The game is set in a fictionalized version of the Olympic Peninsula, which the player traverses on foot or in a station wagon as they attempt to find a way to escape.

[5] Junctions also contain "anchors", anomalous devices that contain large amounts of energy, that when collected enough of, allow the player to open a gateway back to the garage.

The garage's Fabrication Station harvests resources and creates blueprints or special items, including some that discover new routes, add fuel to the car, or destabilize a zone.

However, LIM technology experimentation leads to mysterious phenomena and unexplained disappearances in the region, which in 1955 prompts the creation of the U.S. Advanced Resonance Development Agency (ARDA).

ARDA establishes the Olympic Exclusion Zone to secretly research the phenomena, referred to as "anomalies", while Oppy and her long-triumphed LIM technology fade from the public interest.

Initially consisting of approximately western Clallam County near Forks, the spread of anomalies and the worsening instability of the original Zone leads to its expansion in 1961 and 1967 to eventually cover 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2), almost the entire Peninsula, before being completely evacuated and sealed in 1987 after ARDA's disestablishment.

Oppy, Tobias, and Francis explain the nature of anomalies, including one called a "Remnant", which inhabits inanimate objects and forms a psychic link with the host, gradually causing the host to become obsessed with the object to the point of insanity; they deduce the station wagon is a Remnant and agree to help the Driver separate from it and escape the Zone.

Tobias and Francis have the Driver seek out three anomalies in the Mid Zone (the 1961 Zone boundary) known as "the Murals" to locate the Mass Hallucination source, while Oppy suggests the Driver explore the research facility where her husband Allen died in an experiment that caused the previous Mass Hallucination 40 years prior.

The group eventually locates the source within the Deep Zone, but with its disabled power grid making access impossible, they devise a plan to jump start the grid using the station wagon and their own battery supplies; however, when a power surge damages the batteries, Tobias sacrifices himself to complete the plan and get the Driver into the Deep Zone.

[38] PC Gamer's Christopher Livingston considered the station wagon among the best video game vehicles, praising the durability system.

[4] Push Square's Stephen Tailby felt the vehicle maintenance added "a great sense of progression",[2] and Shacknews's Denzer enjoyed the car's customizability options but occasionally found it inexplicably awkward to drive.

[35] Some reviewers considered the maintenance overwhelming and tiresome;[31][34] IGN's Sarah Thwaites wrote that "getting stuck with a quirk you can't figure out is a real momentum killer".

[33] Reviewers concurred Pacific Drive's gameplay was enjoyable but often frustrating;[2][4] GamesRadar+'s Leon Hurley said the "unfair" challenges meant he completed the game "more embittered than empowered"[32] IGN''s Thwaites wrote it "often struggles to walk the fine line between being engaging and overcomplicated" by assigning the player too many tasks, ultimately distracting from its enjoyable atmosphere.

[34] GameSpot's Delaney favorably compared the audio logs to the podcast Serial and found the variety of music enhanced the world's strangeness;[33] GamesRadar+'s Hurley similarly felt the soundtrack amplified the atmosphere.

[33][34] Push Square's Tailby lauded the stylized visuals but criticized the inconsistent frame rate and loading times on the PlayStation 5 version.

It is set to be executive produced by Atomic Monster's James Wan, Michael Clear, and Rob Hackett, and the Menagerie Productions's Jeff Ludwig.