My new favorite survival game companion is Pacific Drive's clunky sci-fi station wagon

GamesSurvival & CraftingPacific DriveMy new favorite survival game companion is Pacific Drive’s clunky sci-fi station wagonWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Ironwood Studios)

A station wagon in a garage with sci-fi gadgets stuck to it

It’s bad news when the US government takes over a huge parcel of land and uses it to run secret experiments. It’s worse when the government seals off that land with towering concrete walls and entirely dips.

And, wow, whatever the government was doing in driving survival gamePacific Drive, they sure mucked things up. There are so many anomalies it makes Stalker’s exclusion zone look like Stardew Valley.

In Pacific Drive you’re a courier who has unfortunately stumbled inside that cursed zone—formerly the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state—and the only way out is to go deeper in. Thankfully, you’ve got the best companion a survival game has offered since Sons of the Forest introduced us to Kelvin: a rusty, junky old station wagon that instantly becomes your best friend and mobile base.

There’s a real beauty to the woods of the Pacific Northwest, butsomuch horror as well. There are unsettling noises from deep in the trees, strange glowing lights bobbing in the distance, and troubling, crunching sounds in the earth and woods that had me whirling around every few seconds while I collected scrap metal and pieces of plastic. Soon enough those noises gave way to true horrors: hovering mechanical terrors that sunk anchors into my car and dragged it off the road, cracking bursts of blue electricity that fried me and my clunky station wagon, bouncing metallic orbs that latched onto my car’s frame and played havoc with the electrical system until I used my scrapper to cut them off.

(Image credit: Ironwood Studios)

Driving survival game

There are also sometimes weird, motionless mannequins in the road and woods. Sometimes there’s… quite a lot of them. Some of them posed like they’re waving. Inviting you over. Brrr.

And that’s not even getting into hazards like pockets of radiation, powerful thunderstorms, and obstacles that make you swerve off the road and into ditches or murky swamps. Any and all of this can happen at once, and rarely are you contesting with just a single hazard at a time. As a human I only need to worry about my health, but my car has more than a dozen different parts that can be damaged, so I’m often screeching to a halt, jumping out and making a quick fix, then jumping back in and speeding away again.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

I also need to keep enough fuel in the tank, the battery charged, and the headlights working. On plenty of excursions I made it back with doors and bumpers busted or completely missing, no lights, and four tires that could barely hold air.

(Image credit: Ironwood Studios)

Driving survival game

There’s a real joy in fixing the wagon up after a long and punishing mission. Resealing or replacing the tires. Patching the panels or putting on new ones. Trying out new decals on the body, improving the doors and bumpers, even the simple task of refilling the tank with fuel, charging the battery, and unloading the trunk is pleasurable busywork, especially since after the hazards of the zone it can be done leisurely in complete safety. There’s even a way for the car to show its gratitude that I’ll leave you to discover yourself. I’ll just say, it’s one utterly charming automobile.

(Image credit: Ironwood Studios)

Driving survival game

The car in Pacific Drive collects quirks, too, as a side-effect of traveling through anomalies in the zone. At one point the horn honked every time I opened the tailgate, which startled me no matter how hard I tried to remember it was coming. Another quirk surfaced later: when I’d put the shifter into park, the driver’s side door would pop open, which isn’t the best thing when the doors are my only protection from deadly radiation.

Luckily the garage is stocked with a diagnosis tool to identify and purge the car of its insidious quirks. Using four different columns, you select conditional term and statements that fit the quirk you’re trying to describe, like: Shifter -> Shifts to park -> Front right door -> Opens

(Image credit: Ironwood Studios)

Driving survival game

It’s a great little detective game, and if you successfully diagnose the quirk you’re told what the cure is, typically a mechanical first-aid kit you can then craft and use.

(Keep in mind not everything is a quirk. While leaving the garage one day I noticed my car kept pulling to the left, and after a lengthy diagnosis I finally determined that both tires on the left side of the car were flat. Nothing supernatural about that.)

Exploring deeper into the zone yields new discoveries and danger but also more resources, and as you fill your trunk with scrap and plastic and wire and chemicals, you can start upgrading your car and garage. It wasn’t long before my station wagon had sturdy steel doors, more durable bumpers and paneling, and chunky offroad tires so I could leave the pavement and go crunching through the woods. I researched, crafted, and installed storage slots on both sides of the car and the roof, and soon after started attaching sci-fi gizmos to them, like a radar for pinpointing resources in the zone—though using it drains the battery pretty heavily.

The best of these gizmos are the ones that turn the zone’s hostilities into a benefit: I’ve now got a wind turbine and lightning rod attached to my car, meaning high winds and lightning, while still scary as hell, will recharge my battery. I actually driveintostorms now instead of automatically fleeing from them.

My workshop is filling with new gadgets, like a recycler that can turn items into base resources, a machine that can heal a broken car part over time, and a fax machine that can receive mysterious missives from elsewhere in the zone. My excursions are now filled with purpose as I hunt for specific resources I can use to craft new gear and upgrades to make my beloved, quirky car more durable.

Pacific Drive, from Ironwood Studios, releases on February 22. The build I’ve been playing only covers the first couple story missions, but even after completing them within the first few hours I’ve played eight more hours just to run missions in the zone, research new tech, and craft new items to upgrade my car and garage. My new project is a device that will turn rainwater into more battery power. Hey, it’s the Pacific Northwest. If it’s gonna rain all the time, I might as well benefit from it.

More about survival craftingSorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our faultAfter 15 years, Minecraft has finally added two new pig variations: The warm pig and the cold pig, meaning I can delete one mod off my listLatestThe Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in AprilSee more latest►

More about survival crafting

Sorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our faultAfter 15 years, Minecraft has finally added two new pig variations: The warm pig and the cold pig, meaning I can delete one mod off my list

Herobrine standing in front of a foggy forest

Sorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our fault

New warm and cold pigs

After 15 years, Minecraft has finally added two new pig variations: The warm pig and the cold pig, meaning I can delete one mod off my list

LatestThe Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in AprilSee more latest►

Latest

The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April

the last of us season 2 trailer

The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April

See more latest►

Most Popular

The Witcher 3’s now 2-year-old bonus quest is our first taste of the ‘vibe’ CD Projekt is going for in The Witcher 4

2024 was the year updates for old games beat out all the new ones for me

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

Five new Steam games you probably missed (January 6, 2025)

I’ve seen enough: No more forcing singleplayer studios to make mediocre live service games

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals