Pacific Drive on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Face the supernatural dangers of the Olympic Exclusion Zone with a car as your only lifeline in this driving survival adventure! Scavenge resources, load up your trusty station wagon, and drive like hell to make it through alive.
Pacific Drive is a driving, survival and story rich game
developed by Ironwood Studios
and published by Kepler Interactive.
Released on February 21st 2024 is available only on Windows
in 12 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil and Turkish.
It has received 19,366 reviews of which 16,209 were positive and 3,157 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.2 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 17.99€ on Steam with a 40% discount, but you can find it for 9.45€ on Instant Gaming.
The Steam community has classified Pacific Drive into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5 8600
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 18 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Amazing game!!! Also, here’s a tip: The game autosaves when you enter a new zone, so you don’t have to finish the whole run in one go. You can leave when you get to a new zone and then resume from where you left off.
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It's dark. You're low on gas. You've made a pretty good haul so far, but you're feeling worse for the journey. Just one more anchor and you can all it quits. And then you hear it; storm sirens. Only this is no ordinary storm - you are now in the shrinking eye of a radioactive storm of unmaking. You have to go. GO NOW. Your car is a piece of shit. Truly. You've replaced every part a dozen times, the radio turns on whenever you close the trunk, and when you first found it, it couldn't do things like "turn left". And right now it's your only hope of survival. The gateway opens up - a luminous pillar of yellow light in the distance that is your salvation. The eye is closing and if you stick to the road you won't make it in time. Reluctantly, you veer into the treeline. Your ride jerks uncomfortably as you mow down flora. Suddenly there's a loud THUNK as something hits your car - an anomalous, unthinking entity, affectionately named a Broken Bunny. Suddenly your headlights start blinking on and off. The doors all open at once. The radio turns on again for no reason and through distorted static you hear a preacher yelling at you about Jesus. The wheel jerks out of your grip and you veer into a ditch. Shit shit shit! Crowbar in hand, you leap out of the car and smack the thing into a million pieces. You car is exorcised, but now you're facing the wrong way in a hole. You get back in and try to drive out, but the angle is too steep. An angry yellow light covers the sky. You're now past the threshold and the storm is closing in on you. You're taking damage just being out here. This is bad. Getting out at this point is lethal. You turn your wheel and manage to get some grip on the dirt sideways rather than upwards and after the longest 20 seconds of your life you're finally on level ground again. Through the trees you can see the gate way! You hit the gas with everything you've got. Anything you hit no longer matters as long as you keep moving. The sky has now become red. The eye has totally collapsed and the radioactive storm is now in full effect. You can see the trees - the ground! - all disappearing. From somewhere there's a sound of screaming that you can't tell is from your car or the air itself. You're yards away from the gateway now! The light almost filling your vision completely! Something cracks around you. Your radio, headlights, doors, all are going haywire. There's radiation everywhere and you feel yourself dying! You're here! You're at the gateway! Light envelops you entirely! There's the sound of electricity and a blinding flash- - And suddenly you're back. Back at the auto shop. Both you and your ride barely survived, but you did. Somehow. You breathe out. You pull in to the familiar comfort of your home in this strange land. The next little while is going to be spent repairing the damage, taking stock of your booty, and upgrading your ride so that you can go ever deeper, into more treacherous waters, and facing deadlier terrors. To find your only hope at escape.
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The bones of a truly magnificent game are all here. It really is one of the most unique games I've played and something about the vehicle being the very core of gameplay was extremely satisfying. The loop of venturing out, scavenging, repairing and upgrading etc. is an addiction and some of my favorite moments of the game are spent in the garage repairing and preparing my car for my next outting. After you venture into the world for 25ish hours, however, the game begins to lose the magic of its gimmick. And to be fair what game doesn't after that long? The anomaly variety isn't all that great and after you get some great parts and experience behind the wheel, the stakes aren't so high anymore. I also feel like there's an indescribable flaw with the way you are incentivized to gather resources. The loop explains itself. Drive to zone, gather items, use items to build tools or parts that help you get to next zone and better resources. But I felt like this process could have been more dramatic, more explicit. I was never found wanting for materials, resources, or tools so long as I hoarded enough and explored enough. And of course it can't be a review without mentioning that the ending leaves much to be desired. Those devs better be cooking up something great DLC wise. It's easy to make the review sound negative hot of the heels of completing the game, but rest assured: if this game sounds like it's your jam, it most certainly is. It's unique, rewarding, a complete blast, and highly immersive. I haven't experienced a game with mechanics quite like it. It kept me well entertained for nearly 50 hours (given that a lot of that time was spent farming and stalling so that I didn't have to finish the game because I enjoyed it so much).
