Commissar SFLUFAN Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 Official website Quote Pacific Drive is a run-based, first-person driving survival game. Your car is your only companion as you navigate a surreal and anomaly-filled reimagining of the Pacific Northwest. Structured as a “road-like”, each excursion into the wilderness brings unique and strange challenges, as you restore and upgrade your car from an abandoned garage that acts as your home base. With the car as your lifeline, you’ll unravel a long-forgotten mystery as you make your way to the heart of the Olympic Exclusion Zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris- Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 That's one hell of a concept! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy4000 Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 18 minutes ago, Chris- said: That's one hell of a concept! Absolutely. Please be good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPCyric Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 That looks so fucking intense I'm in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 Pacific Drive is a gloriously horrible trip into the cursed wilderness WWW.EUROGAMER.NET A preview of Pacific Drive, which tasks players with exploring a mysterious Zone in an old station wagon. Quote For the first few missions, your trips into the Zone are for simple things at least. Get the materials for an antenna to rig up back at the garage to allow you to venture further out, scan a certain number of anomalies. But getting back home is its own wild trip, regardless of how straightforward the mission was. You can't just turn around in space-time that's been as thoroughly busted as it is in the Zone. Instead you need to collect a series of "anchors", little gadgets scattered around the map, and load them into your car at which point a column of light will appear in the distance signalling the position of your exit portal. And as it does, I swear that the Zone, which was terrifying and unpredictable already, only gains in strength. Rocks take to the air. Shadows loom closer. The storm gets worse. The road gets worse. Things crackle and spark and swing at the car as you dash, dash, dash towards that column of light eager to get home again, sorry you ever ventured this far. The steering wheel bucks in your hand, the tarmac won't lead where you want it to. Who knows how long that portal will remain open? It's horrible. It's brilliant. It's almost unbelievably stressful. It's Pacific Drive. My new favorite survival game companion is Pacific Drive's clunky sci-fi station wagon | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM It's more than just my mobile base, it's my best friend—even though it's occasionally haunted. Quote It's bad news when the US government takes over a huge parcel of land and uses it to run secret experiments. It's worse when the government seals off that land with towering concrete walls and entirely dips. And, wow, whatever the government was doing in driving survival game Pacific Drive, they sure mucked things up. There are so many anomalies it makes Stalker's exclusion zone look like Stardew Valley. In Pacific Drive you're a courier who has unfortunately stumbled inside that cursed zone—formerly the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state—and the only way out is to go deeper in. Thankfully, you've got the best companion a survival game has offered since Sons of the Forest introduced us to Kelvin: a rusty, junky old station wagon that instantly becomes your best friend and mobile base. Pacific Drive already feels like a brilliant mix of the road, the radio and roguelike | GamesRadar+ WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM Big in 2024 | Pacific Drive is all about you, your car and trying not to kill either Quote As I only played a short preview section there's a few things I'm a little wary of in places. There's a few moments where objectives or goals felt a little unclear. Both the UI and general density of info can be a little overwhelming at first and I can't tell yet if I was missing things on occasions, or just needed more time to absorb it all. Similarly, I ended up at one point with an almost completely destroyed car and none of the things I needed to repair it, forcing me to go out near death for a supply run. Again, that might just be the inexperience of the early hours and something that irons out over a longer play. It's a great experience overall so far though and one I'm desperate to play more of after my brief taster. The concept doesn't feel too unusual to say out loud - explore a dangerous area and gather supplies to level up and go again - but the atmosphere of it all and the relationship you form with the car really elevate the experience into something I wasn't expecting to be so smitten with. Vehicle Horror Survival In Pacific Drive WWW.THEGAMER.COM We checked out a preview of Pacific Drive, an upcoming horror survival driving game. Quote Your car is like a warm beacon. It possesses a radio, which plays mostly licensed music, and it grows dimmer the further you walk away from it. I’d often find myself driving just a little closer to a building or Anchor so that I could listen to music as I went about my work, rather than listen to the piercing silence, gurgling anomalies, or trees cracking in the distance. It’s a testament