Developer Ironwood Studios really wants to form a bond with the vehicle. This is the main takeaway from a hands-off presentation of Pacific Drive, a survival game. Just you and a battered American station wagon inside the Olympic Exclusion Zone, a mysterious part of the Pacific Northwest riddled with supernatural events.
The demonstration showed us both sides of this unique address. Played entirely from a first-person perspective, you’ll set out from your garage and into the Exclusion Zone, aiming to find parts and resources in the wilderness. Once you’re back, you’ll use all your loot to make repairs, upgrades, and build new tools to allow you to explore deeper into your exotic surroundings.
You plot a path before setting off, as all paths lead to a special type of power that allows you to open a gate and escape back to the garage. On the road (or no road if you’re feeling adventurous), you’ll need to keep your head spinning. There will be a lot of wrecked vehicles and buildings to find that will save some precious resources, but the Olympic Exclusion Zone is full of threats. Strange anomalies such as creatures dragging your car around, strange weather conditions, and plumes exploding from the ground all attempt to complete your journey.
Hopefully, you brought some supplies with you with which to make some quick fixes or top up your fuel. You’ll need to jump in and keep your car in tip-top condition if you have any hope of making it back to the garage unscathed. Once you find that energy that unlocks the outlet, things get a little more intense; A shrinking circle will form on the satellite screen, and if you leave that area, you’ll be in for an especially bumpy ride.
You’ll either reach the exit or you won’t, and if you don’t, you’ll lose some of the resources you’ve collected. Either way, you will return to base. This is your chance to make repairs, install better parts, build new equipment, and craft useful supplies. This game is more or less – it’s all about building your car so you can explore new biomes, get better parts so you can improve your car, and that’s how it goes.
The crux of the whole thing seems to be that broken prisoner, and the intention is clearly for her to fall in love with her. You find the car in its stock state at the beginning of the game, and you will gradually turn it into a real monster. With the game exclusively in first-person, even while driving, you stay immersed in the experience – even the HUD elements are in-universe, with most of the information you need running around on your car’s dashboard. Once you start outfitting it with your favorite parts and painting it any way you like, we imagine players will greatly relate to their trusty ride.
She will even develop unusual quirks; When you activate the wiper blades, they will also somehow turn on the headlights, for example. Cars are inanimate machines, but any driver will tell you their “personality,” so this feels authentic to the car-owning experience while also playing on the supernatural theme.
While the car is obviously the primary focus, the world around you will also evolve as you go. During the runs – each one lasting about an hour – you’ll also find snippets of lore and story as well as loot. The game structure is heavily inspired by roguelikes, but there is an end to the narrative. Ironwood Studios aims to let you keep playing after the credits, so your adventures in the Exclusion Zone don’t need to stop when the story comes to a halt.
Much like the first trailer, this short presentation on Pacific Drive had us excited to try it out for ourselves. The combination of survival, crafting, and driving this piece of trash through the game’s procedural environments shows a lot of potential. However, if the folks at Ironwood Studios pull the shadow of the Colossus on us, we may never forgive them. Man, we’re already so attached to the car.
Pacific Drive is set to release on PS5 and PC in 2023. Are you excited to play this unique survival adventure? Buckle up in the comments section below.
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