Tag: review

Pacific Drive Review

When you really like something, you think about it a lot. And as you think about it, you discover lots of little gripes that prevent it from being more perfect. Those issues, when discussed, might make it seem like you don’t like the thing, but actually they are a symptom of liking it so much. So just to be clear before I begin, I really like Pacific Drive.

Pacific Drive is a game with a slippery genre. It’s mainly a survival game, with a flavour of horror and elements of rogue-like and extraction looter. The narrative is a science fiction mystery that runs like a radio play. The gameplay loop sees you head out into a mysterious “Zone” in search of answers, salvation and – mainly – loot as you desperately try to keep your trusty station wagon running to the end of this journey and into the next.

The loop itself is a near-perfect execution of the standard survival formula. Drive out into the hazardous world to find resources that allow you to make better equipment so you can get more resources when you head out the next time. So when you get back you can build better equipment and blah blah blah. When done well, as here, the repetition is addictive with each new addition to your survival arsenal providing impetus to head back out and try it. Pacific Drive provides a variety of interesting and unique options to increase your range in the Zone, and also your chances of survival.

The star of the show is the car itself, which functions as a character in its own right. Some of the highlights of the game are in the nervy early stages as you try to keep the car limping on – patching tyres, siphoning dregs of fuel – until the end of the current run. I found our mutual dependence nurtured a distinct affinity for the car. I looked after it and it looked after me.

Unlike more purist survival games such as Minecraft or Rust, Pacific Drive offers a narrative to provide the motivation for continued missions into The Zone. The developer, Ironwood studios, deserve tremendous credit here for the effort that has been put into the worldbuilding. Every item has flavour text in addition to hundreds of text and audio files that create a vibrant universe with a well-defined style. To nitpick, it falls a little too close to the sci-fi-wackiness-meets-modern-bureaucracy of the SCP stories and, most notably, 2019’s Control.

The main narrative itself is delivered as live and recorded radio transmissions. Themes include the role of science, faith, commitment, obsession and sacrifice. It is interesting enough and supplements the already enjoyable gameplay loop, but occasionally feels a bit less profound than it thinks it is. For instance, the trope of woman wanting a baby but putting career first is very much in effect here. Not exactly groundbreaking. In several key places the narrative beats don’t quite land, and in my view the silent protagonist just doesn’t work. The player has no control over the story, and even the player character has very little involvement, generally just hearing events tangentially linked to your actions play out. All of this creates a feeling of listening to a radio-play than a meaningful interactive story with at least the illusion of agency. None of this is helped by the fact the key parts of the narrative can be playing out while you desperately repair a failed engine or drive out of the jaws of danger.

Visually, Pacific Drive is stylised but fairly flawless and oozing atmosphere. The game could be compared to Outer Wilds in its semi-cartoon portrayals of nature and technology. It has a consistent aesthetic design which complements the narrative style and worldbuilding, and is regularly downright beautiful. The chaos and tension can be suddenly punctuated by moments of peace: the headlights go off and you are left with fireflies glowing over a vast alien pond; a lightning strike illuminates a rain-drenched plain.

The UI fits the style of 1970’s computer technology well, but is confusing at the best of times and downright overwhelming at first. In many places Pacific Drive is about choice – should I build part X or part Y? – but sometimes the fact that those options are available is hidden across multiple menus and systems. This combines with a slightly weak tutorial that is split between voice-over vaguely pointing you in the right direction and text instruction. The result is a downright messy introduction to the systems. There were multiple upgrade paths and systems that I never knew were there or forgot. In other instances, I failed runs into the Zone because I had misunderstood how the map works, or headed into a region in search of a particular resource that was specifically not available there, but I had missed that in the small print. Perhaps a case of style over substance.

My principle criticism overall is that the game was too easy. Firstly, much of the game’s peril lies in the unknown – which is initially everything. The dark corners of The Zone are filled with creeping horrors offering unknown threats. Is this mannequin going to chase me down and eat me? Will this toxic cloud melt off my skin? And indeed, much of the first chunk of the game I spent darting out to snatch up a handful of loot before a frantic dash to the relative safety of the car. However, as you see more of these dangers on your repeated trips you learn how to deal with them, which in many cases render them barely an inconvenience. What once sent me recoiling in horror is ignored and avoided with a flick of the joystick.

The darkness is literally and figuratively illuminated because as your knowledge increases, so do your tools. These also reduce the threat from the hazards of The Zone, leading to a precipitous drop in the feeling of danger and something moving toward confidence. Even the dreaded instability that closes in at the end of each area – at first an urgent threat to be breathlessly outrun – turns out not to move that fast, and doesn’t do that much damage even when it arrives. That is not to say the car makes its return to the base (the so-called Auto Shop) in tip-top shape, and a key part of the loop is making your repairs and improvements back at The Shop. However, it was very rare to feel like the run was at risk of failure.