to the game’s world building that I formed a rapid symbiotic relationship with my car: that’s really the point of the entire game, as far as I can tell. My main concerns with Pacific Drive is it becoming repetitive. During the first couple of hours, its quests and narrative were solid enough to drive me forward, as well as the discovery of new materials, upgrades for my car, and cosmetic items. What worries me is the game losing its pace - looting another abandoned gas station with an identical backpack on the counter and copy and pasted toolboxes in the back room might get tedious. I hope the full experience continues to change and innovate upon the promising foundations I glimpsed in this preview. Pacific Drive will make you fall in love with an old station wagon WWW.POLYGON.COM Ironwood Studios’ roguelite builds a strong bond between car and driver Quote Ironwood Studios’ Pacific Drive is a road trip game about taking a drive through a disintegrating, irradiated reality; it’s as if American Truck Simulator was set in a lonely, survivalist version of Fallout. Transported — either accidentally or on purpose, it’s not clear — into the Olympic Exclusion Zone somewhere among the wooded slopes of the Pacific Northwest, the nameless player character must pilot a dilapidated station wagon deeper into this territory, where gravity and matter obey their own rules. Pacific Drive is not really about driving, although it is about the car. In a preview build covering the game’s first few hours, the game had a nitty-gritty loop of looting, crafting, and exploration, reminiscent perhaps of No Man’s Sky on harder difficulty settings, where the primary goal is gathering enough material to patch up your retro wagon just enough to make the next few miles. Eventually, you will begin to improve your car — transforming this rusting heap, with its missing panels and cardboard-box storage, into a custom exploration vehicle for the end of the world, loaded with Mad Max-style welded armor and homebrew technology straight out of Ghostbusters. The design of Pacific Drive borrows some elements from roguelites, too. The game consists of a series of runs from the same starting point: a shelter/garage where you can park, modify, recharge, and refuel your vehicle. Each run takes you through randomized “junction” areas on your way to a mission destination, at which point your only option is to trigger a “gateway” — a giant, raging beam of light that pierces the earth — and drive into it to return home and start again. Holding your car together through each of these journeys, and returning with enough bounty to upgrade it for the next run, is what Pacific Drive is all about. Pacific Drive preview - a motor of life and death | TechRadar WWW.TECHRADAR.COM Shift into gear Quote Despite the sense of constant impending doom, Pacific Drive is a joy to play. The detailed upgrading system, beautiful landscape, and exciting premise are precisely what you want from the best survival games. Even if I got rid of all these factors, I could still have fun in this strange space; driving around the mysterious pine woods and listening to the incredible songs on the radio was a brilliant experience. There are over 20 licensed songs to chill out to and an original score by Wilbert Roget, an American composer known for his work on Call of Duty: WWII, Mortal Kombat 11, and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. After hours of driving around in Pacific Drive, I’ve yet to find a song that I don’t absolutely love, and I can’t wait to listen to more. There's still plenty to explore and discover in Pacific Drive, but after this first venture into its unknown world, I can safely say that while I may not be prepared for what is to come, I am very excited to see what happens next. Pacific Drive turns Control into a supernatural road trip | Digital Trends WWW.DIGITALTRENDS.COM We took Pacific Drive for one last spin before its February release date and it hit us with some surprise scares. Quote The locked first-person perspective used while I’m driving helps that. At first, I’m annoyed that I can’t zoom out to a third-person view of my car. I quickly realize that Pacific Drive wouldn’t have the same impact in that perspective; my limited view makes the world that much more freighting. At one point, I drive over some yellow gashes in the road, not knowing what they are. I’m completely caught off guard as I’m shot into the air, helplessly watching the world outside speed by my window. It’s a disorienting moment that leaves me wondering what the hell is happening to me (it turns out those yellow gashes are geysers with enough force to send my car flying). I find plenty of scares like that in my first runs as I try to get a grip on an unpredictable world through my narrow viewpoint. Pacific Drive is one of those games that I don’t think I’ll really have a grasp on until I play it all in context. The early hours throw a lot of systems out and require some repetitive grinding. As neat as its supernatural element is, I’m left wondering if it’s the kind of game where I simply watch spooky things happen from a distance while carrying out comparatively dull gameplay tasks. I’m sure I haven’t seen the full picture yet, but that’s what excites me about the final game. I have no idea where this road leads; I have to trust the wheel. Pacific Drive Hands-On Preview: Tuning Up The Rogue-Like Genre GAMERANT.COM Game Rant goes hands-on with the atmospheric Pacific Drive, which seems to be taking the rogue-like genre on a road trip it won’t soon forget. Quote If My Summer Car and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker were smashed together and turned into a video game, the result might be Pacific Drive. However, that doesn’t mean Ironwood Studios’s debut game is derivative in the slightest. Pacific Drive’s supernatural spin on survival rogue-likes is giving the genre a new coat of paint, and Game Rant received hands-on access to a preview build of the game to show what it's all about. After three story missions spanning roughly four hours, we can happily say that we’re craving more. Pacific Drive is tense, cryptic, and even scary at times, but it’s also laid-back, easy to understand, and filled with levity exactly when the moment needs it. Just in the first few moments, the demo encapsulates how Pacific Drive is a master of both worlds, as the opening credits describe the game's Olympic Exclusion Zone, an area in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington where the government conducted radioactive tests. What happened there remains a secret, and all who have attempted to breach the zone to find answers have never been found. The game’s mystery and atmosphere oozed from the start. The demo puts players behind wheel for a sunny drive down a quiet road in Washington that began to turn grim, dark, and brooding, as the sky shifted into overcast, and the road became hazardous the closer the car got to the Zone. After a few bumps and scrapes and an encounter with an otherworldly portal leaves the player without a ride for a second, they find themselves in possession of a beaten-down station wagon with a broken headlight inside a rotting shed. From a cherry family road trip setting to an almost grindhouse scene, Pacific Drive does a great job of going from cheery to bleak in a matter of seconds. Pacific Drive is a harrowing road trip on the edge of reality – Destructoid WWW.DESTRUCTOID.COM Is Pacific Drive finally going to quell my hunger for the perfect road trip game. Maybe not, but it probably will for loot. Quote I mostly enjoyed my time with Pacific Drive, but I’m concerned that the unique aspects of it might get drowned out by trite looting and crafting that we’ve seen too many times before. Upgrading your car is fun, but if that aspect outweighs the actual driving, then I think it will cheapen the entire experience. Nonetheless, I’m excited to get my hands on more of Pacific Drive. In preparation for this write-up, I fired the demo up again to refresh myself on the narrative details of the introduction, and I had trouble putting it down again. There is a lot that it does well, and it’s clear to see where its heart lies. Maintaining the station wagon is really enjoyable, I just hope we’re doing the bulk of that out on the road rather than in the garage. 'Pacific Drive' Preview: Experience The Apocalypse In A Station Wagon WWW.DREADCENTRAL.COM Dread Central's Justin Wood went hands-on with 'Pacific Drive', the post-apocalyptic atmospheric survival game. Read his preview now. Quote Pacific Drive is something of a unique beast, promising a mix of profoundly depressing post-apocalyptic set in the, you guessed it, Pacific Northwest. While the game premise is new, there is something comforting about the idea of being out in the wild alone. There are only voices and a lovingly crafted station wagon to guide you through the void of the Olympic Exclusion Zone. Surrounded by anomalies, it’s setting itself to be a serene, isolating experience in a beautiful landscape. In our preview, we experience all the ways Ironwood Studios brings these promises to life in Pacific Drive. A Road Trip Through the Broken Lands of Pacific Drive HARDCOREGAMER.COM Pacific Drive is a survival adventure game through a hostile but beautifully idealized representation of the Pacific Northwest. Quote Sometimes things just break, whether that be a smaller item like a bottle or a bigger one like a car. The break may only be to a small part of the overall structure, but it's more than enough to take the whole thing with it, and whether it can be fixed or not depends on the level of specialized knowledge available. A good mechanic can fix up a car easily enough, but what happens when it's the whole of reality thrown out of whack in an area hundreds of miles across? Back in the 1950s ARDA, the Advanced Resonance Development Agency, was conducting research on exciting new technologies when things went a little sideways, and while not all of the anomalies weren't instantly fatal they were certainly harmful. The unearthly effects slowly expanded, giving ARDA's researchers plenty to investigate while the residents were squeezed out of their homes in an ever-growing circle that became known as the Olympic Exclusion Zone. Eventually it became too dangerous for even ARDA to work there, and in the mid-80s the entire area was closed off with a 300-meter-high wall. In the years since, the Olympic Exclusion Zone has been left mostly untouched by human hands, with nature starting to reclaim the towns and roads while energy and gravitational weirdness plus the occasional radiation storm devastates anyone unlucky enough to be caught up in it. Fortunately the instability is constricted within the walls, and if people