A Plague Tale: Innocence
A Plague Tale: Innocence
Game
Game2024
Pacific Drive
Developer Ironwood Studios
Pacific Drive is a 2024 survival game developed by Ironwood Studios and published by Kepler Interactive. The game is set in a fictionalized version of the Olympic Peninsula, which the player traverses in a station wagon as they attempt to find a way to escape. It uses a first-person perspective; the player must attempt to avoid anomalies and obstacles. The vehicle can be repaired and customized at the player's… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
519 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
76
LovedLoved
273 positive · 84 negative
95% range 72–81%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 273 | 84 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 51 | 4 | 77 |
| Mastodon * | 6 | 1 | 12 |
| Lemmy * | 5 | 0 | 6 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
14,490 of 17,482 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
74% recommend · 201 yes, 70 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 271 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (22,497 of 27,054 positive).
Players praise the unique atmosphere and immersive driving survival loop. [1][2][3] Some find the gameplay loop repetitive and the crafting tedious. [4][5][6] The game's performance issues and save system frustrate several reviewers. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [18]
This could have been a really unique and absorbing experience. Instead, this is a game that quite literally fences itself in, squandering the potential of its setting and gameplay premise. It starts off very strong, with a strange anomalous wasteland to explore in your 1980s-era station wagon. The driving feels solid, the environments are eery and the freedom of disembarking on foot at any point to inspect roadside …
- [1]
A Love Letter Written While My Car Is Actively Falling Apart I’ve crossed the 100-hour mark in Pacific Drive, which means two things: - I like this game a lot. - I have made objectively bad life choices inside the Olympic Exclusion Zone. This is not a normal survival game. It doesn’t want to be “beaten.” It wants to teach you restraint, then punish you for ignoring that lesson. At first, I played it wrong. I stopped …
- [2]
90% of the time, it's a relaxing game about driving through a mysterious stalker-style anomoly zone. The vibes are heckin cozy, the scenery is beautiful, the radio is playing, and everything just feels nice. 9% of the time you're on the edge of your seat, trying to desprately protect the one thing that keeps you protected from the dangers of the zone. Maybe you'll be trying to get up/down a steep hill without …
- [3]
One of the most unique, immersive, and interesting games I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing, Pacific Drive is an atmospheric survival horror game that sees the player venturing out of their mechanic shop into S.T.A.L.K.E.R-like, post-apocalyptic zones and hopefully bringing back as much loot as possible to upgrade and manage their car, shop, and personal arsenal of tools and protective clothing. In short, …
- [7]
8/10 *smacks Devs with rolled up news paper* Bad Devs, auto-saves should never overwrite manual saves. Be aware to always have two saves, this game will *uck you and overwrite your save. The game is pretty decent and fun, just infuriated to find that it overwrites your manual saves which is just dumb.
Summarised from 34 of the 421 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Pacific Drive talk about atmosphere and vibes are highly praised; those who didn't talk about gameplay loop becomes repetitive and grindy. Which matters more to you?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Pacific Drive received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic, and 80% of critics recommend the game according to OpenCritic. In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 32 out of 40, with each critic awarding the game an 8 out of 10. GameSpot's Mark Delaney and The Jimquisition's James Stephanie Sterling considered it among the year's best games to date, while Shacknews's TJ Denzer called it "one of the most interesting survival games I've ever played". Game World Navigator's Sergey Pletnev compared it to the novel Roadside Picnic (1972) in its depiction of a world filled with dangerous, incomprehensible…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 519 · most liked firstForgot I bought Pacific Drive during the Steam sale, but I finally booted it up today to give it a go. Anyway, six hours passed. I think I love this game. Once the full scope of station wagon customization dawned on me I was hooked.
positive · AI labelView post →This could have been a really unique and absorbing experience. Instead, this is a game that quite literally fences itself in, squandering the potential of its setting and gameplay premise. It starts off very strong, with a strange anomalous wasteland to explore in your 1980s-era station wagon. The driving feels solid, the environments are eery and the freedom of disembarking on foot at any point to inspect roadside curiosities draws you in immediately. You start of as an explorer, but you are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hi Bluesky! I'm Karrie Shirou Shao. I'm the Lead Narrative Designer & Lead Writer of Pacific Drive, a 2024 best-selling supernatural driving game described as "Stephen King's X-Files in a Station Wagon". I wrote the main story and all its voiced dialogue, designed missions and...
