85
Pacific Drive blends peaceful car maintenance with chaotic - and frequently unnerving - surges of anamolies. Impeccable atmosphere and strong writing are coupled with an enjoyable gameplay loop. Both halves suffer from some limitations, but its a very strong showing nonetheless.
81
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has made Roadside Picnic famous, but it harshly mangled the book: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s Zone was a zone of armed conflict between various factions and mutants, instead of being a place of mystery and supernatural. Pacific Drive, on the other hand, pays an unexpected tribute to the “feel” of the original book, despite nominally being “a car-driving game”. [Issue#263, p.62]
82
Pacific Drive is a fantastic survival game with an addictive gameplay loop that involves forging deep connections to junctions, progressing deeper into an ever-changing Zone, upgrading a quirky vehicle, and navigating through challenges that appear on the road ahead.
6
Pros:
- great idea: anomalous zone with a car as your companion
- loads of ways to upgrade your car and garage
- eerie atmosphere
- various anomalies that make your life difficult and annoying Cons:
- story
- repetitiveness
- underdeveloped idea of a driver's "psychic" link to a car - game fail sometimes in explaining its mechanic
8
One of the more underrated games I’ve played so far. Although Pacific Drive can be frustrating at times, especially in the early game, slowly upgrading your car and garage feels rewarding and lets you overcome much of what the game throws at you. Overall, I would describe it as more of a planning and preparation experience, where carefully weighing risk and reward plays a crucial role. In terms of bugs, I did encounter some minor UI bugs, mainly issues with text not having proper line height at times, causing some overlap. The story is fine. I don't expect a roguelite game to have a deep narrative, and here it feels more like a bonus to the gameplay, as well as a way to prevent players from reaching endgame areas too quickly. I'm assuming some people are trashing this game for the devs being "woke", which comes in the form of certain stickers you can put on your car. Although I'm not a fan of it personally, especially since they feel so out of place in a game like this, it doesn't take away from the gameplay let alone to the point where it ruins the game.
1
Very buggy and very very bad tutorials even on the ps5,
they did not port the game properly , cannot pass the first 20 minutes because of the ui bugs
Pacific Drive
Released On:
Feb 21, 2024
Metascore
Generally Favorable
79
User score
Mixed or Average
6.2
My Score
Drag or tap to give a rating
Hover and click to give a rating
Metascore
Generally Favorable
81% Positive
35 Reviews
35 Reviews
19% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Feb 21, 2024
100
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.
Feb 20, 2024
86
A novel and challenging survival game that puts you in the driver's seat of one the best cars in videogames.
User score
Mixed or Average
49% Positive
147 Ratings
147 Ratings
27% Mixed
81 Ratings
81 Ratings
25% Negative
75 Ratings
75 Ratings
Sep 28, 2025
10
AMAZING GAME WITH VERY UNIQUE MECHANICS!!!!! If you love driving games and survival/ crafting mechanics this is certainly for you!!! AND THE STORY ITSELF IS GREAT, do NOT listen to anyone saying this game is WOKE. I have played for over 50 hours and I do not remember a single moment about gay relations!
Mar 9, 2024
10
Pacific drive is a game of figuring it out and pushing your limits. The game offers so much depth in the design of the zone, the great characters and voice-acting, eeriee feel and crafting and customisation. Does it have a learning curve? Sure, but you are rewarded with modules to make your car better and conquer challenges. Can't save mid run? No one is forcing you to go out on a massive run, it can be as short or long as you like. I think focusing on minor issues is a poor way to look at the scope of this game. It created an addictive gameplay loop, rewarding with your time, and creates memorable moments in both it's story, it's gameplay, and learning to love and cherish the crappy wagon turned pseudo companion. The car is suppose to ****, look at it, but you turn it into the wilderness atv it can become through upgrades. If you give it more than the 1 hour most people seem to be grading it on, it'll give you alot more back.
Mar 4, 2024
80
While it does get a tad monotonous and predictable by the end, this remains an atmospherically dense survival adventure in an extremely vivid world. Its controls and variety of options deserve a prize.
Feb 21, 2024
80
With Pacific Drive, Ironwood Studios has achieved a game with an intoxicating and mysterious atmosphere, which introduces something new to a rather saturated genre through a fresh approach, anchored in systems that complement each other in an extremely intelligent way. Apart from one frustration or another, Pacific Drive is a highly recommended experience for all Survival fans.
Feb 20, 2024
80
Ironwood Studios' debut game accomplishes to be an immersive survival driving adventure. Its intense treks through mind-bending obstacles are balanced with humor and relaxing moments provided by crafting and upgrading useful tools and car components, along with Pacific Drive's catchy alternative rock soundtrack. It's an incredibly impressive debut game that should put the new studio on the map: "there's no peace of mind or place you'll see, like riding on Pacific Drive."
Mar 7, 2024
70
As I said up top, the whole game is something you’re either going to love or hate. Pacific Drive isn’t going to leave many (or any) people saying, “Enh, it was okay.” You might think it’s a brilliant take on the survival genre, or you might think it’s endless amounts of busy work without enough of a payoff, but either way, it’s guaranteed to get a reaction out of you.
Feb 20, 2024
60
As unpredictable as it is rewarding, Pacific Drive can be brilliant, infuriating, and frustrating in equal measure. There's a great idea here but much of its potential is burned up by a tough mid-game learning curve, and unpredictably cruel dangers.
Mar 8, 2024
10
Adventurous and thrilling, the game has plenty of potential, an absolute A+ game
Nov 13, 2025
7
Pacific Drive is a survival game unlike any other, turning the car into the protagonist and delivering an atmospheric, tense, and creative experience. While it struggles with repetition and demanding systems, it stands out as a remarkable work for those who enjoy exploration and crafting with a unique identity.
Jun 1, 2025
7
Score: 7.5 It didn't catch me the hook, i got the hook but i found myself forcing me to play instead of wanting to play.
It's a very cool idea the execution of run's to advance story and get resources for the car that you "are", with immense upgrades and costumization.
The story itself was cool and weird.
Visually it's art style is also one of the strong points. But unfortunately, it justdidn't connect with me, i played for 12h.
But i believe others love it soo i'd recomend it to anyone to try it out!
Dec 2, 2024
4
Glitched trophy and crashes. Too bad because the game itself was interesting.
May 6, 2024
4
I wanted to like this game but I just didn't have much fun with it. There is too much menu work, and the default light setting is way too dark so it was impossible to see anything during night missions until I found out you could adjust it. (I can't remember the last time I played a game where the light level is this important but it doesn't ask you at the very start to adjust the slider until the image on the left is barely visible.) Even worse, you can spend a couple of hours on a mission only to fail at the last moment if the terrain isn't in your favor. This happened to me with the mission where I had to activate 3 stabilizers around a map. The random terrain generator gave me too many long winding roads and steep hills my vehicle couldn't climb, so I was unable to escape the red corruption that comes at you fast in the end. I activated the stabilizers successfully, so that should have passed the mission, but it still said I failed. If I wanted to have all my plans thwarted at the last moment by a random number generator, I'd play XCOM. I see this game's potential, but I just didn't enjoy it.
SummaryPacific Drive is a first-person driving survival game set in the pacific northwest region of the United States. With your car as your only companion, you'll travel deep into the Olympic Exclusion Zone - a surreal and mysterious place that's been abandoned for decades.
Rated Tfor Teen
