Games are releasing at an alarming rate – faster than ever before, even. This tirade of tantalising content can be overwhelming, and this can lead to great games being missed. One game you absolutely should not miss, however, is the rather charming – and mildly disturbing – Dredge.
Released on March 30, 2023, and developed by Black Salt Games, Dredge offers something altogether new. It combines Lovecraftian cosmic horror – the fear of the unknown – with fishing. Which, if you know anything about Lovecraft, these two themes go together like madness in a cultist. But what is Dredge, and is it for you?
More Dredge content:
How To Get Explosives | How To Get Research Parts | What Are The Red Lights
Jagged Rocks & Broken Dreams
Dredge starts simple and evokes some bizarre parallels to the likes of the endlessly endearing, Animal Crossing. You wash up on the island of Greater Marrow after your ship meets its maker amongst the jagged rocks that strewn the nearby area. Of course, you survive the ordeal, but you wake up in a bit of a pickle.
The Mayor of the village gives you a new boat – a new lease on life – but burdens you with a debt that must be repaid. The ship you are given is a bit of a banger, but it’s workable. The locals are friendly, if a bit odd. Heck, the debt is irritating, but it’s shockingly small. The opening hour or so will see this loan repaid, and the basics of the game, in turn, will have been shown to you via gameplay.
Fishing Simulator
First and foremost, Dredge is a game about fishing. This makes a lot of sense when you consider the entire game is set amongst a “thriving” archipelago. Fish is a great source of food, work, and wealth for everyone involved, so getting out on your boat and dropping some lines only makes sense.
Fishing ends up being a series of minigames based on the kind of fishing you are doing, but these are all simple to understand, and fairly simple to accomplish. If you are struggling, Dredge even has accessibility options to automatically win these minigames, which is a nice touch.
Different fish spawn at different times and require different rods, pots, and nets. Not only that, but different areas of the game also spawn various species. You have an encyclopaedia that tracks every fish you catch, and filling it out is an enjoyable task in and of itself. Dredge can be quite the relaxing – even cosy – experience if you want it to be.
Mystery With A Side Of Unknown
Of course, if you spend more than a few seconds talking to any NPC, listening to the music, or even looking at the art, Dredge’s initial warm exterior becomes noticeably colder. Most characters are unusual in some way – if not straight-up unnerving. They offer quests with strange requests and stranger motives. Nothing is quite as it seems, and you are an outsider in a world that has gone a little bit ‘off’.
This leads to the solving of the mystery, the following of leads, and the completion of quests. What’s that strange red light in the distance? How am I harnessing unknown powers? Why are these fish mutated? All of these things are up to you to crack – or not. Dredge has no timer, – no set goal. Simply explore if that’s what you want to do.
Fear Of The Dark
Dredge wouldn’t be a Lovecraft-inspired angling simulator if it didn’t have some kind of madness system in play. By day, Dredge is simply a game about travelling the ocean, fishing, and meeting new people. Nothing out of the ordinary. By night, things get a little bit spooky.
At night, you start to hear things. Heck, you even start to see things. Your UI changes to represent your growing panic as darkness falls upon your psyche. Birds start to circle overhead, fish you catch start to become aberrant nightmares, and safe shipping lanes are suddenly blocked by jagged rocks that spawn out of nowhere.
You have a light to fend off the night, but even that will fail for no reason, making evening exploring noticeably more dangerous and nerve-wracking. Dredge is far from a horror game, but it does have a delicious layer of unease that keeps you on your toes.
Inventory Management & Upgrades
Taking a step back from the horrors of Dredge, the game has a few systems that make the loop of exploring and fishing worthwhile and interesting. Firstly, inventory management. Your ship is rather small, and this makes holding loot rather difficult. Everything has a size and shape, and organising your inventory to make sure you can squeeze every last inch of space is pretty darn important.
Not only that, but your equipment, such as your rods, pots, engines, and even lights, take up space too. The more you bring with you, the less you haul back to shore later on. This opens up some delicious decision-making as to what you should bring with you. Is that light needed if you aim to get back before nightfall? Do you need that second engine?
Upgrading your boat is where things get interesting, as there are so many ways to improve. Whether that is researching new equipment, increasing your stats directly through the Dry Dock, or installing new parts at the Shipwright. Heck, you could read some books and gain passive bonuses, or acquire dark powers gleaned from a madman holding an arcane tome.
If you like a bit of RPG crunch to your games, then Dredge is certainly one to deliver. But that’s Dredge in a nutshell – a varied and well-crafted game with layers simple to understand mechanics to create something greater than the sum of its parts. It asks you to simply fish, and if that’s all you want to do, then knock yourself out. If you want something more, then Dredge is waiting to give it to you.
That’s all we have on Dredge for now. Be sure to check out our other Guides and Lists from more Dredge content.