neutral · AI labelView post →Also in today's Game File: Lead designer of Pacific Drive, which launched onto Xbox and Game Pass last week, is urging people to buy/play it on other platforms Speaking for himself, NOT the studio He left the game's studio in July, didn't work on the Xbox version, is irked by Microsoft's silence
neutral · AI labelView post →Started playing Pacific Drive, and some friends got the game as well, so decided to do something for it
neutral · AI labelView post →Congrats to Pacific Drive & @ironwood.bsky.social for being nominated as best Indie Debut at the Game Awards! Here's the poster I made! #art #illustration #procreate
neutral · AI labelView post →‘Pacific Drive’ TV Series Based on Indie Survival Game in the Works From James Wan variety.com/2024/tv/news...
neutral · AI labelView post →The PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup for November includes: 💰 Grand Theft Auto V 🚗 Pacific Drive 🌊 Still Wakes the Deep 🪖 Insurgency: Sandstorm …and more. Full details: play.st/43NtckL
neutral · AI labelView post →Since Pacific Drive got a Game Awards nomination, allow me to direct you to what I thought was a very interesting conversation about how it manages to be both a chill drive in nature and an oppressive trip through the unknown. www.gamespot.com/articles/how...
neutral · AI labelView post →Y'ALL MY VOICE IS IN A VIDEO GAME!!!!!!!! 🎉 while you're out and about in Pacific Drive, maybe listen for a familiar voice on the radio... 😎 YOU CAN ALSO GET MY BOY KUBO AS A MIRROR ORANAMENT!!!!!!!!!!! huge thanks to @ironwood.bsky.social for this mind blowing opportunity, it's SO COOL!!! ❤️
neutral · AI labelView post →Balatro is a good pick - but damn every time I see Pacific Drive I remember how beautiful that game is...
positive · AI labelView post →Whoever designed the user experience for Pacific Drive should get tenure at a video game college. Not only because it's the most polished, intuitive, QoL-1st UI/UX I've ever experienced, but it takes someone with a true mind for player psychology to pull off stinky little pranks like this:
positive · AI labelView post →I love the idea of the game, the atmosphere, the vibe. But it's just not super fun to play.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I reviewed the truly outstanding Pacific Drive. A survival game that does so many things I should loathe it for, the style, premise, and incredible quality-of-life options stole my heart. Read more here: www.thejimquisition.com/post/pacific...
positive · AI labelView post →A Love Letter Written While My Car Is Actively Falling Apart I’ve crossed the 100-hour mark in Pacific Drive, which means two things: - I like this game a lot. - I have made objectively bad life choices inside the Olympic Exclusion Zone. This is not a normal survival game. It doesn’t want to be “beaten.” It wants to teach you restraint, then punish you for ignoring that lesson. At first, I played it wrong. I stopped for every piece of junk. Every broken fridge. Every suspicious toaster.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pacific Drive was released two years ago (wow, time has flown) and Ironwood recently announced that 3,000,000+ people have played the game, an astonishing thing for me to try and parse. 1. I remain immensely proud to have been a part of it and I wanted to share a few (20!) thoughts and memories! 🧵👇🏻
neutral · AI labelView post →Pacific Drive is one of those games where summary by genre doesn't do it justice so the best summary is by vibes: Pacific Drive is a game where you wander out into Cryptid Central USA, to find stuff, then come back to your garage and work on repairing your eldritch car gf while blasting the jukebox
positive · AI labelView post →And here's another bit of Pacific Drive lore for you: Somewhere during mid-development a few of us made some rather alternative mockups of the game. I might have been responsible for this contribution...
neutral · AI labelView post →90% of the time, it's a relaxing game about driving through a mysterious stalker-style anomoly zone. The vibes are heckin cozy, the scenery is beautiful, the radio is playing, and everything just feels nice. 9% of the time you're on the edge of your seat, trying to desprately protect the one thing that keeps you protected from the dangers of the zone. Maybe you'll be trying to get up/down a steep hill without sliding and crashing, maybe you'll be desprately trying to stop your damaged car from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Team Pacific Drive at #TheGameAwards ❤️ Can’t believe we got to see our weird car survival game up there on the big stage @ironwood.bsky.social @blakedove.bsky.social @pixelexical.bsky.social @karriebear.bsky.social @sirrosen.bsky.social @paullicino.bsky.social
neutral · AI labelView post →Today I’m going to the BAFTAs because the game I was game director and lead designer on, Pacific Drive, was nominated for a BAFTA. I just think that’s neat.
neutral · AI labelView post →thought this was a chill driving game. the car is screaming, the forest is screaming, i am screaming
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →9. Pacific Drive One of my favourite games of 2024, I still listen to the incredible soundtrack regularly, the vibes of this game are off the god damn charts, I cannot recommend Pacific Drive highly enough. It's just got a huge DLC update, and at a silly good discount, it's a steal.
