Tales from the loop.
“‘I want to be killed this way!’
That’s how I make it!
It’s just that sometimes other people don’t understand it; it’s for my pleasure.”
His interviewer interjects: “Really?
You want to be killed deep in the forest, getting punched by a huge mushroom?”
Pacific Drive review
“Yes, yes.
And the curse area…
When I get cursed”
Interviewer: “You want to die from a barrage of arrows?!”
Miyazaki: “It’s gratifying.
I like that, I just wanted to emphasise it!”
Hidetaka Miyazaki would lovePacific Drive.
Survival only ever a function of escape, never triumph.
All of this, I have to stress, is absolutely intentional.
At first they’re overwhelming.
The waypoint I followed the first time, as this was all being explained, has gone.
Wait, maybe I was only taking it because I needed it for that one story mission.
Oppy did say something about it keeping things stable as long as it’s left in the structure.
Can I put it back?
No?!Aaaaahhhhhh!
The Zone is deeply horrible.
That one combined for me in an area filled with a few nicely interweaving “anomalies''.
I swiftly unlocked one achievement for trying to move the car 20 times without taking it out of park.
And then the many, many status conditions your car and be lumbered with.
Wow, is this game exhausting.
But then: the Roguelike.
Don’t honk at me like that - but even that feels a bit simple.
In reality I’m not sure there is one at all.
At best it might be the garage.
The tinkering, refining, upgrading and mapping.
But also the deduction, lesson-learning and planning.
Quirks are strange behaviours your car seems to pick up at random.
But, nefariously, these introduce themselves to you before you’re introduced to them.
Tap your theory into this little retro DOSBox computer interface and you might get your solution.
Car > Moves Slowly > Bonnet > Opens - false.
Stick > Shifts to Drive > Bonnet > Opens - bing!
Fix it with a mechanic’s kit, which you’ve got the option to craft.
Pacific Drive accessibility options
Lightning toggle on/off.
Additional HUD warning toggles.
Remappable controls, viewabale control scheme, viewable explanation of systems in menu.
Subtitles, independent volume sliders, radio parameters.
you’re able to see why that Miyazaki line’s been stuck in my head.
Eventually, if you push on through, it becomes masochism.
Pacific Drive amounts to horrible pain, but at least it’s pain you opted into.
A copy of Pacific Drive was provided for review by Kepler Interactive.
