izigame.me

This game is fantastic.
Pacific Drive has been described as "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is happening in the Pacific Northwest and all you have is a car". However, the gameplay loop feels more like Subnautica. There are no classical enemies, no combat -- every threat is environmental; you are trapped in a part of the world being overrun by Anomolies, many of which are mobile and almost all are dangerous. Hailing from your garage in a small pocket of peace, you forage out deeper and deeper into increasingly dangerous zones, driven by the plot and a desire for more difficult-to-obtain resources.
The game is insanely atmospheric, and as immersive as you could ask for. Every element, from graphics to sound design to environment building, is crafted to evoke the experience that is Pacific Drive. Especially the music. I have not fallen in love with a soundtrack like I have the one on this game's radio in ages. I've added music from Pacific Drive to my playlist so I can listen to it when not playing the game.
I was not expecting the game to be so intense. You can never return the way you came, so the only way back to your safe base is by generating a portal. Doing so requires collecting enough of your zone's energy and triggering the portal with a device that only works at a distance. The moment you do, the zone begins to collapse rapidly around you, prompting a mad dash to reach the portal. Deeper zones require more unstable energy types which in turn require opening the portal from farther away. Making those mad dashes progressively longer, through more dangerous territory with a more oppressive ticking clock.
The zones are hand-crafted, but hazards and resources are randomly generated, as is your entry and exit points, allowing you to explore almost-familiar areas repeatedly while never knowing just what you will find or experience.
The plot is thin but solid, sold by excellent voice acting (including a character who will never not sound like Captain Janeway to me). The lore you can scrounge up is fun, especially the multi-part documentary you can round up the pieces of, giving some great history and an outsider's impression of a situation you are far more familiar with. The decision to make the car, the center of your experience, basically an SCP, allows a lot of game mechanics (like what happens if you die) to be rooted directly into the story rather than require player departmentalization.
Praise to the developers for many extremely good mechanical decisions. First and foremost, for me, was their attention to the needs of gamers who suffer motion sickness. There are multiple settings to eliminate (or at least minimize) issues.
Beyond that, the game has a large number of settings that allow you to customize your gameplay experience, tailoring Pacific Drive. I love that you can adjust your QoL in this game, allowing or disabling things like swapping parts with a part you are holding, or how long you have to hold the key to turn the ignition. Additionally, you can adjust elements which may alter the difficulty, but make the game far more enjoyable depending on your playstyle. (Halfway through the game, I turned off the non-gateway-related zone timer so that I could spend my time immersing myself in exploration without feeling pushed to speedrun each zone.) And major kudos for none of these adjustments disabling achievements. I, for one, don't care about achievements; but it never sits well when a game tries to punish you for playing your way. Pacific Drive never does that.
Some of the additional touches just made my day. Like representative car stickers being included for free, or the decal set you can find which decorates your car in the style of the Scoobie Doo Mystery Machine.
As for the bad, there is so very little that the flaws barely detract from enjoying Pacific Drive. In over 90 hours of gameplay, I experienced only two bugs. The first, getting stuck in a submenu, was a minor annoyance that was solved by navigating to another part of the menu rather than trying to close the menus directly. The second was considerably more problematic: sometimes, upon loading a save, the zone graphically glitched. I had to reload several times on multiple occasions, but the game always eventually loaded properly.
In addition to these two bugs, there are two design features that I did not appreciate. No, this isn't a rant about being unable to save while on a run. I understand how problematic that can be for many. But I also understand the developer's decision and appreciate the feeling of threat added by not being able to save-scum anything out there. I adjusted my settings to allow pausing, and that took care of any issues I personally had with RL interruptions.
Rather, the two issues are these: most of the late game equipment requires a large amount of a resource called Olympian Fragments which are exceptionally rare and in areas you cannot farm conveniently. Thankfully, you need none of that equipment to successfully get through the end of the game. Which is fortunate because you will have virtually none of it. The other issue I had was that cosmetics -- paint and decals -- have limited use. Which means if you find a design for your car that you fall in love with, you won't be able to keep it when parts start wearing out unless the RNG is kind.
But like I said, these things are not enough to sour the game. Not even a little.
I have driven all the way to the end. And now I'm free-roaming the area. Just for a little bit longer. I'm not ready to leave yet.