Ironwood Studios have unveiled their new run-based driving survival game, Pacific Drive, at the PlayStation State of Play event.

This is the first game by the studio since its inception in 2019. Check out the full announcement trailer below:

In Pacific Drive, players strike out into the mysterious Olympic Exclusion Zone, a region of the Pacific Northwest that was once used as a promising laboratory for scientific and technological experiments, but has since been overrun by supernatural horrors and environmental hazards as a result of these experiements. The main vehicle of the game – quite literally – is the player’s car, used both as a means of exploration and as a shield against the hostile beings that inhabit the Zone.

From the first glance, it is immmediately apparent that Pacific Drive was built with ambient, environmental exposition in mind rather than aesthetic and graphical hyperrealism. The game’s art style is reminiscent of Telltale Games’ graphic adventures and 2K Games’ Bioshock Series. It conveys mood and emotion through a defined color palette blending blue, grey, and red. Enemies do not necessarily convey hostility through forceful, active aggression; the game instead represents that through the interface of ambience. A heavy fog represents the terrifying unknown, and storms symbolise active danger.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the game is the fact that each storm the player encounters in the Zone changes the terrain. This makes each journey into the Zone a unique, unpredictable adventure, and keeps players from prioritising safety over the visceral experience of the game. Keeping your car as intact as possible is probably the first priority, since finding resources in the Zone allows the player to venture deeper and deeper into the Zone and its’ secrets.

It’s certainly an interesting way to tell a story! We can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

In 1955, the United States government seized a region of the Pacific Northwest by eminent domain. The Olympic Peninsula became the staging ground for promising new technologies, but these utopian creations came at great cost: severe radiation, environmental collapse, and supernatural horrors. The government walled off the area and established the Olympic Exclusion Zone. What happened inside was never disclosed.

Rumors and stories about the Zone run rampant, compelling you to go and explore its perimeter. Your plans go awry and you’re now stuck inside – you don’t know it yet, but the only way out is through. You find a barely running station wagon deep in the woods, miraculously unlocked and able to make the trip down the hill into the valley. Here you come across an abandoned auto shop which becomes your base of operations, where you safely repair and improve your car between runs. Do your best to survive, solve mysteries, and search for a way out — or become part of the ongoing legends of the Zone.

Pacific Drive is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2023.

Source: PlayStation Blog