keep their distance, it's perfectly safe. There's no way a delivery driver could be caught up in an anomaly on one side of the wall and wake up on the other and therefore Pacific Drive can't possibly exist and there's no game to preview. Pacific Drive looks to take us on the most unsettling of road trips WWW.SHACKNEWS.COM We had a chance to explore a short portion of Pacific Drive's supernatural survival and automotive maintenance gameplay. Quote Pacific Drive’s vision of the North American northwest wilderness is a very borked one. Temporal anomalies distort reality and tear everything living and otherwise asunder. Fortunately, you’ve got a station wagon. You wouldn’t think that’s enough to survive this supernatural maelstrom (and it’s not), but it’s the only thing you’ve got, so you’re going to have to keep it fit and trim as you gather the supplies you need to escape an otherwise unfortunate fate. We got to play a small slice of Pacific Drive and it left us with appreciation for on-the-fly car maintenance and a valid fear of most machines that aren’t our own. Pacific Drive Preview: On the Highway to Hell WWW.GAMEREACTOR.EU We've been hands-on with Ironwood Studios' upcoming survival adventure game to see how it is looking to slot into the roguelite space. Quote I can see Pacific Drive facing the same kinds of issues that many roguelites and roguelikes face, but assuming you are up for that challenge, this is looking to be a very unique and interesting take on the genre. The car mechanic is fantastic, the level design is brilliant, the graphics and soundtrack are top notch. From what I've seen in this preview, the progression can feel a little stale, and as the hours roll by, looting and scavenging might lose their allure too, but hopefully the ramping up mystery at the storyline's core will offset this. Either way, we'll know for certain soon, as Pacific Drive is set to launch on PC and PlayStation 5 on February 22, 2024. Pacific Drive could be the weirdest and creepiest horror game of 2024 WWW.PCGAMESN.COM Pacific Drive blends action and survival game elements for a unique expedition, but it's the characters that have captured my attention. Quote Throughout the first two story missions of Pacific Drive, there’s an overarching danger of feeling entirely alone. With limited factors incentivizing me to drive away from the safety of Oppy’s auto lot, I could be tempted to just put Pacific Drive down and leave it well alone. But these three characters, despite never physically meeting them, serve much more of a purpose than your standard game tutorial. They’re going to be my closest support in this strange world, and I can’t wait to see if we meet in the flesh later down the line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShreddieMercury Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 I recorded guitar for a song that's included on the soundtrack. Hopefully this runs on my PC because it looks awesome. 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepee Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 1 hour ago, ShreddieMercury said: I recorded guitar for a song that's included on the soundtrack. Hopefully this runs on my PC because it looks awesome. Very cool! How did that come about? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShreddieMercury Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 24 minutes ago, stepee said: Very cool! How did that come about? My neighbor is a film composer, and we play music together. He occasionally uses me for various songs or soundtracks to movies that he's working on. I studied music in college but never formally pursued it, so it's nice to have an outlet! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 11 Author Share Posted January 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitgod Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Watching that last video, funny he mentions "Stalker vibes" early on, cuz Stalker was what I thought of from watching the reveal trailer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 13 Author Share Posted January 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 13 Author Share Posted January 13 1 hour ago, Bitgod said: Watching that last video, funny he mentions "Stalker vibes" early on, cuz Stalker was what I thought of from watching the reveal trailer. Funny you should mention that! Pacific Drive, the video game road trip inspired by the weird fiction of Jeff VanderMeer | Games | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Creative director Alex Dracott explains why he decided to make a driving game with a supernatural twist Quote Pacific Drive is inspired by the Strugatsky brothers’ novel Roadside Picnic, Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker... And naturally, those works also inspired the STALKER game series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XxEvil AshxX Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Never even heard of this till now, but I'm am SO in. Man I really hope this runs well on the Deck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitizenVectron Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Is there combat in this game? Or do you need to run from danger/weird things in order to survive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitgod Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to skip this game. I've