Pacific Drive was one of the more intriguing games announced during last night’s PlayStation State of Play. Ironwood Studios’ upcoming title is a first-person driving survival game that releases in 2023. And we don’t mean driving is a core mechanic like in most other survival games. In Pacific Drive, driving is nearly the entire game. This is My Summer Car in an apocalyptic setting.
To add more fuel to the fire, Pacific Drive is also a rogue-lite of sorts. Each run will challenge you to go as far as possible as you try to reach the heart of the Olympic Exclusion Zone. To get there, you’ll have to overcome the worst of what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. From dense forests to thunderstorms to strange unidentified lifeforms, it’s going to be a rough ride.
Between runs you’ll have to repair and upgrade your car to prepare for what’s to come. With each run being randomized, it’s tricky to know what to buy but you can always rely on some good old-fashioned driver skill to overcome the challenge.
Ironwood Studios’ creative director, Alex Dracott, said Pacific Drive takes inspiration from games like STALKER and books such as Annihilation. Despite its heritage, Pacific Drive is very much its own thing with nothing on the market being quite like it. It’s a nice change of scenery with the survival genre being so overpopulated. With the likes of Rust, Ark, Don’t Starve, Valheim and so many more already existing, it’s nice to see Pacific Drive offer something new.
The sound of chaos
An atmospheric game like Pacific Drive isn’t finished without an epic soundtrack. Fortunately, Ironwood Studios is working alongside composer Wilbert Roget II to create a worthy score. Roget has previously worked on Mortal Kombat 11, Call of Duty WWII, and Destiny 2: Forsaken. The rest of the soundtrack is being put together by a variety of local Pacific Northwest bands.