positive · AI labelView post →My updated Pacific Drive car. What a great game.
positive · AI labelView post →STALKCAR. My Summer Zone. Escape From Carkov. Roadtrip Picnic. Play it already.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →here's my gift to bluesky newcomers. a lovely sunshower i captured in Pacific Drive while using the custom radio tracks feature. let this be your reminder to play Pacific Drive this year if you haven't already! (not just saying this because i worked on the game, but because it's genuinely lovely)
positive · AI labelView post →Pacific Drive is a game built on a genuinely interesting idea: a loot-and-run roguelite where your car is both your lifeline and your primary upgrade project. It's a concept that could have been exceptional. In practice, it's a game that demands patience, tolerance for friction, and, as it turns out, a good radio station. From the moment you enter the zone, the game throws its full weight at you. Off-road handling is atrocious from the start, speed and steering reduced to a crawl. Ambient…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR the gameplay loop is incredibly boring and left a LOT to be desired. I kept pushing through the story hoping that something would change, but never did. Every mission was just mindlessly gathering resources in a pretty uninteresting world and then using them to pretty minor upgrades to your car. I will say the atmosphere is incredible, and is the entire reason I bought the game in the first place. The maps are gorgeous and the sound design is extremely well done, which only makes me more…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I desperately wanted to love Pacific Drive. It's a crafting, driving game set in an interesting and mysterious world. There are some truly amazing moments, and well thought out mechanics - but a huge chunk of the game is grindy, laggy and repetitive. What you'll want to know: Unoptimized. Shadows set to low fixes it, but makes it look awful. If you get stuttering, try the fix in [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/pacificDrive/comments/1egcv7u/pacific_drive_performance_fix_the_real_deal_no/]this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've had a big surge in followers lately, hello all! Go vote for Pacific Drive for best debut indie game at the game awards! 😌🙏 www.thegameawards.com
neutral · AI labelView post →Pacific Drive is currently less than $10USD on Steam (67% off) through the weekend. I absolutely loved this game (currently >200 hours played), and it had a surprisingly moving story for a driving-survival-crafting-exploration game. If you've been on the fence for this or have any interest GO GET IT
positive · AI labelView post →The atmosphere is impeccable and the premise is interesting. (What if S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but car?) Unfortunately the game mechanics are lifted from the most tedious kind of Minecraft mod: "What if everything took fifty ingredients and a half-dozen steps to craft?" The interface also feels really awkward, with a lot of "hold down the button" interactions that make it take longer than it should to perform those half-dozen steps. Overall, I respect the idea, but it's not for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pacific Drive caught my eye during the Game of the Year discussions in 2024. It looked very promising: exploration and crafting combined with driving a car that you need to maintain, repair, and upgrade. Sadly, the reality didn’t live up to the promise. I wish the game had taken more inspiration from Subnautica, because many of the ways in which Pacific Drive differs take the wind out of its sails. In the end, I abandoned it shortly after entering the second region of the Zone. I think the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is an attempt to try and replicate what I do on Tumblr, first with one of my favorite collections: Pacific Drive Games I received a request for games that evoked a similar feel to Pacific Drive last year, excluding Tales of the Loop, since that game was already known. Here's what I found.
neutral · AI labelView post →I wrote a thing about how Pacific Drive feels like storm chasing, because the weather in that game is so dynamic and volatile. noescapevg.com/pacific-driv...
neutral · AI labelView post →Congratulations Pacific Drive on becoming my favourite game of the decade.
positive · AI labelView post →It's long and slow but also quite unique and interesting. Exploring the zone while managing your car turns out to be more addictive than I thought it was going to be. There are a number of threats to be careful of but don't go in expecting a shooter game like STALKER or Fallout. The environment is creepy and sometimes rather tense so it still finds ways to keep you entertained. The graphics are great and the game world looks well detailed. I'm glad I checked this game out and definitely…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First, it should be noted that this Pacific Drive doesn't necessarily do anything *bad* - it just doesn't do enough for me to recommend it as a good game to purchase. Gameplay-wise, you start off in a garage, select a destination, then drive through a series of open areas scavenging materials and encountering environmental hazards. Upon reaching your destination/finding the particular materials you were looking for, you trigger an escape portal, drive through it and return to the garage. You…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pacific Drive dares to ask, what if STALKER was in a car, and it was a bit reddit. The Good: The wish-brand zone itself is very well represented as a living breathing character, and the temu-procured anomalies are inventive and well realized. I was impressed that they've managed to make a game where your main obstacles are "passive" and environmental, yet also feel like both benevolent and malevolent actors in your environment. The car is fairly fun to drive and doesn't feel too…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →we’re on the #BAFTA longlist for BEST NARRATIVE???? AND Best New Intellectual Property, Game Design, and Debut Game??????? Truly, deeply, utterly floored. thank you for loving Pacific Drive 🥲 (we did it @paullicino.bsky.social @ironwood.bsky.social !!!!!)