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For me this game felt a lot like a high school relationship. It starts all crazy and interesting. You're slapping glowing goop on stuff so you can continue to have a good time. There's a bunch of little details that that are super neat, and you're just really enjoying yourself, but then you start to realize that there's no depth. Every day feels the same. Every drive feels the same. Now and then you learn something new and you stick around a little longer. Like, I'm gonna finish this game because the story is certainly good, but is the gameplay? I really don't know about that. I think some people will love this game from start to finish. Looking at my friends list, of the 6 people that have it, half of them stopped playing at the 3 hour mark. Not statistically significant, but worth mentioning. I think part of the reason for the steep drop off is that this world promises danger and excitement, but ultimately the excitement fades as the player realizes that while this world looks very dangerous, it's really not... I suspect most players will finish the game with fewer than 2 deaths, and many of them will finish with none. I say this because I've only come close to dying once in my play through. Don't get me wrong, the world definitely does get more dangerous as you go deeper into the zone, and the atmosphere changes accordingly in a way that is very well executed. However, the danger comes exclusively from anomalies, and at the end of the day they're all just pot holes on steroids. You will NEVER be attacked. To me, it doesn't really matter if the pot hole glows, or moves around while making loud threatening noises, it's still just a pot hole. OH, I almost forgot. This is the loudest game I have ever played. The sounds the anomalies make are oppressive. I've never had the audio in a game make me feel genuinely on edge before, and that's actually a plus for PD. I think it will help the player to feel like they are in danger for longer than they otherwise would have. So lets talk about the loop. You basically always do the same thing. You fix your car (fixing the car is full of lovable details), you go back into the exclusion zone (the exclusion zone is cool as hell), drive as close to any new anomalies as you can to scan them (the anomalies feel unique and interesting); after that you drive around them as best you can. You go to the same 3 buildings, shack, science trailer, tower, oh right also gas station. Shows you how forgettable it all becomes. At those places you loot chests for colored rectangles that represent various resources used for crafting upgrades (the upgrades feel rewarding like more storage in the back seats you are definitely not using for passengers). Later areas feature new resource nodes which adds a picking "apples from trees" vibe to gathering and there's less grabbing rectangles from boxes, which is good. Finally, you occasionally find documents you can read or listen too, but its at random so it doesn't really make any of it feel significant when found. Game would have benefited greatly from more hand crafted structures that contained those story elements. Far and away my favorite part of this game is the excitement I felt racing towards the exit as the map collapsed around me. These moments were 10/10 when it comes to atmosphere, sound design, and excitement factor. Imagining myself teleporting back to base, steam coming out of my hair, car mostly dissolved, with 3 out of 4 tires popped is great! Unfortunately, as humans everything gets old. If a volcano erupted a safe distance from my house I would think its super cool, but if it it erupted every day...? Not everyone will tire of their "neighborhood volcano" at the same rate, but around then is when the game play loop starts to feel like a lemon to me, pardon my car pun. You fix your car (a boring blow torch has partially replaced the lovable glowing repair goop), you go back into the exclusion zone (the exclusion zone only really comes in 3 flavors: Washington coast, Washington coast on "fire" at night, and totally f'ed), drive as close to any new anomalies as you can to scan them (the anomalies feel like objects to be scanned rather than dangerous); after that you drive around them as best you can... You upgrade your car (the upgrades feel like lateral moves, your car is faster, but you're spending more time going around stuff). Repeat until more story elements appear. Playing through this game I'm very much reminded of Dredge, both are spooky, atmospheric games featuring a vehicle you upgrade, but despite the fact that I think the story in this is better, I think Dredge is just a better game. The game play is better, cuz fish tetris ;) and the story TELLING is better because its way less linear and direct. PD's story telling is 99% over the radio dialogue, which can totally work, look at Firewatch, but the difference here is you're a silent protagonist. Hell, the story is interesting enough to keep me playing even after the game play loop got old, but its not unique story telling in any way, and they should be critiqued for that. For example it could have been revealed over time that the car is conscious and trying to communicate, because then there would be two interwoven narratives, making everything feel less linear. The car even has a button that lets you appreciate it with some Tomagachi style pixel art, but that goes no where. Alternatively game's like these never let you see the people you're talking to on the radio, they could have elevated their story by subverting that expectation somewhere around the midway point. Back on the topic of Dredged, when I finished Dredge I wanted more of an excuse to keep playing and my review reflected that. With this game, I'm not even done and I'm here to say that all I really want from this relationship going forward is more of the story because the physical side of things has gotten stale; so I think it would be better if we just stay friends. I might get back together with Dredge. Who know's? Realistically though, I'm just going to move on, but Pacific Drive, I need you to know... I really did have fun for the majority of the time we were together. For people who made it all the way to the end and still want something a bit more concrete, here you go: This game is worth $20, and I am very firm on that. TL;DR: Pros: Visuals and audio in this game are perfect, no changes needed. The way the map gets darker and more dangerous as you head deeper into the exclusion zone highlights this fact. Upgrading the car feels rewarding both visually and with the QoL improvements they provide. Cons: Game either overstays its welcome, or does not offer enough new content as it progresses to make me feel like sticking around. I cannot decide which it is. So maybe its both? PS: I'm almost positive the car itself is a nod to Dr. Manhattan because the hood ornament is nearly identical to the symbol for hydrogen on Dr. M's forehead, and the default color of the car is the same color as Dr. Manhattan in the comics. So that's super neat Edit from the future: I have now expanded upon my review like I said I might, and in that time I still have not finished the game. Take that how you will. I will finish this story, as updating this review has motivated me to see how close I got with my guessing and how let down or thrilled I will be with the ending. At that time I will likely make add a comment containing light spoilers as this review is 98% spoiler free and already quite long. Anyone who has read literally all of this, you are a LEGEND and I have more reviews that you would probably enjoy. Thank you so much for your time!
