Summary

• Pacific Drive offers a refreshing twist on the survival-crafting genre with a strong focus on story and characters, setting it apart from cookie-cutter games in the genre.
• Players begin as a delivery person who gets drawn into a mysterious anomaly within the Olympic Exclusion Zone, embarking on an adventure to collect resources for their upgradable and customizable vehicle.
• With individual runs chosen from a larger map of branching paths and a heavy emphasis on story, Pacific Drive provides players with a reason to collect resources and explore the game's diverse regions.

Pacific Drive is one of the newest additions to the overloaded survival-crafting genre of games. Many of the games in this genre offer the same thing; little-to-no story and characters who begin with nothing but the ability to ravage the land of all its resources, eventually building an impenetrable shelter to protect themselves from a random threat the world provides. With so many cookie-cutter games being released, it's incredibly nice to sit down and enjoy a story-focused survival game like Pacific Drive.

Screen Rant was invited to a hands-on preview of Pacific Drive at Gamescom back in August 2023. The debut game from indie developer Ironwood Studios showed off its classic survival-crafting mentality with a few twists. Only five months later the game is set to release in February and we were offered a preview build through Steam. Not much has changed gameplay-wise since the show, but this new build provided a great setup for the story to come.

Survival Gameplay In The Driver's Seat

Players begin Pacific Drive as a delivery person who needs to drop off an unknown package near the Olympic Peninsula, an area that was once the staging grounds for new technologies, but was eventually quarantined off by the government because of too many mysterious events happening in the area. As the destination gets closer weird things begin happening - rocks seem to float around the car, and the fabric of reality begins to break apart. Eventually, the player is dragged into this anomaly within the Olympic Exclusion Zone where some mysterious voices guide them to the safety of a garage. This garage is where the real adventure begins.

There was a strong focus on the story throughout the preview build, with companions constantly coming on over the radio explaining what is happening in this place that everyone seems to be stuck in. The player's main focus is collecting resources for their vehicle, a junk car that is completely upgradable and customizable, as well as upgrades for their main garage hub, which acts as a "safe zone" of sorts. Instead of the expected open-world style of gameplay that most crafting games provide, Pacific Drive opts for individual runs chosen from a larger map of branching paths. This, and its heavy focus on story, helps give the player a reason to keep collecting all the little bits and bobs littered throughout each region.

There was a little struggle with the controls early on in the game but after 30 minutes or so it became much more comfortable. Certain containers only require a click of the E-key, while some others require the player to hold it down, which led to a few unnecessary double clicks but eventually became second-nature. The starter car will definitely feel a little loose and can easily slip off the road if you're not careful, but this is all part of the upgradable systems and makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

There are a massive amount of upgradable pieces throughout Pacific Drive; the car itself is broken into specific sections that can each be tailored and tinkered with. Upgradable doors, side s, tires, engines, bumpers, storage, headlights, and more are all options for players. If it exists on a real car, it's most likely creatable and upgradable in the game. Added abilities can be crafted for the vehicle to help control movement, or braking, and special powers to get out of tough jams. There are also craftable and upgradable tools that the player can use when they're not in the car. Simple things like crowbars to break locks, or an Impact Hammer to smash open containers.

There are a large number of upgrades that can be utilized inside the garage hub, which can increase overall stats, unlock more areas, and even help solve the mysteries of this world. Pacific Drive has really allowed for a lot of player control over how they wish to tackle the game's dangers, which can include unforgiving terrains, rogue machines, electrical storms, and some very creepy mannequin mines. As the player progresses so will too their abilities to create more and more helpful items.

There are not many survival-crafting games that give that "one more run" feeling, but Pacific Drive does just that with its rogue-like style of level design. There is constant progression and the world has so far been enjoyable to explore throughout the preview build. It's not often that a new survival game comes out with fresh ideas and gameplay innovations, so fans of the genre should keep an eye out for Pacific Drive when it releases in late February.

Screen Rant received a preview-build Steam code for the purposes of this preview.