neutral · AI labelView post →---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You play for 100 hours to learn that the game had run out of new things to throw at you after the first 2 hours. New locations? Its the same map with a pallet swap. New Enemies? Its the same enemy but now it does Shock damage New Mechanics? ♥♥♥♥ you, you need to farm for 30 hours to unlock a minor change to your play-style that will break after 2 uses.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In this week's video, we look at Crazy Taxi being labeled a "AAA" game, and use it as an excuse to talk about how brilliant Pacific Drive is youtu.be/0m8j7EaRUIc
positive · AI labelView post →Pacific Drive is getting a lot of praise from @pcgamesn.com. Love to see it. If you think it's good now (which it is), what I've heard about the next update is... [REDACTED]
neutral · AI labelView post →James Wan x Pacific Drive NEW ICONIC DUO i'm so proud of how far our weird station wagon game has come 🥹
positive · AI labelView post →I’m loving Pacific Drive so much, and I’ve already formed an unhealthy attachment to my in-game car
positive · AI labelView post →The nominees for Debut Game are… ANIMAL WELL BALATRO PACIFIC DRIVE THE PLUCKY SQUIRE TALES OF KENZERA: ZAU THANK GOODNESS YOU’RE HERE! #BAFTAGamesAwards
neutral · AI labelView post →Would ya look at that, Pacific Drive is @pcgamer.com’s best survival game of 2024! Feeling very good about that! It’s also 40% off right now if you haven’t played 2024’s best survival game what are you waiting for??? www.pcgamer.com/games/surviv...
positive · AI labelView post →Well it’s good to know I can recommend PACIFIC DRIVE, Top Three game of the year for me, with enthusiasm. You should be playing it!
positive · AI labelView post →I love Pacific Drive, i think it's pretty much a perfect game so far. BUT, what i wouldn't do or pay for an "Anomalous Wildlife" DLC update.
positive · AI labelView post →Nominations for the 2025 Nebula Awards are open! If you're a SFWA member (or know one), consider Pacific Drive for Best Game Writing. I wrote about breaking ground with its Americana take on exclusion zones & cementing an obsession with a station wagon. Please reshare 🧵 pacificdrivegame.carrd.co
neutral · AI labelView post →SO mANy HoURS PlaYED anD NegATIVE REVIEW?? The only reason for playing so long is that I have this stupid fetish for achievements/completion, I've been waiting for like 30 hours to wrap it up and post this. This is the kind of game where the initial developer meeting goes like "guys, I have this game idea, it's like 3-4 hours, so how do we stretch it ?" 80% of the upgrades are meaningless. The 5 min story cut into 30 seconds chunks spread over 10-15 'progress' checkpoints. 10% of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh look, a UI designer for Pacific Drive, one of the coolest game UIs in modern memory, is in need of work. Hire her!
neutral · AI labelView post →8/10 *smacks Devs with rolled up news paper* Bad Devs, auto-saves should never overwrite manual saves. Be aware to always have two saves, this game will *uck you and overwrite your save. The game is pretty decent and fun, just infuriated to find that it overwrites your manual saves which is just dumb.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played a lot of resource-management games, so I felt like this should've been in my lane of interest. Just doesn't seem to work for me. The game's approach to learning is extremely loose; that can work well for some genres based around exploration and repetitive failure (eg, Dark Souls), but when PD orients around mission-based runs and slow collection of a cache of resources, having so little context for what each tool / item / danger does gives a very incomplete vibe to the experience.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pacific Drive is a fantastic game.
positive · AI labelView post →I love the concept of this game. It's just not for me, I found it way to repetitive and boring. Its basically a driving simulator with looting mechanics over and over.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I paid for that Steam Frame using Pacific Drive royalty money so I wanna thank ALL OF YOU for buying our game ( everyone else buy it too so I can buy more cool stuff )
positive · AI labelView post →I'M BIG DAN (and the legal babble) IN PACIFIC DRIVE! This is my first voice acting role in a video game, and I'm super happy to be included in the world of Pacific Drive! Check out @ironwood.bsky.social's new Pacific Drive update to hear my smooth southern drawl for yourself!
neutral · AI labelView post →Also re: the “PACIFIC DRIVE but with a horse” game in the root article — I would also play the fuck out of that.
positive · AI labelView post →
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