Last year, after the hustle and bustle of the summer ended, Ironwood Studios revealed an upcoming video game. This project is different from many on the market today because it combines survival mechanics with a first-person driving simulator, all in a world based on and similar to North America’s Pacific Northwest. Dubbed Pacific Drive, the title is slated to launch this year, and I recently had a chance to check out the game as part of a hands-off demo led by Ironwood developers.
But before I get into what was shown and how Pacific Drive came to be, let’s talk about the story and what the game asks of the player, because it’s a pretty unique premise.
The idea is that you, the protagonist, travel to a region of the United States (Olympic Peninsula) and explore a fenced-off area of the country that has been exposed to various dangerous new prototype technologies that have turned it into a dangerous biome. Once you stick your nose into this Exclusion Zone, you’ll be trapped inside and then have to scramble to find the tools and items necessary to escape, which will require exploring ever deeper into increasingly dangerous environments. This is where the driving mechanics and survival elements come into play, as you quickly come across a damaged but functioning station wagon that you use to explore multiple biomes, all for the sake of understanding Learn more about the Exclusion Zone, and get the items and resources you need to upgrade this vehicle and the gas station hub location you’ve turned into the headquarters.
As you can see, the actual idea of Pacific Drive is very simple, when looking at each game element, things start to get more complicated. As shown in hands-off sessions, an auto mechanic is more than just accelerating, decelerating and braking, because here you have to actually manually engage the handbrake, open the doors, turn on the window wipers if necessary, etc., which means traveling in and out Cars are a bit of a challenge. Then, in order to add this on the car side, you need to improve and upgrade your car by fitting it with better engines, different tire compounds, stronger bumpers, and various other improvements that come from being in the expedition Gather materials, then manually upgrade them when you get back to your garage.
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In the spirit of adventure, you ask what’s going on here? In rogue-like fashion, you draw a path on the map that takes you to a corresponding open world map (or maps). Once here, you can travel around as much as you want and can complete a variety of tasks, including scrapping wrecked cars using saws and other tools to gather metal and other resources. You can interact with strange flying drones that trickle down to explore the game’s plot, and even encounter pickpocket drones that steal the doors of your station wagon and cause other kinds of trouble and nuisance. The idea is that you collect as many resources as possible so that when you return to base, you can build the necessary upgrades for deeper, more dangerous expeditions.
But the thing is, while there is no combat in this game, you are always in danger. Swirling storms and strong winds can cause you to lose control of your station wagon, and unusual creatures called Bunnies (like dust bunnies, that’s what they look like) will stick to your car and cause damage until you rip them off down. This is critical because while player health is a factor and something you need to manage (since the outside world is not a pleasant place to be), your car is your safe haven, healing you and protecting you from Subject to harsh open air, if it breaks or damages you too badly, you will fail an expedition.
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This brings me back to the leveling and resource parts of the game, which are very important. You’ll need to gather resources to create new car parts, and also craft the tools and items you’ll need to repair and repair wagons on your expedition. Suffice it to say, since tool durability is a factor, you really don’t want to be stranded on a creek without a working blowtorch. While I will say that the hazards are not particularly dangerous from what I’ve seen, the battle royale style storm circle that goes into effect when you want to leave an expedition is a real scary problem, and if you’re stuck in it, it means You’re going to want to put a lot of effort into making sure your car is a well run machine, if you catch my drift.
When you match all of this with a rotating weather cycle that brings rain, sun, rain, more rain, and even more rain (it boils down to the Pacific Northwest of the US), and a 24-hour day-night cycle, that’s Meaning you all have to go on day and night adventures, it does seem like there are a lot of personal things to manage, which is why the HUD system in the station wagon is even more important. While you’re in the driver’s seat, you’ll be able to study a map, pinpointing various interesting areas in each level, as well as keeping an eye on what damage your car is taking, and where that damage is happening. Combine that with the storage system in the trunk of your wagon, where you can unload and store collected resources, and it all seems to come together for a rather unique survival experience.
While I won’t go further into the upgrade menu/UI and the finer details about this area as the game is still in development it’s hard to get the full gist here, but I will say that from what I’ve seen , I’m intrigued by how Pacific Drive manages to continue entertaining players after a few hours, as the gameplay, while unique, does give the impression that it can be a bit flat after a while, like many survival games on the market. Hopefully it won’t be long before we actually get to play the game and put those worries to rest without a doubt.
Pacific Drive is coming to PS5 and PC later this year.