Pacific Drive Reviews

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☐ Decent ☑ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☑ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☑ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☑ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☑ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ 4 / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☑ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 ---The game is actually not bad, but it is not something special or replayable, and the ending is very poor---

Plays like a crafting survival game with focus on navigating a car through hostile terrain.

Pacific Drive is a strikingly original and atmospheric driving-survival game that defies easy categorization, combining eerie science fiction with immersive exploration and tense resource management. Developed by Ironwood Studios, the game places players behind the wheel of a beat-up station wagon as they navigate the treacherous and mysterious "Olympic Exclusion Zone"—a twisted version of the Pacific Northwest distorted by bizarre anomalies and abandoned scientific experiments. What sets Pacific Drive apart isn’t just its driving mechanics or survival systems, but how these elements come together to create a deeply personal, almost meditative road-trip through an unpredictable and dangerous world. At its core, Pacific Drive is a first-person driving sim infused with roguelike progression and immersive sim elements. Players embark on expeditions into the Exclusion Zone from their garage hub, scavenging materials, salvaging parts, and gathering data, all while dodging hazards such as environmental anomalies, radiation storms, and strange phenomena that warp time and space. The terrain is beautifully rendered and dynamically hostile, with dense forests, eerie weather patterns, and abandoned structures adding to the tension and curiosity. Each trip into the Zone is a gamble, where the deeper you go, the greater the risk—and the potential reward. The vehicle itself is more than just a tool for traversal; it’s your lifeline. Every scratch, dent, and component matters, and maintaining your car is essential to survival. Players must manage fuel, tire condition, battery power, and cargo space, all while customizing and upgrading their ride with scavenged parts. This mechanic transforms the car into a character of its own—a trusted companion that players grow attached to over time. The act of physically interacting with the vehicle (popping the hood, changing tires, managing the trunk) enhances immersion and adds to the hands-on, gritty realism that defines Pacific Drive’s experience. Gameplay balances exploration, survival, and puzzle-solving. Missions often involve navigating to specific zones, retrieving artifacts, or investigating strange signals. The challenge lies in getting in and out alive. The game’s anomaly system ensures that no two runs feel the same—one expedition might be derailed by a gravity-distorting storm, another by malfunctioning tech that disables your navigation system. These emergent challenges create a sense of unease and urgency that is rarely found in driving-focused games. Yet, despite the danger, the game offers quiet moments of awe and reflection—stunning vistas, melancholic audio logs, and the gentle hum of your engine as you drive through the unknown. Visually, Pacific Drive is hauntingly beautiful. The art direction combines retro-futurism with a decaying, post-industrial wilderness, creating a world that feels both nostalgic and alien. The lighting, weather effects, and use of color add to the sense of unease, while the game's UI and design are clean and immersive without being intrusive. The audio design is equally exceptional—dynamic music shifts from serene to sinister depending on the situation, and the soundscape is filled with creaking metal, crackling interference, and distant howls that constantly remind you of the Zone’s hostility. While Pacific Drive is inventive and memorable, it’s not without its flaws. The early game can be slow as players learn the systems, and some may find the repetitive loop of driving, scavenging, and returning to base a bit grindy without the right pacing. Occasional technical hiccups and navigation challenges can be frustrating, especially when they arise mid-mission. That said, the game’s atmosphere, uniqueness, and immersive design often overshadow these minor blemishes. In conclusion, Pacific Drive is a masterclass in environmental storytelling and genre fusion. It turns the simple act of driving into an emotionally charged, suspenseful, and meaningful experience. For players looking for something off the beaten path—literally and thematically—it delivers an unforgettable journey through a world where the road is dangerous, your car is your only friend, and every mile traveled is a story waiting to unfold. It’s one of the most distinctive and emotionally resonant games in recent memory, and a must-play for fans of survival, exploration, and narrative-driven experiences. Rating: 8/10

Fall in love with an old car that doesn't really deserve the level of love and attention you're giving it (yet), get it as shiny and well set up as you can, then spend the next hour trying not to scratch it while road tripping through the apocalypse listening to the radio to keep the impending anxiety at bay. This is the most immersive game I've played in years, genuinely unique experience, highly recommend :)

Just finished Pacific drive and this has to be one of the best story games I’ve ever played. Especially for someone who likes cars it was fun The different challenges made it way more harder then I was expecting A shame they had to end the story sooo soon . I was actually so sad when I found out I had just completed the last mission and the part where poppy signed off. Something I would love is an updated story somehow because the story definitely wasn’t long enough. Either way there’s still much more the explore I still haven’t tried the harder setting for the game and other tweaks like the expeditions but still looking forward to it.

