorative items.

Subnautica 2 also offers a small tutorial in the form of a NOA entry within a nearby structure. By traveling 80 meters southeast of the Lifepod, you’ll find a Welcome Center building that’s run out of power. Inserting a basic battery into the Welcome Center’s wall panel will power its Bio Lab and NOA, who’ll give you a rundown of how base building works.

How to unlock the Habitat Builder tool

Unlocking and crafting the Habitat Builder tools requires making a Survival Multitool and Scanner. You can craft the multitool using three titanium, while the scanner uses the following resources:

• Titanium (2)
• Quartz (2)
• Basic Battery (1)

Titanium is the easiest of the required resources to find, as it’s an abundant material you’ll find around your Lifepod. Glass requires two quartz, which you’ll also quickly acquire early on. Basic batteries are slightly trickier, as you’ll need to collect copper from nearby caves.

Your next step after making these tools is to search for two old Habitat Builder tools that you can scan. Here’s a breakdown of two possible locations:

• Head back to the Welcome Center. Next to the “Welcome Center” sign outside of its entrance is a metal box containing a Habitat Builder tool.
• Go inside the building. Dive into the hole in the center of the building’s floor to find the second Habitat Builder tool inside a metal storage container next to the Oxygen Tunic.

Once you have both blueprint components, you’ll unlock the Habitat Builder tool in your Fabricator. You can craft it using the following resources:

• Titanium (2)
• Glass (1)
• Basic Battery (1)
• Copper Wire (1)

Titanium is the easiest of the required resources to find, as it’s an abundant material you’ll find around your Lifepod. Glass requires two quartz, which you’ll also quickly acquire early on. Basic batteries and copper wires are trickier, as you’ll need to collect copper from nearby caves and use your Multitool to break Acid Raion for their pouches.

All base building and furniture blueprints in Subnautica 2

Once you build the Habitat Builder tool, you can access your build menu by holding the tool in your hotbar and pressing the Open Menu key (right-click on PC.) As you collect more resources and scan furniture you encounter around the map.

Here’s a complete list of every base-building component and furniture items you can build in Subnautica 2:

Base Pieces

Recipe	Ingredients
Corridor	Titanium (2)
Room	Titanium (5)
Hatch	Titanium (1) Quartz (1)
Window	Glass (1)
Nook	Titanium (3) Glass (2)
Half Round Room	Titanium (5) Glass (5)
Moonpool	Titanium (5)

Furniture

Recipe	Ingredients
Dining Chair	Titanium (2)
LabChair	Titanium (2)
Stool	Titanium (1) Rubber (1)
Dining Table	Titanium (3) Glass (1)
Single Bed	Titanium (2) Fiber (3)
S Shelf	Titanium (2)
Trashcan	Titanium (2)
Small Crate	Titanium (1)
Sign	Titanium (1) Copper (1)
Reaper Leviathan	Titanium (1)

Plantables

Recipe	Ingredients
Pent	Pent (1)
Macaron Sponge	Fibrous Pulp (3)
Mimic Pylon	Fibrous Pulp (5) Copper (4)
Freesia Flower	Fibrous Pulp (3)
Acid Raion	Medical Gel Sac (1)
Cradle Shootroot	Lucifer Rotsac (1)
Necrolei Cyst	Necrolei Cyst (1)
Cherimoya Rotsac	Cherimoya Rotsac (1)

Power

Recipe	Ingredients
Solar Panel	Titanium (1) Quartz (2)
Hydroelectric Turbine	Titanium (3) Copper (3) Silver (3)
Thermal Plant	Titanium (3) Copper (3) Gold (3)
Power Transmitter	Titanium (1) Copper (1)

Production

Recipe	Ingredients
Fabricator	Titanium (1) Copper (1) Quartz (1)
Processor	Titanium (2) Mild Acid (1) Copper Wire (1)
Biolab	Titanium (3) Copper Wire (1) Mild Acid (1)
Modification Station	Titanium (2) Celestine (2) Copper (2)

