Pacific Drive caught my interest as the idea of an atmospheric horror driving game seemed like a novel idea worth playing. Unfortunately, in practice, although fun, Pacific Drive isn’t exactly the kind of experience I was hoping for.
Taking place in the Pacific Northwest, transformed by an exclusion zone put in place by a dubious organization known as ARDA, the player finds themselves intrinsically bonded with an old jalopy retrofitted with all manners of sci-fi-centric baubles, a one-way radio, and a map.
Stuck in the ever-changing miasma of the Olympic Exclusion Zone, players soon make contact with researchers left behind who act as guides for the player in addition to delivering extra exposition in the form of audio logs that become available as you progress through Pacific Drive’s procedurally generated world.
The basic gameplay loop in Pacific Drive boils down to gathering resources to fuel your vehicle during trips, maintaining your vehicle’s integrity and your character’s wellbeing. In essence, Pacific Drive is a roguelike crafting game centred around driving.
“Cribbing a page out of the likes of Alan Wake and, in turn, Twin Peaks, the anomalies or hazards in Pacific Drive feel wholly inspired by that particular genre of atmospheric horror.”
Broken into distinct biomes spread out on a map, runs in Pacific Drive can be tackled piecemeal via the game’s central hub area and garage. The Olympic Exclusion Zone is anything but safe, making even a small run to gather resources a dangerous proposition for those unwilling to put in the time to properly plan before putting the pedal to the metal.
A successful run in Pacific Drive requires ensuring your car is up to snuff, which boils down to reinforcing your ride with upgraded doors, side panels and the like, which all take resources and the proper schematics but reward the player with the prospect of going on exceedingly more dangerous drives. In practice, however, even a well-decked-out vehicle can succumb to the often unpredictable and wild nature of the anomalies that plague the great Pacific Northwest.
Cribbing a page out of the likes of Alan Wake and, in turn, Twin Peaks, the anomalies or hazards in Pacific Drive feel wholly inspired by that particular genre of atmospheric horror, something that lends the game an otherwordly charm as the environments around the player as you drive or trek it on foot constantly change and mutate, mixing the mundane with the mysterious.
As far as gameplay goes, these anomalies can manifest themselves as turbulent winds, which at their worst take the form of Hurricane Squalls, which pellet your vehicle, making it challenging to navigate without getting tossed aside, particularly during an end of a run when you’re at your lowest integrity. Another slightly less but still dangerous phenomenon for the ill-prepared is the Darkness variable, which, as the name suggests, blankets the roads and forests in perpetual darkness, making looting difficult and leaving your car vulnerable to damage.
Bollards, or pieces of earth that shoot up into the sky, add to the uncertain flux of Pacific Drive’s setting and take the cake for what was, to me, the most annoying anomaly, as they made something as simple as parking a nightmare. Environmental hazards outside of the safety of your vehicle also permeate Pacific Drive. These include hazards such as Hot Dust, pockets of radiation, Cough Boxes, or denser pools of the Hot Dust variable, in addition to electric fields and explosives rocks.
Psudeo sentient threats can also interrupt your idyllic road trip aspirations. These anomalies include everything from Abductors or masses of junk that hover around like UFOs/UAPs and can latch onto your vehicle and hurl it away like a soda can to wads of wiggly worms known as Bubblegum Buddies, which entrap your vehicle in its tendrils, gradually chipping away at all your hard work.
“In truth, the number of systems the game throws at you to micromanage can, at times, feel a bit excessive”
My favourite anomaly, however, would have to go to the Tourists, creepy explosive mannequins that seemingly only move when you’re not looking, reminiscent of games like Condemned with hints of 2018’s Annihilation film.
In summary, navigating the world of Pacific Drive is no easy task, which puts the onus on your crafting skills, something I did not expect to be such a big focus with the game. I’d go as far as to say that about 75% of your time playing Pacific Drive will be spent crafting items and reinforcing your vehicle. Outside of the obvious repairs and defensive upgrades for your car, things such as storage, better lighting, and even cosmetics trinkets can be found and crafted to give your ride its unique flair.
In truth, the number of systems the game throws at you to micromanage can, at times, feel a bit excessive, halting the action and forcing the player to wade through menus and inventories instead before finally getting back into the action.
Thankfully, actually completing a run can be immensely satisfying, particularly during some of the later levels, in which racing toward the ethereal beam of light that denotes your freedom from the encroaching storm never gets old.
What does get old, however, is the overall gameplay loop in Pacific Drive, which can feel repetitive and frustrating the further you get towards its eventual end; this issue is compounded by the annoyance of having spent time souping up your ride only to get bombarded by a particularly nasty maelstrom of run-ending anomalies.
As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of crafting games, I wasn’t expecting to spend so much time with Pacific Drive doing just that. Thankfully, the thrill of a successful venture into the exclusion zone and its truly atmospheric setting made my time with Pacific Drive still a rather pleasant trip to embark on.
