A car as a base that we upgrade to travel a zone and escape anomalies? That”s the survival game Pacific Drive.
It”s not exactly one innovation after another in the survival genre. A thousand zombie apocalypses, several grim representatives of realism, mutants, MMOs with dino taming. We”ve seen it all before. The upcoming survival game Pacific Drive also makes use of familiar ideas, but builds them into a completely new framework.
Specifically, that of a station wagon. Children of the 80s and 90s are familiar with the bowl from almost every second Hollywood film of the era. In Pacific Drive, the car with its stuffy wooden panelling serves as a moving base with which we explore a restricted zone that is buzzing with dangerous anomalies (hello, stalker!).
Graphically, Pacific Drive relies on an atmospherically gloomy look. In the trailer you can also get a first impression of the gameplay:
What is Pacific Drive about?
Experiments transformed the Olympic Exclusion Zone in the Pacific Northwest of the USA into a fire-threatening doomsday landscape. Anomalies are now popping up all over the abandoned area, hurling lightning bolts, firing energy balls and causing pillars to grow out of the ground. Pretty uncomfortable area that reminds me personally pleasantly of Stalker.
We as players are stuck in the middle of the exclusion zone. But we can rely on our mobile. The station wagon forms the hub of the action and wants to be maintained when it has taken damage from the anomalies. A display in the driver”s cabin shows us how the car is doing.
If the car is on its last legs, we get out and move through the game world in the first-person perspective to collect resources. In workshops we not only repair the car, but also upgrade it to be better equipped against the dangers of the zone.
In addition to the collecting typical of the survival genre, there”s also action: we fight in randomly generated missions. How exactly? That remains unclear. Developer Ironwood Studios describes Pacific Drive as road-like, which also promises certain roguelike elements. Driving and exploring on foot alternate.
So underneath the survival guise is also a wacky racing game that is also supposed to be strongly driven by the story. The wild mix could give survival fans something different for a change, which could appeal to bored veterans in particular.
What else is known?
Pacific Drive will be released in 2023 for PC and PlayStation 5 The developers from Ironwood Studios have not yet been more specific. The survival game has already been in the making since 2019
Who is behind it? Ironwood Studios is a young developer from Seattle in the USA. Pacific Drive is their first work. On the (official website) it becomes clear, however, that the team is made up of experienced developers. The portfolio of the players includes titles such as Halo Infinite, League of Legends and Mafia 3.
You need survival now and preferably without sweat and tears? For that, feel free to consult the above list of the best relaxed genre representatives.
What does Pacific Drive do to you? Can you imagine a survival game with a car as its central base or do you let the title pass you by in a relaxed way? Drop us a line in the comments!
