Strikingly unique, Pacific Drive combines open-world driving, survival horror elements and a thickly slathered atmosphere of genuine mystery to create a very different take on the survival genre.
Be sure to keep this guide in your favourites as we cover everything you need to know about Pacific Drive including the release date, gameplay details, latest trailer, PC specs and more.
Pacific Drive will be released on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on February 22, 2024. As of this writing, Pacific Drive is not currently scheduled to release on Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch console platforms.
In addition to the Standard Edition of Pacific Drive, wannabe survivors of the Olympic Exclusion Zone can also nab a special Digital Deluxe Edition which packs in a range of exclusive goodies.
The Pacific Drive Digital Deluxe Edition contains:
Despite its rather reductive and somewhat unsophisticated title, Pacific Drive sets out its stall as one of the most genuinely intriguing survival titles to come along in a good long while. Set in a surrealist take on the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Drive has you and your trusty station wagon speeding through a sprawling area known as the Olympic Exclusion Zone.
Filled with supernatural peril, otherworldly monsters, extreme weather and skin-peeling amounts of radiation, the Olympic Exclusion Zone is also home to the remnants of the research carried out by the enigmatic ARDA organisation which holds the answers to the origins of the Zone.
With a makeshift abandoned garage which doubles up as a home base, together with a station wagon that not only requires constant maintenance to withstand the extreme conditions of the Zone, but can also be extensively upgraded, Pacific Drive is all about balancing survival with a burning need to discover the long-forgotten truth behind a broken world.
Unfolding primarily from a first-person perspective, Pacific Drive is at its most basic an open-world survival game with a focus on exploration elements but as you’ve already likely guessed, there’s a whole lot more to it than that. First off, the Olympic Exclusion Zone is a deadly place in every sense of the word. As such, the only way you’ll be able to make any sort of headway in your quest for the truth is to ensure that your trusty station wagon has been properly outfitted to withstand the dangers that exist every step of the way.
In practice, this means that in addition to making sure that more rudimentary concerns are addressed such as ensuring your tyres are hardy enough to keep you on the road, not to mention making sure you commit sufficient fuel to your ventures, you also need to take stock of the shielding panels needed to protect yourself from the radiation that can be found in every part of the Zone. Not only that but the motor vehicle that serves as the instrument of your salvation must also be well taken care of as well, with constant repairs proving to be nothing less than a necessity to keep both you and your quest for the truth alive.
That won’t be enough, however, as the threat that the Zone presents you differs each time you leave your garage. This impresses the need upon you to scoop up as many materials and resources as possible to craft upgrades and new equipment to ensure that you’re able to survive whatever the Zone can throw at you. Of course, the cataclysmic Zone Storms, a veritable rolling tempest of elemental destruction that lays ruin to anything it touches, is one such hazard that simply cannot be endured, but instead must be fled from – as quickly as humanly possible.
As we alluded to earlier, there’s also truth that must be found in the deepest depths of the Zone too, since uncovering its tragic origin, in a bid to aid in the prevention of a similar calamity elsewhere, is also an objective of paramount importance. It’s here that Pacific Drive’s risk and reward dynamic comes firmly into play, too. Do you risk staying out in the Zone a little longer than you normally would to track down some long-lost ARDA research, or, do you err on the side of caution and head back to the garage while the going is good and stay whole to venture out again another day?
The latest trailer for Pacific Drive is available to watch right now and you can catch it above. A rather lengthy video, this latest chunk of footage from Pacific Drive provides an extended look at the gameplay and mechanics players can expect to get stuck into. Deftly narrated by Seth Rosen and Alexander Dracott, the game director and creative director of Pacific Drive respectively, we’re provided an in-depth look at everything from the sorts of mysterious things you’ll witness while you’re exploring the Olympic Exclusion Zone to the maintenance of your trusty car and just about everything in-between.
Boasting a veritable wealth of environmental effects together with a blisteringly detailed take on a world riven by mystery and extreme weather phenomena, it’s certainly fair to say that Pacific Drive will demand a more powerful PC rig than your standard survival title. Just how powerful though? Well, you can find that out by casting an eye across the PC system requirements for Pacific Drive below.
Now you know everything you need to know about this supernatural car-based survival, it’s time to grab Pacific Drive on the Green Man Gaming store. Drive on over and (maybe) grab yourself a deal!
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