I’m not very far into the Olympic Exclusion Zone in a run ofPacific Drivewhen the rain picks up.

My shoulders are tight and after a few seconds, I start to frantically check the area around me.

It feels…off.

The Olympic Exclusion Zone is a place where the rules of reality are easily bent.

And it sounds like it’s coming from just on the other side of the hill.

Whatever is making that sound is somewhere in the woods, out of sight.

But it is, distinctly,not far away.

The Zone is an eerie place populated by anomalies, which often take the form of machinery or inanimate objects come to life.

The sound dies out and doesn’t repeat.

I wait, and wait, but at last…nothing happens.

games they inspired, as well as Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series and its movie adaptation, Annihilation.

The Zone is a place that mixes the familiar and natural with the impossible, and that juxtaposition makes it unnerving.

For Dracott, the spooky feel of Pacific Drive is somewhat subjective.

On the other hand, he said, he’s terrified of water.

One man’s source of constant dread is another’s pleasant ramble in their familiar station wagon.

The artistic, mechanical, and sound design of the anomalies comes together to create an uncanny atmosphere everywhere in the Zone.

“Tension was an important thing, right?

A lot of that feeling comes down to sound design, which is consistently excellent throughout the game.

Much of what makes the anomalies feel otherworldly is the way they sound.

Who knows what awaits in the moody and foreboding woods of the Olympic Exclusion Zone.

“Like higher frequencies make us a little bit more uneasy.

That meant the sounds attached to anomalies can be heard at fairly long distances, Halberstadt said.

The car, too, can add to the uncanniness of the situation.

Spooky as Pacific Drive can be, it also gives you relaxing drives through the woods and plenty of downtime in your garage, where you can tinker with your car.

Pacific Drive is designed so that the car is central to the experience.

“The contrast between the natural world is why they work so well,” Halberstadt said.

And I think the randomness as well.

Things get harrowing as the storm sweeps in and you drive as fast as you can toward the big orange light that can teleport you home.

And I think that you really want there to be a pattern.

Instead, they’re more like animals.

Pacific Drive conveys that more relaxed tone in a number of ways.

That big irradiated rectangular rock fell OUT of the SKY.

Sometimes, things get legitimately death-defying.

For example, whenever you go out on a run into the Zone, it’s a one-way trip.

“Because it’s pattern recognition, and being able to feel comfortable.

Tourists are some of the creepiest anomalies in the Zone, but even they do things that are unexpected.

I’m suddenly worried.'”

But not every instance of breaking the pattern or upending the rules is a scary or dangerous one.

Instead, the nearest tourist was still 10 or 15 feet off, but it looked different somehow.

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