Review: Pacific Drive
20.02.2024 - 22:23
/ destructoid.com
When I previewed Pacific Drive, the standout moment for me was when, in a novice moment, I found myself driving through the hellstorm of reality’s collapse. As my car fell apart around me and my health was about to hit 0%, I managed to make it to the gateway and got shunted back to the safety of the garage.
It was intense. But, I thought, that was never going to happen again. I had learned a lesson, and it was unlikely I’d experience a moment so exciting in Pacific Drive.
I was wrong.
Further along in my playthrough, I once again opened the gateway to escape and triggered the collapse of reality. It was then I noticed that between myself and safety was a cliff that my car could not scale. I would need to take a huge detour in order to reach the destination, and I had already wasted too much time. Once again, I made it just before destruction and pulled into the garage with a charred and beaten station wagon and only a shred of life.
Unfortunately, it requires more than a battered vehicle to keep me interested, and that’s something Pacific Drive struggled with.
Pacific Drive (PC [reviewed], PS5)
Developer: Ironwood Studios
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Released: February 22, 2024
MSRP: $29.99
In Pacific Drive, the Olympic Peninsula in Washington (state) has seen some bad science and has been sealed off from the outside world. A massive wall was erected around the zone, but you play as someone unlucky enough to get sucked in by way of weirdness. Thankfully, you come across a station wagon that will help you survive. The bad news is that it’s actually a scientific freak show and will soon drive you crazy unless you find a way to detach from its influence.
The cause of this whole ordeal was a miracle creation called LIM. LIM is a poorly defined phenomenon. What I think I understand about LIM is that it’s an energy that can re-write reality, so I guess I can see the benefits. However, an accident has resulted in it rewriting reality in the wrong way, and now the Olympic Peninsula is filled with angry garbage that wants to kill you.
Aiding you on your journey is a small group of disgraced scientists. There’s Ophelia Turner (Oppy), who maybe discovered LIM, Francis, the nervous wreck, and Tobias, the enthusiastic cryptid hunter. The whole lot of them are a joy, and they kind of pass the responsibility of babysitting you around, so you get to spend some time with each. The story may have some weaknesses, but the characters do not share them.
The Olympic Exclusion Zone started off as a walled-off area, which is now known as the Deep Zone. As the anomalies spread past that initial area, the zone grew twice more. Unfortunately, your final destination sits in the Deep Zone, meaning you’ve got a long drive through