There is no bond like the one we forge with our first cars. For many of us, that first car is not the fanciest, fastest, or even most reliable, but something about it feels like an extension of who you are, and that feeling is just hard to beat.
Now, I want you to really picture that feeling, close your eyes, and go back in time, then tell me if you’ve ever felt that same pull to another car, and I’m betting the answer will be no.
At least, that was the case for me. Until, and yes, there’s an until, I sat down to play Pacific Drive.
Over the years, many games have given me vehicles to call my own. From Grand Theft Auto to Cyberpunk 2077 and even Need for Speed, there is no lack of transport options across gaming.
However, although many were flashier and cooler than anything I could ever hope to own in real life, none truly felt like mine. They were just things that were there in a game that I was playing.
But playing Pacific Drive and sitting my virtual butt-cheeks inside of your typical ’80s family wagon, complete with cringe wood panelling and a trunk made for hiding bodies, I was sold.
Of course, the car I ended the game with is a far stretch from the one I started with, having single-handedly upgraded it into a sci-fi lover’s wet dream, the bones were the same, and those bones had an iron grip on my heart.
Pacific Drive is an odd one, that’s for sure. But it’s the type of odd that’s got that kind of irresistible allure you just can’t help but fall for. It’s the debut game from Ironwood Studios, and at its core, it’s a first-person driving survival game.
But Pacific Drive is also very much its own unique thing. After mysterious science experiments in the Olympic Peninsula went awry, the government built a towering concrete wall around the whole region and forgot about it.
Trapped inside the barricades of what’s now called the Olympic Exclusion Zone are you, your (hopefully) four-wheeled hunk-of-junk and a garage.
Players will be driving around in their car, trying to survive in a world that doesn’t want them in it, and gathering the resources they need to take their ride from not-too-hot like a 90s reality show.
Your only hope to make it out alive is to explore the world one area at a time, scavenging for supplies and then heading back to your garage to use what you found to craft new and better car parts, research new tech, and repair any damage your bestie sustained on the journey.
It’s worth noting that, unlike other survival games where you have to be content with a certain entity that doesn’t want you to succeed, nothing and no one is your friend in Pacific Drive.
The various zones you’ll find yourself travelling through are filled with versions of deadly anomalies that are all looking to make you regret getting behind the wheel. Whether they’re trying to fry your car’s electronics or using magnets to get your bestie off the road and drag it into the trees, there is no escaping them.
And while you’re contending with an anomaly trying to disassemble your car with you in it, you still have the weather to contend with.
In Pacific Drive, the weather is never great. There are just different levels of suckage, and at any moment, the winds can change and become so intense that it’ll be able to push your car off the road and into the waiting anomalies.
And sometimes, when you’re very, very unlucky, all of these things will be happening at once – while all you wanted to do was switch the radio to your favourite station and relax.
Unlike other survival games, in Pacific Drive, the focus isn’t on you; it’s all about your precious car. As the driver, you have your stock standard health bar, but that’s it – from start to finish.
However, your car is a living, breathing collection of parts. Everything from the doors to the windows and everything else you can imagine has health bars and are susceptible to physical, electrical, acid, or radiation damage alongside various other car-related effects.
For example, your tyres can and will go flat, your batteries will go dead, and almost everything that contains a fluid can leak. And much like in real life, there is only so much you can do to keep everything together.
As you play, things will constantly wear out. There are only so many times you can patch, paint over or cover a problem before it just can’t be fixed.
And while this system feels disgustingly brutal while you’re playing and your tyres have either fallen off, lost all friction, or are down to the rim, it does a lot to make the game feel immersive and bring your fictional four-wheeled friends to life.
Pacific Drive did a lot right, but perhaps the thing they nailed above all else was the quirk system. Much like your real-life first car, your wheeled companion in the game will have various quirks.
Maybe slamming your trunk will turn on your radio, or opening the driver-side door causes the horn to honk. We all know these annoying quirks and how tricky diagnosing them can be – something that Pacific Drive plays on perfectly.
Throughout your time playing, your car will develop many little quirks. To fix them, you must first head to your garage and use a terminal to diagnose the problem.
Diagnosing comes in the form of a mini-game that has you picking the right if/then statements. So you’ll have to first get the root of the quirk, for example, Door / Is Open. Then you’ll have to diagnose the quirk, so Radio / Turns On.
If you diagnose the correct quirk, the terminal will tell you how to fix the problem. But be warned, as in real life, some of these quirks can be tricky to diagnose and will have you trying everything and anything you can to solve it.
Another thing that Pacific Drive plays on is the safety that many of us feel while inside our cars. Leaving your car to scavenge for needed parts has this intense feeling of vulnerability.
Throughout the game, you’ll turn your car into a formidable fortress. Still, your actual character will be no better equipped to face the anomalies or impending storms at the end of the game than they were at the start.
This means that each time you leave the safety of your four-wheeled friend, it feels like an adrenaline-filled frantic race to get back in.
No matter how often I took to the road, it was always a thrill to be back behind the wheel, and the time spent in the garage repairing and replacing parts of my car felt like a labour of love unlike any other game has managed to conjure.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m pretty sure I can hear the road calling my name.
