Pacific Drive's road to reshaping the survival genre

gamesindustry.biz:

Most developers focus on just one genre for their first title, but Ironwood Studios decided to create a fresh take on two for its debut game, Pacific Drive.

At first glance, Pacific Drive – which launches today on PC and PS5 – seems like a typical driving game, primarily focused on exploring the Pacific Northwest in a station wagon. But players will soon come to realise that all is not what it seems.

At its core, the game is all about survival. Set in 1998, players are tasked with escaping the apocalyptic environment of the Olympic Exclusion Zone which becomes more hostile as the game progresses.

"It's this weird station wagon game set in the Pacific Northwest," Ironwood Studios founder and creative director Alex Dracott tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It's surreal, it's a survival game, but it's also a little bit spooky. It's got different elements that are very exciting."

Pacific Drive is as much a love letter to the Pacific Northwest as it is a game inspired by Dracott's childhood. He recalls "foundational memories" of road trips and camping in his family's station wagon, which compelled him to go on trips by himself when he was older to visit abandoned sites, partly to collect references for art and partly to just explore.

"It was while I was doing that that I started getting this sense of there being something about the woods out there and being alone on the road," he explains. "There's an emotional connection that you end up forming with whoever you're travelling with, whether it's a friend or a car."

Which is why, Dracott explains, they decided to lead with a silent protagonist. There are a few NPCs that talk to players through the radio, but he highlights the importance of "removing as many filters as we possibly could to connect you with the car."

That's the focal point of Pacific Drive: forming a bond with the car that's uniquely personal to the player.

"We want you to play you in this game rather than a very scripted, fleshed out specific character in the same way that