watched 2 videos on it and it seems to give me motion sickness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 How 'driving survival game' Pacific Drive is being built for people who don't like survival games | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Ironwood Studios game director Seth Rosen talks to us about smoothing out the bumps in the road. Quote "I've been working on survival games for quite a while," says Seth Rosen as we chat over Zoom. "Funnily enough, I don't like them." That is pretty funny, because Rosen was technical designer for Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve: Reign of Giants and project lead for Don't Starve Together, eternally one of the most popular games on Steam. Now he's game director at Ironwood Studios, working on first-person driving survival game Pacific Drive, which launches on February 22. That's a lot of survival for someone who doesn't like survival. But it becomes clear during our chat that it's actually just certain aspects of survival games Rosen doesn't care for, and he's doing his best to avoid them in his new game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Vic20 Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Purchased! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 Also, the game has a demo available for the Steam Next Fest which just started! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 Game Information Game Title: Pacific Drive Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Feb 22, 2024) PC (Feb 22, 2024) Developer: Ironwood Studios Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 79 average - 80% recommended Critic Reviews Spoiler GamesCreed - Daman Shelley - 5 / 5 Pacific Drive is a must-play for narrative fans or those who want a more rewarding survival experience that doesn’t rely on the genre’s usual tropes. Heck, even if that’s not a big enough selling point, the game has an excellent soundtrack. Try Hard Guides - Erik Hodges - 10 / 10 Pacific Drive offers a thrilling and unique experience that seamlessly blends the excitement of a road trip with the terror of the supernatural. The game quickly won me over, just as it’s sure to win over the imagination and thrill of players who give the game a much-deserved try. But Why Tho? - Katherine Kong - 9 / 10 Pacific Drive thoughtfully translates simple yet overlooked human aspects through an experience that is truly unique and unforgettable. God is a Geek - Chris White - 9 / 10 Pacific Drive is a punishing roguelike at times, but the thrill of each run provides plenty of variety and excitement in how you approach it. IGN Spain - Rafa Del Río - Spanish - 9 / 10 After four years of development, the good people at Ironwood Studio join forces with Kepler Interactive to launch Pacific Drive. A very personal title with a brutal charisma that proves once again that small studios still have a lot to contribute to the videogame industry. NoobFeed - Azfar Rayan - 90 / 100 Pacific Drive is fantastic once you sit down and play it correctly. The game's core mechanic is survival, but many might fail to see that. Anyone who enjoys survival games should definitely give this one a go. Even if you usually don't enjoy survival games, you might be interested in building and driving your car. But before you do, you might want to fiddle with the levels of difficulty and accessibility settings to find a setting that suits your playing style. Pacific Drive is fantastic; driving through it has been a unique experience and arguably the year's most unique survival game entries. PCGamesN - Nat Smith - 9 / 10 Pacific Drive offers a road trip like no other, boasting immaculate sound design and a classic '90s conspiracy delivered through a compact survival-crafting roguelike loop. SECTOR.sk - Oto Schultz - Slovak - 9 / 10 Olympic Peninsula and its Exclusion Zone have hidden many secrets for more then three decades and now, after I got pulled in by a mysterious anomaly, it is finally time to reveal them all! But this is no happy tale of a handsome protagonist, but a mere mortal driver's storyline, which wiggles and twists around a postapocalyptic wasteland. And what better tool to navigate it than a sturdy vehicle, armored with the knowledge of brilliant scientists and quirky tech, that will surely protect me from the horrors of this dystopian world' Shacknews - TJ Denzer - 9 / 10 Pacific Drive is a mystery that draws you in little by little and rewards you for staying dedicated with both a better vehicle and more ridiculous threats. Every excursion left me wondering just what I’d discover, both from survival and story standpoints, as well as what kind of crazy threats were going to try to make my life harder. Fun and interesting characters and a pretty great soundtrack help to keep things fun, but maintaining the station wagon is easily the most compelling part. It’s your best friend through thick and thin, even if it’s trying to eat your mind. That can be somewhat forgiven since it makes up the core of an ultimately great rogue-lite survival game. The Nerd Stash - Julio LaPine - 9 / 10 Finding the balance between survival and cozy Sunday drives is tricky, but Pacific Drives manages to nail it. This is a road I want to travel again without a doubt. Hobby Consolas - Alberto Lloret - Spanish - 86 / 100 For their first feature, my heartfelt applause for Ironwood Studios. Not only have they