“Survive the anomaly-filled Olympic Exclusion Zone with a car as your only lifeline.” This is the opening line for a game that is currently being developed by Ironwood Studios which has worked on games like Bioshock, Mafia, and Infamous.
The developer uploaded a brand-new gameplay trailer yesterday which caught my attention to the point where my mind was blown away. Forget The Day Before, Pacific Drive is a new kind of survival horror game that brings a new theme to the horror genre. This game is not about ghosts or zombies but can still give you an adrenaline rush when you find your life in danger.
The graphics are stunning, especially the car interior, where everything is well-lit and well-defined. The maps are big and every area has a different vibe to it. Sometimes, you will find yourself driving in the woods and sometimes, the environment changes to a more toxic place where it is harder to survive.
The game is focused on upgrading your car which is the only thing that can protect you from danger zones. And seriously, I have not seen anything like this before because the trailer shows so many things that it may be hard for you to understand everything the very first time. The most important mission of this game is to solve the mystery of the Olympic Exclusion Zone that is situated in the Pacific Northwest. There are many experimental leftovers from the secretive ARDA organization but these are scattered across the zone and finding them is not going to be an easy task.
You will constantly face different dangers before you reach the portal which is like a big column of light that teleports you to the next level. Not only will you face anomalies but there are other problems you have to face like the big Zone storm that can totally destroy your car and the only way to escape is to outrun it. There are various types of anomalies you will find outside like there are mannequins standing on the road to block your path, there are also these electrical balls that are called buddies which suck the energy from your car and you will need to keep them away if you don’t want any damage done to your wagon.
Then there is a more challenging anomaly called The Pickpockets that float over you and cut off parts from your car but the game is designed in such a way that you can also use pickpockets to your advantage for removing the buddies that suck your car’s energy. There is another thing called Crawler that moves underground quickly and if it gets into your path, it can knock off your car dealing much more damage than other anomalies.
In a nutshell, this game is like Dying Light but on wheels where you are constantly upgrading your car by adding and modifying things. But there is so much customization that can turn a normal car into something that is a much more powerful and self-sufficient machine that can survive the harshest conditions outside.
Just take a look at how many possibilities there are in this game and whether you want to change the tires, upgrade engines, or make your own gas tank, everything is possible and there is probably much more than the said things. The game gives you a grinder to cut things and what you need to do is scrape the materials from the outside world and forge them into something useful for your car. You can cut off the abandoned car doors or hunt for materials at the gas stations, and customize your car to face the anomalies that keep attacking you outside.
The game will supposedly launch this year but we don’t have any information about the date. Pacific Drive will be launched only for PC and PS5 and it is currently listed on Steam Store for wishlisting.
