One Of 2024’s Best Games Is Getting A Huge Horror Expansion

by

My preferred choice for Game of the Year 2024 is Pacific Drive, a challenging game to summarize succinctly. In this game, you enhance and mend a station wagon as you navigate an unusual network of forest roads situated in the Pacific Northwest, popularly referred to within the game as the Olympic Exclusion Zone. The experience offered by Pacific Drive evoked sensations reminiscent of Stalker, The X-Files, and Remedy’s Control, with eerie, SCP-like anomalies lurking on the roads or hidden within the woods. Although initially not a horror game, an upcoming expansion called Whispers in the Woods promises to transform it into one.

The Woods Whisper is an upcoming extension for Pacific Drive, estimated to last between 8 to 12 hours. This expansion aims to give the game a spooky makeover, marking it as the first significant expansion for the game. Cassandra Dracott, founder and creative director of Ironwood Studios, shared this information with me after several updates and patches were released since the game’s launch in February 2024. Players will be able to experience this expansion within the main game, focusing on a faction fixated on the various peculiarities within the game world.

Initially, upon playing the game, it gave me quite a fright, leading me to believe it was a horror game. However, I discovered not everyone else shared this sentiment.

Pacific Drive” is a narrative centered around you and your vehicle. For some, navigating through the woods in a game can be quite terrifying, yet we didn’t aim to intensify the horror intentionally. Instead, our focus was on creating an atmospheric experience. However, the response from players influenced by the game’s eeriness inspired us to delve deeper into that aspect for this expansion.

The team at Ironwood found that the game’s frightening elements resonated with many players, which encouraged us to further explore those chilling vibes. Moreover, it felt organic as we crafted an immersive and tense experience. Our game is based on the familiar – you have your car, a space you call your own, along with a garage. It’s easy to start questioning your safety and isolation while driving through the woods.

Dracott outlined the inclusion of a new gameplay feature known as Artifacts. These are peculiar items abandoned by an enigmatic group, and they accumulate layer upon layer to offer fresh experiences every time you step out from the cozy glow of your garage.

As a fellow gamer, let me break it down for you in a more personal and engaging style:

“Imagine finding an artifact that makes your car horn blare whenever you jump! It’s quite the novelty, isn’t it? But wait, there’s another one – this time, when the horn honks, your car takes damage! These relics play a crucial part in navigating the new zones of the DLC.

However, collecting too many of these artifacts could lead to some nasty consequences, attracting unwanted trouble within the Zone. That’s why we want to challenge you with tough decisions: ‘Which artifact do I choose? Does it interact with my current collection? Am I pushing my luck by taking on another one?’

In the original version of the game, the unusual occurrences were essentially unintentional aspects of its mysterious forest setting. I pondered if the new expansion might modify these instances to resemble a conventional horror game more closely, incorporating elements like chase scenes or definite adversaries instead of inexplicable phenomena that could potentially lead to danger, though not necessarily with malicious intent.

At a glance, we aren’t altering the method by which we present our storyline. In other words, we’re adding new voice-acted characters to the game, but remember that they are voices, not physical entities. We aren’t innovating fundamentally in this regard – sorry for the automobile metaphor. However, what makes it unique and perhaps how isolated you truly are are aspects better left for players to explore when they start playing. I believe you’re asking insightful questions.

In essence, Dracott clarified their strategy for the team when creating Pacific Drive’s new genre; they aimed to maintain the essential actions or mechanics (the ‘verbs’) that were familiar from Pacific Drive, while still venturing into uncharted territory to keep things interesting and potentially less creepy.

Dracott stated, “I’ve been captivated by horror narratives that disrupt what’s familiar and make it unsettling. When designing these stories, I aim to tamper with comfort zones to create an atmosphere of unease, fear, and unpredictability. However, we want players to interact with the game in a new way, so we subtly alter some gameplay mechanics while ensuring a balanced experience.

Dracott mentioned that Harvestmen, a novel anomaly, serves as an illustrative case of how Whispers in the Woods will skillfully balance refining existing systems with introducing fresh components.

‘Is the abductor dragging my car away? Does a leech mess with my car’s electrical system?’ These scenarios add an element of unpredictability to the game, enriching the overall experience and increasing the opportunities for intriguing stories.

As a gamer, I found myself pondering who those mysterious hooded figures in the trailer could be and what it might mean for the broader narrative as I navigated the Olympic Exclusion Zone in Pacific Drive. But fear not, I’m eager to unravel that mystery myself once the expansion drops later this year. At first, Pacific Drive didn’t seem like a horror game, but let me tell you, things have definitely taken a creepy turn now!

Read More

2025-09-09 19:10