Boring game loop, uninteresting mechanics, poor performance for not-so-promising graphics, and a bad narrated story. From the beginning to the end of the game, you loot the same buildings and scrape the same things over and over again. The only things that change are anomalies and the environment, these vary from zone to zone. However, anomalies are neither scary nor engaging, and the environment just gets more pain-in-the-ass to drive. Narrative in this game just sucks: while you're minding your own bussiness there is always two or more people blabbing about uninteresting stuff in poorly written and pretentious dialogue. You don't see them, there is no cutscene, there is no environmental storytelling - they just talk and talk and talk. Story makes me feel like it's just filler content. No matter what you do, the game performs poorly due to bad optimization. This substantially undermines the immersion.

I've watched many reviews of Pacific Drive and was reluctant buying it. Is driving a car through a mysterious environment and a garage where you're fixing you're car constantly the right game for me? Turns out, it were exactly those elements that made Pacific Drive a special game experience for me. I did enjoy this game immensely and look forward to seeing more unique game ideas from the developer in the future. Pros: - great driving simulation and physics; there are many HUD-interactions you can have in the car; driving feels as natural as it gets - awesome radio soundtrack that supports the overall mood of the game - however, I wish there were more songs since it gets repetitive after a while; you can add your own MP3s though - fixing and upgrading your car is much more satisfying than expected and lots of fun; you really get attached to your car and the way you build it; the whole upgrading system is satisfying but gets a bit dragging the further you get along in game - environments are really beautiful, especially during the day; sometimes, I found myself just driving and listening to music; for at least a week, this was my way to relax after work; the developers really nailed the vibe of PNW; however, there are many sections in complete darkness and pouring rain; I'd have preferred more sunshine - anomalys are, for the most part, pretty cool; especially first encounters; late game, they can get annoying since you'd get bombarded with them - the story is pretty cool; ending not as satisfying as it could have been - fun and engaging visual car upgrades - the quirk system of the car and the way to fix them is unique and extremely cool Cons: - late game, I really struggled getting certain materials; there are ways to find them quicker or better but it just became a chore; as a consequence, I could never update my engine even though the tier was unlocked; on the bright side, you can definitely finish the game with the base engine - there are many unique configurations you can research to shield your car from (electricity-, water-, collision damage); however, it is an educated guess on what the best configuration for your next trip is going to be; while there are ways to see what environment you're going to, constantly changing your exterior according to specific hazards is a chore - strongest parts of the game are the beginning when everything is new and the mid section when you're starting to get the hang of it; late game can feel repetitive Overall, I highly recommend the game to anyone who likes driving, (mostly) chill and unique environments, good music, and enjoys progressing via repair and upgrade systems.

Just buy and play! Graphics: Excellent! (4K with a Canadian forest) Music playlist: Excellent! The car in the Olympic zone is an "Original" idea. Cons: Sometimes the scientists are annoying =) But be careful when choosing a difficulty level above average. Think about whether you have enough time (real time) to collect all the items and reach the teleport without any surprises, such as fuel leaks or sudden anomalies, etc. At the above-average level, it's fun and painful when your three-hour journey turns into a failure.=P

I started Pacific Drive right after I'd bounced off of Death Stranding. Both games I approached because the fantasy of trekking long distances through dangerous environments was something that appealed to me. Death Stranding (at least in it's opening hours) failed to captivate me properly, this was mostly due to the fact that I felt like I had very little agency. Pacific Drive, on the other hand, pushed me to think on my feet in a way few other games ever have. It has earned being an all-time favourite in my mind, and I couldn't recommend it more. There's so many things that I could list off to sell this game, however, I think every glowing compliment I can give this game comes down to its immersive quality. You'll step out of your car whilst you're blasting the radio and walk off into the forest as you hear the music's echo slowly fade as you're engulfed by a fog so thick you can't see more than a few feet in front of you. The mysterious and ever-beautiful atmosphere that Ironwood Studios has created is one that *will* swallow you whole -- a sort of tantalising terror always pushes you to explore just a little deeper in to the Olympic Exclusion Zone. The real thing that pushed this game to outstanding heights, for me, was its mechanical depth. The shitbucket car that you drive for 99% of this games runtime has an undeniable charm to it. You'll constantly be in a flux of fixing or upgrading it. The games dynamic difficulty makes it so that I was often on my toes. I can remember several instances when an anomaly or my own recklessness meant I had to find an impromptu replacement for a tire, or walk to the nearest abandoned wreck to siphon gas. It's the sort of agency I've only felt before in full blown immersive sims, and in Pacific Drive it works to create one of the most engaging experiences you can currently get in gaming. I'll recommend, if you're reading this review right now, to simply try out the game. With the way that the game presents its many obstacles and hazards, the less you know, the better. There's a sort of mechanical narrative to navigating the zone, learning its quirks and familiarising yourself with the routes of the road. It's the sort of thing you can only experience once, I imagine any repeat playthrough would be significantly less exciting to play. And for the current asking price, a 20-35 hour long campaign is so, so worth it. Please play this game. The sense of mystery, engagement, and interactivity are all second to none.

Definitely a sideways thumb situation. This isn't a [i]bad[/i] game, and anyone who it does hit for will have a good time with it. I did for the most part. For me, the negatives of the grind and repetition outweigh the positives of the story and setting.