(If one was being generous, they could argue that making the game easier as you learn more aligns with some of the themes of science and enlightenment, but frankly that’s a bit of a stretch and feels more like imbalance.)

It should be said that I play games very conservatively, prioritising safety and resource management over speed and flair. If anything, this highlighted the fact that I could make progress in the game without taking too many risks. The only essential upgrades were the ones that allowed the car to make longer journeys, necessary in the mid- and late-game. Everything else offered convenience rather than an essential, and the player could make do without. There was nothing forcing an Anxious Andy like me to push it to the limit in hopes of some fabulous reward.

(This of course could lead to a wider discussion about whether it is possible to “play a game wrong”, and maybe I was in this instance, but that’s an article for another time)

A couple of final minor gripes. The game has some fantastic licensed music – playing out of the in-car radio – that is so well-suited and matches the rest of the excellent vibe, but needed double the number of tracks. I think every song was well-chosen, but I never wanted to hear them again by the end of my time. And then, after all of this game that relies on voice-over, sound effects and music – I reached the end of my epic journey and the credits played in silence. This genuinely felt like a bug, and if not was a missed opportunity to provide a denouement with style and atmosphere.

In the end, I really enjoyed Pacific Drive and was excited every time I booted it up. Though comparisons to Outer Wilds were overblown – it never reached the heights of discovering [REDACTED] on the Quantum Moon – its weaknesses were more than compensated by the enthralling gameplay loop and fantastically executed style.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review

I came to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as a refugee from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla having been disappointed with its floaty, contactless combat. SWJ:FO did not leave me disappointed.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-adventure game in the vein of Dark Souls. It is characterised by crisp, precise combat and sometimes gruelling enemies. Fallen Order has been on my radar for the year since its release and building a new PC has given me a chance to get around to it. Additionally, it can be obtained through the EA Play program for a quarter of its RRP.

Fallen Order reveals its world in a thrilling and visually stunning opening sequence. We’re introduced to our jedi-in-hiding hero who is swept into a narrative larger than himself. The first thing that jumped out at me in FO was the combat. It’s responsive and specific in a way that I had really been looking for. It takes some time to get a handle on (I played on the second-highest difficulty) but your successes truly feel well-earned. This, of course, is a double-edged lightsaber (?) and means you run into some tough enemies (a la Dark Souls) that can end you in one hit. Or more frustratingly, lock you into an inescapable cycle of blows until you are finally, frustratingly, ended.

As he proceeds our Hero Cal Kestis is adorned with extra force abilities that add to the jedi power fantasy. They serve to enhance platforming, unlock new areas and add depth to combat; certainly on the harder difficulties your new skills are an absolute necessity for crowd control and big bosses.

Proceeding a few hours into the game it became clear that the story in Fallen Order isn’t your usual, cut-and-paste good versus evil tale. The characters have shades of grey and compelling motives. I found myself interested in the turns of the story in a way that I have found in few video games. SWJ:FO features some fan-service which, while expected, generated nostalgia that I didn’t see coming. There’s a lot to look out for for fans of the Clone Wars/Purge era of Star Wars history.

Much like its Metroid forebears, Fallen Order has a scanning mechanic which adds flavour to the world. I really enjoyed the details of the flora and fauna of the planets, specifically the ones that aren’t out to kill you. I didn’t read them all, but they fleshed out the world and made it feel alive and lived in. I was a little disappointed with some of the more narrative scans, which tell stories of events that have taken place in that location. You can usually track a parallel narrative as you move through a level, but in general these were fairly lightweight.

The game is set across a handful of planets and has you return to them repeatedly, your newfound skills now granting access to previously barred zones. On the surface this didn’t appeal but there is something satisfying in returning to a previously explored area with fresh eyes. The map is brimming with things to collect, providing improvements both cosmetic and mechanical. I cared more than usual for the cosmetics in the game, which provide a layer of customisability and variation to Cal and his little robot buddy BD-1. Nevertheless, my main interest in the collectibles were the ones that made Cal a stronger Jedi. Here I found myself a little frustrated: the map does show how many collectibles are left to be found in a zone, but the map itself is messy, hard to read and does not show you precisely where the collectibles are. As much as I like the upgrades I’m hardly going to return to a location for the fourth time just to look in every nook and cranny.

Fallen Order looks awesome. Having just come from the clay figurine faces of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the characters look and move in an impressively realistic way. The landscapes are some of the most epic I’ve ever seen in a game but equally each nameless corridor has been lovingly created with production value you would expect from a Star Wars product. The music is perfect, swelling at the right moments and giving you the little flute trills characteristic of the series. Overall a smashing presentation.

In summary, SWJ:FO is the full package. It controls beautifully, it looks amazing and has a story with appeal both to newcomers and fans of the series.