One of the weirdest (in a good way) game announcements at yesterday’s PlayStation State of Play, Sony’s games showcase, was Pacific Drive, a first-person driving survival game developed by a brand-new studio called Ironwood Studios.
Formed back in 2019 by veterans from renowned studios like Sucker Punch Productions (Ghost of Tsushima), Insomniac Games (Spider-Man), Irrational Games (Bioshock), Klei Entertainment (Don’t Starve), 343 Industries (Halo), Bungie (Destiny), Activision (Call of Duty), and Oculus.
Described as a “run-based, first-person driving survival game,” Pacific Drive puts players behind the wheel in a surreal, reimagined Pacific Northwest. The car is your only companion in Pacific Drive, so you’ll have to restore and upgrade it whenever the needs arise.
Your adventure starts from an abandoned garage that also acts as your base. Here is where you plan each of your excursions into the Zone, an anomaly-filled area that brings unique and strange challenges every time you visit.
The goal of the game is to “unravel a long-forgotten mystery” and try to make your way to the heart of the so-called Olympic Exclusion Zone. The gameplay loop seems to involve aggressively upgrading and modifying your car to reach deeper into the Zone. Although you start with “an ancient station wagon,” you could end up driving a massively modified 80’s sci-fi vehicle, much like the DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future.
Fans of games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and books like Annihilation, the folks at Ironwood Studios have tried to imprint their new title with the same surreal atmosphere. I also got some Oxenfree vibes from the trailer, but Pacific Drive feels more like its own thing instead, so I’m excited to see a little bit of gameplay.
As far as the release goes, Ironwood Studios didn’t commit to a launch date yet, but they did say Pacific Drive will be released on PlayStation 5 and PC in 2023.
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