Review of Pacific Drive – a surprisingly unconventional survival horror

Every once in a while, a game comes along that is so original that it is almost impossible to explain it to someone else without playing it yourself. The last time I encountered this phenomenon in such force was three years ago with the excellent indie game Inscryption. After all, Pacific Drive really has a lot in common with it, because it is also an inconspicuous-looking indie game that stands out for its eerie atmosphere and somewhat unusual gameplay, full of unique mechanics and ideas. While there are other parallels to be found, such as the games Subnautica, Stalker, Inside or Control, the best thing about Pacific Drive is its originality and unpredictability.

• Platform: PC (review), PS5
• Publication date: 02/22/2024
• Manufacturer: Ironwood Studios (USA)
• Genre: Survival Horror
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Download data: 18 GB
• Game time: 20+ hours
• Price: 765 CZK (pairs)

Infected area deep in the forest

As an unnamed “driver”, you are sent into the wilderness of Canada (Pacific Northwest) in 1998 to explore a closed zone after a horrific industrial accident, strongly reminiscent of the Chernobyl accident. The entire territory is contaminated with radioactivity, surrounded by a concrete wall several tens of meters high and isolated on both sides. But as soon as you get close, one of the local paranormal anomalies teleports you to the other side of the wall, and thus begins both your frantic struggle for survival in the infected zone, as well as its gradual exploration and your journey to the very source of all this destruction and answers to questions , what exactly happened here all these years ago and caused the creation of the entire zone, its unique anomalies and terrifying inhabitants.

Given the size of the entire zone, as well as the speed at which local radioactive, acid or toxic storms move through it, your only hope for movement and survival in the zone is a reliable vehicle. Luckily, you’ll find one early on and gradually begin repairing, upgrading, and maintaining it at your local garage/base. But as one of the scientists who voluntarily remained in the zone after its closure will explain to you, your car is not what it seems at first glance. This is not just a car or vehicle, but one of the local anomalies, the so-called Remnant. This type of anomaly takes the form of various necessities, but always with fatal consequences for their users. Your use of this vehicle will be dangerous for you.

Your car is not just a car or a vehicle, but one of the local anomalies.

While I didn’t really notice it at the beginning of the game, as the hours went by I became more and more surprised at how far the story had gone. It contains a stream of voiced dialogues for your radio conversations with a team of scientists, as well as about 600 (!) text entries that can gradually be found in the zone and which complement its history (private letters, journalistic reports, notes on experiments). , etc.). Key missions are also very story driven and mostly involve getting past the next wall/barrier of the zone to enter another of six different biomes. Although the game, as a representative of the classic survival genre (collect, build, survive), also contains a significant part of the “generic” content, its plot is much denser and more interesting than one might expect.

Mystery solving experience

This game will probably pleasantly surprise you in terms of gameplay as well. Although one of the important sources of its originality is the fact that most of the game is played while driving a car, its “pedestrian” parts are also very rich and, for example, the game environment or enemies are much more varied. than what the creators showed us in the trailers. You can literally get out of the car at any time, so for example, during severe acid storms, I parked the car in one of the tunnels and explored this area on foot for an hour before finally returning to the car and driving back to the base. Which, by the way, is not so simple, because for each return to base you will have to collect dangerous and mostly guarded energy sources in a given location, and then leave in a certain way, similar to the car in “Back to Base”. Future films.

However, the main source of a great gaming experience is the overall atmosphere of the game. It’s hard to describe how wonderfully melancholy the moments are when you’re on your next trip to the Zone, the sleet is drizzling, the rain is drumming on the hood and running down the windshield, and the radio is playing one of the absolutely beautiful selections of licensed songs (as for the soundtrack, the songs are in their own way The style really reminded me of the soundtracks of both Alan Wake games). Another source of atmosphere is the fact that each new biome is like a new planet, including completely nondescript enemies that get weirder and weirder, from strange machines to animated chemicals. On top of it all is the adrenaline rush of knowing that your eventual death during a quest means losing most of the resources you’ve collected. In addition, the maps are generated, so there are always discoveries, surprises and unexpected threats waiting for you. Given the game’s superbly dosed and staggered atmosphere, I’d probably tone down the enemy density a bit in some biomes in favor of a more creepy intensity. You can fight, but only to a limited extent, and of course it will cost you certain resources (raw materials, energy, possibly health, etc.). In addition, learning the game from the very beginning somewhat unnecessarily overloads you with all the options for building or improving; it would be clearer to reveal them gradually.

The source of a great gaming experience is the overall atmosphere of the game.

Pacific Drive may be a brutal survival game, but if you don’t mind missing out on unlocking achievements, you can enable one of dozens of gameplay mods in the game’s settings that will make you virtually immortal and play through the game in a sort of “story mode.” But I recommend not doing it for yourself, it is such an extraordinary gaming experience that it is worth playing by its rules and enjoying the tension associated with the mechanics in its full-blooded form. While managing vehicle repairs and upgrades may seem confusing at first, as the game progresses it will become second nature. I fell in love with the game so much that I spent 70 hours playing through it carefully and honestly – but I still didn’t see or discover everything. On the technical side, thanks to DLSS, I was able to play it at 4K/60fps on a 3070 card with all the details cranked up to max (the volumetric fog and lighting are especially stunning), although there were some extreme dips here and there. or bright cards. Otherwise, I did not encounter any serious technical shortcomings. A nice bonus is also support for the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback on PC, where it’s immersive and useful for things like sensing the terrain beneath your car’s wheels and potential problems like a flat tire or a crawling enemy. on the hood.