Divisional

Recipe	Ingredients
Interior Wall	Titanium (2)
Interior Arch	Titanium (1)
Interior Door	Titanium (3) Glass (1) Copper Wire (1)
Ladder	Titanium (2)

Lighting

Recipe	Ingredients
Exterior Wall Light	Titanium (1) Copper (1)
Spotlight	Titanium (1) Copper (2)

Storage

Recipe	Ingredients
Wall Locker	Titanium (2)
Floor Locker	Titanium (3) Quartz (1)
Tailing Chest	Titanium (3)
Wall Rack	Titanium (1) Copper (1)

Tailing Furniture

Recipe	Ingredients
Tailing Table	Titanium (2)
Tailing Drum	Titanium (2) Fiber Mesh (2)
Tailing Barrel	Titanium (2)
Coral Jar	Coral Shavings (2)
Small Coral Jar	Coral Shavings (1)
Tailing Jar	Fiber (1) Salt (1)
Hanging Tailing Jar	Fiber (2) Salt (1)
Tailing Rug	Fiber (3)

Axum Furniture

Recipe	Ingredients
Small Axum Jar	Glass (1) Copper (1)
Axum Jar	Glass (1) Copper (2)
Tall Axum Jar	Glass (1) Copper (3)

Utility

Recipe	Ingredients
Habitat Beacon	Titanium (1)

Lighting

Recipe	Ingredients
Small Ceiling Light	Titanium (1) Copper (1)
Rectangular Ceiling Light	Titanium (2) Copper (1)
Wall Light Small	Titanium (1) Copper (1)
Wall Light Large	Titanium (2) Copper (1)
Axum Wall Lamp	Celestine (1) Titanium (1)

Posters

Recipe	Ingredients
Keep Calm Poster	Titanium (1)
Just Keep Swimming Poster	Titanium (1)
Safety First Poster	Titanium (1)
Scout Ray Poster	Titanium (1)
Zezura Poster	Titanium (1)
New Life Poster	Titanium (1)
Painted Tree Poster	Titanium (1)
Pioneer Program Poster	Titanium (1)
CHBC Live Poster	Titanium (1)
Lost River Poster	Titanium (1)

Power

Recipe	Ingredients
Battery Terminal	Titanium (2) Quartz (2) Copper Wire (1)
Power Cell Terminal	Titanium (3) Copper (3) Wiring Kit (1)
Bioreactor	Titanium Ingot (2) Copper Ingot (2)
Power Storage	Germanium Ingot (1) Titanium (3) Salt (2)

Decorations

Recipe	Ingredients
Wall Unit Small	Titanium (1)
Wall Panel	Titanium (1)
Wall Unit Large	Titanium (3)
Wall Vent	Titanium (2)
Wall Vent Large	Titanium (3)

Habitat Systems

Recipe	Ingredients
Biobed	Titanium (3) Glass (1) Copper Wire (1)
NOA Terminal	Titanium (3) Glass (1) Copper Wire (1)
Scanner Station	Titanium (3) System Chip (1) Wiring Kit (1)
Time of Day Display	Titanium (1) Copper (1) Enameled Glass (1)

Utility

Recipe	Ingredients
Portable Locker	Titanium (4)
Beacon	Copper (1) Titanium (1)
Portable Oxygen Generator	Titanium (3) Lithium (2)
Work Light	Titanium (3) Quartz (2)
Dive Elevator	Titanium (4) Copper (2) Quartz (2)

Exterior Decorations

Recipe	Ingredients
Roof Pmp	Titanium (1)
Roof Pump Double	Titanium (2)
Roof Cylinder	Titanium (1)
Roof Panel Large	Titanium (2)
Roof Antenna	Titanium (1)
Roof Antenna Large	Titanium (3)
Roof Listening Dish	Titanium (3)

If you’d like to learn more about the game’s crafting recipes, check out our complete Subnautica 2 blueprint list, or click the tags below to explore our growing guide collection.

The post How to unlock base building in Subnautica 2 appeared first on Destructoid.