SpammyV
@SpammyV

This isn't an exhaustive list of what makes the game good, but after about thirty hours I think I'm starting to suspect that Pacific Drive may just be a Good Video Game and here are some of the reasons why. Will I add to this later when I remember more things? Maybe. Did I miss something you love? What are you going to do? Post about it?

It's a wonderfully tactile game. Being flung into the air or yoinked around by Anomalies gives you a sense of place in the world. Prompts that you must hold down the button to complete reinforce a sense of time, creating consideration in the garage and tension in the Zone. Your car isn't customized from a menu, you have to walk around the garage and move parts to and from storage. Stand in front of the paint shelf and think about how you'll decorate for this drive. Carry new shelves or other equipment to where they will go.

Also don't do what I did and assume decorations are extremely limiting. Like a full can of paint and decal roll will do your whole car so feel free to start experimenting!

I love the Mundane Weird approach to the setting. What's going on could have been constructed to be horror, and some Anomalies are right on the line, but overall the approach is that while what happens in the Zone is bizarre and unexplainable and seemingly breaks the laws of physics... It just is. In itself a natural phenomena. I always love when these glimpses of another world are not presented as if to say "The horror! The strangeness! Our minds were not made to process these sights!" but simply that as strange as it may seem, it follows its own natural laws. What's threatening and hostile to life is still only as frightening as acidic pools in the real world. Should they be here? No. But still they only exist.

You certainly can and will get surprised by the things that happen to you, but nothing's in your face or pushing body horror and ~trauma~ at you which are kinda the horror game hallmarks at this point.

It's a game that rewards experimenting with the things you find in the world to discover new solutions or responses.

Especially because fighting is not an option. "Shoot the Cyberdemon until it dies" is not on the table here.

Picking around this stretch of Pacific Northwest is great fun. How long do you stick to the road to enjoy relatively clear routes and have an easier time finding resources in the clearing around the roads? When do you swerve off the road?

This game has a sweet road trip mixtape. I love the messages that come in from other people too.

I won't tell you that you must go in blind, but for a lot of games I like to stay fresh and the mystery of seeing something weird in the zone and scanning it to figure out what it's deal is makes for a fantastic experience.

The mood is excellent when you're moving from a dense forest into the small clearing around a cabin, or finding an abandoned research trailer left behind in the wilderness, or watching stark concrete architecture cutting through the mountains.

All the voice acting is excellent. Everyone carries their themselves through their performances fantastically.

I love the mood the game creates in relation to its setting. The super-science promises of the LIM technology... the lingering resentment and rage from the people eminent domain'd out of their home... the damning-as-hell consequences of what they were messing with... The hope and the guilt that would keep some of the science staff in this zone after the government forced everyone away. It's a choice that I love that while you're primarily dealing with the scientists who stayed, you still find reports from people investigating from the outside, getting glimpses into the hell this brought on that made them throw up the mountainous walls to keep people out.

The fixed zones they've designed for the plot beats are fantastically set up to create an experience at the story moment.

Thought about throwing the "video game review" tag on this but it's really more of just me gushing about what I enjoy so let's invent a new tag.


You must log in to comment.