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Pacific Drive review - an exhausting, oddly lovable nightmare
Eurogamer's review of Pacific Drive, a punishing, anxiety-inducing game with an oddly lovable loop.
While driving around the lovely forests, somewhat inexplicably close to the fabled Zone, a long-evacuated government experimentation ground surrounded by warning signs, an air of impending doom and a big, 300-metre wall, you suddenly find yourself zapped inside. And at first it's too much, the mix of confusion, apparent design sadism, constant risk of a fate worse than death - being teleported back to the garage without any of your resources, with them saved out there in the distant reaches of the Zone waiting for your recovery, and all that time you invested in preparation and repairs and navigation itself just gone. Pacific Drive starts as sadism, a series of cruel brutalisations at the hands of just about everything developer Ironwood Studios can manage - environments, enemies, atmospheres, systems, mechanics, menus and the actual user interface itself.
Or read this on Eurogamer