taken the roguelite formula to new ground, integrating driving, deep survival, and a captivating sci-fi story, which makes sense of their original world. Despite the bugs or the fact that the roguelite formula doesn't appeal to you, there is "something" about it. PC Gamer - Christopher Livingston - 86 / 100 A novel and challenging survival game that puts you in the driver's seat of one the best cars in videogames. PlayStation Universe - David Carcasole - 8.5 / 10 Pacific Drive is a game absolutely dripping in atmosphere and excellent spooky vibes, with an exploration-to-looting-to-tense extraction-to-crafting/upgrading and back again gameplay loop that doesn't get old, and a story that is both emotional and intriguing. While pacing issues do hamper it down some, that doesn't damage the experience enough to leave it off anyone's must-play list for 2024. Press Start - Edward Darling - 8.5 / 10 Just like the Daewoo Lanos I inherited from my sister when I eventually got my license, Pacific Drive is an imperfect but undeniably charming experience. It's filled to the brim with sensational atmosphere, intriguing mystery and edge-of-your-seat cinematic adventure. If you can buckle up and push through the foibles of this otherwise fantastic survival 'roadlite', I guarantee you won't regret getting behind the wheel. Areajugones - Alfonso Cánovas - Spanish - 8 / 10 The premise of Pacific Drive is unique and original in many ways, although in others it can be a bit tedious and tiresome. It is a game in which we must be patient and not go crazy, because it is better to go little by little so as not to fall into despair. Being a first-person survival rogue-lite, it has its own twist and nothing will be the same in every exploration, but for my taste a third-person option would have been good for it. Cultured Vultures - Alex Hadzaman - 8 / 10 Pacific Drive is a rare experience in the space of roguelikes that combines unique mechanics with a deep story that not very many games in the genre offer. Eurogamer - Chris Tapsell - 4 / 5 A punishing, exhasperating slog, or an off-beat love story between driver and car, human and the Zone? Pacific Drive is both and then some. Everyeye.it - Gennaro Saraino - Italian - 8 / 10 Pacific Drive is a title that oozes passion from every exhaust pipe, and we can only be happy for Ironwood Studios and the love placed in their debut work. GAMES.CH - Achim Fehrenbach - German - 80% "Pacific Drive" is an extremely atmospheric survival game that draws its charm from the exuberant inhospitability of the exclusion zone. Loneliness and menacing anomalies make our old station wagon our closest ally. If you like roguelikes and crafting, you will find a rich field of activity in "Pacific Drive" - but the tinkering and fiddling sometimes get a bit out of hand. If you leave the somewhat tough start to the game behind, you will be rewarded with a motivating expansion system. The exclusion zone is an almost mythical place - and certainly not for the faint of heart. GameBlast - Luan Gabriel de Paula - Portuguese - 8 / 10 With a charismatic voice cast, vast upgrade system and a fascinating mysterious world, Pacific Drive is an experience that is unique in every aspect. I personally have never played anything like it. Similar yes, but like this experience, never. The idea of creating a game based on roadtrip films with a mystery and horror aspect, combining elements of survival and crafting was an assertive choice. The debut of Ironwood Studios is a great success and made me extremely curious about the developer's future works. GameSpot - Mark Delaney - 8 / 10 Ironwood Studio's debut is a challenging roguelite caRPG rich in atmosphere, complexity, and fascinating lore. PSX Brasil - Vanessa Ferreira - Portuguese - 80 / 100 Pacific Drive is an intriguing survival title that appeals to the unknown and the player's curiosity, with unique and engaging moments. By merging vehicle and survival, Ironwood Studios nails its proposal and boldness. Push Square - Stephen Tailby - 8 / 10 Pacific Drive is an ambitious and rewarding debut from Ironwood Studios. It's an unusual combination of factors that all coalesce; roguelike exploration, deep and challenging survival mechanics, an interesting narrative to follow, and a central vehicle that brings everything together. Fiddly controls and complex UI mean it's not free from annoyances, but the pleasure found in incrementally upgrading the car and throwing it into the unknown trumps the setbacks. It might be an arduous journey at times, but it's definitely worth the trip. Screen Rant - Jason Hon - 4 / 5 Ironwood Studios' debut game accomplishes to be an immersive survival driving adventure. Its intense treks through mind-bending obstacles are balanced with humor and relaxing moments provided by crafting and upgrading useful tools and car components, along with Pacific Drive's catchy alternative rock soundtrack. It's an incredibly impressive debut game that should put the new studio on the map: "there's no peace of mind or place you'll see, like riding on Pacific Drive." Siliconera - Leigh Price - 8 / 10 Pacific Drive is a unique twist on the survival genre that will make you fall in with a car, if you can handle its random difficulty spikes. TheGamer - Sam Hallahan - 4 / 5 Pacific Drive takes each genre it tackles in a bold new direction, and creates something that’s not necessarily unheard