Pacific Drive - I wanted to love you, but at the end of the road I just liked you.
First, the good - the atmosphere, story, and music are all top notch. I enjoyed learning the lore of the Zone and figuring out how the characters were related to what was going on. The sense of place was unparalleled, and while I played there were moments I really felt like I was driving around the woods of my home state. The music, largely performed by local WA artists, was great and reasonably varied.
However, the good was somewhat undercut by the bad. There came times when the story "paused" because I needed to do a few drives to gather materials in previously-visited zones, and during these times I found it much easier to notice little annoyances in the gameplay and graphics. I found that some, maybe even many, of the gameplay systems became tiresome when I had to grind resources to engage with them. The music, while great, was limited to only 15 tracks. Because of this, at the end of my 22-hour run I had heard every song numerous times, and I'd grown tired of most of them. The performance was only consistent in its inconsistency, and the fluctuating frame rate negatively impacted my immersion in an otherwise deeply atmospheric game.
Overall, the initial impression was strong. After the first hour I would have rated this game 5 stars. After 22 hours, the magic had faded (but not vanished!). I still loved the story (despite a slightly lackluster conclusion) and the immersion this game offered was great, but undercooked gameplay elements and lack of variety eventually dragged the game down for me.
I'd recommend this game to any Washington local, or to people who enjoy exploration-driven games and can forgive some clunkiness.
First, the good - the atmosphere, story, and music are all top notch. I enjoyed learning the lore of the Zone and figuring out how the characters were related to what was going on. The sense of place was unparalleled, and while I played there were moments I really felt like I was driving around the woods of my home state. The music, largely performed by local WA artists, was great and reasonably varied.
However, the good was somewhat undercut by the bad. There came times when the story "paused" because I needed to do a few drives to gather materials in previously-visited zones, and during these times I found it much easier to notice little annoyances in the gameplay and graphics. I found that some, maybe even many, of the gameplay systems became tiresome when I had to grind resources to engage with them. The music, while great, was limited to only 15 tracks. Because of this, at the end of my 22-hour run I had heard every song numerous times, and I'd grown tired of most of them. The performance was only consistent in its inconsistency, and the fluctuating frame rate negatively impacted my immersion in an otherwise deeply atmospheric game.
Overall, the initial impression was strong. After the first hour I would have rated this game 5 stars. After 22 hours, the magic had faded (but not vanished!). I still loved the story (despite a slightly lackluster conclusion) and the immersion this game offered was great, but undercooked gameplay elements and lack of variety eventually dragged the game down for me.
I'd recommend this game to any Washington local, or to people who enjoy exploration-driven games and can forgive some clunkiness.