Pacific Drive Reveals Creepy Cultists in Upcoming DLC
- Whispers in the Woods DLC adds a cult-horror twist to Pacific Drive.
- New features include Artifacts, car parts, cosmetics, and altered anomalies.
- Launching before the end of 2025 on PC and PS5 with 8–12 hours of story content.
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Folk Horror on Wheels
Fans of spooky cults and driving through anomaly-infested forests are in for a treat as Pacific Drive revs up for its Whispers in The Woods DLC. Developer Ironwood Studios revealed a few creepy details about the weird driving sim’s descent into cult-flavored madness on its official site. It’s set for launch before the end of 2025.
Pacific Drive follows the player as they get stuck in the Olympic Exclusion Zone, a section of the Pacific Northwest that suffered an unknown sci-fi incident. This resulted in the laws of physics getting a serious injection of wrongness, resulting in gravity fluctuations, sentient junk, and more weirdness – which the new DLC is building upon.
“From the very beginning, we knew we wanted to take the mysteries of the Olympic Exclusion Zone in a new direction for this expansion,” said Cassandra Dracott, Creative Director at Ironwood Studios.
“We had heard so much feedback and so many stories about the fear people had experienced in Pacific Drive and with Whispers in The Woods, we knew we wanted to lean hard in that direction.”
Idols And Eyeballs
Pacific Drive is a largely solitary experience, with the majority of personal contact happening over the radio. This enforced isolation gives the game an eerie, but not particularly terrifying, atmosphere. Whispers in The Woods looks to change all that with the suggestion that the player has been spied on from the very beginning, and by people who likely aren’t very sane.
The looming pines of the Pacific Northwest are an ideal setting for secret groups of fanatics, with their towering idols hidden among the dark branches. The trailer gives a sense of what players can expect, although there’s more than just creepy people hiding in the woods.
“We see this release as both for our longtime players and a welcome sign for newcomers,” said Dracott. “If you’ve been driving through the Zone since day one, Whispers in The Woods is going to add a brand new, more terrifying take on the Olympic Exclusion Zone. And if you’re just starting out, this expansion marks the best version of the game to date with new systems and content to find and explore.”
Honk if You Love Cosmic Horror
Whispers in The Woods adds a bunch of content that players might expect, such as new car parts, cosmetics and anomalies. However, it also gives some existing anomaly types new behavior, and introduces Artifacts.
“Created by our mysterious group of fanatics, Artifacts are the expansion’s gameplay centerpiece,” said Blake Dove, Communications and Marketing Specialist at Ironwood Studios.
“Inspired by our quirk system, each Artifact is imbued with a condition and an effect said condition creates. Perhaps every time you jump, your car horn honks. Maybe when your car horn honks it also takes damage. While some may grant you strange advantages, others will add twists and turns to how you play. Artifacts can even play off of each other to create chain reactions.”
Dove also notes that Artifacts are critical to player success in Whispers in The Woods, but there’s an even darker side to them: collecting too many raises the risk of something especially dangerous awakening within the woods. As for what this could be, players will have to play the DLC to find out for themselves.
Ironwood Studios promises an eight to 12 hour story, with fully-voiced content, that’s unlocked after the first few hours of the base game. A release date and price are both still TBC but the DLC will be available on PC and PS5.
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