Games like Pacific Drive: 9 survival games to play next

The best games like Pacific Drive give you two things. One is a vehicle that you must keep in good condition. The other is a place that wants to kill you. Every game below has at least one of the two. Each entry tells you what you do, how it compares to Pacific Drive, and who it suits.

What makes Pacific Drive different

Pacific Drive is a first-person survival game from Ironwood Studios. You explore an abandoned version of the Olympic Peninsula in 1998, in an old station wagon. Anomalies, radiation, and Zone storms damage you and the car.

The loop has a clear shape. You drive into a junction, take resources from buildings and junk cars, and collect energy to open a gateway home. Then the area becomes unstable, and you must leave fast. Back in the garage, you repair the car, add parts, and craft new equipment.

So a good match needs a vehicle that you maintain, a hostile world, or both. We say which part each game matches.

Route 48 (our game)

Full disclosure: we made Route 48, so we put it first.

Developer: HOLY STUDIOS. Released: Early Access since 2026. Players: Single-player.

Route 48 is a first-person driving survival game. You scavenge for fuel and parts, repair damaged parts, and keep your car in good condition. The threat is different from Pacific Drive: you fight zombies and armed hostile survivors with guns. Every new game generates a new world with different roads, towns, forests, and loot locations. It is in Early Access now.

The Long Drive

Developer: Genesz. Released: Early Access since 2019. Players: Single-player.

You drive across a desert that the game generates at random, and the desert is almost endless. The game has light car maintenance and light survival. There are no invisible walls, so you can leave the road and go toward the mountains.

It matches the car side of Pacific Drive. There is no timer and no zone that closes on you. Play it if your favorite moments in Pacific Drive were the quiet drives between the dangers.

Choo-Choo Charles

Developer: Two Star Games. Released: 2022. Players: Single-player.

You travel across an open-world island in an old train. You collect scrap from loot and missions. Then you spend the scrap to upgrade the train into an armed vehicle. A monster spider train named Charles hunts you, and in the end you must fight it.

This is the closest match for the upgrade loop under threat. The difference is the rails. You plan routes on fixed tracks, not on open roads. It suits players who want horror more than simulation.

Voidtrain

Developer: HypeTrain Digital. Released: 2025. Players: Single-player or online co-op (up to 4).

You are an engineer in the Void, a strange and dangerous world. You start with a bare cart and build it into a train with many cars and a better engine. You also craft weapons and gear, fight enemies, and explore islands that float in the Void.

Like the station wagon, the train is your progress. Each upgrade makes the train stronger. Voidtrain puts more weight on crafting and combat than Pacific Drive. It also has co-op, so you can share the train with friends.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Developer: GSC Game World. Released: 2024. Players: Single-player.

Play this one if the zone was your favorite part of Pacific Drive. You explore the Chornobyl Anomalous Zone in first person. Anomalies, mutants, and rivals block your way. You collect supplies to stay alive in a large open world.

There is no car to drive here. You explore on foot, and it is a first-person shooter. But the mood is similar: a closed area with strange rules, where every trip out is a risk.

Overland

Developer: Finji. Released: 2019. Players: Single-player.

Overland is a turn-based survival road trip across a post-apocalyptic United States. You manage a group of travelers and their car. You keep the fuel tank full, scavenge supplies, and rescue stranded survivors. Noise attracts creatures, so you must move with care.

Each level, road map, and character is random, so each trip is different. The pace is slow and tactical. It matches the fuel pressure of Pacific Drive, but you plan each move in turns. It suits players who like hard decisions more than fast reflexes.

Mad Max

Developer: Avalanche Studios. Released: 2015. Players: Single-player.

You are a lone survivor in a hostile wasteland, and vehicles are central to survival. You fight bandit gangs on foot and from your car. You scavenge supplies to build a stronger combat vehicle.

In Pacific Drive, the car protects you from the world. In Mad Max, the car is also a weapon. Choose it if you want vehicle combat more than maintenance.

Days Gone

Developer: Bend Studio. Released: 2021 on PC. Players: Single-player.

Days Gone is an open-world action-adventure game set two years after a pandemic. Your Drifter bike is your main tool to cross a large wilderness. You fill it with fuel from gas cans and gas pumps, and you repair it with scrap. Gangs and hordes of Freakers make each trip dangerous.

Bike care in Days Gone is simple: fuel and scrap. But the same rule applies: if the bike has no fuel, you cannot ride it. It suits players who want a story and large fights with hordes.

Jalopy

Developer: Minskworks. Released: 2018. Players: Single-player.

You drive an old Laika 601 Deluxe through countries of the former Eastern Bloc. You repair the tires, the engine, and the carburettor. You also manage the space in the trunk and refuel the car. The world is procedurally generated. You can scavenge for small money, or smuggle goods past border patrols for more.

There are no monsters. The danger is a breakdown far from help. Play it if you liked to care for the car in Pacific Drive, but you want less stress. Our list of games like Jalopy has more picks of this type.

How we picked these games

We took two parts of Pacific Drive: a vehicle that you must maintain, and a dangerous place to explore. Every game here has at least one of them. We checked each game on its store page and other public sources. We left out games that are not out on PC.

Which one should you play first?

• For a car to maintain and a hostile world with guns, try Route 48.
• For the car without the danger, play The Long Drive or Jalopy.
• For the zone without the car, play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
• For a vehicle that you build up under threat, play Voidtrain or Choo-Choo Charles.
• For slow decisions about fuel and people, play Overland.
• For vehicle combat in a wasteland, play Mad Max.

If you are new to the genre, read what a driving survival game is. For games where the vehicle is your only safe place, see games where your car is your home.