Each run is randomized, and after each successful bout, you unlock more junctions on the map that allow you to access more locations.Īt one stage, a robot-like anomaly that the team refers to as an 'Abductor' uses a device to pinch the car door. Ironwood doesn't go into too much detail about the story beyond setting the scene, but the team does reveal there are audio and text-based pieces of narrative lore that you can find as you venture to different locations that will also help flesh out the world, which only intrigues me further. As Dracott teases, not everything is as it seems, and there are a lot of questions surrounding where this car came from and 'what makes it special' that will drive you (pun intended) to keep exploring the Olympic Exclusion Zone. In an abandoned garage that serves as your home base, you find the station wagon. Set in a reimagining of the Pacific Northwest, the preview begins part-way into the game's story where a 'strange incident' has left us stranded on the far side of the zone. 'We want the relationship you develop with your car to be really a primary factor of what this game experience is.' Seth Rosen, lead designer While I was out driving around in this old station wagon, I just started thinking more and more about the feeling of the space and how it is strange and it is unique, and thinking about game ideas where that could be combined with interesting systems.'

I ended up buying an old Buick LeSabre station wagon that looks very similar to this one. It was something I did back then and I actually decided I wanted to start doing again while I was out exploring I've got a personal hobby of going out to old abandoned places around the area. 'I grew up in Oregon in Portland, and I drove around a lot in old station wagons.

'The original idea definitely came from a place of my personal history,' says creative director Alex Dracott. Survival is hinged on protecting your car, leveraging the symbiotic relationship between you and your vehicle.

As a run-based survival driving game, Pacific Drive puts you behind the wheel of a station wagon that becomes your only companion in the surreal, mysterious and, crucially, dangerous Olympic Exclusion Zone.

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