Pacific Drive DLC Whispers in the Woods announced for later this year

Today, Ironwood Studios, behind last year’s underrated indie gem, Pacific Drive, announced new DLC planned for later this year. The news was revealed in an eerie, atmospheric new trailer uploaded to the developer’s YouTube channel. This also isn’t the first time that Ironwood Studios has updated Pacific Drive since launch; earlier this year, there was a major free update. Even though this isn’t a live-service game, it’s great to see the team continuously providing fans with updates. While nearly three minutes long, the trailer doesn’t get into what the DLC will entail, mostly just teasing some ideas and adding to the game’s cosmic horror atmosphere. Thankfully, the Whispers in the Woods Steam page gives us more details.

Pacific Drive: Whispers in the Woods DLC planned for later this year

According to the Steam page for Pacific Drive: Whispers in the Woods, this DLC will have players “return to the Zone and witness the rise of a group of Anomaly-obsessed fanatics…” in a “terrifying new expansion...” If you’re unfamiliar with Pacific Drive, you play as a protagonist stuck in a walled-off zone full of unexplainable phenomena and roaming, dangerous anomalies. All you have is a car and whatever you can fit in the trunk. Go on runs into the Zone to scavenge for resources, fix your car on the fly, and avoid danger in this unique, half-simulator, half-survival horror experience that is like no other game right now.

Thankfully, if you haven’t played Pacific Drive, this DLC doesn’t require that you have beaten the game. The expansion opens up a new part of the Olympic Exclusion Zone to explore within the first few hours of the game. Apparently, this won’t be some minor expansion either; Whispers in the Woods is expected to add 8 to 12 hours of gameplay, and Pacific Drive is already expected to have at least 20 hours.

In the base game, the only contact you have with other humans is through the radio. At the very least, based on the end of the trailer, Whispers in the Woods sounds like it will feature some top-tier voice acting for a new character, perhaps more of an antagonist than an ally.

Whispers in the Woods also promises to introduce a new item called Artifacts, which appear connected to this new faction of fanatics. The Steam page says, “carrying Artifacts increases the challenge you and your car will face, but they’re instrumental to your survival.” So, it seems like this DLC will build on the already great core of Pacific Drive. What risks are you willing to take for what rewards?

As this new DLC was only just announced today, we don’t have a release date just yet. But the end of the trailer promises a 2025 release date, and there are only so many months left in the year. Whispers in the Woods should be arriving sometime soon.

Pacific Drive

February 22, 2024

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• Overview

• DLC and expansions
• indie games
• survival horror