Every once in a while, a game comes along that defies any genre you try to put it in. This is Pacific Drive, a single-player survival-driving game perfect for fans of SCP: Containment Breach or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Players will try to survive the Olympic Exclusion Zone, a walled-off disaster area in the Olympic peninsula that’s home to many reality-bending anomalies.

Pacific Drive has several gameplay features that craft a fresh and unique experience, and we’ve broken them down below.

Narrative-Focused Missions

Super official Zone business.

Although you’re free to explore on your own, Pacific Drive establishes its lore through narrative-driven missions. Players will assume the role of the driver, a silent everyman who becomes trapped in the Outer Zone while on a delivery run. The driver discovers a dilapidated station wagon and proceeds to repair it to drive-able condition.

As the first “breacher” to make it through the Barrier Wall alive in years, you are immediately contacted by two A.R.D.A scientists Tobias and Francis over the radio. Tobias and Francis guide you to a nearby auto shop while the stability of reality begins to break down around you. Once you make it to the abandoned auto shop in one piece, you're contacted via radio by a third NPC, Oppy, the bitter owner of the auto shop and former colleague of Tobias and Francis.

After completing some tutorials, it's revealed that the car you discovered is actually a Remnant, which has dire implications for the player character. Tobias explains that a Remnant is an abandoned object in the Zone imbued with strange properties that binds itself to its victim, making the user and object inseparable. This connection causes obsessive madness in anyone unfortunate enough to discover the object and it quickly becomes clear that you must break this connection to escape the Zone.

It's up to you to uncover the secrets of the Zone and survive the hostile environment with nothing but your car and the resources you can scavenge. You receive quests from the NPCs that progress the main thread of the story and instruct you to drive deeper into the Zone with each mission. Through these missions, you learn more about A.R.D.A., LIM technology, the various anomalies in the Zone, and the events that created the Zone in the first place.

Pacific Drive | Story Trailer.

Route Planning

You are on the fastest available route.

If you're going to get anywhere in the Zone, you’ll need to interact with the Route Planner station. The Route Planner is a map located on the wall of Oppy’s auto shop, and it allows you to scan the Zone for a safe route via different junctions. These junctions are unlocked as the story progresses and once you’ve already explored an area, you can select different paths to revisit that area. 

The amount of information displayed may be overwhelming at first, but understanding it is key to plotting a safe trip. When you select a junction, the Route Planner will display the biome, resource availability, junction conditions, anomalies, and structures. Most importantly, it will show both the anchor energy available and the anchor energy needed to escape the junction.

Some junctions will display a “DEAD END” warning banner, and these junctions should be avoided at all costs. A dead end means there is no way to summon a gateway to escape the junction, and the only way for you to escape is to abandon the run. So if you enjoy losing progress then by all means, check these junctions out!

Occasionally, huge regions of the map will be covered by an orange cloud, indicating that any junction located within that cloud has increased instability. This generally means that you’ll encounter more anomalies, radiation, and other hazardous conditions in the affected junctions. Before traveling to these junctions, it’s best to craft the right car components to withstand what the Zone throws at you.

Pacific Drive - Surviving the Zone | Gameplay Summary. Start at 0:56.

Crafting

One man’s trash is another man’s repair putty.

Once you’ve charted your route, you should spend some time preparing for your road trip. You can craft items at the Crafting Bench across from the Route Planner in your garage. Interacting with the Crafting Bench will open a menu that displays all available blueprints by category, and shows how much of any resource is required to craft each blueprint. 

This is where you will craft important items like upgraded car doors and panels, replacement tires, repair putty, and more. All blueprints require resources such as scrap metal and rubber, which can be scavenged while exploring the Zone, and most blueprints will need to be unlocked before you can craft them. This can be done at the Fabrication Station, a terminal in the back room of the garage. 

The back room becomes accessible after completing the quest “Build the Antenna” for Oppy, and requires the impact hammer to open. In addition to unlocking craftable blueprints, you can also unlock one-time upgrades for your car and the garage. 

Blueprints need anchor energy to unlock, and the only way to get anchor energy is to explore the Zone. Some more advanced tier blueprints will only become unlockable after scanning specific anomalies in the Zone, so it’s time to hit the road.

Don’t forget to visit the Friendly Dumpster before leaving!

Pacific Drive - Surviving the Zone | Gameplay Summary. Start at 6:20.

Driving

Worst. Road trip. Ever.

As part of the main story, Oppy instructs you to install a navigation system in the Remnant to aid you in your exploration of the Zone. This is the ARC Device and it acts as a GPS for any junction you’re traveling through. It will display all anchor locations and is the only way to link the Remnant to a Gateway, the pillars of light portals that allow you to escape back to the garage.

You’ll have to avoid various hazards during your road trips, like anomalies, wrecked cars and tankers, and road blocks. Regardless of these hazards, it’s advised to stick to the roads, since the densely packed trees offroad can wreck your car. While navigating through all of this, you’ll also need to be mindful of the ARC device, as an instability storm can happen at any time.

Oh, and don’t forget to put your car in park. You wouldn’t want it wandering off, would you?

Pacific Drive - Surviving the Zone | Gameplay Summary. Start at 5:02.

Exploration

Photo taken moments before disaster.

