Pacific Drive just shadow dropped a haunting new DLC, turning the underrated survival game into nightmare fuel

Let me be clear, the base game experience of Pacific Drive can get really intense at times. While tinkering away on an old station wagon and decorating your garage with trinkets you scavenge from the surrounding forest sounds super relaxing, most of the time it's making you sweat. Able to lure you into exploring a few minutes more than you should, and quick to punish your complacency, it's earned a place on our best survival games list. While its freaky, mysterious anomalies can get your heart racing, its brand new DLC, Whispers in the Woods, takes things to new levels. With a darker tone, cults, and a new survival mechanic, Pacific Drive's first expansion looks incredible. And guess what? It just shadow dropped.

Whispers in the Woods was revealed earlier this year with a broad 2025 release window, but its eerie vibes meant it was always destined to drop at some point during spooky season. A new trailer has just aired during the Galaxies Showcase, giving Pacific Drive fans a first look at some proper gameplay, but it also unexpectedly reveals that the expansion is available to play right now. I do love a shadow drop.

This DLC has you venture out to an unexplored area of the Olympic Exclusion Zone, where a dark cult that's fanatical about the anomalies resides. Candle-lit shrines, effigies, and strange symbols make this new area far more chilling and haunting than anywhere you've discovered before. It's your job to investigate what the cult is up to, meet some new characters, and harness the power of Artifacts.

Artifacts are the core of a new gameplay system that lets you find mysterious objects and carry them in your car to add new effects to you and the environment. Those effects are going to make things tougher out in the OEZ, but the Artifacts are "instrumental to your survival," according to developer Ironwood Studios.

Throughout the new DLC area, you'll also encounter new types of anomalies that may behave differently from anything you've witnessed before. Ironwood claims the DLC will give you between eight and 12 hours of gameplay, with side missions also included alongside the main quest. New car components with a similar aesthetic to the cult you're investigating will be unlockable, as will new decorative items for your garage.

The Pacific Drive Whispers in the Woods DLC is out right now. You can download it here.

For more scares, be sure to check out some of the best horror games around - I doubt any of our picks involve you driving a beat-up station wagon, so in that sense, this DLC really is unique. Our best single-player games guide is also packed with immersive experiences of all varieties.

What's your favorite videogame shadow drop that you can recall? Come by the PCGamesN Discord server to let us know - Hi-Fi Rush is right up there for me.