Summary
Developer Ironwood Studios has debuted a huge new update for its hit roguelike survival gamePacific Drive. Originally launched in February 2024 for PC and PS5,Pacific Driveintrigued players with its sense of atmosphere and unique driving gameplay.
Despite the increasingly crowded nature of the survival game genre,Pacific Drivestood apart from the pack as one ofthe best survival games of the 2020s, thanks to its unusual focus and moment-to-moment gameplay. Cast as lone travelers inside an anomaly-filled exclusion zone set in the American Pacific Northwest,Pacific Driveplayers are almost wholly reliant on driving, upgrading, and protecting their beat-up station wagon car for survival in the zone. This focus on first-person, vehicle-bound play lendsPacific Drivea distinctive atmosphere compared to the many on-foot survival titles that make up what most folks think of the genre. It also won the game fans, leading to more than a million sales in its first year and nominations at the Game Awards, as well as plans for a TV series adaptation.
Now Ironwood Studios has launched the freePacific DriveEndless Expeditionsexpansion for Spring 2025. Deployed on April 3, just past the game’s first anniversary, Endless Expeditions is billed as the biggestPacific Driveupdate yet, adding an entirely new way to experience the game’s roguelike structure. Called Expeditions, the new mode starts players in the garage with a unique, randomized set of challenges and restrictions while generating new routes and ramping up the difficulty. Expeditions aim to breathe life intoPacific Drivebeyond its original narrative-driven core campaign and cement its place as one of thebest science fiction survival games around.
Pacific Drive Endless Expeditions Expansion Content Roundup
As teased in earlierPacific Driveupdate previews, players will be able to access Expeditions after a certain early point in the main story, after which they’ll be able to launch Expeditions at will and send materials back to Oppy’s garage to turn into upgrades. A new trader called Ida’s Exchange also allows them to trade resources for rare parts, recipes, and rare garage cosmetics.
On top of the Expeditions update, Ironwood Studios also added a major fan-requested feature: the ability to suspend a run in progress. Fans have called for the ability to save a game midway through a run for months, with Ironwood resisting and saying that the ability to save mid-run ran counter to the core gameplay loop. As a result, the defaultPacific Drivesave systemonly activates when entering new Junctions or making it to a safe garage. The Endless Expeditions update allows players to save their progress at any time in a Junction and keep their progress. Additionally, they’ll also be able to turn off autosaving, and “jumpstart” a new game by skipping past the tutorial.
The new update shows the depth of support Ironwood has forPacific Drive, far beyond its initial release window. With luck, it’ll keep fans engaged further into the future.