So you’ve scanned a route, crafted some repair putty, and entered your first junction, but aren’t sure what to do next. This is where the core gameplay mechanic kicks in. The main goal of any excursion into the Zone besides the story, is to collect the energy from junction anchors in order to escape the junction.

Anchors provide energy to the ARC device, the navigation system in the passenger seat of the Remnant. This device is a map that will display the location of each anchor in a junction, unless the junction has the “Anchor Obfuscation” condition. It also shows where structures are located, and gives a warning for any encroaching instability storm.

There are three types of anchor energies depending on the Zone: stable energy is in the Outer Zone, unstable energy is in the Mid Zone, and corrupted energy is in the Deep Zone. Once you collect an anchor, it can be used as fuel for your ARC device to summon a gateway and escape the junction. Just be careful, as harvesting an anchor will decrease junction stability and summon various anomalies around you!

Resources are abundant in the Zone if you know where to look. From rusty wrecks on the road to abandoned A.R.D.A. structures, crafting materials are found in containers or by deconstructing car parts with the right tools. Be sure to loot every box truck you find; you’re guaranteed to find uncommon and rare cosmetic items for your car, like decals and hood ornaments.

Scanning is another gameplay mechanic that is easy to overlook but immensely important to unlocking upgrades and learning more about the Zone. Everything from anomalies to vehicles can be scanned to gain information, which can be accessed in the logbook section of the menu.

Pacific Drive Steam Next Fest 2024 Developer Livestream | Extended Gameplay. Start at 1:22:17.

Resource Gathering

A.R.D.A. does not condone petty theft, but you may borrow from your surroundings.

In order to craft new and upgraded parts for your car, you’ll need to scavenge for resources while exploring the Zone. This means scanning every wreck, container, and car part you see for useful information about how to dismantle or access it. Make sure you bring the right tools for the job!

Pacific Drive - Surviving the Zone | Gameplay Summary. Start at 3:25.

Resource Management

Time to play loot Tetris!

While it’s not as major a feature of gameplay as the others, inventory management is just as important. Pacific Drive has an inventory system similar to the Resident Evil games where items have to physically fit within the space in the container.If you struggle with inventory management, it’s possible to unlock storage upgrades for the side or roof racks at the Fabrication Station.

Pacific Drive Steam Next Fest 2024 Developer Livestream | Extended Gameplay. Start at 15:56.

Anomaly Encounters

Approach only at your own risk.

Anomalies are what make Pacific Drive more than just a driving simulator. There are some anomalies that shock you, some that burn you with acid, and even some that will kidnap you. It’s up to you to adequately prepare for these encounters and ensure your car survives.

Most horror games focus on fighting monsters, but combat in Pacific Drive is ill-advised. There are no guns (except one for flares), and the only movements you can make are kick, throw, and use. And while you can definitely try to kick the anomalies, but it’s better to experiment with different methods of evading or disabling these anomalies.

There are anomalies like the Broken Bunny that are mostly annoying, but others like the Tourists that are downright terrifying. And some, like the Beating Heart and Happy Hare, are actually helpful and  will restore the Remnant’s health. 

Your best bet is to scan every new anomaly you see to receive their entry for your Logbook. It won’t give you step-by-step instructions on how to outwit them, but rather a short story or log that vaguely hints at how to handle them or what effects they might have. For example, Tourists are attracted to road flares, so be sure to stock up before heading out!

Pacific Drive - Surviving the Zone | Gameplay Summary. Start at 3:42.

Car Maintenance

Just rolled into the shop.

Pacific Drive is a game where you should worry about your car’s health more than your own. The Remnant is your lifeline in the Zone and every moment of gameplay is focused on it. If a car door is damaged or a tire goes flat, you must repair it - or craft a replacement - to survive.

It’s not as complicated as some mechanic simulators though; the deepest it gets is a handful of different status effects that require specific craftables to fix. The Status Monitor, an interface to the left of the Route Planner, will provide a driver’s checklist of tasks to get your car Zone-ready. Your car can also develop quirks that cause it to behave erratically in dangerous situations, and you’ll need to diagnose the cause and effect of these quirks using the Tinker Station.

And if you want to upgrade your car, you’ll need to unlock new and improved craftable parts from the Fabrication Station. Different car parts have specific damage resistance types, so it’s important to equip your car with the appropriate doors, panels, and tires with the right parts to withstand ever-changing junction conditions.

Pacific Drive Steam Next Fest 2024 Developer Livestream | Extended Gameplay. Start at 35:38.

Base Upgrades

Personal methods of creative expression are highly encouraged.

Upgrades to your base of operations, the garage, can be unlocked at the Fabrication Station in the back room. Once you’ve unlocked a garage upgrade, you will receive the item itself which you can then equip to see all available build locations. Upgrades can range in utility from storage lockers to advanced garage tools to a basketball hoop above your door.

You’ll want to try out every upgrade as they are all useful, like the Outfitting Station which lets you upgrade your own resistance to different damage effects. Or the Detailing Station, which lets you customize your car with all those sweet cosmetics you’ve looted. Invest in your garage and it will reward you in the long run.

Pacific Drive - Surviving the Zone | Gameplay Summary. Start at 6:20.

Pacific Drive is developed by Ironwood Studios and is available now on PC and PS5.

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