The reveal of Pacific Drive last year immediately hooked me. I liked what I saw in the initial trailer, sure, but what I found particularly intriguing is that much of the game takes place through the first-person perspective of someone driving an old scooter. through a beautiful but desolate Pacific Northwest forest. Rarely do driving games require a first-person perspective, and even less so deviate from being a racer.
Pacific Drive does both, and after watching about 30 minutes of gameplay in virtual preview, I was even more intrigued. In a way, Pacific Drive is a racing game, but you’re not racing against other players – you’re racing against a biome ravaged by a mysterious sci-fi force controlling Control the anomalies that are about to end your run.
After refueling the station wagon, repairing the doors, and preparing the coachman to drive, developer Ironwood Studios has planned his next procedurally generated ride through the jungle, one of the biomes. different objects in the game. They chart the area, pick a node, act as a location on the map that you can start running from and depart on their next trip. The mysterious sci-fi force that attacks the player during this drive brings the forest to life. Non-human mechanical anomalies like kidnappers use magnets to pull your car around. The crawler creates an electric fence in front of you, and the bush rabbit uses spikes to stop your car. Even the ground grows stone pillars to stop you, and fallen trees do the same. All these can damage the car and you will need to repair the car using torches, other tools and resources that you have to collect by getting out of the car.
Ironwood has kept Pacific Drive’s ultimate goal a secret, but in this preview, the developer in play has gathered resources to power up the vehicle so they can advance further through the elimination zone. except that they need to escape. Your drives, which can last as long as a few minutes if you’re not careful or as long as half an hour or more, are all test time. Stay too long, and a battle royale storm begins to come upon you, urging you to escape through the great red light that acts as a beacon. If you’re successful, you’ll be taken back to your safe garage. Fail and you will lose part of the resources you have collected.
I usually don’t like driving in first person; The typical third-person view hovering behind a car allows me to see better and control the vehicle better. But Pacific Drive seems to have slowed down the driving speed to make it easier for players to steer a station wagon through sci-fi hell, and I appreciate that.
Ironwood emphasizes the relationship it wants players to build with vehicles, describing it as a symbiotic relationship. This is why your car will remain a station wagon throughout the game. You can upgrade it in a variety of ways, both mechanically and aesthetically (you can’t upgrade the car but you can pat the top of it), but that’s how much of a difference your car and my car.
More than anything else, Pacific Drive is a survival game, complete with the usual powerful crafting system. You can craft on the go or use special machines in the garage for greater productivity. Resources strengthen your vehicle, allow it to go further and let the upgrade loop collect reset in a new way and resume.
Having not played it, I don’t fully trust the experience. I want to know what it’s like to do what I’m going to be doing for most of the game: driving. But if this preview is just a taste of the game’s world and systems, which feel fresh and awe-inspiring in the driving genre, then Pacific Drive is a ride I’m very proud of. excitement begins.