Expand the review
Pacific Drive is not an easy one to review.... I could say PD is a rogue-lite driving sim with stage-based levels and world progression, with RPG elements, looting and has a narrative focus like Firewatch. Kind of like a mixture between Firewatch and My Summer Car. Is it though? Ehhhh, we need to get into the details. So, in Pacific Drive, you, a nameless driver, is cruising along a nice looking road in the woods, when suddenly, you get sucked into a vortex of some sorts. When you wake up, your car is in pieces, but you find another one in shambles, but working. You hop on and you drive, until you start to hear the voices of different people who explain the basic gist of the situation. Essentially, you are near a "zone of exclusion" like in Chernobyl, and you need to cooperate with the people talking with you, the car, and the environment to get out of there and understand just what the heck is happening. The first few hours you'll need to explore your surroundings, understanding what anomalies do and how to navigate the map, and that's when one of the first big positives came up to me: The car handles great. You can "feel" (even if using a keyboard like myself) the loss of traction and how every bump affects the handling. Braking feels a bit off, specially when driving fast (it's as if the front gets lighter and turns the car, which doesn't make sense), but I'm nitpicking. For a game that does not even attempt to be a sim, it handles far better than many racing games I've played. As you keep on driving, possibly terrified of everything due to the amazing atmosphere the game generates, including sounds, you'll probably damage the car, be it because you forgot to put it in park and it rolled away, it was stolen, you dumped it into acid, crashed into a mine, got into a thunderstorm or just flew too high and landed hard. Anyways, you gather up resources by disassembling wrecked cars, getting into abandoned houses and exploring, you need to gather up enough energy to warp back to your safe garage. This leads to an improvised race where you must find the most efficient way (be it the fastest, safest, most fun, etc) to it and floor it so as not to get destroyed by a radioactive storm. Even if you have the best gear or are an amazing driver, you are bound to make plenty of mistakes, or find yourself in very precarious situations because of this, which makes even the most rudimentary runs a joyride of trying to get to the warp point in time and in one piece. When you finally make it, you'll find yourself back in your garage, where the scientists that were talking to you try to piece together what is happening and telling you what to do next. All the while you are fixing back your car, nurturing it and tuning it with different pieces. You'll find your car's quirks (small details that come up as you drive, like a car door opening when you go in reverse, or battery draining faster when the lights are off). You'll also plan your route for the next run; as you move forward, you'll realise that certain sections have different effects, like eerie darkness, storms, extra enemies, or constant stability (there is no time limit). This will be very useful as you explore, as it will help you make a path towards where you want to go (and FYI, if you want to move to a section up north, you need to go through all previous sections, hence the planning). As you progress, the difficulty ramps up; you'll need to farm more materials to upgrade, and more runs to clear a path. Nearing the end game the requirements for farming get a bit ridiculous, specially considering that by then you have the driving down to an art and you'll put yourself in "dangerous" situations more often just for the heck of it (I did at least), but the game also commits a serious crime by dropping the ball narratively, in my opinion. The game gets REALLY interesting narratively speaking, and while you don't really get a say on anything that's happening, you do feel a part of it. At one point in specific, something happens which is a rather emotional moment and is very well shown through the voicing (which btw, really sells you in on the story). After that though, it feels as though the game loses its gravitas, and it just doesn't have the same effect as you'd expected. The ending is.... also, rather bland, unfortunately. So what else? Let's see: -Graphics look very stylized, but the game does not run very well and needs a few optimization passes or turning down settings for it to run accordingly. -Farming can get annoying, specially in the end-game. -Story gets REALLY interesting, but then drops the ball hard late. Played on: Intel I7 12700k 32gb RAM 3200mhz Tested on RTX 3070 Ti at 1440p NVME Drive
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Last Updates| Steam data | 10 April 2025 00:37 |
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| SteamSpy data | 12 April 2025 03:48 |
| Steam price | 13 April 2025 12:47 |
| Steam reviews | 12 April 2025 11:49 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Pacific Drive, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Pacific Drive
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Pacific Drive concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Pacific Drive compatibility
Online players
1,380
Developer
Ironwood Studios
Publisher
Kepler Interactive
Release
21 Feb 2024
Platforms
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