Pacific Drive (2024) - ★★★★
Pacific Drive is what would happen if Herbie and Subnautica had a child. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen this particular blend of survival-suspense-story mix in a game since Subnautica, and that’s saying a lot.
Instead of a submarine, you drive a station wagon. Instead of aliens underwater, you encountered anomalies on the road. The idea is similar: scan objects, research, get materials, and upgrade. But the mechanics of the game revolve heavily around your car, which you can upgrade (and fix), and the sci-fi story is more engaging with good voice acting.
As a person who got his driving license around the same time the game takes place, the long solitary drives bring back memories, especially with the excellent soundtrack, played as stations on the radio. These fun runs can quickly turn into suspenseful moments, especially during the night. The game also messes with your head with all kind of quirks, and I found myself wondering if i was encountering a bug in game or something planned more than once.
For those who seek challenges, there’s plenty here. Too many, in fact, so I had to tune some of them down. For example, the game won’t let you save mid-drive, and if you quit, you lose all of the stuff you collected. I can understand this as a difficulty option, but this is an unfair punishment if you have to quit the game on a long mission, which can take 2 hours or more.
It’s too bad the game doesn’t have official Linux support, as I believe this game was built for a certain kind of Linux geeks, but it seems to work OK with Linux (or Mac) with Proton enabled. If you’re a sci-fi person who likes suspenseful games with a dosage of crafting, don’t pass this one up. You won’t regret it.