Pacific Drive Reviews
Pacific Drive is a title that oozes passion from every exhaust pipe, and we can only be happy for Ironwood Studios and the love placed in their debut work.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With a charismatic voice cast, vast upgrade system and a fascinating mysterious world, Pacific Drive is an experience that is unique in every aspect. I personally have never played anything like it. Similar yes, but like this experience, never. The idea of creating a game based on roadtrip films with a mystery and horror aspect, combining elements of survival and crafting was an assertive choice. The debut of Ironwood Studios is a great success and made me extremely curious about the developer's future works.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Developer Ironwood Studios’ first go at the rogue-like genre has not only come out fresh as it gets but also put such a unique spin on a classic crafting/survival formula that I sincerely hope the term “road-lites” takes off. Hardly a pothole was hit riding along the anomalous, unstable ridgelines, with a perfectly-tuned balance of cautious material gathering, intense and atmospheric car treks, and wild sci-fi worldbuilding. I was absolutely enamored by the “car”-acterization of the humble station wagon that’s your mobile base, with the Quirk system being a highlight of the various gameplay mechanics that made Pacific Drive’s number one character stand out, just as it should. Truly, I felt like it was me and my clunker-bucket against the world, or, at least, this hellish sci-fi melting pot we were stranded in. Ironwood Studios has a sunny, clear road ahead for them, so here’s hoping they keep on truckin’, knowing their first IP went off without a hitch.
Just like the Daewoo Lanos I inherited from my sister when I eventually got my license, Pacific Drive is an imperfect but undeniably charming experience. It's filled to the brim with sensational atmosphere, intriguing mystery and edge-of-your-seat cinematic adventure. If you can buckle up and push through the foibles of this otherwise fantastic survival 'roadlite', I guarantee you won't regret getting behind the wheel.
Pacific Drive offers a thrilling and unique experience that seamlessly blends the excitement of a road trip with the terror of the supernatural. The game quickly won me over, just as it’s sure to win over the imagination and thrill of players who give the game a much-deserved try.
Pacific Drive offers a road trip like no other, boasting immaculate sound design and a classic '90s conspiracy delivered through a compact survival-crafting roguelike loop.
There’s a lot here that feels great, but it’s the inconsistency that lets it down. All those great moments are padded by a framework that doesn’t do them enough justice. Too much emphasis on scrounging, an unfocused narrative, and a generally poor feeling of momentum and progression. I’m still certain that there are some who will be able to overlook the game’s flaws and latch onto its unique charm. However, I think just as many people are going to bounce right off it. Either way, it isn’t a comfortable ride.
"Pacific Drive" is an extremely atmospheric survival game that draws its charm from the exuberant inhospitability of the exclusion zone. Loneliness and menacing anomalies make our old station wagon our closest ally. If you like roguelikes and crafting, you will find a rich field of activity in "Pacific Drive" - but the tinkering and fiddling sometimes get a bit out of hand. If you leave the somewhat tough start to the game behind, you will be rewarded with a motivating expansion system. The exclusion zone is an almost mythical place - and certainly not for the faint of heart.
Review in German | Read full review
“Pacific Drive” is a bold experiment in genre-blending, offering a fresh perspective on survival and driving mechanics. It’s a game that demands patience and rewards curiosity, one that will enchant you with its atmospheric world even as it tests your mettle with its challenges.
Olympic Peninsula and its Exclusion Zone have hidden many secrets for more then three decades and now, after I got pulled in by a mysterious anomaly, it is finally time to reveal them all! But this is no happy tale of a handsome protagonist, but a mere mortal driver's storyline, which wiggles and twists around a postapocalyptic wasteland. And what better tool to navigate it than a sturdy vehicle, armored with the knowledge of brilliant scientists and quirky tech, that will surely protect me from the horrors of this dystopian world'
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Pacific Drive is a rare experience in the space of roguelikes that combines unique mechanics with a deep story that not very many games in the genre offer.
A love letter to Boris and Arkady that brings their anomalous horrors to the Pacific Northwest. Pacific Drive makes up for what it gets wrong in pacing with imaginative gameplay and exceptional design.
For their first outing as a studio, Ironwood Studios has provided a beautifully styled roadlike that captures the thrill of driving in a supernatural setting. With a fantastic cast to support the journey, an addictive gameplay loop, wonderful sights to behold, and creative obstacles to encounter. Pacific Drive has the potential for Indie of the Year.
Pacific Drive captures the spirit of working on your car in a game that heavily leans into the crafting experience over its driving roguelike elements.
Pacific Drive is an imperfect but unique journey into the unknown. It is a good survival game in which the eerie atmosphere, the customization of one's car, and the adrenaline rush of racing make one forget the flaws.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Watching the pre-release teasers, I was under the impression that Pacific Drive would be a sort of an interactive road movie. Instead, we got a rogue-lite car action with the interaction limited to avoiding colored blobs in the environment and recycling trash for progress.
Pacific Drive is a unique twist on the survival genre that will make you fall in with a car, if you can handle its random difficulty spikes.
The premise of Pacific Drive is unique and original in many ways, although in others it can be a bit tedious and tiresome. It is a game in which we must be patient and not go crazy, because it is better to go little by little so as not to fall into despair. Being a first-person survival rogue-lite, it has its own twist and nothing will be the same in every exploration, but for my taste a third-person option would have been good for it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review