of, but feels entirely unique in its design, care, and the way in which it pulls you into its world. You’ll immediately begin to care for your car as you keep it safe, and exploring the Zone consistently provides new, refreshing things to keep you engaged and daunted. Though the milder aspects can feel repetitive, it adds to a worthwhile experience that is absolutely worth playing. COGconnected - Mark Steighner - 78 / 100 Quote not yet available IGN Italy - Alessandro Alosi - Italian - 7.8 / 10 Pacific Drive is an imperfect but unique journey into the unknown. It is a good survival game in which the eerie atmosphere, the customization of one's car, and the adrenaline rush of racing make one forget the flaws. Cerealkillerz - Nick Erlenhof - German - 7.7 / 10 Pacific Drive is made for fans of survival games and sci-fi adventures. With its captivating anomalies and subtle horror, the hugely important and extensive maintenance of the station wagon and the somewhat frustrating ruthlessness. Pacific Drive offers a unique experience with a charming flair and is a great debut from Ironwood Studios. Spaziogames - Pia Colucci - Italian - 7.5 / 10 Pacific Drive is an intriguing experience and, despite being way more complicated than it should in some of its choices, it's a compelling game that feels like a breath of fresh air for video games' lovers. GamePro - Tobias Veltin - German - 72 / 100 If you fight your way through, Pacific Drive is a solid survival game, but it can only really shine with the car upgrades. CGMagazine - Zubi Khan - 7 / 10 Pacific Drive captures the spirit of working on your car in a game that heavily leans into the crafting experience over its driving roguelike elements. Entertainment Geekly - Luis Alvaro - 3.5 / 5 “Pacific Drive” is a bold experiment in genre-blending, offering a fresh perspective on survival and driving mechanics. It’s a game that demands patience and rewards curiosity, one that will enchant you with its atmospheric world even as it tests your mettle with its challenges. IGN - Sarah Thwaites - 7 / 10 Balancing Pacific Drive’s scrappy systems can be punishing, but the riveting tension of each drive through its unnerving world was always enough to keep my hands placed firmly on the wheel. PC Invasion - Leo Gillick - 7 / 10 A love letter to Boris and Arkady that brings their anomalous horrors to the Pacific Northwest. Pacific Drive makes up for what it gets wrong in pacing with imaginative gameplay and exceptional design. Pure Dead Gaming - Kirkland Gray - 7 / 10 Pacific Drive is about laboring towards something and enjoying the results – feeling the sense of progress, along with the satisfaction and motivation such tangible progress brings with it. There are undoubtedly hours upon hours of gameplay to be had for those possessing unrelenting patience, those true warriors of attrition that would see Pacific Drive’s systems through to their ultimate culmination. Destructoid - Zoey Handley - 6.5 / 10 There’s a lot here that feels great, but it’s the inconsistency that lets it down. All those great moments are padded by a framework that doesn’t do them enough justice. Too much emphasis on scrounging, an unfocused narrative, and a generally poor feeling of momentum and progression. I’m still certain that there are some who will be able to overlook the game’s flaws and latch onto its unique charm. However, I think just as many people are going to bounce right off it. Either way, it isn’t a comfortable ride. GamesRadar+ - Leon Hurley - 3 / 5 No matter how careful you are, it only takes the slightest thing to bring everything crashing down. Metro GameCentral - GameCentral - 5 / 10 An intriguing set-up, with an impressively ominous atmosphere, is spoilt by overfamiliar roguelike elements that ruin the pacing and increase the repetition. ACG - Jeremy Penter - Buy "A mix of Ghostbusters and Mad Max and Stalker" Digitec Magazine - Philipp Rüegg - German - Unscored Pacific Drive is an unforgettable ride that you should not miss out on. Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Jon Bailes - Unscored There's much to admire in Ironwood's car-based survival sim, not least the detail that's gone into the old banger you pilot and the weird lands you have to explore, which force you to learn their quirks and keep your wits about you. As a crafting game, however, it's rather unforgiving and laborious, requiring a lot of thankless graft if you want to stay on the road and unlock more inventive equipment. Skill Up - Ralph Panebianco - Unscored Video Review - Quote not available gameranx - Unscored Video Review - Quote not available 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShreddieMercury Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 I received a code for this. The demo wasn't too smooth on my aging PC, hopefully the full version runs a bit better. Anybody else playing this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Dammit. I really enjoyed the first couple of hours of this game. The game, however, feels out of reach for me. It's just me and the kids and this game has no mid-mission saving. Child wakes up in the middle of the night, would be nice to be able to temp save and resume so I don't have to lose the last hour of gameplay. I get that the devs don't want players to save scum this game, but there's nothing wrong with temp saves that disappear when you later resume