Pacifica Drive: A Frustrating Yet Charming Survival Game About Respecting a Mysterious, Hostile Environment
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Pacific Drive is an exhausting and frustrating survival game set in a mysterious "Zone", but with an offbeat charm. Gameplay involves scavenging, crafting, and gradually expanding how far you can explore.
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The Zone is a bleak, hostile environment with strange anomalies and weather that batter your car. Death is rare, but being teleported back to your garage workshops is common.
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The game has complex, overwhelming systems like research, upgrades, resources, and diagnosing your car's quirks. But knowledge gained from failures allows you to develop a mutual respect with the Zone.
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There's no clear main character. The Zone and your car have personalities, but the garage workshop where you deduct, plan and solve problems may be the real core.
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Initially a sadistic challenge, mastering the game's systems turns it into a masochistic pleasure - "horrible pain, but at least it's pain you opted into."