Dredge review
Dredge is a lightly horror-themed fishing and exploration game that feels fresh, lively and satisfyingly moreish. We highly recommend that you play it.
Review by Adam Knox
Dredge has made a splash (pun) recently, and deservedly so. Though it perhaps has the initial impression of another Indie Roguelike, under the surface (pun) is an addictive resource harvesting loop and seafaring adventure which will likely hook you (pun). It’s a reely good game (spelling mistake).
You play as a nameless fisherman (or more specifically, his boat), trying to make it in the rough and ready waters surrounding the desperate seeming town of Greater Marrow. The only way to make a buck here is for you to hit the waves and bring back whatever fish and flotsam you can find. You’ll be paid for your catches, and can use any metal and wood you find floating around to slowly upgrade your boat with faster engines, better rods, more storage and so on. Fishing and dredging take the form of simple timing based mini-games. You hit the button at the right time, you pull your line up faster and buy yourself a little more time before nightfall. Time progresses as you sail and fish, with a clock hanging above you at the top of the screen reminding you that days will pass by quickly. When night falls, a thick fog surrounds you and begins to cause panic, represented in your UI by a more and more rapidly darting eye. As this panic increases, greater threats arise from the unseen ocean ahead of you, encouraging you to remain in port until the sun brings safety. Certain fish are only caught by certain types of rods, in certain areas, during certain parts of the day, so you’ll need to plan accordingly when tasked with finding some specific species for one of the game’s various “pursuits” (fishing missions (fishions)). The games leaves its mechanics snappy and fairly uncomplicated, focussing more on maintaining a satisfying momentum as you rattle from isle to isle.
The further away from home you get, the more clearly these threats you see at night come into view, as a loosely Lovecraftian horror becomes the focus of the game’s well-delivered story. You fish up twisted and mutated fish, people whisper about strange lights in the night, and you begin to see more and more signs that something is deeply wrong in this part of the ocean. The story is delivered entirely in text, with forlorn looking townspeople on the archipelago’s various islands grimly doling out characterful monologues about their various plights. Messages in bottles bob around in the water, ready to fill in bits and pieces of backstory and add flavour to the world, and it all cranks along to a satisfying conclusion just about exactly when it should. There’s not a ton of it, but everything you stumble across is lively and imagination-sparking in a way that broadens the world beyond its relatively cramped horizons. Each of the four or five major islands get a bit less interesting as the game moves along, and by the time the main story of the game wraps up after about 8 to 10 hours or so you’ll have likely had your fill of the game, but there are various rare fish and unique subtypes to seek out and catch Pokemon-style if you wish. The pacing of the game, though, is measured out nicely by following the story’s main thrust and picking up a few side missions along the way.
Everything’s very well presented here, visuals are a suitable halfway point between beautiful and dreary. A sort of painted look brings a convincing amount of life to the world and its characters. The restrained use of the fantastic music in the game is a great choice, with foreboding tracks only occasionally accompanying you as you explore the lonely ocean, underscoring moments of peace and serenity with a reminder of how small you are out on the water. The sound design too, is great. Waves lapping up against your hull, splashes and plops of your equipment being dunked into the water, the rusty cranking of your dredging chains, it all adds to the game’s very well realised atmosphere.
Dredge is an impressive first outing for New Zealand based developers Black Salt Games. Perhaps the game’s biggest triumph is that it does a fantastic job of keeping you constantly moving. Every new fish is right there to be caught, every new island is just visible on the horizon, and every new task is just one more little check mark away from getting done, so there’s very rarely a moment of wanting to stop. Exploring the intriguing world gives an anything-could-be-out-there kind of seafaring fun, and pairing that with the games’ enjoyable core of fish, sell, upgrade, repeat, makes for an incredibly good time.
9/10
Available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. Reviewed on PC.