the game. What sucks is that there's no real way to know how long an excursion will last, so I can't really tell myself "I have two hours to game tonight". Remember way back in the day when games didn't have saves and you'd have to bribe your younger brother to leave the NES on pause while you were at school? That's how this game makes me feel and I'm not paying for the electricity of a gaming PC on for 24hr straight because I want to pick up and resume this game after the kids go to bed tomorrow. Rant over. Other than the saving mechanic, I really do like the game. I am very much appreciative that this isn't another zombie or whatever survival horror. The atmosphere, alone, is good enough. I can easily see how playing a bunch of this game will get you really attached to your wagon I won't refund it. Maybe the devs will cave and give us a temp save or someone will mod it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 @Ghost_MH That's sad that PCs don't have a feature like PS5 where you can just put it in sleep mode and easily return later on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShreddieMercury Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Returnal had the same problem, where excellent gameplay runs up against needlessly long "cycles" or "runs" that become repetitive because the game cannot sustain itself for the amount of time it asks from the player. It's a bummer to hear that about this game too since it seems like such a promising concept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 50 minutes ago, ShreddieMercury said: Returnal had the same problem, where excellent gameplay runs up against needlessly long "cycles" or "runs" that become repetitive because the game cannot sustain itself for the amount of time it asks from the player. It's a bummer to hear that about this game too since it seems like such a promising concept. Didn't Returnal later add a Save on Exit? That's all I want. I just want to be able to hibernate the game and come back later without leaving my PC on for days at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 23 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said: Didn't Returnal later add a Save on Exit? That's all I want. I just want to be able to hibernate the game and come back later without leaving my PC on for days at a time. Returnal: Can You Save The Game? WWW.THEGAMER.COM If you need to close the game in the middle of a good run, it's important to save it before you log out. Quote When you click on the option, the Quit Game screen will appear with three options. If you want to save your run before quitting, you need to click on Suspend And Quit option. This will suspend your current cycle temporarily, but you'll be able to pick up where you left off when you log in again. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Just now, Remarkableriots said: Returnal: Can You Save The Game? WWW.THEGAMER.COM If you need to close the game in the middle of a good run, it's important to save it before you log out. That's all I ask the Pacific Drive devs add. I don't need anything more than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 10 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said: That's all I ask the Pacific Drive devs add. I don't need anything more than that. Maybe put that on the official X page and maybe they'll add it with an update? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_MH Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 1 hour ago, Remarkableriots said: Maybe put that on the official X page and maybe they'll add it with an update? Devs have already been fighting gamers about this since the open beta. They claim it's impossible to do...doubt. I very rarely pay attention to pre-release game drama, so I missed this but of news. Here's holding out how they cave or someone mods it in. Thing is, this game is, otherwise, very gamer friendly. There's are countless difficulty toggles. You can disable damage to either you or your car. You can set it so you keep everything after death. You can disable death. You can set your car to not need gas. There are so many things you can do to make the game less stressful. Being stubborn on this one thing is wild. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 Updated the OpenCritic reviews post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Hopefully this comes to PS+ soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best3444 Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 7 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said: Hopefully this comes to PS+ soon. And gamepass because I'm definitely interested in trying it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finaljedi Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 I am a sucker for the unexplainable alien sort of concept from the Southern Reach Trilogy(mostly the first one) and Roadside Picnic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chadatog Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 The thing for me that stands out are some of the audio cues, when a zone is closing down the music really reminds me of outer wilds. Also some of the mad dashes to the exit have been amazing. This game, once again proves that the weaping angel enemy type is still freaky. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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