Pacific Drive Gets Darker With Whispers in the Woods Update

The expansion introduces a new faction: anomaly-obsessed fanatics who’ve decided the forest is their playground. They’ve built massive effigies, scattered cryptic symbols, and generally made the woods feel like a place you should absolutely not be. The vibe? Less “mysterious wilderness” and more “ritual site for things that shouldn’t exist.”

Creative Director Cassandra Dracott says the team wanted to lean into the fear players felt during the base game. Mission accomplished. The atmosphere is darker, the stakes are higher, and the forest feels alive in all the wrong ways.

Artifacts: The Good, the Bad, and the Absolutely Unhinged

Let’s talk gameplay. The expansion introduces Artifacts—mysterious objects created by the fanatics that mess with both your car and the world around you. Some are helpful. Most are chaos incarnate.

Each Artifact comes with a condition and an effect. Maybe jumping makes your horn honk. Maybe honking damages your car. Maybe collecting too many wakes up something ancient and angry. It’s a system built on chain reactions and strategic risk, and it forces you to rethink how you drive, explore, and survive.

Lead Designer Richard Weschler calls them the centerpiece of the expansion. They’re unpredictable, they’re weird, and they’re exactly the kind of mechanic that turns a survival sim into a genre experiment.

New Region, New Systems, Same Wagon

Video of Pacific Drive Whispers in the Woods, Courtesy of the PlayStation channel

Whispers in the Woods adds a new explorable region roughly one-third the size of the base game. It’s packed with new junction types, car parts, cosmetics, and anomaly behaviors. Even old anomalies get upgrades, so don’t expect your usual tricks to work.

There’s also a fully voiced narrative layered into the expansion, which means more lore, more mystery, and more reasons to theorize about what the Zone actually is. If you’ve been craving deeper worldbuilding, this is your moment.

For Newcomers and Veterans Alike

Ironwood Studios says this expansion is for everyone—whether you’ve been driving through the Zone since launch or just picked up the game last week. It’s the most ambitious update yet, and it builds on everything that made Pacific Drive weird, wonderful, and occasionally terrifying.